"An environmental group has sued the U.S. Energy Department over its decision to award over $1 billion to help keep California’s last nuclear power plant running beyond a planned closure that was set for 2025. The move opens another battlefront in the fight over the future of Diablo Canyon’s twin reactors."

"Many Yanomami, the Amazon’s largest Indigenous tribe in relative isolation, have been contaminated with mercury coming from widespread illegal gold mining, according to a report released on Thursday by Brazil’s top public health institute."

"President Joe Biden has bolstered defenses for the federal workforce to ward off mass firing by a potential second Trump administration."

"The Biden administration Wednesday finalized a 20-year ban on new oil and gas drilling and mining activity on 221,898 acres of federal lands within western Colorado’s pristine Thompson Divide." "The 20-year ban on new drilling will protect a pristine region that local advocates say is renowned for its wildlife and recreation."

"The E.P.A. said the fund will spur a clean energy transition in overlooked communities. Republicans called it a “greendoggle.”"

"During the last century, federal agencies have undertaken a campaign to destroy huge tracts of piñon pines and juniper trees in the arid reaches of the American West."

"A mere 57 oil, gas, coal and cement producers are directly linked to 80% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions since the 2016 Paris climate agreement, a study has shown."

"Separate efforts by Brown University researchers and OpenSecrets allow searches of who’s influencing state lawmakers. Less than half of states make lobbying information accessible for analysis."

"The Biden administration unveiled on Tuesday the first-ever national plan for decarbonizing the nation’s residential and commercial buildings sector. The plan calls for a 90% reduction in carbon emissions from buildings by 2050."

"Steel towns will see some reductions in toxic pollution from new regulations — but not as much as they’d hoped."