House Panel Narrows Bill To Protect Ratepayers From Data Center Hikes
"The latest Ratepayer Protection Act would apply more specifically to data centers."
Source: E&E News, 07/23/2026
EJToday: Top Headlines
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One Billion Plastic Pellets Spill Into UK River Tyne As Ships Collide
"Approximately a billion tiny plastic nurdles have entered the River Tyne after a “devastating spill”, with the pellets thought to have spread much further than first thought."
Source: Guardian, 07/23/2026From Rivers To Mangroves, Microplastics Are Contaminating The Amazon
"Recent studies show that microplastics are already present in a variety of Amazonian environments: Major rivers such as the Amazon, urban streams, floodplain areas and mangroves in the Amazon’s Mouth."
Source: Mongabay, 07/23/2026Tropical Storm Bertha To Bring Heavy Rain, Flooding Along Gulf Coast
"Tropical Storm Bertha strengthened in the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday but was expected to weaken as it chugs closer to the U.S., potentially bringing coastal flooding and heavy rain from the Florida Panhandle to Louisiana."
Source: AP, 07/22/2026Trump EPA Kills Proposed Rules For Pfas-Contaminated Sewage Fertilizer
"The Trump administration has killed the regulatory review of sewage sludge contaminated with Pfas and spread on farmland as fertilizer, a practice that has sickened farmers, destroyed their livelihoods, killed livestock, polluted water supplies, and poisoned meat and food products sold to the public."
Source: Guardian, 07/22/2026"EPA Violated Key Soot Standard in Clean Air Act, Court Rules"
"In what many environmental organizations are touting as a victory, a federal judge last week ruled that the Environmental Protection Agency violated the Clean Air Act by failing to meet its legal deadline to identify areas failing to meet its 2024 particulate matter standard."
Source: Inside Climate News, 07/22/2026U.S. Is Pulling Back on Energy Efficiency Just as Prices Are Rising
"The Trump administration is dismantling a wide array of federal energy-efficiency programs at the same time that war in Iran is raising oil prices, climate change is fueling record heat that is driving up demand for air conditioning and new data centers are straining America’s electricity supply."
Source: New York Times, 07/22/2026Trump Threatens National Academies With Debarment. Here’s What It Is.
"The oil industry and its allies gained a major supporter in their yearslong effort to derail climate science programs at the National Academies: the president of the United States."
Source: E&E News, 07/22/2026Vibrio On The Rise As Climate Warms The Chesapeake Bay
"One day last July, Vernon Spear scratched his forearm on a crab pot as he pulled it out of the Choptank River from his pier in Cambridge, MD. He put hydrogen peroxide on the tiny cuts, thinking that would disinfect them. That night, his forearm swelled up, and he spiked a high fever."
Source: Bay Journal, 07/22/2026Wildfire Smoke Kills Tens Of Thousands Of People A Year. Here’s How.
"Smoke from wildfires — which are burning more of the Northern Hemisphere as Earth warms — attacks nearly every system in the human body, killing tens of thousands of people a year, numerous medical studies show."
Source: AP, 07/22/2026States, NYC Sue EPA For Relaxing Climate Rule Over Hydrofluorocarbons
"The Trump administration was sued on Tuesday by 18 Democratic-led states, Washington, D.C. and New York City over a new federal rule they say would harm the climate by giving companies more time to stop using dangerous hydrofluorocarbons in commercial refrigeration equipment."
Source: Reuters, 07/22/2026Western Reservoirs That Supply California Fall To Record Low Levels
"The Colorado River’s largest reservoirs, Lake Mead and Lake Powell, have declined to their lowest combined levels on record.
Researchers say the new low underscores the urgent need to cut water use in the seven states that depend on the river."Source: Los Angeles Times, 07/22/2026Conservation Bringing Back Oystercatchers, Sharp-Billed R.I. Shorebird
"On a pristine Rhode Island beach teeming with noisy seabirds, a group of biologists armed with nets sneak up on a pair of American oystercatcher chicks."
Source: AP, 07/22/2026Trump Attacks Top US Scientific Body Over Climate Chapter in Manual
"The president joined Republican officials who slammed the National Academies of Sciences for a chapter about climate science in an educational guide for judges."
Source: New York Times, 07/21/2026Trump Panel Seeks To Weaken Historic-Preservation Reviews Of Projects
"The Trump administration is seeking to loosen federal rules intended to protect historic sites, alarming outside groups who say the changes would allow government agencies and developers to pursue major projects — such as President Donald Trump’s planned triumphal arch — without soliciting public input."
Source: Washington Post, 07/21/2026
