epa
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Company gives lumps of coal to children
The coal gift bag. Photo: Russ MaddoxThis week, we got an email from Seward, Alaska, where our friend Russ Maddox was shocked at what his 9-year-old granddaughter brought home from a field trip last week to Aurora Energy Service’s Seward coal loading facility: The gift bag included cellophane wrapped coal candy, a real lump of […]
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Hexavalent chromium pollution linked to coal ash disposal
The landmark $333 million court settlement that propelled legal researcher Erin Brockovich to environmental stardom involved the contamination of a California town’s groundwater with hexavalent chromium, a toxic compound known to cause cancer. Now the same dangerous heavy metal, usually associated with steel manufacturing and metal plating, has been discovered seeping from coal ash disposal […]
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Can You Hear Me Now? Hanging Out with the EPA
This post was co-written by Craig Segall, Attorney for the Sierra Club Environmental Law Program. Two public hearings from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in Washington, D.C., this week, will help decide whether our efforts to stop runaway climate change will rest on a strong foundation. First up, EPA will be hearing from the public […]
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EPA: A human life is worth $7.9 million
Putting a dollar value on people is how the EPA figures out whether reducing pollution is a good idea. And the EPA thinks you're worth $7.9 million.
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Top USDA bee researcher also found Bayer pesticide harmful to honeybees
Remember the case of the leaked document showing that the EPA's own scientists are concerned about a pesticide it approved that might harm fragile honeybee populations? Well, it turns out that USDA researchers also have good evidence that these nicotine-derived chemicals could be playing a part in Colony Collapse Disorder. So why on earth are they still in use on millions of acres of American farmland?
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Coal Victories and Challenges
Every week it seems as if there’s coal-related news to celebrate and to challenge us. We celebrated last week’s decision from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and Lisa Jackson to veto the water permit for the massive Spruce No. 1 mountaintop removal coal mining site in West Virginia. Administrator Jackson’s brave step stopped a mountaintop […]
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The beekeeper who kicked the EPA's nest speaks [VIDEO]
We have Tom Theobald to thank for the leaked EPA documents revealing the bee-killing potential of clothianidin, a widely used pesticide. He tells his story in a new video.
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EPA vetoes massive mountaintop-removal mine — now buckle up for the backlash
In the wake of EPA's veto last week of the largest mountaintop-removal mine permit ever proposed in West Virginia, the grandstanding of West Virginia politicians and "sky is falling" rhetoric from the coal industry was not surprising. However, the immediate response of coal industry groups and West Virginia politicians to the news of EPA's action was a little different this time around.
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It’s Time for EPA to Step In
This post was co-written by Jen Powis, Sierra Club Senior Regional Representative in Texas. It isn’t old news around here that when it comes to air pollution, Texas has a big problem. And it seems like the rest of the nation is finally catching on. Today in Downtown Dallas, hundreds of Texans will gather at […]