Environmental Politics

"A new report says America’s lobsters, which have been in decline since 2018, are now being overfished off New England."

"Deforestation in Brazil’s Amazon rainforest fell by 11% from August 2024 to July this year, the government said Thursday, even as wildfires tracked by Brazil’s space agency surged to record levels amid a severe drought."

"A North Dakota judge has ordered Greenpeace to pay damages of $345 million, reducing an earlier jury award after it found the environmental group and related entities liable for defamation and other claims in connection with protests of an oil pipeline nearly a decade ago."

"Emails obtained by POLITICO’s E&E News under the Freedom of Information Act shed light on the internal investigation that began within hours of the EPA “Declaration of Dissent” going public on June 30. In the following days, the administration sifted through names of those who had signed the letter, shared legal advice and responded by placing close to 150 employees on administrative leave while their computers and email accounts were searched."

"For decades, some big polluters were allowed to estimate their emissions using methods the government knew were often unreliable. Air monitors at coke manufacturers, chemical plants and other industrial facilities showed far higher emissions than the estimates, records viewed by ProPublica show."

"Surging electricity demand driven by artificial intelligence is putting humanity’s climate goals out of reach, extending the life of fossil fuels and driving up emissions in the U.S. power sector while contributing to deadly extreme weather, according to two new reports published Wednesday."

"Some 280 years after a river-swimming Benjamin Franklin petitioned to curb water pollution here, the city is still struggling to meet the challenge, according to water advocates who assembled along the banks of one of its two main rivers on Monday."

"The law required a state agency to issue major regulations more than a year and a half ago, and it had no excuse not to, the court found."

"Federal regulators are falsely claiming that production of a dangerous PFAS chemical has been phased out in the US, according to a complaint filed this week by an environmental watchdog group alleging the statement is untrue since the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) consistently finds the chemical and other PFAS in fluorinated plastic containers."

"Closely watched gubernatorial campaigns in Virginia and New Jersey are serving as testing grounds for how candidates will use surging electricity prices to their advantage in next year’s midterm elections."