"President Trump on Wednesday was poised to sign the new tax bill, passed by Congress, which lifts a decades-old ban on oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in northeastern Alaska. ... Will exploration begin immediately? No. Both supporters and opponents say it could be years before the first lease sale, a precursor to any drilling."
"Replacing fleets of medium- and heavy-duty trucks can help cut greenhouse gas emissions and make cities quieter and cleaner."
"The highly digital modern world also demands a more reliable grid, capable of providing high-quality power to facilities like hospitals or data centers, where even brief brownouts can cost money or lives."
As President Trump continues to fill environment and energy leadership positions in 2018, one source of stories will be potential conflicts of interest for appointed regulators and agency leaders. This week's TipSheet runs down more than 20 key appointments to watch at EPA, Interior, Ag, Energy and more.
"These satellite images of a small part of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge show the site of what, so far, is the only oil well ever drilled in the refuge, an exploratory well known as KIC-1 that was completed in the mid-1980s. The well was plugged and abandoned, and the drilling equipment and a special timber pad it sat on have long since been removed."
"A string of former Republicans who served on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission have emerged as some of the most vocal critics of the Trump administration's plan to subsidize coal and nuclear power units."
"The final text of the Republican tax bill made public Friday largely preserves key tax credits for wind and solar power and electric vehicles, reversing language in earlier versions that could have slowed the growth of renewable energy across the United States."
"Hoping for more unfettered production of coal, oil and gas even as it erects wind farms, a Wyoming county sees the president as a key to job security."
"The controversial Bayou Bridge Pipeline has been granted a permit by the New Orleans District office of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to cross southern Louisiana between Nederland, Texas, and St. James Parish, including wetland areas across the Atchafalaya River Basin, the corps announced late Thursday (Dec. 14)."
"The Trump administration violated the law by wrongly withholding funds for a popular Energy Department program supporting innovation, the Government Accountability Office said Tuesday."
Advertisement 
