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

Drill rig in Pennsylvania. By Laurie Barr. CC BY-SA 3.0 or GFDL, via Wikimedia Commons

  • TransCanada Corporation is looking to secure more commitments from companies to transport oil in its proposed Keystone XL pipeline.
  • King County, Washington, has an unemployment rate of 3.9 percent, and employers are offering higher wages to fill open positions.
  • Norway’s sovereign wealth fund sold its stake in a French property for more than 63 million euros. The property is located just outside Paris.
  • The California Supreme Court declined to review a lower court ruling that held lead paint manufacturers liable for remediation costs for homes.
  • A former brine well in New Mexico could collapse in the next five years. A bill recently signed by the governor will earmark $30 million to remediate the site.
  • The manufacturers of a foam used in firefighter training face a lawsuit from a Massachusetts city. Westfield officials allege that the manufacturers should have known that the chemicals in the foam would be harmful if they ended up in the city’s water supply.
  • About 100,000 heating oil tanks are buried underground in Oregon, and the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality knows the location of only about half of the tanks. The tanks, if they are leaking, can release fumes that can potentially cause cancer.
  • A report from an environmental group found that methane emissions in Pennsylvania are five times higher than the reported amount.
  • Fifteen coal ash ponds in Missouri will soon be closed. Ameren Missouri, the company that owns the ponds, stated it is switching to a dry system to manage the coal ash from its four coal-fired power plants.