skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Thursday, March 28, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Pulling back the curtains on wage-theft enforcement in MN; Trump's latest attack is on RFK, Jr; NM LGBTQ+ equality group endorses 2024 'Rock Star' candidates; Michigan's youth justice reforms: Expanded diversion, no fees.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says rebuilding Baltimore's Key Bridge will be challenging and expensive. An Alabama Democrat flips a state legislature seat and former Connecticut senator Joe Lieberman dies at 82.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

EPA Completes Regional Haze Plan for Arkansas Parks

play audio
Play

Tuesday, September 6, 2016   

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. – It took a lawsuit by an environmental group to get it done, but the Environmental Protection Agency has finally released clean air regulations for public lands in Arkansas.

The Arkansas Regional Haze Plan is designed to clear the air pollution in the Caney Creek and Upper Buffalo Wilderness areas caused by emissions from a pair of coal fired power plants.

Glen Hooks, director of the Sierra Club of Arkansas, says the plan will force the utility Entergy to cut pollution at its generating plants.

"It focuses largely on power plants that are the cause of some of this haze pollution,” Hooks explains. “Two of those are the biggest and oldest, dirtiest plants in Arkansas – coal plants called White Bluffs and Independence. This plan is going to require those plants to install modern pollution control equipment."

Hooks says the Sierra Club filed suit in federal court after both Arkansas and the EPA missed 2012 deadlines to produce a plan. The new regulations were released last week.

Arkansas state officials, including Attorney General Leslie Rutledge, are calling the EPA plan "an overreach" and say they are prepared to block it in court.

The new rules will require Entergy to reduce sulphur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions at the two power plants and some other facilities.

Hooks says Entergy's options come down to how much it wants to spend to fix the problem.

"They've got a decision to make about whether or not they're actually going to install this pollution control equipment – it's estimated to cost a little more than $1 billion for each of the plants – or transition these plants toward retirement and use that money for cleaner sources of energy," he states.

The haze reduction plan does not set a deadline for Entergy to comply. The plan is also designed to reduce haze pollution in the Mark Twain National Forest and Mingo National Wildlife Refuge in Missouri.






get more stories like this via email

more stories
A report from the Tennessee HealthCare Campaign recommended the federal government needs to strengthen 340B drug pricing and other federal negotiation mechanisms to make needed medicines more readily available and less expensive for hospitals to purchase and administer. (Spotmatikphoto/AdobeStock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

A recent report examined how some rural Tennessee hospitals have managed to stay afloat despite financial challenges. The report includes interviews …


Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…


Nearly 13 million Americans receive health coverage through unique plans under both Medicare and Medicaid. They are known as Dual-Eligible Special Needs Plans. (Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Medicare and Medicaid are key sources of health coverage for many Americans and some people qualify for assistance under both programs. With lagging …

Social Issues

play sound

A mix of policy updates and staffing boosts has helped to put wage theft enforcement on the radar in Minnesota, and officials leading the efforts are …

More than six in 10 Americans favor keeping the abortion pill mifepristone available in the U.S. as a prescription drug, while over a third are opposed, according to a Gallup poll. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

New research shows more than six in 10 abortions in the U.S. last year were medically induced, and U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto - D-NV - is …

Social Issues

play sound

Colorado is working to boost the state's agricultural communities by getting more fresh, nutritious foods into school cafeterias - and a new online …

Social Issues

play sound

Missouri lawmakers are concerned with protecting people from the potential risks of the increasing accessibility of AI-generated images and videos…

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021