Politicians, environmentalists hail ports’ one-year-old Clean Trucks program (KPCC Pasadena) Federal environmental officials say millions of stimulus dollars will go to the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach to help cut diesel emissions from moving cargo. One year ago the harbor complex began an ambitious Clean Trucks program aimed at reducing air pollution. [News Source]

Clean Trucks Program at L.A. and Long Beach ports has reduced air pollution (Los Angeles Daily News) A year after the Clean Trucks Program was launched at the ports of Los Angeles and Long Beach, the ports have gotten rid of more than 2,000 diesel polluting trucks and increased the number of "clean" trucks at the ports to 5,500. [News Source]

Study says Zion among endangered parks (The Salt Lake Tribune) Climate change is hitting all of the national parks in Utah hard, but Zion National Park is among parks across the nation most vulnerable to loss of ice, snow, water and wildlife, intolerable heat and significant air pollution, a study has found. [News Source]

Fewer ozone alerts in Maricopa County (East Valley Tribune) The state issued fewer ozone air pollution alerts in Maricopa County in 2009. [News Source]

Coal-Fired Riesel Plant to Open in 2012 (KCEN-DT Temple) The last remaining legal challenge against a large power plant near Waco was thrown out by a federal judge. Attorney Eric Groten of Sandy Creek energy associates says the ruling means the coal-fired plant in Riesel will open by 2012 as scheduled. Environmentalist groups had sued to stop the plant, challenging its air-pollution permits and [...] [News Source]

EPA finds toxic agent in air at 15 schools. Outside 15 schools in eight states, government regulators have found elevated levels of a substance that — in a more potent form — was also used as a chemical weapon during World War I. [News Source]

Some tribes at odds over coal plants. The president of the Navajo Nation joined other Native American leaders this week in assailing environmentalists who have sought to block or shut down coal-fired power plants that provide vital jobs and revenue to tribes in northern Arizona. [News Source]

US EPA holds up coal-mining permits as firms fume. Mining companies accused the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday of ignoring America's need for affordable energy and hurting workers in a poor region of the country by delaying permits for proposed surface, or "mountaintop," mines in Appalachia. [News Source]

Environmental group touts ‘clean’ energy. With wind power, solar energy and even pellet stoves, Mainers are using and developing clean energy solutions to break free from the state’s dependence on fossil fuels, people representing the Natural Resources Council of Maine said Wednesday. [News Source]

Wood-chip fired power station wins go-ahead. A new power station that will use wood chip to produce enough electricity to supply half a million homes was given the go-ahead by the Environment Agency. [News Source]

EPA moves to regulate smokestack greenhouse gases. The Environmental Protection Agency Wednesday took steps for the first time to control the emissions blamed for global warming from power plants, factories and refineries that are responsible for 70 percent of the nation's greenhouse gas emissions. [News Source]