Tag Archives: environment

The Washington Post reports: The Trump administration’s decision to exempt Florida from expanded offshore drilling kicked off a frenzy Wednesday in other coastal states, with governors from both political parties asking: Why not us? “We cannot afford to take a chance with the beauty, the majesty and the economic value and vitality of our wonderful coastline,” South Carolina Gov. Henry …

The Associated Press reports: The Trump administration on Thursday moved to vastly expand offshore drilling from the Atlantic to the Arctic oceans with a plan that would open up federal waters off the California coast for the first time in more than three decades. The new five-year drilling plan also could open new areas of oil and gas exploration in …

MarketWatch reports: Regulators in the Trump administration are proposing to roll back safety measures put in place after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill, a revision that would reduce the role of government in offshore oil production and return more responsibility to private companies. The Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, which regulates offshore oil and gas drilling, estimates its …

Ad Age reports: Outdoor retailer Patagonia has been vocal about its efforts to keep protected federal land protected. That effort reached a new level on Monday following President Trump’s announcement that his administration will shrink the size of the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah by 85 percent. In response, Ventura, California-based Patagonia says it plans to sue the Trump …

USA Today reports: President Trump departed for Utah on Monday to announce what could be the largest rollback of federally protected lands in history. Trump’s decision on the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments would mark an unprecedented use of presidential power to shrink the national monument designations made by two of his predecessors. Secretary of the Interior Ryan …

EcoWatch reports: The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Forest Service released a recommendation Wednesday to lift former President Obama’s uranium mining ban in the watershed of the Grand Canyon. The move was made in response to President Trump’s sweeping “energy independence” executive order in March to ease regulatory burdens on energy development. “This appalling recommendation threatens to destroy one of the …

The New York Times reports: The Environmental Protection Agency has removed dozens of online resources dedicated to helping local governments address climate change, part of an apparent effort by the agency to play down the threat of global warming. A new analysis made public on Friday found that an E.P.A. website has been scrubbed of scores of links to materials …

The New York Times reports: The Trump administration announced Monday that it would take formal steps to repeal President Barack Obama’s signature policy to curb greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, setting up a bitter fight over the future of America’s efforts to tackle global warming. At an event in eastern Kentucky, Scott Pruitt, the head of the Environmental Protection …

The Associated Press reports: Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is recommending that four large national monuments in the West be reduced in size, potentially opening up hundreds of thousands of acres of land revered for natural beauty and historical significance to mining, logging and other development. Zinke’s recommendation, revealed in a leaked memo submitted to the White House, prompted an outcry …

The Washington Post reports: The Trump administration has decided to disband the federal advisory panel for the National Climate Assessment, a group aimed at helping policymakers and private-sector officials incorporate the government’s climate analysis into long-term planning. The charter for the 15-person Advisory Committee for the Sustained National Climate Assessment — which includes academics as well as local officials and …

The Hill reports: The Trump administration is proposing to repeal completely Obama-era standards governing hydraulic fracturing on federal land. The proposal from the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is due to be published Tuesday in the Federal Register. The landmark 2015 regulation set standards in areas such as disclosure of fracking chemicals and integrity of well casing. It …

Via press release from the United Nations: The world population is now at least 7.6 billion, up from 7.4 billion last year, spurred by the relatively high levels of fertility in developing countries – despite an overall drop in the number of children people have around the globe – the United Nations today reported. The concentration of global population growth …

HuffPost recaps: John Oliver railed against President Donald Trump for delivering a “flamboyantly deceptive” speech during his announcement about the U.S. withdrawing from the Paris Agreement to combat climate change. Oliver fact-checked Trump’s remarks, first tackling the moment the president claimed the world celebrated the signing of the accord because it put the U.S. at an “economic disadvantage.” “What are …

The New York Times reports: President Trump announced Thursday that he will withdraw the United States from participation in the Paris climate accord, weakening global efforts to combat climate change and siding with conservatives who argued that the landmark 2015 agreement was harming the economy. But he will stick to the withdrawal process laid out in the Paris agreement, which …

Starting any minute. USA Today reports: President Trump said he would announce his decision on whether to pull out of the Paris climate agreement in a Thursday afternoon event in the White House Rose Garden — the same place where President Obama hailed the agreement as “a turning point for our planet.” With typical Trumpian flair for building suspense, the …

Reuters reports: U.S. President Donald Trump has decided to withdraw from the Paris climate accord, Axios news outlet reported on Wednesday, citing two unidentified sources with direct knowledge of the decision. Trump who has previously called global warming a hoax, refused to endorse the landmark climate change accord at a summit of the G7 group of wealthy nations on Saturday, …

The Associated Press reports: Ivanka Trump will head a review of US climate change policy even as President Donald Trump considers pulling the US out of a global emissions-cutting deal. The United States says it it will continue attending United Nations climate change meetings next week in Bonn, Germany next week, but Trump’s advisers will meet Tuesday to discuss what …

The Washington Examiner reports: More than three dozen conservative and free-market groups pressed President Trump on Monday to exit from the Paris climate change agreement and not renege on the promise he made during his campaign. “The undersigned organizations believe that withdrawing completely from Paris is a key part of your plan to protect U.S. energy producers and manufacturers from …

The Associated Press reports: At the Trump administration’s request, a federal appeals court agreed Friday to postpone a ruling on lawsuits challenging Obama-era restrictions on carbon emissions. The Environmental Protection Agency had asked the court to put a hold on the case shortly after President Donald Trump signed an executive order vowing to roll back the Clean Power Plan. Trump …

The Salt Lake Tribune reports: President Donald Trump this week will order a review of national monument designations — including southern Utah’s Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante — as part of a wide look at a century-old law that allows presidents to set aside federal lands without congressional approval. On Wednesday, Trump will sign an executive order to demand that …