NERN – Southeast
EPA Proposes to Expand its Regulations on Dumps of Toxic Waste From Burning Coal
The Biden administration is taking steps to address a regulatory loophole that public interest groups said allowed at least a half-billion tons of toxic coal ash to go unregulated. The Environmental Protection Agency published a new draft rule Wednesday that the groups said would extend federal oversight to much of the coal ash disposed at […]
Read MoreClimate Change Forces a Rethinking of Mammoth Everglades Restoration Plan
ORLANDO, Fla.—In 1948, work got underway in the Florida Everglades on a public works project hailed as the nation’s largest, aimed at reigning in once and for all the mighty river of grass that once spanned much of the peninsula. The effort would take decades to complete and involve some of the most complex water […]
Read MoreQ&A: Cancer Alley Is Real, And Louisiana Officials Helped Create It, Researchers Find
NEW ORLEANS, La.—For years, environmental groups have called the industrial corridor along the lower Mississippi River between here and Baton Rouge “cancer alley.” The moniker describes a winding, 130-mile stretch along the river that is dotted with more than 200 industrial facilities including oil refineries, plastics plants, chemical plants and other factories that emit significant […]
Read MoreLouisiana Regulators Are Not Keeping Up With LNG Boom, Environmentalists Say
Amid booming gas exports in Louisiana, environmental regulators aren’t keeping up with their job of protecting the public from pollution caused by the growing industry, environmental advocates said on Tuesday. With more Gulf Coast export terminals planned, the threats to area residents and their environment will only increase, according to a report from the Louisiana […]
Read MoreSidestepping a New Climate Commitment, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Greenlights a Mammoth LNG Project in Louisiana
After declaring nine months ago that it would start factoring climate change into regulatory decisions about major gas projects, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has thrown up its collective hands and concluded that it doesn’t know how. At least not yet. The uncertainty was conveyed last month when the commission’s five members, all presidential appointees, […]
Read MoreExpedition Retraces a Legendary Explorer’s Travels Through the Once-Pristine Everglades
In 1897, the explorer and amateur scientist Hugh de Laussat Willoughby climbed into a canoe and embarked on a coast-to-coast expedition of the Florida Everglades, a wilderness then nearly as vast as the peninsula itself and as unknown, he wrote, as the “heart of Africa.” Willoughby and his guide were the first non-Native Americans to […]
Read MoreProtesters Rally at Gas Summit in Louisiana, Where Industry Eyes a Fossil Fuel Buildout
The U.S. today sells more compressed methane gas on international markets than any other country, though the export sector here is barely 6 years old. Fossil fuel industry leaders intend to continue on this soaring trajectory with plans to build a slate of new gas export terminals on the Gulf Coast. More than half of […]
Read MoreMisery Wrought by Hurricane Ian Focuses Attention on Climate Records of Florida Candidates for Governor
ORLANDO, Fla.—For Janét Buford-Johnson, it was as if all the homes on her street had been turned inside out by Hurricane Ian. “The neighborhood looks like a disaster area,” she said somberly some four weeks after the hurricane. “Like someone had a war out here, and things are just blown up. … They put a […]
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