Parts Per Billion

Have you noticed that Christmas trees are harder to come by this year? There's a reason for that. That reason is nutty, chocolatey and tastes great on toast. It's Nutella. For this week's episode of Parts Per Billion, we speak with global environment reporter Adam Allington about how the soaring popularity of the chocolate spread Nutella, especially in China, is connected in surprising ways to this year's Christmas tree shortage in the U.S.

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It's been almost three years since the lead contamination crisis in Flint, Mich., and the EPA still hasn't updated its regulations on the toxic heavy metal. Why? Dan Kildee, a Michigan Democrat who represents Flint in Congress, says if it were easy, it would have been done by now. We speak with Kildee about why he thinks water utilities have it too easy under EPA's current regulatory regime.

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It's pretty clear that the federal government is now out of the business of leading the way on climate change. Can America's CEO's fill this leadership vacuum? We speak with Dean Scott about what companies are doing to become more sustainable and whether you really can "do well by doing good."

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For attorneys, today is like Christmas, July 4th and Super Bowl Sunday all rolled into one. It's the first day of the Supreme Court's new term! To get you prepared for what to expect, we spoke with John Cruden, who was the top environmental attorney in the Obama Department of Justice. Cruden talks with us about the environmental cases (or lack thereof) that the court has agreed to hear and also about how changes among the nine justices could affect the shape of their rulings.

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In some ways, things are returning to normal in Houston after Hurricane Harvey. But in other, very important ways, things will never be back to normal there. We speak with Bloomberg BNA Houston correspondent Nushin Huq, a lifelong resident of the city, about how the cleanup is going a month after the storm and about some of the long-term environmental problems that may trouble Houston for years to come.

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Congress returns from a month-long vacation today and it definitely has its work cut out for it: by the end of this month, it has to fund the government, raise the debt ceiling, reauthorize the FAA and provide disaster relief for victims of Hurricane Harvey. We speak with Bloomberg BNA's Dean Scott and Brian Dabbs about all the environmental measures that might get tacked on to these "must pass" bills.

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No one's sure who's to blame for the widespread crop damage that was caused by a new weed killer from Monsanto and BASF. Farmers blame the chemical companies, while the chemical companies blame state regulators, and so on and so on. In this episode, we speak with Bloomberg BNA's Tiffany Stecker, who just returned from a visit to the hardest hit area, to sort out what happened here.

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The EPA recently disappointed many pot growers in states where the drug has been legalized. It reversed course from the Obama administration and refused to approve any pesticides for use on marijuana plants. Why did Pruitt's EPA change the administration's stance on this issue? Was it because he thinks smoking weed is morally wrong? Not necessarily, says Bloomberg BNA's Tiffany Stecker. She tells us that Pruitt may have also been listening to the agency's lawyers.

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On this episode of Parts Per Billion, we speak with the mayor of a California border town who's struggling with an international pollution problem. After big rain storms, raw sewage can seep into a river in Mexico that flows across the border into his town. Though the mayor is frustrated with his neighbors to the south, he says Donald Trump's harsh rhetoric is making all of these issues harder to solve.

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President Donald Trump blamed Democrats June 5 for “taking forever” to approve his administration’s appointees in a tweet, say that “They are nothing but OBSTRUCTIONISTS!” But, Trump hasn't moved the quickest of the last few presidents on vetting and getting appointees through the confirmation process—in fact, he is the slowest of the last four presidents, according to data collected by the Partnership for Public Service. Of the 559 key positions requiring Senate confirmation, Trump has pushed 40 through the Senate to full confirmation, formally nominated 63 and name dropped 25—however, without a formal nomination. Of the 559 key positions requiring Senate confirmation, Trump has pu So, how can agencies answer to Trump’s calls for deregulation when they have little to no authority or man power to do so?

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