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Climate, Air Quality, and Weather Stories November 21, 2001 Maine city passes tough local air quality law The city of Biddeford, Maine has adopted a tough new air quality law that uses a local permitting system and levels fines against plants that exceed emissions limits stricter than federal and state laws. The Portland Herald has the story. Massachusetts companies pay air pollution fines The Massachusetts Department of Environmental Protection announced this week in separate news releases that that companies in Worcester and Agawam have paid air pollution fines in two separate cases. The DEP says in a news release that Energy Construction Services of Worcester has paid a $7,500 penalty for violating state air pollution regulations while working with asbestos materials at a Fitchburg paper company. In Agawam, a saw blade manufacturer Armstrong-Blum Manufacturing Co. paid a $3,250 penalty for violations of air pollution and hazardous waste regulations. The DEP says Armstrong-Blum had built and operated a degreasing system that used methylene chloride, a volatile organic compound that contributes to ozone air pollution. The company had not submitted a plan or obtained DEP approval for the system. The company is now using sanding belts to clean the its saw blades. New York court ruling backs tougher air standards New York's highest court has blessed a lower court‰s ruling that extensive environmental reviews be conducted of small power plants installed around New York City. The governor had sought to exempt so-called minipower plants from such scrutiny. The decision is a significant victory for environmentalists concerned about the health effects of emissions from the plants. The New York Times has the story. U.S., other nations, explore methane as energy source An international group of scientists and energy experts, including officials from the United States, are eyeing huge deposits of frozen, highly concentrated methane in Canada's Northwest Territories as a potential source of energy. But environmentalists worry about the effects on climate of tapping into this as yet unexploited resource. MSNBC has a story about how the quandary is shaping up. |
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