Weekly News Roundup for July 1, 2016

These are some of the stories we’ve been following this week.

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  By David Brodbeck from Seattle, WA, USA (Grand Coulee Dam spillway) (CC BY 2.0), via Wikimedia Commons

  U.S. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) wants to see oil companies add more safety features to trains carrying oil through New York.

• A jury found that Emigrant Savings Bank offered predatory loans to minority homeowners. Six plaintiffs were awarded a total of $950,000 in damages.

• North Carolina lawmakers agreed on a compromise with the governor requiring Duke Energy to provide permanent drinking water to homes located near several coal ash ponds in the state.

• New York is the first state to adopt a $15 minimum wage using a two-tier plan that creates different timetables for implementing the pay raise based on the area’s labor market and economy.

• The United States, Canada, and Mexico partnered to present a clean energy plan that cuts greenhouse gas emissions and will focus on renewable energy.

• Environmentalists filed a lawsuit over the Grand Coulee Dam in Washington. The lawsuit is aimed at bringing the dam into compliance with The Clean Water Act.

• An insurance company argued in court recently that earthquakes related to the hydraulic fracturing process should not be included in coverage provided to oil and gas companies.

• The EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program is popular in India, where approximately 1,200 residents have applied for visas into America. One reason for the large number of applications is concern that the cost will be increasing later this year as Congress debates continuing the program with higher investment thresholds.

• Germany recently banned shale gas fracking indefinitely. However, the ban will be revisited in 2021.

• TransCanada filed a request for arbitration regarding the rejected Keystone XL Pipeline. The company is asking for $15 billion in damages from the federal government.