"Droughts are already getting longer and more severe because of human-caused climate change in the American Southwest and around the world. But the drought-climate connection goes both ways: California's prolonged dry spell has also made climate change a little bit worse."

"EPA's revised Worker Protection Standard is scheduled to take effect on Monday (Jan. 2), but the new rules face an uncertain future in the new administration."

"The head of the Department of Environmental Quality will stay at the agency, despite an incoming Democratic administration."

"A top state environmental regulator who has urged Trump to rein in the EPA and has been criticized for his lenient treatment of polluters, stepped down over the holidays - giving himself a staff position that will be protected under the new North Carolina administration.

"U.S. Navy-trained dolphins and their handlers will participate in a last-ditch effort to catch, enclose and protect the last few dozen of Mexico's critically endangered vaquita porpoises to save them from extinction."

"2016 has crushed the record for hottest year, set way back in 2015, which itself smashed the previous record for hottest year that was set in 2014."

"President-elect Donald Trump’s energy agenda is shaping up to be a years-long effort to undo President Obama’s policies."

"There's more methane gas in the atmosphere than there used to be, by every scientific measure. The Obama administration has been trying to stem the increase of this powerful greenhouse gas, but the incoming Trump administration appears bent on keeping the government's hands off methane."

"It was supposed to be a triumphant morning for Republicans on Capitol Hill — a moment to demonstrate the merits of unified party rule in the age of Donald J. Trump. By noon, party leaders had a message for their charges: It was not going smoothly."

"The latest battleground for the future of fracking in Britain looks set to be Sherwood Forest, the legendary home of folk hero Robin Hood and now the target of a seismic survey by Ineos."

"Hundreds of construction workers will be put to work in Fremont over the next couple summers building a massive $275 million facility for producing broiler chickens, and the utility lines and roads to serve it, as well as upgrading the city’s water treatment plant."