Air

"As Southern California continues to battle the nation’s worst smog, most members of a powerful regional panel that enforces air pollution regulations can breathe relatively easily. Nine of the 13 members of the South Coast Air Quality Management District live close to the ocean in Los Angeles or Orange counties, where ozone, the hallmark pollutant of summer smog, exceeds federal health standards fewer than 10 days a year."

"A half dozen coal-fired power plants in Georgia face tougher federal rules that could force them to spend millions of dollars, or even shut down some, to reduce heavy metal pollutants in the state’s rivers and ground water."

"MEXICO CITY — Metropolitan authorities on Wednesday temporarily ordered all cars to remain idle one day a week in response to this notoriously smoggy capital's worst air-quality crisis in over a decade."

"16,000 preterm births a year are linked to fine particulate pollution, costing the US $4.33 billion annually".

"The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has sued Volkswagen Group of America, accusing the car manufacturer of running deceiving advertisements for so-called “clean diesel” vehicles that in fact were designed to evade federal emissions tests."

"Federal inspectors are investigating whether glass makers outside Oregon are emitting the same toxic chemicals that landed two Portland art glass makers in the spotlight, records show."

"The leader of the state Senate said Tuesday that he will push to reverse efforts by the Southern California air quality board to adopt pollution rules friendlier to industry, saying swift action is needed to prevent a rollback of environmental gains."

"It was like a sequel to a bad movie. One month after I watched the California Coastal Commission whack the executive whose career was devoted to preserving and assuring equal access to the state's greatest treasure, I went to Diamond Bar on Friday to watch another massacre. This time the target was a man with more than three decades of experience fighting smog and improving public health in a region with some of the dirtiest air in the nation."

"In a significant victory for the Obama administration, Chief Justice John G. Roberts Jr. on Thursday refused to block an Environmental Protection Agency regulation limiting emissions of mercury and other toxic pollutants from coal-fired power plants."

"American greenhouse gas emissions increased by less than 1 percent in 2014, according to new Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) data released this week."