Environment | WPN World People News

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has announced an agreement with Herzog Wine Cellars over violations of the federal Clean Water Act. The settlement requires the company to pay a $70,000 penalty after an EPA inspection found the company was discharging wastewater that violated local and federal standards from its production operations into the City of Oxnard’s sanitary sewer.

As the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt faces the deadline of today to decide whether to grant the request by his home state of Oklahoma to exempt coal ash dumps from federal oversight, public advocates warn that would be a terrible mistake, just as it would be for the other states that want the same exemption.

The online pet trade has emerged as a pressing threat to otters in Southeast Asia with a new TRAFFIC-IUCN Otter Specialist Group (OSG) study revealing hundreds of the animals for sale on Facebook and other websites over a four-month period.

Guatemala has ended its search for the nearly 200 people missing since a volcano erupted earlier this month.

Officials have confirmed the deaths of 110 people in the eruption of the Fuego volcano.

Renewable installation at “Tuzha” Mountain Hut in Bulgaria

New EU ambitious targets for renewables, including self-consumption and biofuels, were agreed by Parliament and Council negotiators on Wednesday night.

Climate financing by the world’s six largest multilateral development banks (MDBs) rose to a seven-year high of $35.2 billion in 2017, up 28 per cent on the previous year.

On Jun 13, Consumers Energy CEO Patti Poppe announced the retirement of the company’s Karn coal-burning power plant by 2023. The Karn plant emits nearly 3 million tons of carbon emissions per year. Consumers is slated to submit its Integrated Resource Plan (IRP), which will include the Karn retirement, to the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC) at the end of the week.

The Bureau of the European Parliament decided on Monday to phase out the use of all plastic water bottles as well as other single-use plastic items used in canteens, in line with the EU drive towards a circular economy and plastic waste strategy.

The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors approved a US$150 million loan to China to improve flood risk management and reduce water pollution in Hezhou Municipality in the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, on Jun 13.