Exhaust meets `white hankie test.’ A diesel truck idles at a red light. The light turns green. The truck takes off, belching black smoke and spewing pollutants into the air. That is, unless the truck is fitted with a diesel particulate filter. [News Source]

Law may toughen to reduce pollution. Motorists in Northeast Ohio could be required to use more-costly but cleaner gasoline as one way to comply with tighter federal limits on the air pollutant ozone. [News Source]

Refinery undergoes upgrade. By June, all U.S. refineries must be able to produce diesel fuel that has at most 15 parts per million of sulfur for use by vehicles such as buses and trucks that use the nation's highways. [News Source]

Clean break. Once famous mostly for surfing and movies, California is now the most energy efficient U.S. state. No wonder Ontario is studying its methods. [News Source]

‘Gold rush’ for biofuel plants beginning upstate. Seven companies have proposed to produce alternative fuels in an area stretching from Buffalo to Syracuse and south to Elmira. As many as 25 others are pursuing a wide range of alternative energy technologies. [News Source]

Grass is greener on 1 side in turf war. America's turf battles have intensified to the point where some homeowners have thrown in the trowel. Instead they are planting native and low-maintenance plants. [News Source]

NOAA hiding truth about hurricanes, scientists say. Scientists accuse the national agency of fudging data and censoring top researchers who link hurricane intensity with global warming. [News Source]

Flawed response to Exxon spill exposed. The chain of events after an oil leak that spread over a public housing complex in Baytown reveals flaws in the systems designed to protect public health or the environment. [News Source]

Sharing her brush with lead. Poisoned by lead from two sources--the paint she used to prime her canvases, and a prescription calcium supplement-- Joan Ericksen took years to recover. [News Source]

EPA rule could affect local emissions. A proposal to eliminate a federal air-pollution rule locally might threaten the strict industrial emission controls that have helped make it easier to breathe in Jackson County, Southern Oregon. [News Source]

Benzene from auto emissions drives Indiana’s cancer danger. The one form of air pollution everyday Hoosiers have the most control over is also the one that in almost all of northeast Indiana is the leading contributor to the risk of cancer. [News Source]