News and Articles


Mercury Levels in Women of Childbearing Age Dropped by 34 Percent

A recent EPA report shows that blood mercury levels in women of childbearing age has decreased by 34 percent from a survey conducted in 1999-2000 to follow-up surveys conducted from 2001 to 2010. Additionally, the percentage of women of childbearing age with blood mercury levels above the level of concern decreased by 65 percent.

EPA Releases Draft Procurement Guidelines for Product Environmental Performance

They are criteria for assessing private-sector standards and ecolabels, considering factors such as how standards are developed and managed, as well as their environmental effectiveness

Study Reveals Low Rate of Frog Abnormalities on Wildlife Refuges

An unprecedented 10-year-study by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service shows encouraging results for frogs and toads on national wildlife refuges.

Bad News for Wind Farms

The Department of Justice announced Nov. 22 that Duke Energy Renewables Inc. pleaded guilty to violating the federal Migratory Bird Treaty Act for birds killed at its wind projects in Wyoming.

Egypt's Largest Petrochemical Plant Gets New Water Technology

As part of a $4.8 billion Tahrir Petrochemicals Complex, the technology project is billed as the world's largest naphtha liquid cracker and will feature GE technologies.

New Report Explores Resiliency of Water and Electric Utilities

Thought leaders explore opportunities for transformational solutions to maximize resource efficiency.

Appeals Court Halts Nuclear Waste Storage Fees

As long as the federal government has no viable alternative to Yucca Mountain for storing nuclear waste, power plant operators should not be charged annual fees for the cost of that disposal, the judges ruled.

UN to Coal Industry: Radically Change and Diversify

Citing fiduciary responsibility to workforce and shareholders, UN’s Figueres urges coal industry “look past next quarter’s bottom line and see the next generation’s bottom line.”.

Active Volcano Rumbles beneath Antarctica Ice

Scientist says a staggering amount of energy needed to punch through the ice.

Small Monthly Fee Approved in AZ Residential Solar Showdown

The Arizona Corporation Commission voted 3-2 to approve a monthly charge by the utility Arizona Public Service Co. of 70 cents per kilowatt, on customers who install rooftop solar panels after Jan. 1, 2014.

Shreveport Agrees to $342 Million Sewer System Upgrade

"The key provisions of this settlement will eliminate overflows of raw sewage in neighborhoods that have for too long been subject to these contaminated overflows," said Acting U.S. Assistant Attorney General Robert G. Dreher.

Times Square Alliance Boosts Number of Recycling Stations for America Recycles Day

Times Square will be home to 46 solar-powered waste and recycling stations, helping divert 25 percent of waste to recycling.

Experts Agree Ocean Acidification Caused by Carbon Dioxide Emission from Human Activity

Change our behaviors or expect significant economic and ecosystem loss to our world’s oceans.

EPA Listens to Texans Talk Black and Green

Texas has a reputation for just about anything other than environmental activism, but a public hearing held Nov. 7 by EPA was crowded with people patiently waiting their three-minute turn at the microphone.

Earth Day Texas

The Lone Star State seeks environmental awareness.

Nominee Tapped for EPA Office of Research and Development

President Obama has nominated Thomas A. Burke, Ph.D., MPH, of the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, to fill the vacant assistant administrator position.

Sewage Plant Doubles Wastewater Treatment Capacity

A sewage treatment plant in Queensland, Australia chose is expected to double the amount of wastewater it can treat each day after choosing GE’s LEAPmbr membrane bioreactor (MBR).

Coal Ash Pollutants Levels Exceed Health Guidelines

A new EIP Report describes TVA coal ash pollutants that were measured over the past five years, including arsenic, boron, and cobalt, exceed health guidelines.

Keystone Activists Greet Obama in Dallas

Activists met President Obama yesterday as he arrived at a fundraiser in Dallas, to call on him to reject the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline.

WMO Reports New Record High for Greenhouse Gases

Call for action now, saying “Time is not on our side.”