States and Native American tribes will have greater authority to block energy projects such as natural gas pipelines that could pollute rivers and streams under a final rule issued Thursday by the Biden administration.

The Biden Administration weakened protections for wetlands on Tuesday.

The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed handing more power to states and tribes to block major energy projects based on water quality concerns.

In a story published January 24, 2022, about the Supreme Court deciding to take up an important Clean Water Act case, The Associated Press erroneously reported the name of the Natural Resources Defense Council.

Flint mayor Sheldon Neeley concerned the environmental impact of the crime will last longer than the sentence.

The owner of Oil Chem Inc has been sentenced to one year in prison following an investigation of illegal discharging of landfill leachate into Flint’s sanitary sewer system.

A company is accused of illegally discharging nearly 48 million gallons of waste from landfills into Flint wastewater system.

This Sept. 14, 2020 photo shows shows a Duke Energy natural gas-fired electric power plant on Sutton Lake in Wilmington, N.C. It went online in 2013 and replaced a coal-fired plant that had polluted the lake with coal ash. It would provide a source of steam to generate electricity and a place to cool hot water from an adjacent coal-fired plant. Sutton Lake became popular with boaters and anglers, yielding bass, crappie, bluegill and other panfish. But environmental groups challenging the Trump rule in court say it opens up reservoirs like Sutton Lake to similar abuse.

The news came as a "total shock" to some top EPA scientists who were planning to oppose the project on environmental grounds, according to sources. EPA insiders tell CNN that the timing of the agency's internal announcement suggests Trump was personally involved in the decision. Dunleavy met with Trump aboard Air Force One on June 26, as the President's plane was on the tarmac in Alaska. A member of Dunleavy's administration used to work on the Pebble project in public relations. The company's CEO, Collier, also "expressly thanked Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy for his leadership in encouraging EPA to withdraw" its earlier decision.