u s environmental protection agency

New federal auto emission and fuel standards announced Monday should help clear Maryland's summer smog and even aid the cleanup of the Chesapeake Bay, according to state environmental officials.

The EPA should alter its rules on fuel for sea vessels to account for the impact on near-shore shipping.

The EPA and CFPB arguably have more power to issue regulations that affect our economy than any other regulatory bodies, yet they're among the worst offenders when it comes to cronyism and favoritism among their ranks. It's time Americans are clear that partisan activists and impartial regulation don't mix.

Better to take climate change out of the courts and into the hands of the free market

Rising carbon dioxide levels are reason for serious concern

A mercury spill was reported at Harford Technical High School near Bel Air Thursday afternoon, Harford County emergency services and school spokespersons said.

Those of us who have been in the brownfields trenches for 15 or more years see the Harbor Point redevelopment as an example of the best brownfields and smart growth practices, developed through the carefully prescribed progression of site assessments, cleanup and redevelopment construction methods that eliminate exposure pathways. The cleanup objective was always to get beyond a fenced­ off lot, and redevelop the site as a prominent and extraordinary asset to the city and the neighborhood.

Baltimore area deserves more thoughtful commentary than what Robert Ehrlich provides

Supreme Court must uphold EPA greenhouse gas rules as the nation's best — and likely only — opportunity to address climate change

With significantly less development and growth than anticipated in Havre de Grace, Mayor Wayne Dougherty has recommended a minimum increase of 15 percent in water and sewer rates to ensure the health of the city's water and sewer fund in the coming 2015 fiscal year.

Maryland needs to better monitor and document professional pesticide use to judge its impact on public health and the environment

President Barack Obama announced Tuesday that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency will tighten fuel efficiency standards for medium- and heavy-duty trucks as part of an effort to address greenhouse gas pollution administratively rather than waiting on Congress.

EPA's Chesapeake Bay 'pollution diet' is under attack from some attorneys general who ought to be cheering its success

State regulatory agency not doing enough to guard against polluted runoff

Columbia chemical maker W.R. Grace is about to go where it hasn't been for nearly 13 years: out of bankruptcy court.

The return of Carnival Pride to Baltimore offers a valuable lesson in economic growth and environmental protection

Carnival Cruise Lines announced on Thursday that it will be returning its Pride cruise liner to the port of Baltimore in March, after new technologies helped it meet federal environmental regulations that threatened to drive up costs.

Environmentalists are slamming a new draft Chesapeake Bay restoration agreement for failing to address toxic pollution or even mention climate change as a complicating factor in the three-decade effort to revive the ailing estuary.

Two companies have agreed to pay a $5,000 penalty for hazardous-waste violations at an East Baltimore metal plating facility, the Environmental Protection Agency announced Wednesday.

The Howard County Watershed Stewards Academy — which just graduated its first class two months ago — is currently recruiting for a second class of volunteers interested in learning how to improve the water quality of local streams and rivers, which ultimately impact the bay's health.

Across Maryland and the country, more federal employees are teleworking from home than ever, according to the U.S. Office of Personnel Management.

Md. leads the region in reducing stormwater runoff

Nitrogen pollution from Maryland sewage plants and industries increased in 2012, partially undermining gains the state has made in prior years in cleaning up the Chesapeake Bay, the Environmental Integrity Project reported Thursday. The Washington-based group noted that the state's facilities collectively discharged more than 300,000 pounds of hte bay-fouling nutrient that year than they were legally permitted to do.

A pipe at the Canal Creek Groundwater Treatment Plant at the Edgewood Area of Aberdeen Proving Ground burst early Monday morning because of cold temperatures, sending about 29,000 gallons of untreated groundwater into a nearby storm drain, APG officials reported Tuesday.

The Environmental Protection Agency moved Friday to reduce harmful air pollution from woodstoves and heaters. The phase-in of new emission standards was welcomed by Maryland officials, who had joined with six other states in October to sue the agency for inaction on updating regulations last issued in 1988.

Environmental activists warn that construction of a 21-mile natural gas pipeline through northern Baltimore and Harford counties could affect the region's drinking-water system, as the $180 million project would cut across more than three dozen streams that feed into Loch Raven Reservoir.

Federally funded efforts to curtail farm pollution of the Chesapeake Bay are falling seriously short, and recent spending cuts by Congress cast doubt on the efforts' ultimate success, an environmental group said Monday.

The last year saw progressive politics ascendant in Maryland — and a growing backlash.

Maryland officials have decided to give 540 "concentrated animal feeding operations" (CAFOs) — industrial-style chicken farms mostly — a free ride, waiving more than $400,000 in legally mandated fees this year alone.

Leadership, more than any other factor, shapes how federal employees view their workplaces, says Max Stier, president and CEO of the Partnership for Public Service.

Thirty years after signing the first Chesapeake Bay Agreement, solemnly pledging to stem the flow of pollutants and bring the bay into compliance with the Clean Water Act, we still have not achieved that goal.

Environmental groups had challenged legality of market-based cleanup

The controversy over exporting liquefied natural gas via the Chesapeake Bay has become an issue in the race for Maryland's State House, at least among the Democratic candidates for governor.Saying the environmental costs are too high, Montgomery County Del. Heather Mizeur announced Friday that she opposes a bid by Dominion, a Virginia-based energy company, to export LNG through a terminal it owns at Cove Point in Calvert County.

Only a few of the leaders of the long-running Chesapeake Bay cleanup effort are expected to show up in Washington Thursday for an annual review of how it's going, 30 years on.