Environment

On the same day that the Center for American Progress and the League of Conservation Voters released an issue brief detailing how states have stepped up where the federal government has neglected to lead on climate change, CAP convened representatives... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Supreme Court bolstered the nation’s clean-water protections for oceans and beaches on Thursday, ruling that environmentalists can sue to block discharges of sewage into the ground if those pollutants flow in significant amounts from there into the... Read More

It’s a big year for the planet. April 22, 2020, marked the 50th anniversary of Earth Day, a celebration of the environmental movement that is honored around the world. But many are celebrating Earth Day indoors this year. The coronavirus... Read More

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has reached what conservationists are calling a historic deal to protect monarch butterflies, which pass through multiple states on their annual two-way migrations. “Completing this agreement is a huge boost for the... Read More

WASHINGTON - The Environmental Protection Agency improperly rescinded Obama-era restrictions on a class of greenhouse gases known as hydrofluorocarbons (HFCs), after the court struck down a portion of the rules, a federal appeals court held Tuesday. In a divided ruling,... Read More

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration rolled back ambitious Obama-era vehicle mileage standards Tuesday, raising the ceiling on damaging fossil fuel emissions for years to come and gutting one of the United States' biggest efforts against climate change. The Trump... Read More

WASHINGTON - In a case with implications to both maritime transportation and international trade, the Supreme Court ruled a firm that contracted for a delivery of oil was obligated to provide “safe berth” for the vessel carrying it. The underlying... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Trump administration will temporarily relax civil enforcement of various environmental regulations, a move it says is necessary given worker shortages and travel restrictions related to the coronavirus pandemic. In a memo issued Thursday, the Environmental Protection Agency... Read More

SEATTLE — Mark Jordan works his way down a muddy forest slope, cutting through ferns and a small stream. The Seattle University professor and a pair of students slowly approach a trail camera they’ve set up to record wildlife. Jordan... Read More

WASHINGTON — Bees are excellent dancers. When a forager bee alights upon an Eden of pollen and nectar, it goes home to tell its hive mates. The greater the intensity of the dance, the richer the source of food being... Read More

CENTRALIA, Wash. — Later this year, the first of two burners is scheduled to shut down at the Centralia Coal Plant in this rural Washington state community halfway between Seattle and Portland, Oregon. When the second burner is extinguished in... Read More

WASHINGTON – A new report released by D.C.-based think tank Bipartisan Policy Center hopes to strengthen transparency at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) by suggesting options for growing a culture of data and evidence.  On the cusp of the EPA’s... Read More

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards this week announced his priorities for the state’s coastal program for the next four years, and in a related move, named G. Charles Sutcliffe as the state’s first chief resilience officer. Edwards also announced the... Read More

Finance chiefs from the world’s 20 largest economies haggled over climate change and proposals for a global tax regime as they tried to draft a joint communique at a conference overshadowed by a viral outbreak that’s shaken the global economy.... Read More

A year after the EPA pledged to act on limiting exposure to a class of extremely hazardous chemicals, a group of Senators is asking why the agency has yet to fulfill its commitments and when it plans to do so.... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Earth Day Network and Yale Program on Climate Change Communication released a new research report last week on “Climate Change and the American Diet.” The report claims that Americans are more open than ever to plant-based foods.... Read More

OLYMPIA, Wash. — Washington state, land of sprawling rainforests and glacier-fed rivers, might soon become the first in the nation to ban water bottling companies from tapping spring-fed sources. The proposal is one of several efforts at the state and... Read More

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump’s declaration last month that climate change is a “serious subject” marked the completion of a yearlong shift away from his outright denial of the global threat — a shift, according to one former aide, driven... Read More

WASHINGTON – Though the Trump administration continues to deny the validity of climate science, a new report suggests that both Democratic and Republican mayors across the nation are taking definitive steps to reduce carbon pollution, a leading contributor to climate... Read More

WASHINGTON — The Senate handed President Donald Trump a policy victory on Thursday, backing USMCA, the new North American trade deal, the same day the chamber turned its attention to the president's impeachment trial. Once it's signed by Trump, USMCA... Read More

WASHINGTON — Sen. Jeff Merkley faced a difficult vote Tuesday as he joined colleagues on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee to advance the bill that would implement President Donald Trump’s new trade deal. The Oregon Democrat said the... Read More

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump on Thursday unveiled a proposed revision of the federal environmental review process, a move that would fast-track the construction of some infrastructure projects, including pipelines, highways and airports. The change, which would apply to the... Read More

WASHINGTON -- Environmentalists and a South Carolina mayor warned Congress recently that climate change will take an increasing toll on the lives and finances of Americans if the federal government does not act soon. They discussed how greenhouse gas emissions... Read More

WASHINGTON - Environmentalists won an appeals court ruling in Washington, D.C. last week protecting ocean marine national monuments. Marine national monuments refer to offshore underwater areas intended to protect coral reefs or wildlife. There are five of them in U.S.... Read More

WASHINGTON — When the United States formally withdraws from the 2015 Paris Agreement in less than a year, nearly half of states — or at least their governors — will remain committed to meeting the goals of the global compact... Read More

LOS ANGELES — It came as a bittersweet surprise to biologists and government agencies monitoring the steadily shrinking Salton Sea’s slide toward death by choking dust storms and salt. Thousands of acres of exposed lake bed have become, of all... Read More

WASHINGTON — A bipartisan group of lawmakers wrote the House and Senate appropriations panels this week, asking them to withhold funding from a new Trump administration proposal to accelerate the capture of 130,000 wild horses across the west in the... Read More

Canada has narrowed to two communities its list of potential hosts for a permanent national repository for its most radioactive waste — spent fuel from nuclear power generation. And one of those two finalists is on the shores of Lake... Read More

WASHINGTON — As the Trump administration scales back federal regulation of the waste from coal-fired power plants known as coal ash, a handful of Southern states have passed laws forcing utilities to clean up or contain the toxic mess. Other... Read More

PHILADELPHA — There’s a generational divide between older and younger Republicans when it comes to climate change, but overall, most Americans agree that the science — and the problem — are real, according to a national Pew survey released Monday.... Read More