Environmental Politics

"The effects of human-induced climate change are being felt in every corner of the United States, scientists reported Tuesday, with water growing scarcer in dry regions, torrential rains increasing in wet regions, heat waves becoming more common and more severe, wildfires growing worse, and forests dying under assault from heat-loving insects." New York Times, May 6, 2014. See a plethora of additional coverage here.

"White House counselor John Podesta said congressional attempts to trump EPA’s climate rules will fail."

Continued fighting in the Senate over amendments to a bipartisan energy efficiency bill prompted Majority Leader Harry Reid to compare his Republican colleagues to "greased pigs" on Tuesday, after a lengthy explanation of what exactly those are."

"How broken is the nation's chemical-safety system? Of the 80,000 or so chemicals currently used in commerce, the Environmental Protection Agency has only tested 200 since Congress gave the agency its marching orders nearly four decades ago. And of the 200 tested chemicals, only five have been banned or regulated."

"A unit run by President Barack Obama's political staff inside the Environmental Protection Agency operates illegally as a 'rogue law enforcement agency' that has blocked independent investigations by the EPA's inspector general for years, a top investigator told Congress."

"Stanford University announced Tuesday that it would divest its $18.7 billion endowment of stock in coal-mining companies, becoming the first major university to lend support to a nationwide campaign to purge endowments and pension funds of fossil fuel investments."

Organic purists square off with Big Organic over what synthetic substances are allowed under USDA standards.

"After years of putting other policy priorities first — and dismaying many liberal allies in the process — Obama is now getting into the weeds on climate change and considers it one of the key components of his legacy, according to aides and advisers."

"On Thursday, Judge Paul Crotty, who sits on the federal district court in Manhattan, reluctantly allowed unlimited contributions to independent political groups in New York State. 'Reluctantly,' in fact, doesn’t begin to describe how clenched the judge’s teeth were in writing this remarkable opinion, which eloquently describes the dangers of the very act he was allowing."

"Barack Obama faced a new challenge on the controversial Keystone XL pipeline on Thursday when Democrats and Republicans in the Senate introduced a bill taking the decision out of his hands."