"Climate Change Primed Washington State For Historic Flooding"
"Low snowpack, leftover burn scars, and abnormally warm temperatures are supercharging the atmospheric rivers hitting the Pacific Northwest."
Source: Grist, 12/17/2025
EJToday: Top Headlines
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"Disaster Survivors Denounce Proposed FEMA Downsizing"
"Flood, storm and fire survivors gathered in Washington, D.C., Monday to express their alarm over a leaked report from the FEMA Review Council that proposes halving the agency’s workforce and scaling back federal disaster assistance."
Source: Inside Climate News, 12/17/2025Orange Rivers, Melting Glaciers: Federal Report Shows Rapid Change In Arctic
"Hundreds of Arctic rivers and streams are turning bright red-orange, not from chemical pollution, but from naturally occurring iron spilling from long-frozen ground as temperatures warm."
Source: NPR, 12/17/2025"States Sue Trump Administration Over Frozen EV Charger Funds"
"A coalition of states sued the Trump administration Tuesday for blocking the full release of $2.5 billion in federal funding for electric car infrastructure, alleging the decision to stop disbursing funds is unlawful."
Source: Bloomberg Environment, 12/17/2025"‘No Water, No Life’: Iraq’s Tigris River In Danger Of Disappearing"
"Iraq’s famed Tigris is heavily polluted and at risk of drying up. Unless urgent action is taken to save the river, life will be fundamentally altered for the ancient communities who live on its banks."
Source: Guardian, 12/17/2025"EU Scraps 2035 Ban On New Petrol And Diesel Cars To Boost Auto Industry"
"The EU on Tuesday walked back a 2035 ban on new petrol and diesel cars seen as a milestone in the fight against climate change, as the bloc pivots to bolstering its crisis-hit auto sector."
Source: France 24, 12/17/2025Proposed NIH Caps On Open-Access Publishing Fees Roil Scientific Community
"Sometime next year, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) will announce new limits on how much funding grantees can spend on publication fees to make their articles open access, or free to read."
Source: Science, 12/17/2025Navajo Said No To A Hydro Project. Trump DOE Doesn't Want It To Happen Again
"The U.S. Energy Secretary said allowing tribes to weigh in on energy projects on their land creates "unnecessary burdens to the development of critical infrastructure.""
Source: Grist, 12/17/2025"Where Global Emissions Stand, 10 Years After The Paris Climate Agreement"
"The watershed summit in 2015 was far from perfect, but its impact so far has been significant and measurable"
Source: Guardian, 12/17/2025"Hong Kong’s Jimmy Lai Is Convicted of National Security Charges"
"The former publisher of a pro-democracy newspaper, Apple Daily, is expected to spend the rest of his life in prison."
Source: CJR, 12/16/2025"Trump Goes To War With States Over AI"
"The president’s order to limit states’ ability to regulate the spread of artificial intelligence is poised to set off political and legal fireworks that mirror his efforts to curb climate action."
Source: E&E News, 12/16/2025"Arizona City Rejects Data Center After AI Lobbying Push"
"Officials in this Phoenix suburb on Thursday rejected a proposed artificial intelligence data center despite pressure from a former U.S. senator and the tech industry — capping a fight over local control that has captured national attention."
Source: E&E News, 12/16/2025"How The US Freight Rail Industry Got Dirtier Than Coal Power Plants"
"U.S. railroads together produced about 485,000 tons of nitrogen oxide in 2024, compared to 452,000 tons emitted by U.S. coal-fired power plants, according to a Reuters calculation of reported annual fuel consumption multiplied by the EPA’s 2023 weighted-average emission rates."
Source: Reuters, 12/16/2025"Ford Will Take $19.5 Billion Hit as It Rolls Back E.V. Plans"
"Ford Motor said the costs came from its decision to make fewer electric vehicles than it had planned and more hybrids that use both gasoline engines and batteries."
"Ford Motor said Monday that it would scale back plans to produce electric vehicles and take a $19.5 billion hit to its profit to cover the costs of a major change in strategy.
Source: NYTimes, 12/16/2025As Wildfires Mount, So Do Efforts To Use Less Plastic in Homebuilding
"As wildfires driven by climate change are spurring efforts to build homes with fire-safe materials, the dangers of the use of plastic in construction needs more recognition, experts say." "Plastic used in building construction burns hotter than traditional materials and produces toxic smoke and runoff."
Source: Thomson Reuters Fdn., 12/16/2025
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