The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced proposed changes Monday that would allow gas power plants, data centers and factories to begin construction on non-polluting components such as piping, wiring, cement pads and other support structures before obtaining air-emission permits. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a news release that the “proposal works to provide solutions to…
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Nearly half the nation’s children live in places with dangerous levels of air pollution, according to a report released Wednesday by the American Lung Association. That’s 33.5 million children — 46 percent of the country’s kids — living in areas with failing grades for at least one measure of air pollution that is particularly harmful to developing lungs. The report also found that…
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Oil prices surged past $100 a barrel this week as the U.S.-Israeli war against Iran threatens global energy supplies and the broader economy. Iranian officials say no oil will be allowed to leave the Middle East until the bombardment stops, raising fears of disruptions in the Strait of Hormuz, the waterway through which about 20% of the world’s oil and gas flows. This comes as Israel has struck…
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The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) repealed Biden-era regulations that forced power plants to cut harmful pollutants including brain-damaging mercury and particulate matter, EPA administrator Lee Zeldin announced on Friday. At an event at the Mill Creek Power Plant in Kentucky, the agency announced the repeal of a 2024 rule known as the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards for power…
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As a rare winter storm bore down on South Carolina, bringing conditions that historically paralyze the state for days, local officials in a rural county quietly pushed through a massive $2.4 billion data center without most residents knowing it was even on the table. “There was a public meeting, which most were unaware of,” Jessie Chandler, a resident of rural Marion County, told Capital B…
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The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is now only counting costs to businesses when considering regulation on key pollutants, internal documents show, rather than considering human lives saved by such caps. For the first time in decades of the practice, The New York Times reports, the EPA will effectively set the cost of a human life at $0 when doing cost-benefit analysis for fine…
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