Environmental Politics

"Two data centers in San Antonio face a looming legal challenge from environmental groups over their air pollution."

"Ohio has made $100 million available for new energy projects in the state, but critics are pushing back on the decision to bar renewable energy projects from accessing the funds — and on the lack of transparency around the process."

"The Trump administration is moving closer to opening up U.S. waters for deep-sea mining—a contentious and largely untested industry focused on extracting mineral-rich deposits from the ocean floor containing cobalt, copper, nickel and manganese." "If the sale moves forward, mining activities could begin in federal waters near American Samoa. The proposed site is directly adjacent to a national wildlife refuge."

"At the request of the Trump administration, a federal judge in Texas has stripped endangered species protections from a small lizard whose habitat overlaps with the largest oil-producing region in the United States." "The dunes sagebrush lizard, found only in the oil-rich Permian Basin, was classified as endangered two years ago."

"The latest Ratepayer Protection Act would apply more specifically to data centers."

"New protections for endangered right whales in the North Atlantic would be postponed for nearly a decade under a plan that cleared a key hurdle in Washington last week with the full-throated support of the fishing and lobster industries."

"EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin promised to deliver for the coal industry Tuesday, as part of a broader push to reverse the sector’s fate. “Many of the items that were on your wish list are now done,” Zeldin told members of the National Coal Council gathered at the Willard hotel in Washington."

"On a pristine Rhode Island beach teeming with noisy seabirds, a group of biologists armed with nets sneak up on a pair of American oystercatcher chicks."

"The Colorado River’s largest reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, have declined to their lowest combined levels on record.
Researchers say the new low underscores the urgent need to cut water use in the seven states that depend on the river."

"The oil industry and its allies gained a major supporter in their yearslong effort to derail climate science programs at the National Academies: the president of the United States."