Latest Pollution Headlines
All the headlines from our Pollution Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Environmental, Economic Damage a Concern Following Texas Petrochemical Fire
Mar 27 2019 // Businesses and residents expressed concern on March 25 about the environmental and economic fallout from a fire at a Houston-area petrochemical storage farm that sent huge plumes into the air for days and prompted the...
Shipping Resumes in Houston Channel Closed After Chemical Tank Fire
Mar 26 2019 // The U.S. Gulf Coast’s most important industrial waterway partially reopened on Monday after it was polluted with cancer-causing benzene and toxic runoff from the region’s worst chemical disaster in more than a...
California to Waive Environmental Rules to Prep for Wildfire Season
Mar 26 2019 // California Gov. Gavin Newsom has moved to bypass environmental regulations to prepare for the next wildfire season, a move he said was necessary to prevent further loss of life even as it frustrated activists in a state...
Bills on Tap at Massachusetts Statehouse Target Lead in School Water
Mar 26 2019 // Lawmakers on Beacon Hill are pushing legislation aimed at improving the safety of drinking water in schools in part by requiring schools and child care centers to test every drinking water outlet each year for elevated...
Analysis: Warren Buffett Champions an Inferior Product in THREE Policy
Mar 25 2019 // Warren Buffett, often ahead of the curve, sounded like a disrupter in a 2004 shareholder letter. Fifteen years ago, Buffett wrote, “Insurers have generally earned poor returns for a single reason: They sell a...
Houston Channel Still Closed as Chemical Fire Cleanup Continues; Texas Sues ITC
Mar 24 2019 // Vessels will be allowed to enter a tributary to the Houston Ship Channel this morning, a workaround allowing some shipping in the area as the main route into the region remains closed as a result of a cloud of...
New Coalition Cyber Policy for Manufacturers Covers Security Failures, Data Breaches
Mar 22 2019 // Coalition, a cyber insurance company for small and midsize businesses, has launched a full-spectrum coverage to insure manufacturers against security failures and data breaches. The Coalition policy encompasses the...
Bank of England to Issue Rules for How Banks, Insurers Should Manage Climate Risk
Mar 22 2019 // The Bank of England will soon spell out how it wants banks, insurers and investment companies to manage the financial risks from climate change, Governor Mark Carney said on Thursday. The central bank under Carney has been...
Analysis: Jury Upends Bayer’s Roundup Defense Strategy
Mar 22 2019 // Bayer AG had hoped a new trial strategy focusing jurors on scientific evidence could stem a burgeoning tide of U.S. lawsuits over its glyphosate-based weed killer Roundup, but a second jury finding on Tuesday that the...
Why Science Can’t Prove Roundup Weed Killer Causes Cancer: Viewpoint
Mar 22 2019 // Scientists can’t, for the most part, prove that a given product caused a particular person to get cancer – not the way you can prove, say, that a car with faulty brakes caused a fatal crash. And so when a federal...
Climate Activists Petition for Carriers in California to Reveal Fossil Fuel Insureds
Mar 21 2019 // More than 60 environmental, consumer and social justice organizations on Thursday delivered a petition to California Insurance Commissioner Ricardo Lara seeking what is believed would be the first regulations in the nation...
Benzene Levels Rise near Petrochemical Fire Site; Residents Told to Shelter-in-Place
Mar 21 2019 // Tens of thousands of people east of Houston are being told to stay indoors after benzene and other volatile organic compounds were found in the air within the city limits of Deer Park, one day after a fire that broke out...
Houston-Area Petrochemical Blaze Probe Weighed by Federal Investigators
Mar 21 2019 // Federal and local investigators are weighing a probe of the Houston chemical blaze as hazardous compounds waft near the burned-out site. The U.S. Chemical Safety Board “is following up on the incident and should be...
Washington High Court Hears Case on Carbon Pollution
Mar 21 2019 // The Washington Supreme Court heard arguments this week on whether the state Department of Ecology has the authority to cap carbon pollution from major industrial emitters, something business groups and utilities have...
Houston-Area Petrochemical Blaze Extinguished, Company Says
Mar 20 2019 // Firefighters on Wednesday extinguished a fire at a Mitsui & Co. petrochemical storage site outside Houston that has been billowing acrid smoke for days, the company said. The blaze at Mitsui unit Intercontinental...
Another Jury Finds Roundup Weed Killer Causes Cancer in First Phase of Trial
Mar 20 2019 // A U.S. jury on Tuesday found Bayer AG’s glyphosate-based Roundup weed killer caused cancer, a blow to the company eight months after another jury issued a $289 million verdict over similar claims in a different...
Regulators Wonder If One Farm’s Tainted Milk Is Isolated Case or Broader Problem
Mar 20 2019 // For Maine dairy farmer Fred Stone, the discovery in 2016 that his cows were producing tainted milk has since brought financial ruin and threatened to shut down a century-old family business. Now state regulators and health...
Houston-Area Chemical Blaze Intensifies After Loss of Water Pressure
Mar 19 2019 // A fire at a petrochemical storage facility that’s covered Houston in a thick pall of smoke for the past two days intensified overnight after firefighters briefly lost water pressure. Two additional storage tanks are...
Harmful Dry Cleaning Chemical Detected in W. Virginia Town’s Drinking Water
Mar 19 2019 // Officials say the drinking water in a West Virginia community along the Ohio River contains a harmful chemical widely used by dry cleaners. State Bureau for Public Health spokeswoman Allison Adler said in an email...
Nuclear Power Industry Pushes for Fewer Inspections
Mar 18 2019 // The nuclear power industry is pushing the Nuclear Regulatory Commission to cut back on inspections at nuclear power plants and throttle back what it tells the public about plant problems. The agency, whose board is...
