Marathon Petroleum, accused of fraudulently seeking tax exemption
[BY: SARA SNEATH] A state board deferred consideration of $43 million in tax breaks for Marathon Petroleum Friday after claims that the company falsified public records to avoid going to St. John the Baptist Parish officials for approval. Marathon went before the Board of Commerce and Industry Friday for a tax break for an expansion […]
Nearly 100,000 Western New Yorkers have been diagnosed with cancer
Startling statistics that our New York clients are sadly, all to familiar with. Buffalo Business First crunched the numbers from the New York State Cancer Registry and found nearly 100,000 Western New Yorkers have been diagnosed with cancer during their lifetimes, and a new case of cancer is diagnosed in what works out to be […]
Purdue’s massive opioid settlement is tangled in a bankruptcy court fight
By: BLOOMBERG Purdue Pharma’s massive settlement over claims that it helped spark the opioid crisis is facing pushback in federal court, creating a potential stumbling block for the landmark deal. Purdue has agreed to plead guilty to three felonies and pay $8.3 billion to settle federal investigations of how it marketed the painkiller OxyContin. But […]
Project Will Address Risk of Flood-Induced Chemical Spills at Gulf Coast Facilities
The Gulf Research Program (GRP) of the National Academy of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has awarded Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) with a three-year Healthy Ecosystems grant to examine and address the vulnerability of petrochemical facilities along Galveston Bay to flood-induced chemical spills and releases. In a robust partnership with the Galveston Bay Foundation and Texas […]
EPA Approves Use of Dicamba Weed Killer Linked to Cancer
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved for five years the use of two products with the weedkiller dicamba on cotton and soybeans that are resistant to it. It also extended the use of a third product. The agency’s prior approval of dicamba was vacated in court over its impacts on other crops that it can […]
Fracking Has a Radioactive Problem
Harvard scientists have found that fracking is associated with greatly increased radioactive particulate in the air, especially in West Virginia’s dependent petrochemical economy. People who live within about 12 miles of fracking sites are at the highest risk, with ambient radiation as high as 40 percent over the background level. The data comes from 17 […]
Smell in the air being investigated by LDEQ
[FROM WBRZ] It’s one of the worst smells Carlas Williams says she’s ever smelled in her life. “We don’t know what it is,” she said. “It smells like raw sewage; it’s horrible.” Williams says she first started smelling the strong odor in August along Airline Highway near Prescott Road. It crept into her home and […]
OxyContin maker to plead to 3 criminal charges
Purdue Pharma, the company that makes OxyContin, the powerful prescription painkiller that experts say helped touch off an opioid epidemic, will plead guilty to three federal criminal charges as part of a settlement of more than $8 billion, Justice Department officials told The Associated Press. The company will plead guilty to three counts, including conspiracy […]
Energy Dept confirms electric vehicles are better for the environment
[FROM CLEANTECHNICA] The US Department of Energy has put to rest the myth that EVs are worse for the environment than vehicles that use diesel or gas engines. This is something like the 107th time that a reputable organization has concluded this. Sure, regular CleanTechnica readers know that EVs are better, but as with those […]
Island Of Death
[FROM FORBES] The true scale of the devastating Wakashio oil spill is only just becoming apparent to the Indian Ocean island of Mauritius. Thousands of sea creatures have turned up dead around a small coral atoll five miles South West of the Wakashio wreck, called Ilot Brocus. Local environmental NGO, Reef to Roots, were at […]