The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing a new clean air rule that would tighten pollution caps for nitrogen oxide (NOx) and sulfur dioxide (SO2) from power plants across the United States, but this could then raise electricity costs for consumers. Clean Skies News talks to environmental experts and a homeowner about the potential effects of the EPA’s proposed Transport Rule, which would require 31 states and the District of Columbia to significantly improve air quality by reducing power plant emissions that contribute to ozone and fine particle pollution in other states. Source: Clean Skies News
Recent oil discoveries in the South Atlantic’s Falkland Islands have experts urging caution before any drilling begins, for fear of harming the region’s rich biodiversity. Source: Reuters
The world’s top scientists and engineers are trying to assess the short and long term environmental impacts of the Gulf oil spill. Clean Skies went to Woods Hole, Massachusetts, where some of the greatest minds in oceanography are studying the disaster to find out what happens when humans blunder in the still mysterious ecosystem of the ocean’s depths. Source: Clean Skies News
How safe is the air you’re breathing, and where is it coming from? Dr. Sanjay Gupta heads up CNN’s two-night special investigation “Toxic America”, airing on June 2 and 3, and takes a look at conditions in Mossville, Louisiana where many residents suspect their proximity to more than a dozen chemical plants may be responsible for apparently high rates of cancer and other diseases in the area. Source: CNN
At the congressional hearing into the Louisiana oil disaster, top officials from BP, which owns the well; Transocean, owner and operator of the rig; and Halliburton, which cemented around the well; all pointed the finger at each other. Source: FT/Lex
The Gulf oil spill has reopened the debate about offshore drilling, as the Obama administration awaits the outcome of an investigation into the causes of the disaster. Source: ABC News
Beijing city officials tackle rubbish tip stench using deodorant cannons and odor-eating sheets. Capture techniques are also used to collect the foul-smelling gas from under these sheets for electricity generation. Source: Reuters
Clean-up crews search Australia’s Great Barrier Reef for traces of fuel oil from the grounded Chinese ship Shen Neng 1 as two senior crew are charged with damaging the reef. Initial reports indicate that navigation errors resulted in the grounding of the ship on Douglas Shoal, part of the Great Barrier Reef about 50 miles north of the port of Gladstone, Queensland. Source: Reuters
Clean Skies News talks to NRG Energy’s David Crane, who gives an update on the company’s post-combustion carbon capture and sequestration project, which was just awarded $135 million by the Department of Energy. He also discusses the future for older coal power plants. Source: Clean Skies News
