Environmental Politics

"Interior Department to Overhaul Obama’s Sage Grouse Protection Plan"

"The Trump administration will seek to reconsider an Obama-era blueprint for protecting the greater sage grouse, a move that could lead to new mineral leasing, grazing and other commercial activities across the quirky bird’s Western habitat."

Source: NY Times, 09/29/2017

Park Service Showed That Its Bottled Water Ban Worked — Then Lifted It

"Long before the Trump administration rescinded a ban on the sale of disposable water bottles in select national parks, the Interior Department was aware of a report from the National Park Service that the program worked."

Source: Washington Post, 09/28/2017

"E.P.A. Threatens to Stop Funding Justice Dept. Environmental Work"

"Scott Pruitt, the Environmental Protection Agency administrator who has aggressively pushed to dismantle regulations and downsize the organization, is threatening to reach outside his agency and undermine the Justice Department’s work enforcing antipollution laws, documents and interviews show."

Source: NY Times, 09/28/2017

Pruitt Took Charter, Military Flights That Cost Taxpayers Over $58,000

"Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt has taken at least four noncommercial and military flights since mid-February, costing taxpayers more than $58,000 to fly him to various parts of the country, according to records provided to a congressional oversight committee and obtained by The Washington Post."

Source: Washington Post, 09/28/2017

"US, Mexico Expand Pact On Managing Overused Colorado River"

"The United States and Mexico have agreed to renew and expand a far-reaching conservation agreement that governs how they manage the overused Colorado River, which supplies water to millions of people and to farms in both nations, U.S. water district officials said."

Source: AP, 09/27/2017

"EPA Removes Waste At Texas Toxic Sites, Won’t Say From Where"

"The Environmental Protection Agency says it has recovered 517 containers of 'unidentified, potentially hazardous material' from highly contaminated toxic waste sites in Texas that flooded last month during Hurricane Harvey. The agency has not provided details about which Superfund sites the material came from, why the contaminants at issue have not been identified and whether there’s a threat to human health."

Source: AP, 09/27/2017

Zinke Calls 1/3 Of Interior Staff Disloyal To Trump, Promises Big Changes

"In a speech to a federal advisory board dominated by oil and gas industry executives, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke claimed that nearly a third of his staff is disloyal to President Trump, saying that workers in Washington are reluctant to relax regulations to permit increased mining for coal and drilling for natural gas and oil on public land."

Source: Washington Post, 09/27/2017

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