On mercury emissions: The US Environmental Protection Agency has violated the Clean Air Act by adopting a cap-and-trade rule that allowed oil and coal-fired plants to purchase credits to cover excessive emissions rather than installing pollution controls, a federal appeals court said. The lawsuit was filed by 18 US states and several environmental groups. They had argued that exempting power plants from strict limits on mercury emissions by allowing a cap-and-trade opportunity would result in mercury contamination around many power plants.

On dredging operations: Opponents of channel deepening in Melbourne's Port Phillip Bay, Australia, have moved to the country's federal court on February 20 to halt the A $1-billion (US $0.9 billion) project. The counsel for the environment lobby group, Blue Wedges, told the court the environment minister, Peter Garrett, had failed to consider environmental and social impacts of dredging when he had given his approval in December last year.