Michigan environmental regulators said Thursday that they reached a long-sought deal with Dow Chemical Co. to clean up to 1,400 residential properties in Midland, home of its corporate headquarters and a plant that polluted the area with dioxin for much of the past century.
The state Department of Environmental Quality said it agreed with the company on the outlines of a cleanup plan, marking a milestone in on-and-off negotiations that began in the mid-1990s. Dow will cover all of the costs and will fill in the plan details and submit them for review next month.
The total cost of the plan won't be clear until it's known how many of the 1,400 properties require cleaning and how much work needs to be done, Dow and DEQ officials said. The company said it would offer to buy about 50 homes and lots in two areas close to the plant.
In the first case of its kind in a French court, biotech titan Monsanto has been found guilty of chemical poisoning of a French farmer, a ruling that could have implications for future health claims relating to pesticides, Reuters reports.
Dow Chemical Co. is partnering with the Nature Conservancy in an unusual pilot program to make environmental costs and benefits an integral part of business decision making at Dow's Freeport, Texas, site, the largest chemical complex in the country, Fuelfix reports.
The Environmental Protection Agency and the Justice Department announced Tuesday they are assessing a $1.4 million fine against Dover Chemical Corp. for illegal production of chlorinated products in Ohio and Indiana.
Chinese officials report that environmental accidents are on the rise, mainly due to chemicals industry-related traffic and industrial mishaps that pose a threat to the country’s development, The Associated Press reports.
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia are trying to top each other with the sweetest package of tax breaks for Shell Oil Co., which plans to build a huge new petrochemical refinery in the region.
But some are questioning why there's been so little public discussion over exactly what's being offered, and how the deals would impact communities and the region.
"Who's going to be paying for the roads?" asked Robert P. Strauss, a professor of economics and public policy at Carnegie Mellon University. "You have to think through very carefully what the additional costs will be."
U.S. Sen. Bob Casey on Wednesday wrote to a Shell executive in hopes of persuading the oil and gas giant to choose a Pennsylvania site to build a huge new chemical plant that could mean thousands of new jobs and millions of tax dollars for the state.
The company has said it will decide early this year where to build the plant from among sites in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia, and those states’ officials have lobbied Shell or offered incentives for what could be a massive investment that rivals the region’s largest industrial plants.
“Pennsylvania has everything needed to make it a top choice for Shell’s facilities,” Casey wrote in his letter to Shell executive Mark Quartermain. “We have a proven work force, access to water, communities with a long history of working cooperatively with industry, an extensive rail transportation network and appropriate real estate. Pennsylvania also has an exceptional higher education network which will mesh well with Shell’s commitment to innovation.”
What's good enough for the Brazilians should be good enough for the USA.
That's the argument House Speaker John Boehner is using to hit back at President Barack Obama's energy policy as he and like-minded lawmakers visit Brazil, Colombia and Mexico this week.
Boehner, House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings, R-Wash., and a handful of others are meeting with energy executives in the Latin America countries, though they're not saying who just yet.
The Wall Street Journal reports that previously unproductive shale formations are producing large yields of natural gas liquids, resusicating the petrochemical industry, thanks to the drilling technologies that have unlocked vast amounts of crude and natural gas.
The United States and the European Union plan to negotiate settlements with China for the import of cheap Chines solar panels into Western markets, The New York Times reports.
The Supreme Court declined to hear a case from an Alaskan village arguing it should be allowed to sue energy companies for climate change damages, Reuters reports.
Business and policy groups including the Business Roundtable and the Chamber of Commerce called on the Senate to approve the Shaheen-Portman energy efficiency bill, The Hill reports.
Alaska Gov. Sean Parnell told the Interior Department his administration is willing to invest up to $50 million in an assessment of oil reserves of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, Bloomberg reports.
Republicans on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee called on the EPA to suspend rulemaking for stormwater runoff until the agency opens the process to small businesses.
