"After receiving nearly 1.5 million public comments, the Department of the Interior’s national monuments review enters its final month. Meanwhile, Secretary Ryan Zinke continues to visit sites under review."
"President Trump is expected to nominate a coal lobbyist and an energy industry attorney for a pair of key posts at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)."
"David Bernhardt, President Trump’s nominee for deputy interior secretary, has been described as 'an excellent choice' by supporters and 'a walking conflict of interest' by opponents. The full Senate is set to vote on his nomination Monday.
Bernhardt wouldn’t be new to the Interior Department. He served under President George W. Bush as solicitor, the third-ranking position at the department, and as a legal officer. But more recently, he worked for a lobbying firm representing energy interests and a water district.
"Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg flew to Glacier National Park on Saturday to tour the melting ice fields that have become the poster child for climate change’s effects on Montana’s northern Rockies. But days before the tech tycoon’s visit, the Trump administration abruptly removed two of the park’s top climate experts from a delegation scheduled to show him around, telling a research ecologist and the park superintendent that they were no longer going to participate in the tour."
"The Trump administration has erased an Obama-era requirement that Harley-Davidson Motor Co. spend $3 million on a pollution control project as part of its penalty for cheating on air emissions."
"Exxon Mobil Corp sued the U.S. government on Thursday, blasting as 'unlawful' and 'capricious' a $2 million fine levied against it for a three-year-old oil joint venture with Russia's Rosneft."
"The Senate Appropriations Committee approved a $38.4 billion spending bill for the Department of Energy and water programs. The 30-1 vote rejected numerous proposals by President Trump that would have slashed programs that have bipartisan support. The $38.4 billion total passed by the committee is $4 billion more than Trump’s budget proposal."
"North Carolina’s Democratic Gov. Roy Cooper said Thursday that his administration will oppose opening up Atlantic Ocean waters to offshore oil-and-gas drilling. Cooper’s decision reverses the state’s policy under former Republican Gov. Pat McCrory, who urged federal officials to promote energy exploration in ocean waters to help the nation achieve energy independence."
"A senior Interior Department official has filed a whistleblower complaint against Trump administration political appointees, claiming he was reassigned within Interior because of his work on climate change."
"President Trump on Wednesday nominated Sam Clovis, a former college professor and talk radio host who has challenged the scientific consensus that human activity has been the primary driver of climate change, to serve in the Agriculture Department’s top scientific post."
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