Air

"U.S. EPA [Monday] released the final version of closely watched guidelines intended to make it easier for states to get a pass on air pollution violations outside their control because of 'exceptional events.'"

"Indonesian forest fires that choked a swath of Southeast Asia with a smoky haze for weeks last year may have caused more than 100,000 deaths, according to new research that will add to pressure on Indonesia's government to tackle the annual crisis."

"Indonesia's highest Islamic council has issued a fatwa on burning land and forests, a government official said on Wednesday, in an effort to halt the toxic smog that blankets the region each year."

"Officials around [Pennsylvania] are optimistic about the impact of Shell’s new ethane cracker on the local economy. It will bring thousands of construction jobs to western Pennsylvania and 600 permanent ones once it’s built along the Ohio River in Beaver County. The plant will produce 1.6 million tons of plastic a year out of the region’s natural gas."

"A Volkswagen engineer pleaded guilty on Friday to conspiring to defraud regulators and car owners, in the first criminal charges stemming from the American investigation into the German carmaker’s emissions deception."

"The state Legislature has rejected a controversial measure that would have shifted the political balance of Southern California’s air-quality board by adding three state-appointed “environmental justice” members to represent low-income communities suffering from pollution."

"Maryland is fining the owner of two of the state's largest coal power plants $1 million for dumping too much nitrogen into the Potomac and Patuxent rivers, one of the largest penalties state environmental regulators have levied in years."

The emissions cheating scandal badly damaged the businesses of many U.S. Volkswagen dealerships. Now VW has agreed to pay  them some $1.2 billion.

"Air pollution in Singapore rose to the "unhealthy" level on Friday as acrid smoke drifted over the island from fires on Indonesia's Sumatra island, the city-state's National Environment Agency (NEA) said, in a repeat of an annual crisis."

"The Obama administration on Tuesday finalized new fuel-economy standards for large trucks, buses and other heavy-duty vehicles, the latest in a series of efforts aimed at slashing greenhouse gas emissions and weaning the nation from its dependence on fossil fuels."