"A top US regulatory official on Monday championed controversial chemical review reforms that critics say will support industry interests while weakening protections against toxic chemicals for the public."
"President Donald Trump will announce during his State of the Union speech Tuesday night that his administration has struck agreements with major tech companies to make them shoulder a greater share of the energy cost burden associated with data centers."
"The Virginia Senate’s Finance and Appropriations Committee approved budget legislation for the coming fiscal year that ends a tax exemption for data centers on January 1."
"President Donald Trump’s Interior Department is withholding key ethics disclosure information for Karen Budd-Falen, a high-ranking agency appointee who is facing calls for an investigation into her financial ties to a massive lithium mining project, Public Domain has learned."
"The International Energy Agency downplayed global warming this week amid U.S. pressure."
"The Department of the Interior issued a final rule that curbs and streamlines its environmental reviews. Critics say the move is illegal."
"The Supreme Court has [agreed to hear] green-lighted the fossil fuel industry’s latest attempt to quash a swath of lawsuits seeking to hold oil companies accountable for the costs of climate change."
"The Trump administration is reopening a loophole to allow more mercury emissions from some coal-fired power plants, provoking swift denunciations from public health advocates who said the rollback will leave children at further risk of exposure to the brain-damaging element."
The enforcement of environmental laws suffered a dramatic collapse during the Trump administration’s first year, several studies have found. Even the most serious violations, typically referred to the Department of Justice, are left unpursued because of DOJ staffing declines. The latest Backgrounder has the details, a look at the administration’s rationale for the decline and the implications for the environment and public health.
"When an international organization sought to create guidelines on climate risk, insurance lobbying groups pushed back."
