The White House's Council of Environmental Quality and the U.S. Trade Representative have jointly released guidelines intended to promote environmental reviews as part of future international trade agreements, building on an executive order signed by President Clinton on the eve of the World Trade Organization's ministerial meeting in Seattle last year.

Responding to accusations that EPA has failed to enforce environmental laws in low-income and minority communities, a high-level agency enforcement official said EPA's efforts are hampered by states that are unwilling to act, and a lack of agency resources to follow up.

Energy Secretary Bill Richardson is attempting to distance his department from a memo that critics say shows that the Department of Energy has illegally aligned itself with industries supporting the construction of a nuclear waste disposal site, with state officials threatening to file suit over the matter.

White House Chief of Staff John Podesta appears to have brokered an agreement between EPA and the Department of Energy for phasing in over four years controversial requirements for sulfur in diesel.

In an apparent attempt to head off potential power shortages, the New York Electric Generation Siting and Environment Board has approved eleven new power plants proposed by the state-owned New York Power Authority (NYPA) without requiring full-blown environmental reviews. The NYPA pledges that the plant's output will be below a threshold requiring comprehensive environmental assessments, but environmentalists are raising doubts.

The Department of Energy has announced a pilot project to test new technologies that reduce mercury emissions from power plants at a relatively low cost.

A key state energy official has warned the Senate that the U.S. is the midst of a serious energy crisis and that long-term policies designed to address the problem will have to include streamlined siting requirements and expanded drilling in “environmentally-acceptable” locations.

Civil rights activists are blasting EPA's development of a national environmental justice strategy that has been a hallmark effort of the Clinton administration.

The fate of EPA's massive cleanup plan for the Hudson River in New York may rest on the outcome of the presidential election, according to a lawmaker from the state.

Staff for the California Air Resources Board (CARB) is proposing to substantially scale back the state's 2003 zero-emission vehicle (ZEV) mandate, which may have a rippling effect on nationwide efforts to promote the use of electric cars.

Senator-elect Hillary Rodham Clinton is interested in a position on the Senate Environment & Public Works Committee, congressional sources say.

Environmentalists say that legislation is required in order reduce nitrogen oxide (NOx) emissions from power plants nationwide, rather than merely in select states.

California air regulators in the Los Angeles area have taken the unusual step of allowing the utility AES Pacific to exceed its annual nitrogen oxide emission limits so that it can continue generating electricity at high capacity.

EPA Region VI plans to launch a pilot program to test the use of risk-based methods for determining waste cleanups at industrial facilities, as part of the agency's broad reform efforts under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.

An international agreement on reducing global emissions of persistent toxic pollutants hands partial victories to both U.S. officials and environmentalists, who sparred throughout the talks over a number of key issues.

The White House's Office of Management and Budget has asked EPA to study the legal aspects of an emissions trading scheme that the agency could use to regulate mercury emissions from power plants.

An unusual coalition of environmentalists and auto industry officials is pressing President Clinton to step in and resolve an administration squabble over EPA plans to ratchet down the level of sulfur in diesel fuel.

EPA has issued a first-time drinking water standard for uranium that is significantly weaker than an earlier proposal following concerns raised by federal energy regulators and the water treatment industry.

An organization representing state and federal employees is blasting an impending EPA decision to approve a series of state emissions trading programs, pointing to internal agency documents which raise doubts about the environmental benefits of the trading schemes.

In a last-ditch effort to convince U.S. negotiators to reevaluate their stance in international talks on global toxics, a coalition of environmentalists is pressing U.S. officials to accept a ban on the persistent pollutants, which include dioxin, with a number of sources fearing that otherwise the talks may collapse without an agreement.