In a new report published this week, the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) internal watchdog found the agency needs to do a better job of tracking air emissions from oil and natural gas production. The EPA Office of Inspector General says gaps exist in the data the agency relies on to estimate pollutants which can impact human health [...]
Acting under a court order to update its soot standards, the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced stricter regulations late last week. Exposure to soot (also known as fine particulate matter) is linked to many health problems including heart disease, diabetes, asthma, and premature death. The new rules will tighten air quality standards related to [...]
Energy policy came up during both presidential debates, and Republican Mitt Romney has been using his stump speech to blast the Obama Administration’s support for renewable energy – and as he frames it, its opposition to the coal industry – for most of the year. So it’s clear a Romney White House would take a [...]
Coal was front and center on the campaign trail yesterday, as Mitt Romney visited eastern Ohio to blast President Obama for stifling the coal industry through increased environmental regulation. Cheap, readily available natural gas has played a major role in the coal industry’s recent contractions, too, but that hasn’t stopped Republicans from focusing on regulations [...]
Last month, StateImpact Pennsylvania detailed Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Michael Krancer’s adverse relationship with the federal government: When the EPA began an investigation of whether or not the water in Dimock, Susquehanna County was safe to drink, Krancer essentially told EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson she didn’t know what she was talking about. “We realize and recognize [...]
WAMU’s nationally-syndicated Diane Rehm Show focused on natural gas drilling in the Marcellus Shale for an hour today. Guests discussed the falling price of natural gas, the EPA’s new drilling regulations, and methane migration. You can listen to the program here. Rehm frequently covers natural gas drilling. As she noted at the top of today’s [...]
Yesterday we told you about the blunt, confrontational letters Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Michael Krancer fires off to the Environmental Protection Agency when he feels the EPA is in the wrong. Here are five excerpts from the dozen letters Krancer has written to the federal agency. (StateImpact Pennsylvania obtained these documents through a Right-To-Know [...]
Over the last few years, the Environmental Protection Agency has taken an increased interest in regulating and monitoring hydraulic fracturing. And when the EPA steps into an area that Pennsylvania’s state agency is already overseeing, Department of Environmental Protection Secretary Michael Krancer appears to take it personally. That personal reaction often comes in the form [...]
An Environmental Protection Agency official is in the news this week – and not in a flattering way – for comparing the department’s regulatory enforcement to Roman crucifixion. As CBS News describes it, Region 6 administrator Al Armendariz said the EPA, …makes “examples of people who are not complying with the law, you make examples [...]
How will the EPA’s new natural gas drilling regulations impact Pennsylvania? The Post-Gazette takes a look: Ms. McCarthy said the flaring requirement will cut emissions of smog-forming volatile organic compounds by up to 290,000 tons a year or 95 percent from the 13,000 wells that are fracked annually. It is also designed to reduce emissions [...]
StateImpact seeks to inform and engage local communities with broadcast and online news focused on how state government decisions affect your lives.
Learn More »