Environment

The Hill reports: In his first moments after being sworn in as Transportation secretary, Sean Duffy sought to reverse Biden regulations requiring passenger cars to be more efficient. The Biden administration rule in question would require cars to be about 2 percent more fuel efficient each year. The memo does not immediately rescind the rule — instead it kicks off …

NOAA reports: Last year was a record-warm year for the U.S., as the nation was hit by numerous tornadoes and devastating hurricanes, according to scientists from NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information. The average annual temperature across the contiguous U.S. was 55.5 degrees F — 3.5 degrees above the 20th-century average — ranking as the nation’s warmest year in NOAA’s …

The Washington Post reports: The widespread use of pharmaceuticals in America is introducing even more toxic “forever chemicals” into the environment through wastewater, according to a study released Monday, and large municipal wastewater treatment plants are not capable of fully filtering them out. The plants’ inability to remove compounds known as organofluorines from wastewater before it enters drinking water supplies …

Reuters reports: U.S. President Joe Biden will ban new offshore oil and gas development along most U.S. coastlines, a decision President-elect Donald Trump, who has vowed to boost domestic energy production, may find difficult to reverse. The move is considered mostly symbolic, as it will not impact areas where oil and gas development is currently underway, and mainly covers zones …

The Florida Phoenix reports: The Fifth District Court of Appeal ruled Thursday that although 83% of voters in Titusville approved a 2022 initiative establishing the right to clean water, the city in Brevard County couldn’t enact it because of a 2020 state law preventing local government from giving rights to bodies of water, plants, and animals. The City of Titusville …

The New York Times reports: The attorney general of California, Rob Bonta, sued Exxon Mobil on Monday alleging that the oil giant carried out a “decades-long campaign of deception” that overhyped the promise of recycling and spawned a plastic pollution crisis. The suit, filed in superior court in San Francisco, argued that people were more likely to buy single-use plastics …

Axios reports: California is banning all plastic shopping bags at grocery store checkouts under legislation that Gov. Gavin Newsom signed on Sunday. The law that takes effect on Jan. 1, 2026, honors the intent of a ban on single-use bags “enacted 10 years ago that allowed stores to sell customers thicker plastic carryout bags that were considered reusable and met …

CNN reports: Republican officials in 24 states asked the Supreme Court on Tuesday to halt a Biden administration effort to reduce emissions of the planet-warming gas methane, adding to a series of emergency appeals challenging environmental regulations. Led by Oklahoma, the states are asking the high court to pause an Environmental Protection Agency rule that went into effect earlier this …

Courthouse News reports: Fossil fuel industry groups and over two dozen Republican-led states on Friday asked the Supreme Court to block the Environmental Protection Agency’s emissions regulations for power plants. In hopes of ushering in climate-friendly energy alternatives, the Biden administration’s rule would force fossil fuel power plants into retirement, West Virginia said. Joined by 24 other states, the Mountain …

USA Today reports: Climate change is taking a dramatic toll on glaciers in Alaska: Glacier melt in a major Alaskan icefield has accelerated and could reach an irreversible tipping point earlier than previously thought, a new scientific study released this week suggests. Alaska has some of our planet’s largest icefields, and their melting is a major contributor to sea-level rise. …

The Washington Post reports: D.C. Water and Arlington County advised residents late Wednesday to boil their water for at least one minute before drinking, using it to cook food or giving it to pets, after the Army Corps of Engineers warned of clarity issues in local water sources. The warnings were issued because of “elevated turbidity levels in water supply …

The Tampa Bay Times reports: Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday night vetoed a measure that would have increased warnings for Floridians and tourists when a beach or public waterway is polluted. The bill required the Florida Department of Health to issue health advisories if water quality failed to meet the agency’s standards and required closing polluted beaches “if it is …

The Associated Press reports: Sea turtles and marine birds will be protected under a new Florida law that bans the intentional release of balloons. The law, signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, replaces an existing ban of releasing ten or more balloons within 24 hours. The Legislature approved the bill with bipartisan support in March and the law is praised …

Axios reports: Flooding — which has gotten increasingly severe in an era of extreme weather — costs the U.S. economy an estimated $179.8 to $496 billion per year in 2023 dollars, according to new data from Democrats on the Senate Joint Economic Committee. The estimates are the equivalent of over 1% of 2023’s gross domestic product, the report notes. It …

Miami’s ABC affiliate reports: One day after a video went viral showing a group of teens dumping trash just off the Boca Inlet, the public has responded with outrage. “It’s shocking, disheartening, a lot of anger, and honestly, the thing that was most shocking to me is the age of the people on the boat,” said Madeline Kaufman of Debris …

Gothamist reports: Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez said on Tuesday that the event will be the biggest to date, with drivers getting the boot from sections of 53 streets between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Saturday, April 20. That’s up from 30 car-free streets during last year’s event. Major areas where cars will be banned include Broadway in Manhattan from …

Ars Technica reports: The Environmental Protection Agency on Monday finalized a ban on the only type of asbestos still used in the US, chrysotile asbestos. This move was decades in the making. Chrysotile asbestos, aka “white asbestos,” is still imported, processed, and used in the US for diaphragms (including those used to make sodium hydroxide and chlorine), sheet gaskets, brake …

The Guardian reports: Emergency teams worked through the night to bolster defensive barriers around the evacuated fishing town of Grindavik as lava from the fourth volcanic eruption on Iceland’s Reykjanes peninsula since December flowed towards it. After weeks of warnings that semi-molten rock was building up under the ground, the Icelandic Meteorological Office (IMO) said the eruption, at 8.23pm local …

The New York Times reports: The Triassic was the dawn of the dinosaurs. The Paleogene saw the rise of mammals. The Pleistocene included the last ice ages. Is it time to mark humankind’s transformation of the planet with its own chapter in Earth history, the “Anthropocene,” or the human age? Not yet, scientists have decided, after a debate that has …

The Associated Press reports: Earth last year shattered global annual heat records, flirted with the world’s agreed-upon warming threshold and showed more signs of a feverish planet, the European climate agency said Tuesday. In one of the first of several teams of science agencies to calculate how off-the-charts warm 2023 was, the European climate agency Copernicus said the year was …