Air

"A federal appeals court has temporarily blocked enforcement of a new rule to limit silica dust exposure for coal and other miners. The rule, from the Mine Safety and Health Administration (MSHA), was imposed last year in response to an epidemic of severe black lung disease among coal miners."

"The Trump administration has granted nearly 70 coal-fired power plants a two-year exemption from federal requirements to reduce emissions of toxic chemicals such as mercury, arsenic and benzene."

"Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum visited two Warrior Met mines to emphasize the administration’s commitment to lifting regulations on the extraction of ‘clean beautiful coal.’ He did not mention the company’s checkered safety and environmental record."

"During a hike in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in 1995, Don Barger climbed Chilhowee Mountain hoping to gaze across the valley below. All he saw was a wall of gray haze. Today, he said, he can see some 50 miles (80 kilometers) across that same valley to the Cumberland Mountains."

"International Recycling Group (IRG) has announced that they will cancel a planned plastic waste processing facility in Erie, Pennsylvania, due to President Trump’s federal funding cuts and tariffs, among other reasons."

"Two chemical industry groups are asking President Trump for a complete exemption to free their factories from new limits on hazardous air pollution."

"The EPA’s slashing of more than $1 billion in grant funding has hit hard in Western communities that have felt climate impacts from flooding, wildfire smoke and melting permafrost."

"Researchers have identified “forever chemicals” in household dust nearby a North Carolina factory — indicating that dust may be an additional source of exposure to these compounds."

"The US could be plunged back into an era of toxic acid rain, an environmental problem thought to have been solved decades ago, due to the Donald Trump administration’s rollback of pollution protections, the scientist who discovered the existence of acid rain in North America has warned."

"Donald Trump’s administration has offered fossil fuel companies an extraordinary opportunity to evade air pollution rules by simply emailing the US president to ask him to exempt them."