Air

EPA is trying to phase out the soil fumigant methyl bromide, on which the commercial strawberry crop has been dependent. Methyl bromide damages the ozone layer of the atmosphere. But the effort to find an adequate substitute has scientists scrambling.

"The outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease in the South Bronx is the largest in New York City history, officials said Tuesday, as they announced new measures to fight a disease that had claimed the lives of seven people and sickened more than 80 others."

"A device commonly used to measure the methane that leaks from industrial sources may greatly underestimate those emissions, said an inventor of the technology that the device relies on."

"Barack Obama will use all of his powers – including his veto – to defend his plan to fight climate change, the White House said, on the eve of new rules cutting carbon pollution from power plants."

"A conservation group found 36 U.S. national parks had moderate or worse levels of ozone pollution in a report card released on Tuesday, with four parks in California receiving the worst grades for health effects."

"A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday mostly upheld a major federal environmental regulation requiring some states to limit pollution that contributes to unhealthy air in neighboring states."

"HAZARD, Ky. — Even after years of talk about a “war on coal,” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell startled some of his constituents in March when he urged open rebellion against a White House proposal for cutting pollution from coal-fired power plants."

"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency proposed a program for oil and gas companies to make voluntary pledges to cut and track emissions of methane, one component of its wider strategy to target the potent greenhouse gas and combat climate change, the agency said Thursday."

"The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) rule on emissions of certain toxic air pollutants at manufacturing plants."

"Mercury levels in bluefish caught off the U.S. Atlantic coast dropped more than 40 percent over the past four decades thanks to federal restrictions on coal emissions, according to a new study."