The Supreme Court does its bit to make the earth unlivable.
Tag Archives: Air Pollution
Biden Administration Offers an Offshore Drilling Plan. Likely Backers: Very Few.
The five-year plan for America’s coastal waters, required by law, risks angering both the fossil fuel industry and environmentalists.
The E.P.A. Ruling Goes Beyond Coal Regulation
The decision issued a warning shot across the bow of the administrative state.
With Climate Agenda Stalled at Home, Biden Still Hopes to Lead Abroad
The United States has demonstrated international leadership on climate change in the past, but recent setbacks are presenting new challenges for President Biden.
The Court vs. the Climate
The Supreme Court seems unconcerned with climate change.
Supreme Court Limits E.P.A.’s Ability to Restrict Power Plant Emissions
The case considered the Environmental Protection Agency’s powers under the Clean Air Act.
Court Decision Leaves Biden With Few Tools to Combat Climate Change
A Supreme Court ruling, combined with an energy crunch and intraparty politics, makes it nearly impossible for President Biden to achieve his climate goals.
Republican Drive to Tilt Courts Against Climate Action Reaches a Crucial Moment
A Supreme Court environmental case being decided this month is the product of a coordinated, multiyear strategy by Republican attorneys general and conservative allies.
Climate Groups Use Endangered Species Act to Try to Stop Drilling
Environmentalists say the government failed to study the threats to endangered species from climate change before issuing oil and gas drilling permits.
Carbon Dioxide Levels Are Highest in Human History
Humans pumped 36 billion tons of the planet-warming gas into the atmosphere in 2021, more than in any previous year. It comes from burning oil, gas and coal.
Air Pollution Can Mean More, or Fewer, Hurricanes. It Depends Where You Live.
Smog from factories and cars has led to more storms in the Atlantic Ocean, but fewer in the Pacific. A new study explains why.
Enough About Climate Change. Air Pollution Is Killing Us Now.
The best reason to stop burning fossil fuels is that air pollution is a threat to our health.
Gina McCarthy, Top Climate Adviser, Is Said to Be Planning Departure
Ms. McCarthy was tapped by President Biden to lead an ambitious domestic climate agenda. Associates say she is frustrated by the slow pace of progress.
California Reveals Its Plan to Phase Out New Gas-Powered Cars by 2035
If adopted, the new measures would make a dent in the state’s greenhouse gas emissions and set the bar for the broader auto industry.
A ‘New Era of Air Pollution’ in the Tropics Could Have a Huge Toll
Increasingly bad air in big cities is expected to kill hundreds of thousands in coming years if stronger controls are not put in place.
5 Takeaways From the U.N. Report on Limiting Global Warming
Current pledges to cut emissions, even if nations follow through on them, won’t stop temperatures from rising to risky new levels.
As Gas Prices Soar, Biden’s Climate Ambitions Sputter
Rising costs at the pump, war in Ukraine, an emboldened fossil fuel industry and stalled legislation have imperiled President Biden’s climate agenda.
‘OK Doomer’ and the Climate Advocates Who Say It’s Not Too Late
A growing chorus of young people is focusing on climate solutions. “‘It’s too late’ means ‘I don’t have to do anything, and the responsibility is off me.’”
A New York City Clean-Air Program Pays Citizens to Report Idling Trucks
A New York City clean-air program allows citizens to report idling commercial vehicles in exchange for a cut of the fines. Some drivers respond with fists.
A growing force in the climate movement: Moms
Activists are deploying the moral authority of mothers to push for climate action. Their protests must steer clear of nap time.
Biden Restores California’s Power to Set Stringent Tailpipe Rules
The state is expected to write strict auto pollution standards designed to significantly speed the transition to electric vehicles and influence new federal rules.
How Air Pollution Across America Reflects Racist Policy From the 1930s
A new study shows how redlining, a Depression-era housing policy, contributed to inequalities that persist decades later in U.S. cities.
E.P.A. Plans Tighter Tailpipe Rules for Trucks, Vans and Buses
For the first time since 2001, the government is setting more stringent limits on pollution from trucks, vans, and buses that harms human health.
Exercise Can Build Up Your Brain. Air Pollution May Negate Those Benefits.
People who worked out in even moderately polluted air did not show the kinds of brain improvements tied to a lower risk of dementia.
California close to regaining control of tailpipe emissions from EPA

Enlarge / Traffic jam forms on Interstate 5 north of Los Angeles. (credit: Hans Gutknecht/MediaNews Group/Los Angeles Daily News)
The Environmental Protection Agency is on the verge of restoring California’s ability to set strict tailpipe emissions limits, according to news reports, while at the same time looking at adopting a version of the state’s stringent rules for heavy-duty trucks in an effort to cut smog-forming pollution.
The EPA’s restoration of California’s Clean Air Act waiver reverses the Trump administration’s revocation, and the new truck rule aims to drastically reduce nitrogen dioxide emissions from trucks.
Nitrogen dioxide pollution can cause and aggravate respiratory diseases, including asthma and certain kinds of cancer. It can also react with water and oxygen in the atmosphere to form acid rain. The last time the EPA updated emissions limits for heavy-duty trucks, in 2001, it cut nitrogen dioxide by 95 percent over 10 years. That caused nitrogen dioxide pollution to fall 40 percent nationwide.
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California Returns as Climate Leader, With Help From the White House
The Biden administration is restoring the state’s power to set its own limits on tailpipe pollution and is largely adopting the state’s rules regarding heavy trucks.
White House Takes Aim at Environmental Racism, but Won’t Mention Race
Communities of color bear a disproportionate burden from pollution, research shows. But using race to allocate federal help could result in legal problems.
How Billions in Infrastructure Funding Could Worsen Global Warming
Highway expansions tend to bring more greenhouse gas emissions. A few states are trying to change that dynamic, but it won’t be easy.
Big Agriculture Companies Are Killing the Planet
American agriculture is ravaging the air, soil and water. But a powerful lobby has cleverly concealed its damage.
Biden Administration to Reinstate Mercury Pollution Rules Weakened Under Trump
The E.P.A. will resume enforcing limits on the release of mercury, a neurotoxin linked to developmental damage in children, from coal-burning power plants.
Particulate pollution is killing older Americans, even at legal levels

Enlarge / Exhaust from fossil fuel vehicles is a significant contributor to PM2.5 pollution in the US. (credit: Ina Fassbender/picture alliance)
At the outset of the pandemic, when lockdowns were widespread, a remarkable phenomenon occurred. Places that had been saturated with pollution suddenly cleared. The sky over Los Angeles turned blue. Snow-capped mountain ranges that were normally obscured by pollution glistened on the horizon. The white marble of the Taj Mahal, which is normally wrapped in smog, shone brightly against an azure sky. Even in regions that aren’t typically considered polluted, the air just smelled fresher.
The reason, of course, is that hardly anyone was driving. Burning fossil fuels, whether under the hood of an automobile or in a home furnace or power plant, produces copious amounts of fine particulate pollution, also known as PM2.5—particulate matter smaller than 2.5 microns. For years, researchers didn’t understand the impact of these pollutants.
But as scientists have started digging, they have discovered that particulates have an outsize impact on our health. Previous research showed that PM2.5 from burning fossil fuels kills more than a million people a year, mostly in heavily polluted regions of Asia. But now, a new study from the Health Effects Institute shows that even in the US, where the air is comparatively clean, PM2.5 current Environmental Protection Agency guidelines may not be low enough to prevent unnecessary deaths.
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Gas Stoves Leak Methane Even When Turned Off, Study Finds
New research finds that gas stoves emit methane, a potent greenhouse gas, even when turned off and adds to the debate over electrifying homes.
E.P.A. Chief Vows to ‘Do Better’ to Protect Poor Communities From Environmental Harm
The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday will announce stepped-up enforcement and monitoring to help disadvantaged communities struggling with polluted air and water.
Even Low Levels of Soot Can Be Deadly to Older People, Research Finds
The four-year air pollution study, which followed 68.5 million older Americans, was the first of its kind.
Ash From Tonga Volcanic Eruption Still Poses a Threat
Ash from a volcanic eruption in the South Pacific nation presents risks to drinking water and air quality, experts say. Quantifying them in real time is a challenge.
Mexico Is Buying a Texas Oil Refinery in a Quest for Energy Independence
President López Obrador wants to halt most oil exports and imports of gasoline and other fuels. Critics say he is reneging on Mexico’s climate change commitments.
For the Climate, Biden Must Be More Aggressive in Ending New Truck and Bus Emissions
To meet his climate goals, the president must clean up these carbon-spewing vehicles.
Health Risks of Smoke and Ozone Rise in the West as Wildfires Worsen
Simultaneous high levels of the two pollutants, which harm human health, are occurring with increasing frequency, researchers say.
Fossil fuel combustion kills more than 1 million people every year, study says

Enlarge / Coal smoke and steam vapor pour out of the Bruce Mansfield Power Plant across from a largely abandoned children’s park on September 11, 2008, in Shippingport, Pennsylvania. After two enormous toxic coal soot discharges in 2006 and 2007, the children’s park was rarely used. The 2,460 MW coal-fired plant wasn’t fully decommissioned until November 2019. (credit: Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images)
Burning fossil fuels kills more than 1 million people ever year, according to a new study that examined the worldwide health effects of fine particulate pollution, also known as PM2.5.
Coal, which produces sooty, particulate-laden pollution, is responsible for half of those deaths, while natural gas and oil are responsible for the other half. Some 80 percent of premature deaths due to fossil fuel combustion takes place in South Asia or East Asia, the report said.
“Our key objective was to identify major sources of PM2.5 pollution and to understand how these sources change around the world,” Erin McDuffie, the study’s lead author and a research associate at Washington University, said in a statement. “In some countries, our results are some of the first pieces of information they have on the major sources in their region.”
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Fight Over Gas Stoves and Furnaces in the Effort to Slow Climate Change
New York is the latest Democratic city aiming to fight climate change by ushering out stoves and furnaces that run on gas in favor of electric alternatives. But Republican states and the gas industry are fighting back.
Kim Abeles Turns the Climate Crisis Into Eco-art
She doesn’t just make art about pollution, she makes art out of it. Now her “Smog Collectors” series is on view at California State University, Fullerton.
Warehouse Fire Was Source of ‘Putrid’ Odor in California
The fire, in Carson, Calif., on Sept. 30, consumed beauty and wellness products and sent chemicals into a nearby waterway, the authorities said. Thousands complained about the stench.
India’s Toxic Air Pollution Prompts Supreme Court to Act
Schools and factories close. India’s Supreme Court blasts the government’s do-nothing response. But Delhi residents continue to suffer from the bad air.
Negotiators Strike a Climate Deal, but World Remains Far From Limiting Warming
Some activists called the agreement in Glasgow disappointing, but it establishes a clear consensus that all countries need to do much more.
China and the United States Agree to Work Together to Tackle Climate Change
As nearly 200 nations struggle over global climate negotiations, the world’s two biggest polluters sign an agreement that is short on details..
6 Automakers and 30 Countries Say They’ll Phase Out Gasoline Car Sales
Ford, G.M. and Mercedes agreed to work toward selling only zero-emissions vehicles by 2040. But Toyota, Volkswagen and Nissan-Renault did not join the pledge.
6 Automakers and 31 Countries Say They’ll Phase Out Gasoline Car Sales
Ford, G.M. and Mercedes agreed to work toward selling only zero-emissions vehicles by 2040. But Toyota, Volkswagen and Nissan-Renault did join the pledge.
More Than 40 Nations Pledge to Cut Emissions From Their Health Industries
The plans, while short on specifics, represent a notable step toward cutting greenhouse gas emissions from hospitals and the health care industry, a sizable emitter globally.
Barack Obama Returns to COP26 With a Call for Activism
The American leader who helped seal the Paris climate accord arrived at COP26 in Glasgow to cheers from delegates and pushback from some activists.
Can Glasgow Deliver on a Global Climate Deal?
Negotiators from about 200 countries are entering Week 2 of climate talks trying to resolve big issues around money, transparency and timelines.