Air

"The EPA’s slashing of more than $1 billion in grant funding has hit hard in Western communities that have felt climate impacts from flooding, wildfire smoke and melting permafrost."

"Researchers have identified “forever chemicals” in household dust nearby a North Carolina factory — indicating that dust may be an additional source of exposure to these compounds."

"The US could be plunged back into an era of toxic acid rain, an environmental problem thought to have been solved decades ago, due to the Donald Trump administration’s rollback of pollution protections, the scientist who discovered the existence of acid rain in North America has warned."

"Donald Trump’s administration has offered fossil fuel companies an extraordinary opportunity to evade air pollution rules by simply emailing the US president to ask him to exempt them."

"The Trump administration vowed to rid the EPA of a backlog of decisions on state plans to manage air pollution. Now advocates wonder if faster analysis raises the risk that the plans may not effectively mitigate dirty air."

"Miners and their advocates worry that DOGE's cuts to the Mine Safety and Health Administration will put them at risk."

"The toxic substance, used in dry cleaning and manufacturing, has been linked to a host of serious health problems. A Biden-era ban on the chemical has faced multiple challenges since Trump took office."

"When Leslie Stewart moved to her home in a rural expanse of Lincoln County outside of Oklahoma City more than 20 years ago, she thought she’d found a slice of heaven. ... But several years ago, her neighbor began applying sewage sludge, which consists largely of human waste left over from municipal wastewater treatment facilities, as a fertilizer on his farmland, causing a rancid smell so powerful it nearly took her breath away."

"On a gray March afternoon at the Port of Los Angeles, the largest in the U.S., powerful electric top-handlers whir, beep and grind as they motor back and forth, grabbing trailers from truck beds and stacking them as they move on or off the mighty container ships that ferry goods across the Pacific. Some of the ships, rather than burning diesel to sustain operations as they sit in harbor, plug into electricity instead."