"Burgum’s First Order Of Business: Drilling, Public Lands And The ESA"
"The Interior secretary signed orders to increase energy production, review Biden public lands efforts and slash regulations."
Source: E&E News, 02/05/2025
EJToday: Top Headlines
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"E.P.A. Demotes Career Employees Overseeing Science, Enforcement and More"
"The Environmental Protection Agency is demoting career employees who oversee scientific research, the enforcement of pollution laws, hazardous waste cleanup and the agency’s human resources department and will replace them with political appointees, according to two people familiar with the approach."
Source: NYTimes, 02/05/2025"Neo-Nazi Group Leader Convicted Of Planning To Attack Maryland Power Grid"
"Brandon Russell, the founder of a Florida-based neo-Nazi group, was convicted Monday of conspiring to plan an attack on Maryland’s power grid."
Source: The Hill, 02/05/2025"Mountain Valley Pipeline Files Application To Build Southgate Extension"
"Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC filed with regulators Monday official requests to build its revised Southgate extension project from Southwest Virginia into North Carolina." "The company’s proposal to build more than 30 miles of natural gas pipeline has worried environmental advocates, who believe it could harm nearby residents."
Source: Inside Climate News, 02/05/2025Dramatic Drop As Monarch Butterfly Count Nears Record 30-Year Low
"The number of monarch butterflies spending the winter in the western United States has dropped to its second-lowest mark in nearly three decades as pesticides, diminishing habitat and climate change take their toll on the beloved pollinator."
Source: AP, 02/05/2025"Trump Wants More Drilling, But The Oil Market Is Already Saturated"
Trump has repeatedly said eliminating barriers to drilling will unlock vast untapped reserves of “liquid gold” and ignite a new era of national prosperity. But most of the drilling leases already granted to companies in the oil-rich Gulf are idle and unused, and they’ll stay that way until the United States’ record-breaking production rates wane and the high costs of drilling offshore drop precipitously.
Source: Verite News, 02/05/2025"FDA Must Set Limits On PFAS In Food, Lawsuit Says"
"US regulators are failing to address concerns about toxic PFAS chemicals in foods despite having the scientific tools to do so, according to a lawsuit filed by an environmental group in Tucson, Arizona."
Source: The New Lede, 02/05/2025"Data Scientists Restore a Climate Justice Tool Taken Down by Trump"
"One day after President Donald Trump’s inauguration, a digital mapping tool used by federal and state agencies to identify environmentally disadvantaged communities was taken offline. Within 48 hours, a coalition of data scientists known as the Public Environmental Data Project had resurrected a functional but unofficial copy of the tool on an independent domain."
Source: Inside Climate News, 02/05/2025"How Tearing Down Small Dams Is Helping Restore Northeast Rivers"
"More than 30,000 small dams currently block river tributaries from Maine to Maryland. New initiatives to remove them are aimed at restoring natural flows, improving habitat for aquatic life, and reopening thousands of river miles to migratory fish, from shad to American eels."
Source: YaleE360, 02/05/2025"How Climate Change Could Upend the American Dream"
"Americans have long accumulated wealth by owning their homes, but a new study predicts that spiking insurance rates and climate disasters now herald an era of widespread losses."
Source: ProPublica/NYTimes, 02/04/2025"Senate Confirms Fracking CEO Chris Wright To Lead Energy Department"
"The Senate on Monday confirmed Chris Wright, the CEO of fracking company Liberty Energy, to lead the Energy Department. The vote was 59-38."
Source: The Hill, 02/04/2025"Elon Musk’s Pet U.S. Attorney Threatens Anyone Reporting on DOGE"
"The shadow president wants total secrecy around his seizure of government agencies."
Source: American Prospect, 02/04/2025"East Palestine Residents Allege Wrongful Deaths From 2023 Derailment"
"A new lawsuit filed by more than 700 residents of East Palestine, Ohio, makes the first wrongful-death allegations in connection with the 2023 derailment that spilled toxic chemicals in the village."
Source: The Hill, 02/04/2025Court Restores Fishing Gear Protections For Endangered Whale Species
"Commercial fishermen who hoped for a loosening of fishing regulations during President Donald Trump’s administration faced a setback when a federal appeals court reinstated rules meant to protect a dwindling whale species from getting entangled in fishing gear."
Source: AP, 02/04/2025Tribes Push to Control Reservation Water as Wyoming Seeks To Send it Outside
"The Eastern Shoshone and Northern Arapaho have long fought for water sovereignty on the Wind River Indian Reservation, but their effort is being challenged by federal legislation and a changing water landscape."
Source: Inside Climate News, 02/04/2025
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