National (U.S.)

"Princess Cruise Lines has agreed to plead guilty to seven felony charges and pay a $40 million penalty for polluting the ocean with waste and then trying to cover it up. Federal prosecutors said the payment represents the largest-ever criminal penalty involving deliberate pollution by a ship at sea."

"The parade of Texans to Trump Tower continues, but this time the president-elect is turning to a lesser-known individual for policy advice. Kathleen Hartnett White, a director of energy policy at a conservative Texas think-tank and a Donald Trump energy adviser during the campaign, met with the president-elect Monday afternoon."

"U.S. EPA released a plan yesterday for setting objectives to protect the nation's drinking water. The blueprint lays out how federal, state, tribal and local agencies, as well as the private and nonprofit sectors, can address six initiatives."

"Eighteen states are challenging the Obama administration's recent changes to critical habitat rules, asserting they allow the federal government to designate 'entire states' as habitat for imperiled species."

"New York utility regulators are being sued by an environmental group over big subsidies for nuclear power plants."

"More than 2,300 scientists, including 22 Nobel Prize winners, have issued an open letter to President-elect Donald Trump and the 115th Congress, urging them to 'adhere to high standards of scientific integrity and independence in responding to current and emerging public health and environmental health threats.'"

"The EPA aims for US car fleets to average 54.5 miles per gallon in 2025 – and seeks to keep Republicans from changing the policy in 2017."

"Top officials of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency last year made critical changes at the eleventh hour to a highly anticipated, five-year scientific study of hydraulic fracturing’s effect on the nation’s drinking water. The changes, later criticized by scientists for lacking evidence, played down the risk of pollution that can result from the well-drilling technique known as fracking."

"The Great Plains lost more grassland to agriculture in 2014 than the Brazilian Amazon lost to deforestation, says a recent report from the World Wildlife Fund. And it argues that the continued expansion of cropland in the region may be threatening birds, pollinators and even drinking water, while releasing millions of tons of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere each year. "

"The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has prioritized 10 chemicals, including asbestos, that could be banned under a new chemical safety law."