Environmental Politics

"Petrostates and well-funded lobbyists at UN-hosted talks are derailing a deal to cut plastic production and protect people and the planet"

"Senate appropriators on Thursday advanced legislation funding environment and natural resource agencies targeted for deep budget cuts by the Trump administration." "The bill’s spending would be higher than a House Republican proposal and the Trump administration’s budget request."

"The United States and Mexico have signed an agreement outlining specific steps and a new timetable to clean up the longstanding problem of the Tijuana River pouring sewage across the border and polluting California beaches, officials from both countries announced Thursday."

"Old oil wells on the reservation spew chemical-laden water. The feds have done little to honor treaty obligations to clean them up."

"The Trump administration just dealt another blow to U.S. environmental regulations — one that could allow more contamination of drinking water from toxic coal ash contamination. The Environmental Protection Agency proposed on July 17 to extend deadlines for required reporting and groundwater monitoring at coal ash landfills and dumps."

"The Trump administration just dealt a blow to the biggest transmission line project currently underway in the United States." "The Grain Belt Express is over a decade in the making and would bring huge amounts of cheap wind and solar from the plains to the East. Its future is now murky."

"Law enforcement agencies, including the FBI, have for years worked alongside private mine security to surveil the largely peaceful protesters who oppose the mine, called Thacker Pass, according to more than 2,000 pages of internal law enforcement communications reviewed by ProPublica."

"A coalition of environmental, labor and public safety groups are calling on US lawmakers to reject the Trump administration’s move to eliminate a federal unit that investigates chemical accidents, citing risks to more than 170 million people who lives in zones at risk for such events."

"The White House released a sweeping action plan Wednesday to boost development of artificial intelligence, a move that could influence the build-out of the grid and the electricity mix for decades."

"The EPA announced Wednesday its plan to re-register dicamba, a herbicide widely used on soybean and cotton farms that has been banned twice by federal courts."