Air Pollution Control

At a bend in the Ohio River, a bulky new device is being attached to a 30-year-old coal plant near the small town of New Haven, W.Va. The device is being housed in a building four stories tall and bigger than a football field. A 150-foot-tall exhaust stack -- so wide that it would take six adults with their arms fully stretched to reach around it -- will reach into the sky. And pipelines will run out of the building and into saline aquifers two miles underground. The entire contraption will start up as early as September.

A group of Midwestern Democrats is pushing for tariffs on products from countries that don't limit greenhouse gas emissions, a controversial step that the legislators say is needed to help American manufacturers survive expected emissions restrictions here. The Democrats say the measure would level the playing field for U.S. factories, which will probably face increased energy costs due to global warming legislation backed by the Obama administration. The legislation narrowly passed in the House in June and is pending in the Senate.

Several of the nation's biggest trade associations have fired a warning shot across the bow of the Port of Los Angeles, urging it to cease lobbying efforts to change a federal law that could greatly affect the way cargo is hauled into and out of the nation's seaports. The warning came Tuesday in a letter signed by 24 groups representing U.S. retailers, agricultural interests, apparel and textile firms, trucking groups and logistics officials. It's a response to the port's recent hiring of Atlanta-based Gephardt Group to try to change part of the Federal Aviation Administration Authorization Act to help reduce air pollution at the port.

Among her many accomplishments, Otana Jakpor, 15, has managed to break up the monotonous atmosphere of air-quality hearings. It's no easy task. Typically, environmentalists spout acronyms and percentages, while industry lobbyists predict the economy will collapse under new rules. Then the 5-foot-6 African American high school senior steps forward in defense of clean air. "My name is Otana Jakpor, and I am a senior at Woodcrest Christian High School in Riverside," she began at a recent Environmental Protection Agency hearing on nitrogen dioxide regulations.

A federal lawsuit by two industry groups aims to halt the U.S. government and the state of California from moving ahead with new greenhouse gas emissions rules for cars and trucks -- an action that, if successful, could scuttle a key piece of the Obama administration's plans to set stricter nationwide standards for vehicles. The lawsuit may be the first of many legal challenges targeting President Obama's efforts to limit the heat-trapping emissions that scientists blame for global warming.

The world's two biggest producers of greenhouse gases sought to build momentum Tuesday for stalled efforts to craft a global agreement to limit emissions, with China pledging to make sweeping changes by 2020 and President Obama exhorting world leaders to act to avert catastrophe. Critics of the two countries, which together produce 40% of the gases that cause global warming, were cheered by the cooperative tone from Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao at a United Nations summit in New York.

The Port of Long Beach has reached a settlement in a lawsuit brought by the American Trucking Assn. over disputed elements of a plan to clean up the air around the nation's busiest seaport complex. Long Beach officials have agreed to strip their plan of all requirements that are not directly tied to the goal of getting cleaner trucks on the road, including a demand that trucking companies file financial reports. Under the change, trucking companies would agree to comply with environmental, safety and security requirements.

Earth dodged disaster with the ozone layer, according to a NASA study about ozone-munching chemicals from aerosol sprays. NASA scientists used a computer model to find out what would have happened if the world hadn't agreed to cut back on chlorofluorocarbons 22 years ago. By 2065, two-thirds of the protective ozone layer would have vanished and the world would have been 4 degrees hotter. In Los Angeles, DNA-damaging ultraviolet radiation would have increased more than sixfold. But that dreadful scenario was "a world avoided," according to the study, published in the journal Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics.

The state would become one of a handful to commit on its own to reducing global-warming pollution, under legislation approved in both chambers of the General Assembly. The House of Delegates voted 107 to 31 Friday for the measure, which would require the state to cut greenhouse gases 25% by 2020; the state Senate approved its version earlier this month. Lawmakers said they expected to resolve differences between the two versions and send the bill to Democratic Gov. Martin O'Malley for his signature.

Congressional critics launched an offensive against the Bush administration Thursday for denying California and other states the right to adopt strict curbs on greenhouse gas emissions from cars and trucks. Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), chairwoman of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee, said she would consider issuing a subpoena for documents that might show White House interference in the Dec. 19 decision to deny California a waiver to enact its own rules under the Clean Air Act.