CLIMATE CHANGE
Wildfires’ smoke in West erasing clean air progress
By Mira Rojanasakul
© The New York Times Co.
Smoke from wildfires has worsened over the past decade, potentially reversing decades of improvements in Western air quality made under the Clean Air Act, according to research publish...
Natural gas operator fined $3.25M
By Noelle Phillips
The Denver Post
A Weld County natural gas operator will pay a $3.25 million fine and spend more than $1.5 million to upgrade one of its plants to reduce harmful air emissions in an agreement with the state, the U.S. Department of Justice and th...
By Noelle Phillips
The Denver Post
With the threat of missing another benchmark for improving air quality hovering like a blanket of summer smog, Colorado’s top environmental officials are asking the legislature for $47 million to hire more people and build better technology for monitoring...
By Jamey Keaten
The Associated Press
GENEVA » The U.N. health agency says nearly everybody in the world breathes air that doesn’t meet its standards for air quality, calling for more action to reduce fossil-fuel use, which generates pollutants that cause respiratory and blood-flow problems...
By Adeel Hassan
© The New York Times Co.
With the pandemic entering a new phase in the United States marked by fewer precautions and the rise of the even more transmissible omicron subvariant BA.2, the Biden administration has begun stressing the importance of mitigating the risk of indoor...
WASHINGTON » The Environmental Protection Agency is proposing a plan that would restrict smokestack emissions from power plants and other industrial sources that burden downwind areas with smog-causing pollution they can’t control.
The federal plan announced Friday is intended to help more ...
By Raymond Zhong and Nadja Popovich
© The New York Times Co.
Urban neighborhoods that were redlined by federal officials in the 1930s tended to have higher levels of harmful air pollution eight decades later, a new study has found, adding to a body of evidence that reveals how racist policies in t...
WASHINGTON » The Biden administration on Monday proposed strict new limits on pollution from buses, delivery vans, tractor-trailers and other heavy trucks — the first time in more than 20 years that tailpipe standards have been tightened for the biggest polluters on the road.
The new draft ...
By Kevin Freking
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON » A bill that would boost health care services and disability benefits dramatically for veterans exposed to toxic burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan won approval Thursday in the House.
The measure has the backing of the nation’s major vetera...
By Lisa Friedman
© The New York Times Co.
WASHINGTON » Older Americans who regularly breathe even low levels of pollution from smokestacks, automobile exhaust, wildfires and other sources face a greater chance of dying early, according to a major study released Wednesday.
Research...
By Judith Kohler
The Denver Post
For about five years, Von Bortz and Amy Smith have lived in rural Larimer County on property where they run a sanctuary for farm animals. The location is good: It’s close to Fort Collins and Colorado State University, home to one of the country’s top veterinary sch...
By Drew Costley
The Associated Press
Researchers say that thousands of lives and hundreds of billions of dollars have been saved in the United States by recent reductions in emissions from vehicles.
Harvard University researchers who study the environment and public health examine...
By Aritz Parra and Emilio Morenatti
The Associated Press
LAS MANCHAS, CANARY ISLANDS » They come with eagle-eyed drones and high-precision instruments. Aided by satellites, they analyze gas emissions and the flows of molten rock. On the ground, they collect samples of the tiniest particles...
By Jim Robbins
Kaiser Health News
The reduction of harmful ground-level ozone across most of the U.S. over the past several decades has been an air pollution success story. But in some parts of the country, especially in the heavily populated mountain valleys of the West, the odorless, col...
By Sheikh Saaliq
The Associated Press
NEW DELHI » Sky obscured by thick, gray smog. Monuments and high-rise buildings swallowed by a blanket of haze. People struggling to breathe.
In the Indian capital, it is that time of the year again.
The city’s air quality index fell into the “very...
Proposal includes millions for electric school buses, air quality monitoring, green buildings
By Conrad Swanson
The Denver Post
Facing record levels of ozone pollution along Colorado’s Front Range this summer, and likely in summers moving forward, Gov. Jared Polis wants to spend nearly ha...
By Emily Anthes
© The New York Times Co.
When Lizzie Rothwell, an architect in Philadelphia, sent her son to third grade this fall, she stocked his blue L.L. Bean backpack with pencils, wide-ruled paper — and a portable carbon dioxide monitor. The device gave her a quick way to assess how ...
By Conrad Swanson
The Denver Post
State health officials say they don’t have enough guidance from the Environmental Protection Agency to know when to estimate whether smaller polluters in Colorado exceed air quality limits on particulates, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen dioxide.
That lack of...
By Simon Romero
© The New York Times Co.
SALT LAKE CITY » Kevin Perry had just begun his morning routine, stepping outside to get the newspaper, when he noticed something was wrong with the sky.
“Within 30 seconds, I was coughing, and my throat hurt,” Perry, an atmospheric scientist at the Univer...
By Bruce Finley
The Denver Post
One of Colorado health officials’ recommendations for enduring the noxious air pollution that’s enveloped residents this summer, included on the state’s air quality website until Wednesday evening, was to “try to move to a place with cleaner air.”
T...
