"House Democrats this week are set to back significant spending increases for the fiscal 2020 funding bills that cover the bulk of energy and environmental programs."
"After a long legal battle and a surprising loss in a lower court last year, green groups are celebrating their successful appeal of oil and gas drilling near New Mexico's sensitive Chaco Canyon area."
The leasing of public lands to drill for oil and gas may seem a labyrinthine topic. But it could be time to get wonky and, ahem, drill down on it, as the politics of 2020 bring the controversial practice to the fore. The latest Backgrounder helps get you up to speed on the story.
"A second version of legislation in Ohio designed to subsidize the operation of two nuclear power plants appears to have the same limitations on renewable energy development as the first version."
"Three Senate Democrats on Friday called on Kelly Craft, President Trump’s nominee to serve as United Nations ambassador, to commit to prioritizing U.S. interests on climate change over her financial interests."
"Democrats are embracing a once-fringe demand that could cut emissions at the scale of the Obama administration's biggest climate policies. A growing number of presidential candidates want to lock down the vast fossil fuel deposits sitting beneath federally owned lands and waters."
"China, known as the world's biggest polluter, has been taking dramatic steps to clean up and fight climate change. So why is it also building hundreds of coal-fired power plants in other countries?"
"The Securities & Exchange Commission has more Trump appointees now, and energy and utility companies see an ally as they try to stop investors' climate resolutions."
"Under a proposal being considered in the Texas House this week, activists who engage in civil disobedience to stop or delay construction on pipelines would be charged with the same level of felony as attempted murderers." Journalists covering protests could also be hit with felony charges.
"The Trump administration on Thursday made public its rollback of a major offshore-drilling safety regulation, significantly weakening an Obama-era rule that was put in place after the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion in the Gulf of Mexico, which killed 11 people and sent 4.9 million barrels of oil gushing into the sea, causing the worst oil spill in American history."
