Articles by Grist staff

EPA drops significant planned changes to two air-pollution rules

The U.S. EPA on Wednesday announced it’s giving up its effort to push through two unpopular changes to air-pollution rules before President-elect Barack Obama takes office. The changes, in the works for years, would have eased restrictions on power plants’ emissions near national parks and allowed some of the country’s dirtiest power plants to emit […]

Obama’s energy and environment appointments unveiled

President-elect Barack Obama has not yet officially announced his choices to fill key environmental posts in his administration, but the word is now out on the street. Transition-team officials say that Lisa Jackson will head the U.S. EPA, Steven Chu will be secretary of energy, Nancy Sutley will head the White House Council on Environmental […]

Utility strikes deal with green groups allowing new coal plants to proceed

Luminant, the largest utility in Texas, struck a deal this week with Public Citizen and the Sierra Club in which the company agreed to use “maximum achievable control technology” to ensure the lowest possible emissions of mercury and other pollutants from two new coal-fired generating units now under construction in the state. In exchange, the […]

Energy Dept. calls for threefold expansion of Yucca Mountain nuke dump

In a report to Congress, the U.S. Energy Department this week recommended expanding by up to three times the amount of nuclear waste to be buried at the planned Yucca Mountain Nuclear Waste Repository in Nevada. The agency also recommended delaying a decision on whether to commission another large nuke-waste dump elsewhere in the country, […]