"Just after sunrise, elk are grazing in a misty field in Washington's Skagit Valley, an hour and a half north of Seattle. ... These elk are at the center of a conflict that's unfolding between Native Americans and farmers in northwest Washington."
"The 2020 election could be a pivotal moment for the oil industry in Texas, and thus the rest of the U.S. energy sector."
"The plastic shopping bag has long been hunted by state and local policymakers pushing for its extinction. But still it thrives, thanks to the deep-pocketed chemical industry that birthed it and the political influence of retailers and restaurants. Only eight states ban single-use plastic bags. Nearly twice as many have laws protecting them."
"People fleeing immediate danger due to the climate crisis cannot be forced to return home, the UN has said."
"The Bureau of Land Management is preparing to overhaul grazing regulations, including how it addresses scofflaw ranchers on public lands."
Despite warnings that the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency would be dismantled under the Trump administration, it remains very much alive, thanks to the realities of politics and litigation. Yet its staffing, enforcement and science advisory roles remain under the gun. In the latest of our Backgrounders for the “2020 Journalists’ Guide to Energy & Environment,” we read the tea leaves on the future of the EPA.
"Gina McCarthy wrapped up week two as head of the Natural Resources Defense Council by laying out her goals to reporters for what will be a pivotal year in energy and environmental policy."
"When patients participate in health studies, their medical and genetic details are typically kept anonymous to protect them. A controversial Trump administration plan to limit the scientific studies used in policymaking could put that anonymity in jeopardy, a new study warns."
"U.S. Senator and Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren called for former U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry to resign from a board seat overseeing the Dallas pipeline company Energy Transfer, calling his move into an industry his agency oversaw “unethical”."
"President Trump announced his administration's plan for a major rollback to an Obama-era water rule on Sunday, a move the White House believes could pay dividends with the farm vote in this year's presidential election."
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