Environment | WPN World People News

Senators from Minnesota, on January 17, Wisconsin and Wyoming introduced the “War on Wolves Act,” a companion bill to legislation introduced last week in the House that would strip federal protections from wolves and allow trophy hunting and trapping of the species in four states.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Department of Justice today announced a proposed consent decree with S.H. Bell Company requiring the company to monitor and take measures to reduce manganese emissions from its 92-acre plant that spans the Pennsylvania-Ohio border in Ohioville, Pa. and East Liverpool, Ohio.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on January 18, announced a settlement with Bandit Industries, Inc., for alleged violations of the Clean Air Act for selling non-road diesel engines and equipment used to process wood and waste that do not meet federal standards. Bandit, based in Remus, Michigan, will pay a $3 million civil penalty.

A fallen tree in Namibia's Namib desert.

A flare burns in a California oil field.

Greenpeace International exposed in a new report on January 17 how HSBC, Europe’s largest bank, loaned hundreds of millions of US dollars to some of the most destructive palm oil companies in Indonesia.

The United States and the Navajo Nation have entered into a settlement agreement with two affiliated subsidiaries of Freeport-McMoRan, Inc., for the cleanup of 94 abandoned uranium mines on the Navajo Nation. Under the settlement, valued at over $600 million, Cyprus Amax Minerals Company and Western Nuclear, Inc., will perform the work and the United States will contribute approximately half of the costs.

Conservation groups filed a motion in U.S. District Court late Friday to defend a pause in the outdated federal coal-leasing program against a legal challenge by two Utah counties. The pause was put in place by Interior Secretary Sally Jewell to allow the federal Bureau of Land Management time to review outdated policies for managing billions of tons of federal coal without locking federal lands into decades more of coal mining.

On January 17, the U.S. EPA and its partners launched a technology challenge for an Advanced Septic System Nitrogen Sensor. The total award pool for this phase is $55,000. The Challenge is open for submissions on January 17. Submissions are due on or before March 17, 2017.