Climate Change

The Associated Press reports: Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy said Biden-era fuel economy standards for gas-powered cars and trucks were illegal and moved to reverse them. Combined with Senate language in the pending budget bill to eliminate penalties for exceeding standards regulating how far vehicles must travel on a gallon of fuel, automakers could come under less pressure from regulators to …

Axios reports: Scientists at an iconic NASA research center in New York City have been told they have until the end of the month to vacate their building and everything in it— with nowhere else to go. The closure of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, a building owned by Columbia University and made famous for housing the diner …

The Washington Post reports: The Senate voted Thursday to overturn an Environmental Protection Agency rule limiting the seven most hazardous air pollutants emitted by chemical plants, oil refineries and other industrial facilities, reversing one of President Joe Biden’s major environmental regulations. The 52-46 vote delivers a key victory to major companies and trade groups in the fossil fuel and petrochemical …

Politico reports: The State Department is eliminating the Office of Global Change, which oversees international climate change negotiations for the United States. Staff were told about the move verbally Thursday afternoon, according to three people who were granted anonymity to speak about the decision to avoid reprisal. The news thrust the office into chaos and raised questions among staff about …

The Telegraph reports: A protester has defaced Donald Trump’s presidential plaque inside Trump Tower. Footage shared on social media showed a man in a black T-shirt spray painting “USA” in bright green over a gold plaque marking Mr Trump’s first term. Other clips showed the man then sitting cross-legged in front of the “45th president of the United States” sign, …

Bloomberg News reports: White House officials are preparing executive orders that would strip some environmental nonprofits of their tax-exempt status, setting up a possible Earth Day strike against organizations seen as standing in the way of President Donald Trump’s push for more domestic oil, gas and coal production. The effort, described by people familiar with the matter, comes alongside other …

The Associated Press reports: The Trump administration has granted nearly 70 coal-fired power plants a two-year exemption from federal requirements to reduce emissions of toxic chemicals such as mercury, arsenic and benzene. A list quietly posted as of Tuesday on the Environmental Protection Agency’s website lists 47 power providers — which operate at least 66 coal-fired plants — that are …

The Washington Post reports: A new Trump proposal would eliminate nearly all National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration labs focused on studying the world’s weather, climate and oceans and would slash much of the agency’s budget — part of what the White House document describes as an effort to sever all “climate-related programs” from the agency. Documents detailing the administration’s proposal, …

“I’ve been very outspoken about this. It’s a sham – this whole climate change is a sham. First of all, God controls the climate because he controls the sun and the sun controls the weather, primarily.” – GOP Rep. Mary Miller, speaking to an apparent Christian nationalist podcaster. Last year Miller earned national headlines when she declared that climate activists …

Axios reports: The Trump administration is pulling nearly $4 million in funding from Princeton University, the U.S. Department of Commerce announced Tuesday. The cuts come days after the administration already paused dozens of Princeton’s research grants following similar federal funding reviews or revocations at other Ivy League schools like Columbia and Harvard. The Department of Commerce said awards, including those …

Courthouse News reports: A federal judge temporarily blocked the Environmental Protection Agency from suddenly canceling three multibillion-dollar clean energy grants on Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan found that the EPA had likely violated the law by issuing identical termination letters to Climate United Fund, Coalition for Green Capital and Power Forward Communities, which said their grants were terminated, effective …

Florida Politics reports: U.S. Rep. Byron Donalds continues to weigh in on Florida’s insurance market as he runs for Governor, now suggesting that foreign companies and “climate change” analyses are partially to blame for high costs for homeowners. “A lot of these reinsurance companies, a lot of them who are out of Europe, they’ve been trying to price in climate …

Bloomberg reports: US President Donald Trump said he would look to counter China’s economic advantage from coal-based electricity by authorizing his administration to ramp up production of power from the fossil fuel. It’s not clear what Trump was referring to or how his social media decree would affect US policy. Trump already signed an executive order declaring a national energy …

Axios reports: Monthly press calls featuring NOAA scientists detailing global climate conditions during the previous month have been suspended indefinitely, the agency told Axios. NOAA is the top weather and climate agency in the U.S. and among the foremost worldwide. The monthly U.S. and global climate calls typically feature climate scientists from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information (NCEI) in …

Politico E&E reports: President Donald Trump has long rejected climate science. Now, his administration is grappling with how to assemble a body of federal climate research to show a warming world is benefiting humanity. The claims would be highly misleading and ignore decades of scientific research that shows climate change will have increasingly dire effects. But a federal report downplaying …

From the Nature Conservancy: We carefully review the implications of the multiple executive orders and instructions from the new administration to ensure we can continue to make progress for people and nature. The Nature Conservancy has been working in the Gulf for more than 40 years, through hurricanes and oil spills, in close partnership with private, state and federal partners. …

The Washington Post reports: Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin has privately urged the White House to strike down a scientific finding underpinning much of the federal government’s push to combat climate change. The 2009 “endangerment finding” cleared the way for regulating greenhouse gases under the Clean Air Act by concluding that the planet-warming gases pose a threat to public …

Courthouse News reports: A trio of environmental groups sued the Department of Agriculture on Monday for removing all of its website landing pages focused on climate change after President Donald Trump returned to power in late January. Northeast Organic Farming Association of New York, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the D.C.-based Environmental Working Group claim in their civil complaint …

Via press release from Texas AG Ken Paxton: Attorney General Ken Paxton has successfully stopped a Biden Administration edict that would have forced Texas to adopt unlawful greenhouse gas reporting measures after the Trump Administration dismissed the Biden Administration’s appeal of a lower court’s decision in Texas’s favor. Under the rule, Texas would have been required to measure and report …

The New York Times reports: The Trump administration has warned more than 1,100 Environmental Protection Agency employees who work on climate change, reducing air pollution, enforcing environmental laws and other programs that they could be fired at any time. Many had been hired to work on programs that Congress created through two recent laws, doing things like helping communities replace …