Environmental Politics

"House and Senate negotiators reached agreement on Thursday on far-reaching legislation to overhaul the nation’s 40-year-old law governing toxic chemicals, a compromise that would subject thousands of household chemicals to regulation for the first time.

Public health advocates and environmentalists have complained for decades that the 1976 Toxic Substances Control Act is outdated and riddled with gaps that leave Americans exposed to harmful chemicals. Under current law, around 64,000 chemicals are not subject to environmental testing or regulation.

"A House committee on Wednesday passed a bill to delay the Obama administration’s new ozone pollution rule and change the way the federal government writes future air pollution rules."

"The US would still meet its obligations under the Paris accord on climate change if Donald Trump were elected president, a senior US administration official has told the Guardian."

"Republican presidential contender Donald Trump said on Tuesday he would renegotiate America’s role in the U.N. global climate accord, spelling potential doom for an agreement many view as a last chance to turn the tide on global warming."

"Leading lawmakers in the House and Senate said Tuesday evening they are in the final stages of hammering out a compromise bill to reform federal chemical safety standards."

"Grand Canyon National Park Superintendent Dave Uberuaga, who has shouldered responsibility for not acting more aggressively in response to long-running allegations of sexual harassment in the park, has announced his retirement rather than accept a move to the National Park Service's Washington headquarters."

"A UN panel that on Tuesday ruled that glyphosate was probably not carcinogenic to humans has now become embroiled in a bitter row about potential conflicts of interests. It has emerged that an institute co-run by the chairman of the UN’s joint meeting on pesticide residues (JMPR) received a six-figure donation from Monsanto, which uses the substance as a core ingredient in its bestselling Roundup weedkiller."

"The Senate voted on Tuesday to advance $1.1 billion in emergency financing to combat the mosquito-borne Zika virus — less than the $1.9 billion requested by the White House, and setting up a confrontation with House Republicans who have put forward a plan with just $622 million reallocated from other programs."

"As [North Carolina] state regulators prepare to release risk assessments of Duke Energy coals ash waste impoundments this week, a state health official divulged that some health officials opposed the state’s reversal of warning that drinking wells near the waste posed health risks."

"Saying the Virgin Islands' racketeering investigation 'appears to be driven by ideology, not law,' states file in support of company in Texas court. "

"The top law enforcement officials of Texas and Alabama are jumping in on the side of ExxonMobil, objecting to a racketeering investigation of the oil giant by the attorney general of the U.S. Virgin Islands.