State
Madison landfill fight: Football stars McAllister, Winder support it. MDEQ delays decision
Clarion Ledger
Former football stars Deuce McAllister and Sammy Winder have been hired by a company trying to build a new landfill in Madison County and were on hand Tuesday as neighbors protested the dump.
Vote delayed on permit for Madison County landfill
WLBT
JACKSON, Miss. (WLBT) - The group proposing to build a landfill is moving forward despite opposition.
Department of Environmental Quality votes to delay approval of Madison County landfill
WJTV
JACKSON, Miss (WJTV) – Plans to build a third landfill in Madison County is still up in the air after advocates and the company NCL Waste brought their arguments to the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality.
Fight over Madison County landfill begins
WAPT
JACKSON, Miss. — The Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality began reviewing plans of a proposed landfill in Madison County off North County Line Road Tuesday.
Landfill vote postponed
Madison County Journal
A five-hour hearing on a proposed third landfill in Madison County ended with several MDEQ permit board members saying they had lingering issues that needed to be addressed.
Mississippi Transfers Former Rubber Plant Site to Vicksburg
AP
VICKSBURG, MISS. (AP) — Mississippi's Secretary of State's Office has transferred ownership of a shuttered, large-scale rubber recycling property to the city of Vicksburg for future development. ...There's a significant amount of accumulated rubber on the property that will need to be cleaned up in part by the Department of Environmental Quality, Hosemann said. An upcoming assessment will determine what hazards remain on the property.
Five years after becoming state’s first, OSHS aquaculture program is thriving and growing
Mississippi Press
OCEAN SPRINGS, Mississippi -- Something fishy’s going on at the back of the Ocean Springs High School parking lot.
Proposed Byhalia Connection pipeline would run from Memphis to Marshall County, Mississippi
Commercial Appeal
A nearly 45-mile crude oil pipeline that would run from Memphis to Marshall County, Mississippi, is being proposed by a joint venture of Plains All American Pipeline and Valero Energy Corp.
State Government
TAX REVENUE ESTIMATE BOOSTS STATE COFFERS FOR LEGISLATIVE SESSION
MPB
Mississippi's state budget is on the upswing due to an increase in tax revenues according to the state economist. MPB's Desare Frazier talks to lawmakers about what it means for the 2020 legislative session.
State senators answer questions at annual Pre-Legislative Briefing
WLOX
BILOXI, Miss. (WLOX) - Four Mississippi state senators spent time answering questions Tuesday before the Mississippi Gulf Coast Chamber of Commerce. The annual Pre-Legislative Briefing took place exactly four weeks before the new session is scheduled to begin in Jackson.
Oil Spill
NOAA announces plan to replenish Gulf marine life harmed by the Deepwater Horizon oil spill
WTSP
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. — The National Marine Fisheries Service announced Tuesday the largest amount of settlement funds to date from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill will go toward restoring marine life that was harmed by the 87-days-long catastrophe.
Regional
Mosaic Fertilizer restarting production at St. James Parish plants after two-month idling
NOLA.com
Mosaic Co. is restarting its idled fertilizer production facilities in St. James Parish and officials hope they will be fully operational by Monday.
Texas found a cancer cluster in Houston in August. Residents didn’t find out until December.
Houston Chronicle
The Texas Department of State Health Services assessment that found a cancer cluster in the north Houston neighborhoods of Fifth Ward and Kashmere Gardens was not disclosed to residents for nearly four months after the conclusion was reached.
National
EPA Stonewalling Threatens Inspector General Role, Watchdog Says
Bloomberg
The EPA is treading dangerously close to turning its internal watchdog into a “no man’s land” whose requests can easily be ignored, the Office of Inspector General said Dec. 10.
Judge rules Exxon not guilty of fraud on climate change regulations
The Hill
A New York state judge on Tuesday exonerated oil giant ExxonMobil on charges of fraud.
New York Attorney General Letitia James accused the company of using two different accounting methods when making projections about business costs in countries that were implementing policies to fight climate change, The Wall Street Journal reports, which, the attorney general asserted, cost shareholders up to $1.6 billion.
More than half of Americans support more oversight of factory farms: poll
The Hill
More than 50 percent of Americans think that the government should provide more oversight of companies with industrial-sized animal feeding operations, according to a new poll.
Dominion Energy Turns to Cow Manure in Gas Pact
WSJ
Dominion Energy Inc. has struck a $200 million pact with a renewable energy producer and the Dairy Farmers of America Inc. to extract natural gas from cow manure.
Press Releases
EPA Announces $44 Million in Funding to Reduce Emissions from Diesel Engines
Grant funding prioritized for areas facing air quality challenges
12/10/2019
WASHINGTON (Dec. 10, 2019) — The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is announcing the availability of grant funding to implement projects aimed at reducing emissions from the nation’s existing fleet of older diesel engines. EPA anticipates awarding approximately $44 million in Diesel Emission Reduction Program (DERA) grant funding to eligible applicants.
$226 Million in Projects Approved in Second Open Ocean Restoration Plan
The Deepwater Horizon Open Ocean Trustee Implementation Group released the Final Open Ocean Restoration Plan 2 selecting 18 projects totaling almost $226 million to help restore fish, sea turtles, marine mammals and mesophotic and deep benthic communities injured by the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
