Environmental Protection Agency

Officials say Amarillo will not be affected by recent reports of groundwater contamination linked to Cannon Air Force Base—despite the fact that the Clovis, New Mexico, air base is less than 100 miles away from the city.

Alison Stine hails from a tiny town in southeastern Ohio that holds an unfortunate interest for those in the High Plains energy industry.

Due to its remoteness, Stine’s town has become a repository for the toxic waste created by out-of-state fracking operations.

Some regulatory freezes instituted by President Donald Trump could be damaging to the country’s farm belt, according to some agricultural groups.

As Reuters reports, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) will delay implementation of this year’s biofuels requirements along with 29 other regulations finalized in the last weeks of Barack Obama’s presidency, according to a government notice, and the U.S. Department of Agriculture will delay rules affecting livestock.

The outgoing head of the Environmental Protection Agency said this week that one of her biggest regrets was her agency’s failure to connect with rural America.

The Environmental Protection Agency this week released a report on the environmental impacts of hydraulic fracturing on drinking water.

As The Rural Blog reports, this will be the final EPA report during the Obama administration. The study struck out a controversial phrase that had appeared in last year’s report, which stated that researchers had found no evidence of widespread impacts to drinking water supplies.

Colorado could take center stage on the topic of climate change under a Donald Trump Environmental Protection Agency.

Oil and gas companies have reason to celebrate this week, as President-Elect Trump is expected to nominate a longtime oil ally to helm the Environmental Protection Agency. As Politico reports, Scott Pruitt has been a staunch opponent of climate regulations in his role as Attorney General of Oklahoma.

The Obama administration has unveiled its sweeping new carbon reduction mandate, known as the Clean Power Plan. And despite vehement opposition, Republicans still have no strategy to counteract the measure, reports The Texas Observer.

There is still time for the public to comment on an Environmental Protection Agency proposal to reduce smog in Big Bend National Park and Big Bend State Park.

This haze is nothing new, a lot of it comes from coal power plants far away from Big Bend. State and federal officials have been trying to fight it for years, and most recently the EPA stepped in with its own proposal, reports State Impact correspondent Mose Buchele.

The Regional Administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency says climate change is already happening in Kansas and the entire region.  Kansas Public Radio’s Bryan Thompson reported Administrator Karl Brooks says the best way to minimize climate change is to implement the EPA’s Clean Power Plan.

Overuse of antipsychotic drugs in some Kansas nursing homes endangering patients
Powerful antipsychotic drugs are used too much and inappropriately to manage the behavior of elders with dementia in under-staffed care facilities, according to reporting by the Kansas Health Institute. Kansas ranks 47th worse for use of these drugs. The drugs carry serious side-effects, and reports say as many as 1 in 12 elders taking antipsychotics die from use of the drugs for dementia.

The head of the Environmental Protection Agency is touring farm country, trying to assure farmers that the agency isn’t asking for more authority over farmers and ranchers’ lands.

There are completely different responses to the Obama administration’s recent proposal to combat climate change in Oklahoma and Texas. 

The Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, the state agency responsible for issuing permits for greenhouse gas emissions in the state, has refused to issue the permits until recently, leaving industry in the state in a difficult position.

President Obama instructed the Environmental Protection Agency to revise greenhouse gas limits for existing power plants.  The suggested changes are to be proposed by June 2015, and Texas regulators have already weighed in according to The Texas Tribune.