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"The US Department of Agriculture (USDA) is earmarking $700 million to aid farmers wanting to pursue” regenerative” practices, which typically include a reduction in chemical inputs, government officials said on Wednesday."
"For over a century, a smelter and other plants polluted Omaha with 400 million pounds of lead. The city now has the largest residential lead cleanup site in the U.S."
"A federal lawsuit filed Thursday challenges an oil company’s new permit to explore for oil in a remote region of the Arctic in Alaska, arguing that such activity threatens the tundra’s ecosystem and the caribou herds that Native communities rely on for sustenance."
"The young Montanans who scored a landmark triumph in the lawsuit Held v Montana are calling on the state’s highest court to enforce that victory."
"First-of-its-kind analysis of hundreds of climate-related advertisements from BP, Chevron, ExxonMobil and Shell suggests that oil companies are continuing to mislead the public on climate."
"Scientists said the loss hinders their work and diminishes America’s leading presence on the continent. The NSF said it continues to support Antarctic research."
"President Donald Trump said Wednesday that the United States has seized an oil tanker off the coast of Venezuela as tensions mount with the government of President Nicolás Maduro."
"Karen Budd-Falen, a top official at the Department of the Interior, has financial ties to the controversial Thacker Pass lithium mine in northern Nevada — a project that the Trump administration worked to fast-track during its first term. In recent months, the administration took an equity stake in the mine and the mine’s parent company."
"The deadly storms that devastated Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Malaysia and Thailand in late November were "supercharged" by higher sea temperatures and made worse by rapid deforestation, scientists said in a study published on Thursday."
"EPA has set out new guidelines for its staff interacting with polluters, championing quick compliance for violators of the law before turning to tough enforcement."
"Lawmakers’ bid to slow the closure of the department’s largest research facility rests on iffy legal ground but waves a yellow flag at the Trump administration."
"Scientists have issued an urgent warning that some of the synthetic chemicals that help underpin the current food system are driving increased rates of cancer, neurodevelopmental conditions and infertility, while degrading the foundations of global agriculture."
"The Trump administration is set to unveil its plan this week to reform the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), a proposal that is sure to be contentious but is not expected to go as far as earlier calls to eliminate the agency completely."
"The nonprofit said in a new report that pipeline company Energy Transfer reported hundreds of oil spills to federal regulators in recent years, among other incidents."
"Fewer inspections, weaker enforcement and less oversight: Deep cuts to state budgets and at the Environmental Protection Agency are preventing regulators from fully protecting the public from pollution, according to a report released today by the Environmental Integrity Project."
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