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Reporting from Washington - The Environmental Protection Agency proposed the nation's strictest-ever smog limits this morning, a move that could put large parts of the country in violation of federal air quality regulations. The EPA proposed allowing a ground-level ozone concentration of between 60 and 70 parts per billion, down from the 75-ppb standard adopted under President George W. Bush in 2008. That means cracking down even further on the emissions from power plants, factories, landfills and motor vehicles which bake in sunlight and form smog. Obama administration officials and environmental groups say the new standards align with the levels...

Last week it was revealed that 54 oil tankers are anchored off the coast of Britain, refusing to unload their fuel until prices have risen. But that is not the only scandal in the shipping world. Today award-winning science writer Fred Pearce – environmental consultant to New Scientist and author of Confessions Of An Eco Sinner – reveals that the super-ships that keep the West in everything from Christmas gifts to computers pump out killer chemicals linked to thousands of deaths because of the filthy fuel they use. We've all noticed it. The filthy black smoke kicked out by funnels...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The Obama administration signaled Wednesday that it would scrap a controversial Bush-era rule that set stricter limits for smog but fell short of scientific recommendations. In a notice filed Wednesday in a federal appeals court, the Justice Department says there are concerns that the revision made by the Bush administration does not adhere to federal air pollution law. The Environmental Protection Agency will propose revised smog standards to protect health and the environment in late December. "This is one of the most important protection measures we can take to safeguard our health and our environment," said EPA...

Here it is, AB 859 now in transportation committe in california. this would require yearly smog testing of cars 15 years and older with 1975 cut off. See below link listing teh proposed law, and the list of committee members with contact info: http://www.semasan.com/main/main.aspx?id=62541 Slowly but surely they have been increasing smog laws, registration fees and now this, yearly smog testing, which can coat nearly $100 for advanced enhanced area dyno tests. This will effect many classic cars, cars that may not be driven much at all (my 1980 Triumph will now require yearly smog testing, it is only used...

If you're in the market for a new car, you may have a new tool at your disposal to help you decide-- depending on where you live. Vermont is the first New England state - and will be one of at least 13 states across the country - to adopt a new regulation-- requiring new cars to be sold with an environmental performance label. At 'Courtesy Toyota' in Berlin, Vermont, owner Dave Birmingham is ready for a change. In part, because he has to be. Dave Birmingham\Courtesy Toyota "I think most dealers probably know it's inevitable." What's inevitable is that...

WASHINGTON – Smog, soot and other particles like the kind often seen hanging over Beijing add to global warming and may raise summer temperatures in the American heartland by three degrees in about 50 years, says a new federal science report released Thursday.

Beijing smog makes for a painful jog Will Pavia in Beijing All day yesterday Beijing was obscured by thick grey air, a phenomenon known in the Chinese state media as “overcast and hazy skies”, and described by the rest of the world as smog. Beijingers claim that the smog has thinned slightly in recent weeks, thanks to the factory closures and the one million cars removed from the roads, but still, for the newly arrived visitor, the vast windows of Beijing’s new airport terminal present an astonishing vista of nothingness. “We were gobsmacked when we landed,” an American athlete said....

BEIJING - A group of American cyclists has apologized to Beijing Olympic organizers after arriving in China’s capital wearing face masks.

A U.S. cyclist arrives wearing a mask at Beijing airport to participate in the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games, August 5, 2008. (Yves Herman/Reuters)

Anti-smog pellets fired into the sky over Beijing clear the air ... as scientists warn athletes may be injecting 'super DNA' Beijing was finally experiencing clear skies today after city authorities apparently used seeding technology to disperse the smog. The report came as a strong 6.0 magnitude earthquake rocked the western Chinese provinces of Sichuan and Gansu today, near the site of May's devastating quake that killed at least 70,000 people, the U.S. Geological Survey said. There were no immediate reports of casualties or damage from the 6.0-magnitude quake, whose epicentre was 1,253 km (778 miles) southwest of Beijing....

Aussies 'can pull out' over Beijing smog 28th July 2008, 12:56 WST Australian athletes will not be pressured into competing at the Beijing Olympic Games if the air pollution poses a threat to their health and safety. Australian Olympic Committee vice president Peter Montgomery said athletes had the freedom to pull out of events if Beijing's $17 billion push to improve the air quality fails. Marathon world record holder Haile Gebrselassie, an asthmatic, has pulled out of the long distance event in Beijing due to concerns the smog would cause lasting damage to his lungs.

SINGAPORE - Beijing's heavy pollution may hurt the performances of athletes in this summer's Olympic Games, although it will not endanger their health, International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge said Saturday. The IOC in recent months has acknowledged the possibility that athletes' performances may be affected by China's pollution. But Chinese leaders have made repeated assurances that Beijing's notorious smog will be solved before the Olympic Games begin. "The health of the athletes is absolutely not in any danger," Rogge said Saturday. "It might be that some will have to have a slightly reduced performance, but nothing will harm the...

WASHINGTON - Big industries are waging an intense lobbying effort to block new, tougher limits on air pollution that is blamed for hundreds of heart attacks, deaths and cases of asthma, bronchitis and other breathing problems. The Environmental Protection Agency is to decide within weeks whether to reduce the allowable amount of ozone — commonly referred to as smog — in the air. A tougher standard would require hundreds of counties across the country to find new ways to reduce smog-causing emissions of nitrogen oxides and chemical compounds from tailpipes and smokestacks. Groups representing manufacturers, automakers, electric utilities, grocers and...

Beijingers were warned to stay indoors on Thursday as pollution levels across the capital hit the top of the scale, despite repeated assurances by the government that air quality was improving. "This is as bad as it can get," a spokeswoman for the Beijing Environmental Protection Bureau told AFP. "Level five is the worst level of air pollution. This is as bad as it has been all year." According to the bureau's website, 15 out of the 16 pollution monitoring stations in urban Beijing registered a "five" for air quality rating. The main pollutant was suspended particulate matter, which is...

The US vice-president, Dick Cheney, was behind a controversial decision to block California's attempt to impose tough emission limits on car manufacturers, according to insiders at the government Environmental Protection Agency. Staff at the agency, which announced last week that California's proposed limits were redundant, said the agency's chief went against their expert advice after car executives met Cheney, and a Chrysler executive delivered a letter to the EPA saying why the state should not be allowed to regulate greenhouse gases. EPA staff members told the Los Angeles Times that the agency's head, the Bush appointee Stephen Johnson, ignored their...

Beijing smog endangers Olympic countdown By Richard Spencer in Beijing Last Updated: 1:56am BST 08/08/2007 Athletes competing at next year's Olympic Games in Beijing were told yesterday to avoid the city until the last moment because of its notorious smog, and once there to eat only in the Olympic village. The IOC's John Coates said that Beijing's pollution was a 'prevailing worry' The warning, from the head of Australia's Olympic Committee, is an unwelcome shock to the organisers of the Games, which begin a year today. John Coates, who is also a member of the International Olympic Committee, said that...

BEIJING (AP) - The Olympic Games are a year away, but protests have already begun from groups who want the event to change China. Also clouding the picture Tuesday was a thick blanket of smog that has hovered over the city for weeks—not the blue skies hoped for by the organizers of the Beijing Games. Officials including International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge will mark the start of the one-year countdown with a lavish ceremony Wednesday in Tiananmen Square. But on Tuesday, Chinese authorities detained six activists descending part of the Great Wall with a 450-square-foot banner reading, "One World,...

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Sheldon K. Friedlander, whose work in identifying the sources of particles in Southern California smog led to new ways of studying and regulating air pollution, has died. Friedlander died Feb. 9 at his home in Pacific Palisades of complications from pulmonary fibrosis, his family said. He was 79. While a professor at the California Institute of Technology in the 1970s, he was among the founders of aerosol science - the study of gases and particles in the air. Friedlander discovered a way to analyze the chemical makeup of smog particles and trace what was creating air pollution at any given...

WASHINGTON - Federal scientists want to tighten smog standards, a step that would allow tens of millions of Americans to breathe easier. The plan also would run head-on into President Bush's hopes of weaning Americans from gasoline by using more smog-producing ethanol. Environmental Protection Agency scientists on Wednesday will say that tougher standards "would provide greater health protection for sensitive groups, including asthmatic children and other people with lung disease, healthy children and older adults — especially those active outdoors, and outdoor workers." Nearly 160 million people now breathe illegal levels of ozone pollution — smog — mostly in and...