The effectiveness of Trump administration governance looms large in environment stories for 2018, and this week's TipSheet looks at flash points like an Interior Department reorg and the reshaping of the EPA, plus budgets and shutdowns. Ideas to help you cover the story.
"The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed hear a bid by timber company Weyerhaeuser Co seeking to limit the federal government’s power to designate private land as protected habitat for endangered species in a case involving a warty amphibian called the dusky gopher frog."
"Eastern cougars that once prowled North America from Michigan to South Carolina were officially declared extinct and removed from the U.S. endangered species list on Monday, eight decades after the last confirmed sighting of the wild feline predator."
"Republicans on the House Science Committee are accusing Linda Birnbaum, director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, of lobbying. In letters sent to the Inspector General and acting secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, Reps. Lamar Smith and Andy Biggs wrote that they were “conducting oversight” of Birnbaum’s activity in response to a editorial she wrote in a scientific journal."
"The Trump administration is waiving more than 30 environmental rules to accelerate the construction of President Trump's proposed border wall in New Mexico, forcing environmental groups to consider another round of lawsuits."
In its 9-0 unanimous opinion today [Monday], the Supreme Court found that while it may not be the most efficient use of judicial resources, there was no question in the law about where challenges to the Clean Water Rule belong."
"The Trump administration slapped a 30% tax on imported solar panels Monday in a move that critics say could slow down a fast-growing industry and kill tens of thousands of domestic manufacturing jobs."
"President Trump is days away from deciding whether to impose trade tariffs or quotas on imported solar panels."
"President Donald Trump’s effort to put coal miners back to work stumbled in most coal producing states last year, even as overall employment in the downtrodden sector grew modestly, according to preliminary government data obtained by Reuters."
"In a surprise statement undercutting Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s announcement last week that he would exempt Florida from President Trump’s offshore drilling plan, a senior Interior Department official said Friday that Florida’s coastal waters had not been excluded after all."
