State
Mississippi Power announces additional $9M Kemper overrun
AP
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) - Mississippi Power Co. says it will spend another $9 million on its overrun-plagued Kemper County power plant, pushing its total cost toward $6.8 billion.
http://www.wdam.com/story/32542025/mississippi-power-announces-additional-9m-kemper-overrun
A search for clues after a dozen large fish found dead
Sun Herald
BILOXI
Kyle Johnson, an avid angler, happened upon a fish kill that puzzled and saddened him Saturday. It was about one mile south of Cat Island.
http://www.sunherald.com/news/local/counties/harrison-county/article92072907.html
Sumrall recycling facility celebrates reopening
Hattiesburg American
SUMRALL – When Advance Disposal officials decided to get out of the recycling business they had operated a few years in Sumrall, they helped Jones Companies come in and take over operations, Jones Companies President Jonathan Jones said.
Oil Spill
BP Restore Act money the talk of the town in Gautier
WLOX
GAUTIER, MS (WLOX) -At Delo's Heavenly House of Coffee, owner Delorise Nettles stays busy every morning. She's also busy debating how any BP money should be spent.
http://www.wlox.com/story/32535294/bp-restore-act-money-the-talk-of-the-town-in-gautier
Auditor, state lawmaker file lawsuit to stop BP fund spending
WAAY
A Franklin County lawmaker and the state auditor are suing to keep the state from spending money from the BP oil spill settlement without approval from the state legislature.
Regional
ERC signs off on controversial water standards
Tallahassee Democrat
Despite vehement opposition from environmental groups, state regulators signed off Tuesday on new standards for Florida's rivers, lakes and coastal waters that include less stringent requirements for certain toxic chemicals.
EPA awards $564,000 air monitoring grant to Arkansas
AP
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - The Arkansas Department of Environmental Quality has been awarded a $564,000 grant to support air monitoring programs.
http://www.thv11.com/news/local/epa-awards-564000-air-monitoring-grant-to-arkansas/281686583
Coast Guard reports 4,200-gallon crude oil spill in Barataria Bay
Times-Picayune
A Hilcorp Energy pipeline is the source of a spill of 4,200 gallons of crude oil near Lake Grande Ecaille, part of Barataria Bay and about 8 miles west of Empire, theU.S. Coast Guard reported Tuesday (July 26).
Brownfields program seeks to rejuvenate properties
Monroe News Star
Local officials and business representatives from across northeastern Louisiana gained insight into a program designed to rehabilitate abandoned or unused properties Tuesday.
National
A stunning prediction of climate science — and basic physics — may now be coming true
Washington Post
A lot of people deny climate change. Not many, though, deny gravity.
Judge OKs $14.7B VW emissions settlement
Detroit News
Washington – A federal judge has given preliminary approval to a settlement that calls for Volkswagen to pay $14.7 billion to settle consumer lawsuits and government allegations that it rigged hundreds of thousands of cars to cheat U.S. emission standards.
Why Sand Is the Oil Industry’s Bellwether
Sand miners’ rebound boosts evidence that fracking and oil and gas market have bottomed
WSJ
Analysts taking the pulse of the energy market need to dig deep. All manner of indicators from rig counts to supertanker rates and refinery utilization are analyzed to gauge the direction of crude’s price, which still is less than half what it was two years ago. Last week, the world’s two largest oil-field-services companies, Schlumberger and Halliburton, both suggested that the market had bottomed.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/why-sand-is-the-oil-industrys-bellwether-1469547240
Nebraska won't appeal decision on fracking water disposal
AP
The state of Nebraska won't appeal a judge's decision to bar a Colorado company from using a Nebraska Panhandle well to dispose of salty groundwater and chemical-laden fracking wastewater that result from oil and gas operations.
http://www.kmtv.com/news/local-news/nebraska-wont-appeal-decision-on-fracking-water-disposal
Crude Slump, Pipeline Expansion Mark End of U.S. Oil-Train Boom
As more pipelines reach shale regions, producers have a cheaper way to move their oil to market
WSJ
The oil-train boom is waning almost as quickly as it began.
Rail became a major way to move crude after companies began unlocking new bounties of oil from shale formations, with volumes rising from almost nothing in 2009 to more than one million barrels a day by 2014, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
http://www.wsj.com/articles/crude-slump-pipeline-expansion-mark-end-of-u-s-oil-train-boom-1469484016
