Activism

"Environmental groups being sued by the developer of the Dakota Access pipeline have asked a federal judge to dismiss the lawsuit."

"A leaked draft of the US Department of Interior’s four-year strategic plan calls for massive fossil fuel extraction from public lands, with no mention of climate change impacts."

"Lobbyists in key positions with the U.S. Department of the Interior now number 13, making the nation’s public lands agency a leading example of President Donald Trump’s policy of filling government posts with former advocates for special interests."

"The Trump administration made its debut at a United Nations conference on climate change on Monday by giving a full-throated defense of fossil fuels and nuclear energy as answers to driving down global greenhouse gas emissions."

"A U.S. appeals court on Wednesday rejected a challenge by two animal rights activists to the constitutionality of a federal law used to prosecute them for breaking into an Illinois farm and releasing more than 2,000 minks into the wild."

"Robert Phalen, an air pollution researcher just named to a key U.S. EPA advisory committee, is defending earlier comments that the air can be 'a little too clean' for children's health as grounded in the broader field of pulmonary medicine."

"The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s chief scientist nominee, Sam Clovis, who now serves as the agency’s senior White House adviser, confirmed in an Oct. 17 letter obtained by The Washington Post that he has no academic credentials in either science or agriculture."

"The White House said on Tuesday there are no plans to withdraw the nomination of Sam Clovis for a Department of Agriculture position, despite Clovis becoming a central figure in the Russia investigation."

"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Wednesday it will review how bedrock laws like the Clean Air Act and Clean Water Act affect energy industry job losses, one of several measures U.S. agencies will take to “reduce unnecessary regulatory burdens” on business."