"Studies in Kern County, performed by oil industry consultants, cannot answer fundamental safety questions about irrigating crops with “produced water,” the board’s own panel of experts concedes."

"The nation’s largest electric grid operator, PJM Interconnection, is so clogged with requests from energy developers seeking connections to its  regional transmission network in the eastern United States that it is proposing a two-year pause on reviewing more than 1,200 energy projects, most of them solar power."

"California regulators are delaying a vote on a controversial proposal to slash incentives for home solar systems as they consider revamping the measure."

"Conservation groups sued the federal government Tuesday over last year’s record manatee deaths, saying the government failed to follow the law by designating protected habitat for the marine mammals."

"Board members of four major oil companies declined to appear at a House oversight panel hearing scheduled for Feb. 8 to answer questions about their companies’ climate change plans, the committee said on Thursday."

"Protecting people from exposure to toxic “forever chemicals” will be a top priority for new state regulations throughout the U.S. in 2022, according to a new analysis."

"After years of largely neglecting the buildup of plastic waste in Earth’s environment, the U.N. Environment Assembly will meet in February and March in the hopes of drafting the first international treaty controlling global plastics pollution."

"Peacocks may lose their legally mandated welcome in some neighborhoods across Miami-Dade after county commissioners agreed to loosen a law protecting the divisive birds."

"The Environmental Protection Agency warns Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to halt his plan to replace the aging delivery fleet with thousands of gas-powered vehicles."

"The Biden administration launched a last-minute push Wednesday to derail the U.S. Postal Service’s plan to spend billions of dollars on a new fleet of gasoline-powered delivery trucks, citing the damage the polluting vehicles could inflict on the climate and Americans’ health.

"How far the Federal Reserve can go to compel banks to consider the consequences of climate change in their lending policies could take center stage at a Senate hearing Thursday on the nominations of Sarah Bloom Raskin and two economists to the Fed’s influential Board of Governors."