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New York City and its surrounding suburbs exceed smog limits set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — but not by much.   

On Tuesday, the Environmental Protection Agency issued the first limits on greenhouse gas emissions from newly constructed power plants. On today’s Backstory, Washington Post environment reporter Juliet Eilperin discusses why many are saying that the rule, which was years in the making, will mean the end of new coal-fired power plants.

The EPA is proposing adding the Orange Valley Regional Ground Water site in Orange and West Orange, New Jersey, to the Superfund National Priorities List of the nation's most hazardous waste sites.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has begun training people from the Newark, New Jersey, area so they can work on the federal cleanup of the Passaic River.

Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo describes her efforts to get the government to investigate allegations that a U.S. multinational corporation was responsible for the deaths of hundreds of South Africans mining vanadium—a vital strategic mineral. When the EPA stonewalled, she blew the whistle. Her book No Fear: A Whistleblower's Triumph Over Corruption and Retaliation at the EPA chronicles the ways the corporation used to retaliate against her, why the EPA cost her her career, and her efforts to bring protection to all federal employees facing discrimination and retribution from the government.

Elizabeth Shogren, who covers environmental stories on the national desk at NPR, and Jim Morris, project manager at the Center for Public Integrity, discuss a joint project from NPR and CPI, which found that the Environmental Protection Agency maintains a watch list of the worst polluters in the country.

The Environmental Protection Agency said on Thursday that it will, for the first time, set national standards for disposal of the toxin-laden wastewater that results from hydraulic fracturing, otherwise known as fracking.

Federal and state investigators arrested a dozen people in connection with the sale of illegal pesticides in local stores. The products, mostly imported from China, did not have any of the required regulatory approvals from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and, in some cases, were 40 to 60 times the EPA-approved toxicity levels.

Last Friday, President Obama withdrew a new draft of the Ozone National Ambient Air Quality Standards. This means smog standards will not be updated but instead will remain at the same level since 2008 — levels that George W. Bush’s science advisers declared inadequate. Current EPA administrator Lisa Jackson declared this decision "not legally defensible." Obama cited regulatory uncertainty and burden as the reasons for his decision.

Gina McCarthy, assistant administrator for EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation, discusses the latest clean air regulation the EPA has proposed, as well as what's coming up from the agency and the political reaction in Washington. 

The city's Department of Education said the hundreds of thousands of lighting fixtures it plans to replace in the city's schools because they contain PCBs are also contaminated with asbestos.

The Environmental Protection Agency has found high levels of PCBs in another school it tested this month during spot checks for the toxic substance in the city's schools.

Newtown Creek, a heavily polluted waterway that separates Queens and Brooklyn, was given designation last month that will allow it to be cleaned up under the federal Superfund program. Now a group of elected officials is calling on the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency not to forget the Queens side of the creek. Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney says so far, the EPA hasn't studied the creek's impact on Queens communities.

(by Stephen Nessen)

The Newtown Creek that forms part of the border between Brooklyn and Queens is filled with toxins from a century and a half of industrial activity. An underground oil spill there has been causing problems in Greenpoint, Brooklyn for ...

Oil and debris in the Gowanus Canal (by Stephen Nessen)

The Gowanus Canal in Brooklyn is a polluted industrial waterway, and it has been for most of its 140 years. Bill Appel found this out after buying a house in ...

I woke up Thursday morning and looked upon the wall. The skeeters and the bedbugs were playing a game of ball. The score was nineteen to twenty, the skeeters were ahead. The bedbugs hit a homerun and knocked me out of bed.

Does anyone remember that old camp fire song? Well, after decades of living bedbug free, we are in for a massive comeback by these annoying little critters that live in our mattresses and furniture and hair and clothes and everywhere you can think of that will annoy you. The Environmental Protection Agency held a meeting dubbed the first National Bed Bug Summit this week to try and figure out a solution to this bed bug explosion. Greg Baumann is the Senior Scientist and Technical Director for the National Pest Management Association, and he’s been following these meetings closely.

Lisa Jackson with WNYC\'s Amy Eddings

Lisa Jackson, the new administrator of the US Environmental Protection Agency, recently made her first visit back to the metropolitan area since being named to the post by President Obama ...

It's been less than a week and President Obama has already reversed several Bush Administration policies. Monday it was the environment's turn. The President called for the EPA to consider allowing California and other states to impose stricter emissions standards for cars than the federal government, a measure blocked by the previous White House. How will the auto industry, already hanging on by a thread, cope with more stringent environmental requirements? Bloomberg News reporter John Hughes joins Adaora and Katherine with his analysis.

Currently Lisa Jackson is the Commissioner of New Jersey's Department of Environmental Protection, but hopefully next week she will become the head of the federal Environmental Protection Agency. What lies in store for her in this role, especially since President-elect Obama is creating new environmental positions in his administration? With a new energy czar on staff, will the role of the EPA be diminished? Who better to answer these questions than Christine Todd Whitman, former head of the Environmental Protection Agency under the Bush administration?

For on President-elect Obama's cabinet picks, check out our handy guide.