Weekly Clips

Weekly Clips Current Issue

Texas Republicans Unveil Redistricting Map to Expand GOP Foothold by 5 Seats, Including 1 in Houston

The Texas Legislature released a new congressional map Wednesday morning detailing Republicans’ plans to dramatically expand their foothold in the state at the urging of President Donald Trump.

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Texas Positioned to be Key Player in Plastics' U.S. Manufacturing Role, says New Report

As the nation’s top exporter of manufactured goods – many of which rely on plastic – Texas stands to benefit significantly from some newly proposed policy recommendations coming out of Washington, D.C. that have the potential to energize local Lone Star State industries and job growth. A new economic analysis by the American Chemistry Council reveals that plastics are indispensable to critical U.S. industries – from Automotive & Aerospace, to Healthcare & Electronics – and employ nearly 5 million Americans while paying over $391 billion in U.S. wages.

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EPA Seeks to Cancel Scientific Basis for Climate Regulations

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said Tuesday he's issuing draft plans to overturn the agency's 2009 scientific finding that greenhouse gases threaten human health and welfare — a move guaranteed to spark litigation.

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EPA’s Climate Rollback Plan Adds to Power Sector Instability

The Trump administration’s move to overturn a 16-year-old scientific finding may release U.S. utilities from greenhouse gas emissions rules, but it’s unclear to what extent it will change the trajectory of the power sector.

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Is MAHA Losing Its Battle to Make Americans Healthier?

On a Friday evening this July, the Trump administration announced it would lay off all of the health research scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency. Hundreds of investigators who try to understand how toxic pollution affects the human body would be gone.

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Fight over Carbon Storage in Texas Spills into Public Hearing

An advocacy group funded by one of the nation’s largest oil and gas trade groups called its members in Texas earlier this month, offering to help them draft and practice giving comments to EPA in favor of granting Texas top authority over carbon storage wells.

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Trump Grants Eastman Chemical a 2-Year Exemption from Pollution Reduction Law

President Donald Trump has granted Eastman Chemical Co. a two-year exemption from an environmental regulation requiring companies to reduce their carcinogenic emissions. Activists say the exemption could threaten the health of people living near facilities such as the Eastman plant just outside Longview. Trump and chemical development leaders say the regulation is burdensome and that the technology required for compliance isn’t readily available.

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Trump Pollution Exemptions Would Shield Lawbreakers, Endanger Millions

Late in the Biden administration, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced that it would clamp down on 218 of the nation’s worst chemical polluters, which put close to 10 million people at elevated risk of developing cancer. The EPA’s aim was to reduce that number by more than 1.2 million and improve air quality for high-risk communities by increasing monitoring and strengthening pollution controls at some of the country’s largest chemical plants.

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Could Recycled Content Be a Back Door to Production Caps in Plastics Treaty?

Production caps on virgin resin have been a major stumbling block within discussions for a global plastics treaty, and as the final round of talks opens Aug. 5, it remains hard to predict if they'll be part of any final deal.

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Getting PFAS out of biosolids isn’t easy. Some companies are trying,

A dairy farm in Arundel, Maine, triggered an alarm in 2016 when high levels of perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) were detected on the property in a monitoring well for a public drinking-water system. The chemical hasn’t been produced in the US since 2002 but is one of many per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), often called forever chemicals, that persist in the environment.

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Shippers Line Up Against Railroad Mergers

Groups representing rail shippers say they would be opposed to the creation of a transcontinental railroad in the U.S., arguing that further consolidation in the industry would reduce their competitive options, lead to higher rates, and worsen service.

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Arkema Earns ISCC Plus Certification for All Acrylic Monomer Sites

Arkema announced it has received ISCC PLUS certification for its acrylic monomer production sites in France, China and the U.S., enabling mass balance-based supply of bio-attributed materials at a global scale. Certified facilities include Carling, France; Taixing, China; and Clear Lake and Bayport, Texas, the latter operated by American Acryl, a joint venture with Nippon Shokubai.

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Device Turns Plastic Waste into Chemicals for Fuels

As tons of plastic waste continue to build up in landfills every day, researchers have developed a way to convert this waste into fuels and other valuable products efficiently and cheaply.

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