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"The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has fined Durham, N.C.-based American Efficient $722 million and ordered the company to repay more than $410 million in “unjust profits” for alleged fraud in its energy efficiency program."
"A WIRED review of permits for data center projects using natural gas and linked to OpenAI, Meta, Microsoft, and xAI shows they could emit more than 129 million tons of greenhouse gases per year."
"Although the department’s overall budget will increase in 2027, the amounts dedicated to environmental management, research and renewable energy infrastructure face significant hits."
"A proposed waste-to-energy facility in Fiji has been labelled as "waste colonialism" by opponents of the plant. The $900 million venture, backed by Australian billionaire Ian Malouf, would burn hundreds of thousands of tonnes of waste each year at a site built near a popular tourist destination."
"House Republicans had big plans for Earth Day this year: They would pass a bill to narrow protections for endangered species that they had long seen as federal overreach. It didn’t work out that way."
"A Trump administration appointee has delayed publication of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report that shows benefits related to the Covid vaccine, leading to concerns that the administration is engaging in behind-the-scenes tactics to undermine vaccines."
"For 152 million Americans, including nearly half of the nation's children and teens, just breathing air in the places they live can be harmful. According to the American Lung Association's latest State of the Air report, 44% of the U.S. population reside in areas with unhealthy levels of pollution, including 33 million who are younger than 18."
"A federal judge in Texas has tossed a defamation suit brought by FBI Director Kash Patel against former FBI assistant director-turned-MSNBC contributor Frank Figliuzzi."
"It could worsen heat and humidity in the West this summer, and also boost the risks of Pacific hurricanes as well as wildfires in the region."
"Two veteran officials from the first Trump administration — Michael Abboud and Molly Vaseliou — have left EPA’s Office of External Affairs."
"Four endangered fish species could see a big boon from the Bureau of Reclamation’s emergency plans for the stressed waterway this year."
"President Donald Trump invoked the Cold War-era Defense Production Act on Monday to shore up federal funding for a host of energy projects — involving oil, gas, coal and the grid — as the White House moved to buffer climbing electricity and fuel costs."
"The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is putting public health at risk by continuing to let farmers spray glyphosate, a weed killer linked to cancer, directly on top of oats before harvest, a practice that commonly results in residues of the pesticide remaining on popular foods made with oats, according to a new lawsuit."
"Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin appointed four chemical industry representatives to the agency’s Science Advisory Board last week, including employees of pesticide companies and of a leading manufacturer of the forever chemicals that now contaminate U.S. farm soils, waterways, and food."
"The wildfires that used to burn each summer in the woods above the Spanish village of Barro have diminished to almost none since Lucia Perez started grazing wild horses there."
