‘Cancer Alley’ is an 80-mile stretch of chemical plants along the Mississippi River in Louisiana alongside many Black and poor communities.
Giles Clarke/Getty Images
The US environmental justice movement dates back to the early 1980s, but federal support for it has been weak and inconsistent. Here are four things Biden’s EPA can do to improve that record.
President-elect Joe Biden opposes proposals to allow uranium mining around the Grand Canyon, which the Trump administration supports.
Michael Quinn, NPS/Flickr
The Trump administration has used executive orders, deregulation and delays to reduce environmental regulation. Biden administration officials will use many of the same tools to undo their work.
Firefighting foam left after a fire in Pennsylvania. These foams often contain PFAS chemicals that can contaminate water supplies.
Bastiaan Slabbers/NurPhoto via Getty Images
PFAS chemicals are toxic, widespread and persistent in the environment, and the federal government has been slow to regulate them. A scientist explains why evaluating them one by one isn’t working.
Fresno, California and the surrounding San Joaquin Valley have some of the nation’s highest levels of fine particle air pollution.
AP Photo/Gary Kazanjian
A new study shows that while fine particle air pollution has declined nationwide over the past 40 years, the health and environmental benefits haven’t been shared evenly.
Diesel emissions are a major source of fine particle pollution.
Bob Chamberlin/Getty Images
After a 5-year review, the EPA is leaving US standards for fine particle air pollution unchanged, even though recent studies suggest that tightening them could save thousands of lives yearly.
Earth Day 2020 in Guangzhou, China.
EPA-EFE/ALEX PLAVEVSKI
Thousands of Americans took part in the first Earth Day 50 years ago. What has changed since then?
Reducing fine particle air pollution from petrochemical complexes, like this one near the Houston Ship Channel in Texas, is a low-cost way to lower air pollution mortality.
AP Photo/David J. Phillip
Jason West, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Yang Ou, Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
A new study takes an innovative approach to reducing fine particle air pollution and spotlights key sources: factories that burn coal and oil, petrochemical plants and burning wood for home heating.
Starting Feb. 6, 2020, California growers will be barred from using the insecticide chlorpyrifos on grapes and other crops.
AP Photo/Eric Risberg
Gina Solomon, University of California, San Francisco
Starting Feb. 6, 2020, California farmers will be barred from using chlorpyrifos on their crops. The Trump administration says more study is needed, but other states are also moving ahead.
Blood samples from pediatric health screenings can provide valuable data for public health research.
AP Photo/Carlos Osorio
The EPA has just adopted a rule that limits what kinds of science regulators can use in setting rules. A scholar explains how this shift could impede his work mapping child lead poisoning.
Vehicles are a major source of particulate air pollution.
Deliris/Shutterstock
Scientists who were appointed to advise the EPA on air pollution kept meeting independently after the agency dissolved their panel. They say current regulations aren’t strict enough.
Many migratory birds, like these sandhill cranes, rely on wetlands for feeding, resting and shelter.
Wyman Meinzer/USFWS
A 2006 Supreme Court ruling created widespread confusion about which wetlands and other waters are federally protected. The Trump administration’s latest action isn’t likely to clear things up.
Bottled water distribution in Glenwood, Iowa, where massive spring flooding along the Missouri River disrupted drinking water treatment, April 3, 2019.
AP Photo/Nati Harnik
Jason West, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Barbara Turpin, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Air quality in the US has improved greatly since 1990, but a new report finds progress stalling in some cities. Meanwhile, the Trump administration is rolling back air pollution controls.
Hoosick Fall, N.Y. is one of many U.S. communities whose drinking water has been contaminated with PFOA or PFOS.
AP Photo/Mike Groll, File
EPA is moving to regulate two chemicals from a group called PFAS that are contaminating drinking water. A public health expert explains why the agency should take much broader action.
Industrial facilities like this oil refinery in Anacortes, Washington are significant air pollution sources.
Walter Siegmund/Wikimedia
An air pollution expert with years of experience advising federal regulators describes how the Trump administration is speeding up reviews and reducing scientific input.
A half-century of regulation has greatly increased the fuel efficiency of US-made cars.
siam.pukkato
Do high fuel economy requirements make the US auto fleet less safe? The Trump administration says yes and is moving to freeze these standards, but auto experts and US car makers disagree.
A study finds that higher ozone levels correlate with slower performance times for college endurance athletes.
Pavel1964
US ozone pollution has fallen in recent decades, but exposure to low levels of ozone still has serious effects on human health and well-being.
Rep. Dan Kildee, D-Mich., speaks about EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt and the state of the EPA during a protest on April 25, 2018, in Washington.
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
After two years of turmoil at the EPA in the 1980s, President Reagan hit the reset button, choosing a Republican who supported environmental protection to head the agency.
Tighter emissions standards create costs for truck manufacturers yet provide health benefits for society. How should they be weighed?
Lesterman
EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt has proposed steps that would reduce economic benefits to society from new regulations. An economist who worked for Presidents Clinton and Obama calls this a strategy to justify deregulation.
Protesters at a rally on the state of the EPA organized by the American Federation of Government Employees union, April 25, 2018, in Washington, D.C.
AP Photo/Alex Brandon
Chris Sellers, Stony Brook University (The State University of New York); Lindsey Dillon, University of California, Santa Cruz, and Phil Brown, Northeastern University
Government agencies are supposed to listen to the industries they regulate, but what if they tune out everyone else? Scholars call this regulatory capture, and some staffers see it happening at EPA.
Professor of History and Director of the Center for the Study of Inequalities, Social Justice, and Policy, Stony Brook University (The State University of New York)