All the headlines from our Pollution Topic Page, ordered by recency.
Jun 20 2014 // Ohio in mid-April 2014 enacted stricter regulations for oil and gas drilling near faults or areas of past seismic activity, a move that some, including insurers, may view as a step in the right direction.The Ohio...
Jun 19 2014 // Pennsylvania accused oil companies of polluting the state’s groundwater with a gasoline additive, joining states including New York, Vermont and New Hampshire that have brought similar lawsuits.Two complaints filed...
Jun 19 2014 // A Missouri appeals court has thrown out $240 million in punitive damages awarded to 16 eastern Missouri residents who sued over health problems from the Herculaneum lead smelter.A jury awarded the damages against former...
Jun 19 2014 // When it comes to the use of evolving technologies such as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, in oil and gas production one big question insurance companies are faced with is: to insure or not to insure?That is a key...
Jun 18 2014 // Companies and governments worldwide are changing their behaviors and examining their risks in the face of climate change, a managing director for Standard & Poor’s said as he held up the insurance industry as a...
Jun 18 2014 // A bill backed by key North Carolina lawmakers would require Duke Energy to close all of its coal ash dumps across the state within 15 years, with much of the toxic material going into lined landfills.The Associated Press...
Jun 18 2014 // The sweet tea served in the tidy kitchen of Joanne Thomas’ antebellum home in Dukeville, North Carolina, comes with an ominous warning.“It’s made with bottled water,” says Thomas, a spry...
Jun 16 2014 // A Charleston company faces state violations after a storm water collection trench overflowed at the same site where chemicals spilled into West Virginia’s largest water supply in January.The Department of...
Jun 16 2014 // Industry groups are jittery that if state regulators require the wrong type of permit, companies could be subject to citizen lawsuits under a new environmental law that regulates storage tanks.State regulators disagree,...
Jun 16 2014 // Surviving a tornado in a wood-frame residential home is enhanced by an intact roof and standing walls, but light-weight garage doors can be the weak link to allowing high winds and pressure changes into a home that can...
Jun 12 2014 // In its first major rewrite of coastal protection rules since Superstorm Sandy, New Jersey is proposing changes that would make it easier for some new or expanded development along the Jersey shore and the state’s...
Jun 12 2014 // A federal judge says a lawsuit accusing Duke Energy coal ash pits of polluting a lake near Wilmington can move forward.The Southern Environmental Law Center filed a lawsuit last year on behalf of environmental groups,...
Jun 9 2014 // Beacon Hill Associates Inc., a wholesale insurance broker and program administrator based in Charlottesville, Virginia, has hired Ursula Knowles as assistant vice president, information development. Knowles will be...
Jun 6 2014 // BP Plc, Chevron Corp. and Exxon Mobil Corp. are among two dozen U.S. refiners sued by Vermont Attorney General William Sorrell and accused of polluting the state’s groundwater with a gasoline additive.Sorrell filed...
Jun 4 2014 // The European Union touted its success in cutting greenhouse gases at U.N. talks on climate change on Wednesday, where a U.S. plan to cut power plant emissions has lifted hopes for a global deal in 2015.An adviser to the...
Jun 4 2014 // Environmental groups said executives of coal, oil, gas and other “fossil fuel” companies could be held liable and risk lawsuits if they support groups that deny climate change and resist policies to fight it.In...
Jun 2 2014 // Months after state officials approved a law to safeguard against chemical spills, West Virginia industry groups want some requirements delayed and some of their storage tanks shielded from added oversight.Though the new...
May 23 2014 // The North Carolina Senate on Thursday voted to make it a crime to disclose the chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, even as big U.S. oil companies elsewhere consider releasing more information about the...
May 23 2014 // The government has no way of fully knowing which U.S. chemical facilities stock ammonium nitrate, the substance that exploded last year at a Texas fertilizer plant and killed 14 people, congressional investigators say....
May 20 2014 // The Obama administration is investigating the health risks of hydraulic fracturing after at least four deaths among oilfield workers since 2010 in North Dakota and Montana.The National Institute for Occupational Safety and...