Utilities Don't Want To Clean Up Their Toxic Coal Ash. EPA Grants Their Wish.
"Advocates fear the agency will “justify avoiding any enforcement whatsoever” of millions of tons of coal ash nationwide."
Source: Grist, 03/26/2025
EJToday: Top Environmental Politics Headlines
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"Republicans Helped Some Environment Programs Dodge DOGE"
"Republican lawmakers have succeeded in back-channeling with Trump officials to save energy and environment programs and workers from the wrath of Elon Musk."
Source: E&E News, 03/26/2025Treating Texas’ Oilfield Wastewater Could Use More Energy Than Most States
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"As Texas stares down a water shortfall, its leaders are looking at vast volumes of brown, briney oilfield wastewater as a hopeful source of future supply. They don’t have many other options. But extracting clean water from this toxic slurry will require enormous amounts of energy, just as Texas fights to keep up with the rapidly growing power demands of a high-tech industrial buildout."
Source: Inside Climate News, 03/26/2025EPA Cuts Grants For Measuring and Reducing Construction Material Emissions
"The Trump administration has eviscerated a grant program designed to make U.S. industry cleaner and more competitive by improving measurement of emissions from building materials. The Environmental Protection Agency says it has canceled $116 million in grants to 21 recipients that include universities and trade groups, according to information obtained by the Sierra Club through a public records request."
Source: Inside Climate News, 03/26/2025Despite Staff and Budget Cuts, NOAA Issues Critical Drought Warnings
"The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, although battered by Trump administration attempts to impose massive staff and budget cuts on the agency, nevertheless continues to publish critical climate information, including some dire drought warnings in the spring outlook published March 20 by NOAA’s Climate Prediction Center."
Source: Inside Climate News, 03/26/2025"Supreme Court Weighs Which Courts Can Hear Clean Air Act Disputes"
"The Supreme Court appears poised to keep at least some Clean Air Act disputes in federal courts outside of D.C. — preventing what at least one justice described as “home court advantage” for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)."
Source: The Hill, 03/26/2025Is Planting Trees 'DEI'? Trump USFS Cuts Nationwide Tree-Planting Effort
"The Trump administration's efforts to end federal diversity, equity and inclusion programs has hit an unexpected target: In February, communities around the country learned that funding was canceled for a nationwide tree-planting program aimed at making neighborhoods cooler, healthier and more resilient to climate change."
Source: NPR, 03/26/2025"Voice Of America Journalists Sue Trump Officials For Dismantling The Outlet"
"The lawsuit asks a federal judge to order Trump administration officials to restore VOA."
"Six Voice of America journalists — including its former White House bureau chief — sued members of the Trump administration Friday, accusing officials of unlawfully shuttering a federally funded media outlet that has delivered news coverage to millions across the globe since its founding during World War II.
Source: Washington Post, 03/25/2025Congress Seeks Trillions in Cuts. Will Oil Industry’s Tax Breaks Skate By?
"With a $4.5 trillion fight over tax cuts looming, the oil and gas industry wants to protect billions of dollars in tax benefits it enjoys and get new ones, too."
Source: Inside Climate News, 03/25/2025Georgia Jury Orders Bayer To Pay Nearly $2.1 Billion In Roundup Suit
"A jury in Georgia has ordered Monsanto parent Bayer to pay nearly $2.1 billion in damages to a man who says the company’s Roundup weed killer caused his cancer, according to attorneys representing the plaintiff."
Source: AP, 03/25/2025"Trump Will Nominate Acting CDC Director Susan Monarez For The Position"
"President Donald Trump will nominate Susan Monarez, the acting director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and a longtime federal staffer, to the permanent position, a White House official confirmed Monday."
Source: AP, 03/25/2025"The Doublespeak of Energy Secretary Chris Wright"
"In his confirmation hearing, the Liberty Energy founder pledged broad support for renewable energy. But when speaking to conservatives, he declared, “We don’t have replacements” for coal, oil and gas."
Source: ProPublica, 03/25/2025"Juliana v. US: Supreme Court Decision Brings 10-Year Climate Case to an End"
"Although young plaintiffs and their supporters were disappointed by the U.S. Supreme Court effectively ending their constitutional climate lawsuit on Monday, they also emphasized the positive and far-reaching impacts of Juliana v. United States over the past decade."
Source: Common Dreams, 03/25/2025Oil And Gas Money Shapes Research, ‘Echo Chamber’ In Higher Education
"Jackson Voss loves his alma mater, Louisiana State University. He appreciates that his undergraduate education was paid for by a program dreamed up by an oil magnate and that he received additional scholarships from ExxonMobil and Shell. But the socially conscious Louisiana native was also aware of what the support of those companies seemed to buy — silence."
Source: Floodlight, 03/24/2025Fossil-Funded Research Used To Avoid Paying Workers Hurt By 2010 Gulf Spill
"Academic research paid for by BP and Exxon is being used to combat workers’ claims that exposure to oil and chemical dispersants made them ill."
Source: Drilled, 03/24/2025
