"A Washington-area nonprofit Monday asked a federal court to halt President Donald Trump’s efforts to resurface the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, saying that the president failed to undergo required federal reviews before applying a blue color to the basin."
"Coal-fired power plants across the country released more mercury last year as power demand surged, reversing a yearslong downward trend in the emissions of a toxic metal that impairs brain development."
"President Donald Trump said Monday he will move to suspend the federal tax on gasoline to help Americans shoulder surging fuel prices caused by the Iran war. The president cannot suspend the federal tax on his own. Congress would have to approve the move."
While less heralded than its national park system, the United States abounds in waterfront treasures that are part of the national seashore and lakeshore program. The latest TipSheet takes you on a guided tour of more than a dozen, from barrier islands and dunes to tidepools and turtles. Plus, a half-dozen reporting ideas for your own region.
Is the United States in the midst of a “nuclear renaissance”? This two-part Backgrounder explores the question, with a look at next-gen reactor design, the (lack of) independence of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and what to do with nuclear waste. Plus, see Part 1 on the government role in developing nuclear power and an earlier effort at industry rebirth.
"Flooding across northern Michigan last month pushed rivers to record levels, testing the limits of the state’s aging dams so severely that officials in one city nearly ordered evacuations as water threatened to spill over the top of a key barrier — a close call that highlights the growing risk that intensifying storms pose to similar infrastructure around the country."
"A South Dakota mining company has canceled a drilling project in the Black Hills after opposition from Native American tribes and local groups."
"The Trump administration will soon propose softening Biden-era limits on “forever chemicals” in drinking water, delaying but keeping tough standards for two common types and rescinding limits on some rarer forms of the substance, according to an EPA official."
"A recent Supreme Court decision allowing a soldier to sue a military contractor in state court undercuts the Trump administration’s efforts to erase state climate laws, New York state and a coalition of environmental groups contend."
"President Donald Trump has yet to launch a crucial part of his workforce agenda that could rip civil service protections from thousands of federal employees." "A new employee classification is meant to purge the career workforce of impartial expertise and instead steer it toward the president’s political goals, critics say."
