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On July 25,, 2015, the Canadian Government issued a Notice pursuant to section 71 of the Canadian Environmental Protection Act regarding the use of nanomaterials in Canadian commerce.

With the signing of the Clean Electricity & Coal Transition Plan, Oregon becomes the first state in the nation to explicitly phase out coal-fired power generation. Signed into law on March 11, the law requires electric companies to remove the majority of coal-generated electricity from their supply by 2030, and eliminate the remainder by 2035.

Germany’s energy transition—Energiewende—sets goals for the country’s renewable energy production, with the eventual aim of completely eliminating coal, nuclear, and other non-renewable energy sources.

China’s renewable energy sector has been growing faster than that of any other nation, as the country aggressively grew capacity in wind and solar generation. Recently, the country has run into something of a bottleneck as the growth rate in capacity is outpacing the ability to connect these renewable sources to the power grid.

Building upon knowledge gained from investigations into the Deepwater Horizon spill in the Gulf of Mexico, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement of the Department of the Interior has issued a final rule that aims to limit the risk of such accidents in the future.

Some estimates suggest an average of eight million metric tons of plastic make their way into the world’s oceans and other bodies of water each year. On December 30, 2015, the United States took a small step in reducing these levels by signing into law The Microbead-Free Waters Act of 2015.

Flaws in the Toxic Substances Control Act, now 40 years old, have been apparent for some time. Now, Congress is set to pass an update to the bill that would seek to address many of those concerns with the Frank R. Lautenberg Chemical Safety for the 21st Century Act.

Under a new proposal from the Obama Administration earlier this month, the U.S. government will pay stricter attention to the carbon footprint of many of its suppliers as it seeks to manage greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions in its massive, $400 billion-a-year supply chain.

In March 2015, the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) issued new rules to regulate hydraulic fracturing in operation on roughly 700 acres federal and Indian lands, which were set to go into effect on June 24, 2016. A federal judge has ruled that BLM, which is part of the Department of the Interior, does not have the authority to regulate fracking.

Earlier this year, France became the first nation in the world to address the issue of food waste by banning supermarkets from simply throwing away unsold goods.

In keeping with the goals agreed upon by the United States as part of the Paris Agreement, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the Department of Transportation (DOT) have issued new emissions rules for medium- and heavy-duty trucks.

Voters in Massachusetts chose to retain a law that protects people who are transgender from discrimination. The law, passed in 2016 by the state legislature, bans discrimination based on gender identity in public accommodations such as hotels, restaurants, and other public places. Opponents to this law received enough support to put it on the ballot as a referendum in the 2018 midterm elections as Question 3. Question 3—which asked whether residents would like to uphold the law—was approved by 67.8 percent of those who voted