The Environmental Protection Agency has started to regulate coal ash, a toxic byproduct of burning coal to produce electricity.  However, Micah Maidenberg of Progress Illinois suggests that the initial regulations are too limited. EPA did not deem coal ash as a hazardous material fit for regulation until December 2008, when 5.4 million cubic yards of ash spilled through the retaining wall of an Eastern Tennessee power plant. The sediment destroyed nearby homes and seeped into the Emory River, producing elevated levels of lead and thalium.

Who knew?  Turns out there's an oil company called BP that is responsible for releasing petrochemicals into the environment without telling people.  James C. McKinley, Jr. reports in the New York Times on BP's latest travesty in Texas (they're good at creating disasters over in Louisiana, but in Texas they've outdone themselves -- it's all about being consistent). 

Obama administration lawyers have asked the US Supreme Court to dismiss a lawsuit filed by eight states including California, New York City and three land trusts six years ago, seeking tougher restrictions on carbon dioxide releases by utilities than those set by the federal government, according to the San Francisco Chronicle's Bob Egelko. Justice Department lawyers argue that federal primacy, in the form of recent EPA regulations, give the federal agency and Congress the sole power to regulate greenhouse gases.

Set aside some time to read Juliet Eilperin and Scott Higham's insightful (and long) look in the Washington Post at the culture of permissiveness that developed over many years at the Minerals Management Service, the federal agency (now disbanded) that was responsible for overseeing mining and drilling of ...

[caption id="attachment_10286" align="alignleft" width="136" caption="Steelhead trout"][/caption] A coalition of six California water districts failed to convince a federal court that there's no real distinction between endangered anadromous steelhead trout and comparatively plentiful rainbow trout. The lawsuit, brought against the National Marine Fisheries Service, sought to strip steelhead of their distinction as a separate species

The California Inspector General's office says a contractor hired to weatherize homes, and paid for by federal stimulus funds, overbilled the state agency overseeing the money by $34,803, Timothy Sandoval of CaliforniaWatch reports. The report also notes that workers and supervisors performing weatherization renovations on homes have not been adequately trained,

Another obstacle for removing several century-old dams on the Klamath River, a waterway once teeming with now endangered salmon, has been removed by a second federal study, the Associated Press reports. As a result, the U.S. Department of Interior announced it will conduct a third examination of the sediment that has built up behind the dams to determine the consequences of dam removal. The main concern is that mercury and other toxic compounds left over from historic gold mining, plywood manufacturing, and farming would contaminate areas downstream.

The Environmental Protection Agency unveiled new regulations Monday requiring a sharp reduction in emissions of various pollutants from the nation's Portland Cement plants, riling California producers who say the stricter rules will force more operations overseas. The new rules require plants by to cut the amount of brain damaging mercury and lung harmful particulate matter released into the atmosphere by

It could be a breakthrough for electricity generation, or an innovation Americans will come to regret. Funded in part by stimulus and other federal funds, a planned California power plant would convert coal and petroleum coke into hydrogen which would then be burned for electricity. According to Will Evans of CaliforniaWatch, the key feature of the new plant, to be built and run by BP and a joint venture partner with strong BP roots, is “carbon sequestration,” the modern day alchemist’s holy grail that will

The Springfield State Journal-Register ran an interesting editorial arguing that rollbacks in the federal Clean Water Act have severely hurt Illinois.  Keith Bolin, President of the American Corn Growers Association, and Bruce Ratain, field associate with Environmental Illinois, point out that in 2001 and 2006 the Supreme Court exempted many waterways from the Clean Water Act, which is