air pollution

Poor little Big Coal says EPA smog standards too expensive

Cross-posted from the Center for American Progress. This post was coauthored by Matthew Kasper, an energy intern at the Center for American Progress. By Dec. 16, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will promulgate its final rule requiring coal-fired power plants to reduce their emissions of mercury, arsenic, acid gases, and other toxic chemicals. The EPA […]

Daniel J. Weiss Health

Carbon monoxide makes you breathe easier (metaphorically), says study

So, carbon monoxide will kill you, obviously. But like a lot of things that will kill you, in small quantities it apparently makes you feel really great! In a recent study, carbon monoxide exposure made people less stressed out about the negative effects of living in the city, including crowds, noise, and presumably carbon monoxide […]

Jess Zimmerman Health

Public support for clean energy isn’t enough; passion and money win in politics

Stephen Lacey flags a poll that shows that the public feels positively about clean energy and, if given the choice, would prefer to pursue clean energy over fossil fuels. Similar positive results have been found, again and again and again, in polling about air pollution rules and the EPA. These results are notable and […]

David Roberts Health

Beijing denies air pollution while party elites get home air purifiers

While China's citizenry are dying in record numbers owing to catastrophic levels of urban air pollution, the country's leaders are breathing Perri-Air. That is, their offices and homes use elaborate, expensive air filters to prevent the country's elites from having to breathe the same toxic shit as the plebes in the street. Meanwhile, the government reports […]

Christopher Mims Health

Kids in polluted cities show cognitive deficits

In New York City, for all its wonders, it's not uncommon still to hear the childless pronounce that they "could never imagine raising kids in the city." Turns out they might have a good reason for that. Although kids who grow up in cities have a certain worldliness about them, raising urban kids does have […]

Sarah Laskow Health

How Congress is turning America into China

Reading news from Washington D.C., while spending a week in China, it seems to me that some members of Congress are backing policies that would make America much more like China — without any of the economic benefits. The House voted last week 249 to 169 to curtail the EPA’s ability to reduce air pollution […]

Terry Tamminen Uncategorized

Obama blows smog in everyone's face

President Obama has yanked back the EPA's proposed new restrictions on ground-level ozone (i.e. smog). That's a huge win for Big Business, which had claimed it couldn't weather an economic downturn AND keep from suffocating people at the same time. But it's an equally huge loss for everyone else -- especially since the reason the EPA was revising the smog standards in the first place was because the allowable limit was well above safe levels, according to the agency's science advisors.

Jess Zimmerman Health

The city of the future is already here

Ever see those signs that say, “If you lived here, you’d be home by now”? They’re usually affixed to urban revitalization projects located near mass transit hubs (of course you’re commuting another hour to your sprawl development in the ‘burbs when you read it). Those projects represent a part of the city of tomorrow, but […]