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The U.S. EPA Final Ecosystem Goods and Services Classification System, released in 2013, removes many bottlenecks that kept ecosystem services from becoming an integral part of corporate decision-making.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The top official at the Environmental Protection Agency said Friday the ongoing legal fight over regulating carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants won't delay the nation's accelerating shift to cleaner sources of energy. EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy spoke at Climate Action 2016, a conference in Washington on efforts to curb global warming. Seeking to reassure her international audience, McCarthy said the United States will absolutely meet its obligations to cut carbon emissions as agreed to in the landmark climate treaty signed in Paris last December.

President-elect Donald Trump has named Oklahoma Attorney General Scott Pruitt, a prominent fossil-fuel industry ally, to run the Environmental Protection Agency. Environmentalists and congressional Democrats vow to oppose the appointment.

The Environmental Protection Agency has stopped working on a voluntary compliance program for power plants looking to cut emissions under the Clean Power Plan. The Trump administration has pledged to overturn the CPP.

President Barack Obama will have a wide-ranging legacy of environmental action, said Gina McCarthy, administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency. As for the relationship between EPA and Congress, she said, "It's always been a struggle, but it's always been that Republicans and Democrats care about the health of their kids."

Caesar's Entertainment is the first company to sign up for the EPA's WaterSense H2Otel Challenge for organizations to encourage hotels to use best management practices that will save water and money, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

Carnival Corporation will spend $180 million to install scrubbers designed to reduce sulfur emissions on 32 ships. In return for installing the technology, the EPA will exempt the ships from its low-sulfur fuel mandate.

Greenhouse gas emissions fell nearly 10 percent from 2005 to 2012, according to the latest national emissions inventory released by the EPA.

For the seventh year in a row, Intel is at the top of the heap when it comes to commercial buyers of clean energy, according to the Environmental Protection Agency's annual Green Power Partnership report. Kohl's, Microsoft, Whole Foods and Google round out the top five in this year's ranking.

Disneyland Resort was recognized today by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency with the 2014 Food Recovery Challenge award for its zero waste efforts, and the highest percent increase in food recovery of any theme park in the nation. "Disneyland is a model for food recovery efforts," said Jared Blumenfeld, EPA's Regional Administrator for the Pacific Southwest. "Disney has the potential to educate millions of people who visit the resort on zero waste, while doing its part to fight climate change and create a better environment for Southern California residents."

If the EPA lowers ground-level ozone - a decision it is likely to make this month - some businesses, cities and regions will be affected more than others, HPAC Engineering reports.

A fund-matching program spearheaded by the EPA will help bridge the financial gap to implementation of the new climate policy. 

More than 70 different technologies are available to improve the efficiency of a trucking fleet. These include changes to powertrains and chassis, low-rolling-resistance tires, and enhanced tractor aerodynamics. Finding the right mix to improve a specific fleet can be daunting. Carbon War Room partnered with the North American Council for Freight Efficiency (NACFE) to publish a series of Confidence Reports-objective assessments of the fuel efficiency savings of these technologies. The reports were cited by U.S. EPA in its Greenhouse Gas Pollution Prevention rule-making proposal. 

Using fracking wastewater to de-ice roads in New York City will likely soon be illegal, following a City Council vote to ban the practice. Fracking wastewater has a high brine content, which makes it useful in salinating roads icy roads. The waste also contains benzene, which the EPA says is a human carcinogen.

The Environmental Protection Agency has concluded that hydraulic fracturing, the oil and gas extraction technique also known as fracking, has contaminated drinking water in some circumstances, according to the final version of a comprehensive study first issued in 2015.

A dozen major retailers have joined a push for tougher restrictions on trucking emissions and are asking regulators to push for swifter and steeper reductions in fuel use by the freight sector. The firms, which include General Mills, Ben & Jerry's, Stonyfield Farm, and Patagonia, say stronger standards would help reduce their operating costs and make it easier to pass savings along to consumers.

What do tech giants Apple, Google, Intel and Microsoft, retailers Kohl's, Whole Foods and Wal-Mart, the U.S. Energy and Veteran Affairs Departments, and the cities of Houston and Washington, D.C. have in common? According to recently updated data in the Environmental Protection Agency's Green Power Partnership, they are the most prolific users of renewable energy in the United States.

Greenhouse gas emissions in the US totaled 6,501,000 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2012, a 3.3 percent reduction from the previous year, according to an annual draft report by the EPA.

A new maritime fuel regulation from the EPA could crowd roads and increase onshore air pollution, according to a shipping group. The rule requires the use of high-cost, ultra-low sulfur fuels in ships operating within the 200 nautical mile boundary of the North American Emission Control Area (ECA).