"As Maryland lawmakers weigh proposals aimed at reining in utility companies, lowering electricity prices and expanding the state’s low-carbon energy system, a new audit report has found that the lobbyists who want to influence those decisions have largely operated in the dark—and done so legally."

"A bill banning the pesticide paraquat died last week in the Virginia House of Delegates after the chamber’s Agriculture, Chesapeake and Natural Resources Committee voted 22-0, with little explanation, to carry the measure over to next year for consideration."

"The Virginia Senate’s Finance and Appropriations Committee approved budget legislation for the coming fiscal year that ends a tax exemption for data centers on January 1."

"The Center for Biological Diversity filed suit against the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Feb. 11 for failing to make a preliminary decision about whether to expand protection for the saltmarsh sparrow, a bird whose population is in sharp decline around the Chesapeake Bay and the marshes along the East Coast."

"Donald Trump approved a federal emergency declaration Saturday related to a sewer main break north of Washington DC that threatens to put a stink on the US’s 250th anniversary celebrations in the US capital this summer."

"A D.C. utility had been working for weeks to repair a collapsed sewer line when the president blamed Maryland’s governor for the contamination on Monday."

"The Washington Post produced high-quality and wide-ranging climate coverage. Then it fired most of its climate reporters."

"Polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, haven’t been produced since 1979, after studies found that exposure to them could cause a variety of harmful health effects, including cancer. But they were so widely used before then and so long-lasting that they still impair water quality in much of the tidal Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries."

"A wastewater spill into the Potomac River that began last month now appears to be one of the largest in American history."

"Scientists have known for years that water levels are rising faster in the Chesapeake Bay region than just about anywhere else in the world — because water is only part of the problem here. The land is also sinking."