Methane measurements collected during a scientist’s road trip across the U.S. indicate that local emissions of the potent greenhouse gas are higher than previously known in many regions.

Using a gas chromatograph mounted to the roof of a rented camper, Ira Leifer of the University of (more…)

How often do we hear warnings for people with respiratory conditions to stay inside to avoid high levels of poor or toxic air in their communities? There are good reasons for those warnings. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sees how damaging these sky-high air pollutant levels can be and, as a result, are focusing more closely on urban air quality (more…)

A large U.S. pipeline developer has dropped plans to build a $200-million coal export facility in northern Oregon, the third major terminal proposal to be shelved or canceled in the Pacific Northwest. Officials at Houston-based Kinder Morgan say the Columbia River site could not optimally accommodate the 30 million tons of coal that were expected to run through (more…)

A federal program that has cleaned up or removed 50,000 high-polluting diesel engines from U.S. roads is scheduled to be cut by 70 percent under President Barack Obama’s latest budget.

The program eliminated 230,000 tons of soot and smog-causing pollutants, slashed more than two (more…)

Los Angeles is known not only for its celebrity clientele, but also for its congested roadways and heavy traffic, which consequently has led to severely polluted air, and the title of the “smoggiest city” in the United States. While air quality has improved somewhat in LA, a joint study by UCLA and the California Air Resources Board suggests that nearly a quarter of Angelenos (more…)

The combustion of fossil fuels are a huge health hazard as to a recent United Nations report, 3.3 million people died from outdoor air pollution in 2010. An additional 3.5 million people die early annually from indoor air pollution.

I had noted in a previous Cleantechies article that air (more…)

Air pollution contributed to the premature deaths of more than 1.2 million people in China in 2010, or about 40 percent of early deaths worldwide caused by dirty air, according to a newly released analysis.

The findings, based on data from a study on the distribution and causes of death globally, categorized (more…)

An ambitious plan to expand the western Chinese city of Lanzhou into a regional industrial hub is raising concerns over what critics call lax government oversight of the environmental and safety impacts, including worries that it will siphon huge amounts of water from an already parched region and devastate nearby mountains. (more…)

China’s new premier, Li Keqiang, has vowed aggressive government action to curb the rampant pollution that has provoked growing public outrage, saying the country would phase out “backward production facilities” that have contributed to dangerous health conditions in numerous regions. (more…)

As Beijing residents continue to endure choking air pollution that far exceeds safe levels, an online poll has found overwhelming support for new clean air legislation.

Ten hours after real estate mogul Pan Shiyi posted the poll on the popular social media platform Sina Weibo, 99 percent of respondents — more than 32,000 people — agreed that the government should (more…)