Most Popular Pollution Headlines This Year

The most viewed headlines from our Pollution Topic Page over the last year.

#1 Bayer Faces Billions in Payouts for Decades-Old Toxic Mess

Jan 16 2025 // Bayer AG’s Monsanto unit stopped making toxic PCBs a half century ago, but the legal fallout lingers even as many of the building materials made with the chemicals are no longer used in US homes, schools and...

#2 Trump Mounts Sweeping Attack on Pollution and Climate Rules

Mar 13 2025 // The Trump administration is launching a sweeping overhaul of US environmental mandates in a campaign it billed as the “biggest deregulatory action” of its kind in US history. The Environmental Protection Agency...

#3 Trump Administration Halts Environmental Litigation, Sidelines Lawyers: Sources

Jan 27 2025 // U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has halted all pending environmental litigation and reassigned four career Justice Department attorneys focused on environmental issues, according to three sources...

#4 Actuary Group Forecasts Climate Change to Have Massive GDP Hit Without Policy Action

Jan 17 2025 // Here’s stark warning in a new report from a group of actuaries: the global economy could face a 50% loss in GDP between 2070 and 2090. That is if immediate policy actions on risks posed by climate change are not...

#5 EPA to Rollback Limits on ‘Forever Chemicals’ in Drinking Water

May 16 2025 // The Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday that it plans to weaken limits on some “forever chemicals” in drinking water that were finalized last year, while maintaining standards for two common...

#6 ‘World’s Largest Truck Stop’ Fined $390K by EPA

Jan 28 2025 // Two truck stops in Iowa and Missouri – Iowa 80, advertised as “the world’s largest truck stop,” and Joplin 44 – agreed to pay a combined $390,784 to resolve alleged violations of the federal Clean...

#7 Supreme Court Dealt Blows to EPA and Environmental Protections

Jul 1 2025 // The U.S. Supreme Court delivered setbacks to environmental interests in a series of recent rulings including by further restricting the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority and relaxing requirements for...

#8 Insurer Says Pollution Exclusion Sinks Coverage for Pool Chemical Injuries

Nov 26 2024 // A commercial general liability policy with a pollution exclusion does not protect a Virginia homeowners association from lawsuits filed by swimmers alleging they were injured by chemicals discharged into the community...

#9 Amid Clean up From LA Wildfires, Some Residents Furious Over Hazardous Waste

Feb 3 2025 // Not far from where Ceci Carroll lives, a rock-mining company has polluted the air with dust across the San Gabriel Valley, she said. Now, as crews clean charred remains from the Los Angeles wildfires, she worries about a...

#10 Judge Allows Lobster Fishermen to Sue Environmental Group for Defamation

Mar 6 2025 // A group of lobster fishermen can sue one of the world’s largest seafood watchdog groups for defamation, a federal court has ruled, over a report that described Maine lobster as an unwise choice for consumers. The...

#11 EPA Submits to Congress Approved EV Plan Adopted by 11 States

Feb 20 2025 // The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Wednesday it has submitted the Biden administration’s approval of California’s landmark plan to end the sale of gasoline-only vehicles by 2035 to Congress for...

#12 Georgia County to Sue BioLab Over Chemical Fire and Toxic Fumes

Oct 25 2024 // CONYERS, Ga. (AP) — A Georgia county is preparing a federal lawsuit that aims to shut down the BioLab chemical factory where a fire sent a toxic chemical cloud over Atlanta’s suburbs last month, the latest in a...

#13 Environmental Group Turns to Oyster Shells to Rebuild Sinking Louisiana Coastline

Oct 3 2024 // Jonathan Phillips says he thinks about Louisiana’s disappearing coastline every day. As a commercial fisherman and member of the Atakapa-Ishak/Chawasha tribe, he sees water levels rising in Plaquemines Parish...

#14 Los Angeles County Sues PepsiCo and Coca-Cola Over Plastic Pollution

Nov 1 2024 // Los Angeles County has sued beverage makers PepsiCo and Coca-Cola, accusing them of polluting the most populous U.S. county with plastic bottles and misleading the public about the environmental impact and recyclability of...

#15 Environmental Lawyers Get Ready to Pounce on Energy Deregulation Moves

Apr 23 2025 // U.S. environmental groups say they are hiring lawyers and preparing for a major legal showdown with President Donald Trump’s administration over its rapid-fire and sweeping efforts to sidestep federal regulations on...

#16 Maryland Sues Gore-Tex Maker Over ‘Forever Chemicals’ Pollution

Dec 30 2024 // Maryland is suing the company that produces the waterproof material Gore-Tex often used for raincoats and other outdoor gear, alleging its leaders kept using “forever chemicals” long after learning about...

#17 Budget Cuts at EPA Become Flashpoint at a Heated Hearing

May 22 2025 // The head of the Environmental Protection Agency clashed with Democratic senators Wednesday, accusing one of being an “aspiring fiction writer” and saying another does not “care about wasting money.”...

#18 Maine Town’s Plan to Remove Two Dams Includes Marina Insurance Measure

Jan 16 2025 // The Yarmouth town council voted unanimously this month to remove two town-owned dams on the Royal River and consider fish passage improvements at a stretch of rapids in between them, a historic vote more than two decades...

#19 Group Calls New Jersey’s Toxic Waste Dump Settlement ‘Woefully Inadequate’

Dec 20 2024 // Years of toxic waste dumping in a Jersey Shore community where childhood cancer rates rose caused at least $1 billion in damage to natural resources, according to an environmental group trying to overturn a settlement...

#20 People Moves: AXA XL Hires Bakker for Environmental Post; Tokio Marine HCC Appoints Gaine Head of N.A. Distribution

Feb 5 2025 // AXA XL Hires Bakker as Head of Environmental Package Solutions, Middle Market, Americas Peter Bakker AXA XL in the Americas hired Peter Bakker as head of environmental package solutions for the middle market in the...