"U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley said on Tuesday he supported a plan by one of his Senate colleagues to block the nomination of an Environmental Protection Agency official until the agency makes clear how it would handle requests from oil refiners for retroactive exemptions from their biofuel blending mandates."
"An internal watchdog said Tuesday that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) hasn’t provided a good explanation for its decision not to recover travel expenses from former Administrator Scott Pruitt that were found to be improper."
"A federal fisheries management agency has barred some of its employees from making formal references to the COVID-19 pandemic without preapproval from leadership, according to an internal agency document."
"The New Hampshire House passed a bill Tuesday that would put into law some of country’s toughest drinking water standards for a group of toxic chemicals and provides tens of millions of dollars to help communities in the state meet the rules."
"A U.N. body has eased a greenhouse gas reduction plan at the urging of the airline industry, which cited the coronavirus’ financial damage as an obstacle to achieving the plan’s intended targets."
"A new flu virus found in Chinese pigs has become more infectious to humans and needs to be watched closely in case it becomes a potential “pandemic virus”, a study said, although experts said there is no imminent threat."
"The U.S. public health system has been starved for decades and lacks the resources to confront the worst health crisis in a century."
"The nation’s automakers would manufacture only electric cars. Utilities would have to stop producing pollution linked to climate change. And the federal government would double its investment in mass transit. All this and more was proposed by House Democrats on Tuesday under a plan aimed at bringing the U.S. economy’s greenhouse gas emissions — including carbon dioxide and methane — to zero by 2050."
"Alaskan beavers are carving out a growing web of channels, dams and ponds in the frozen Arctic tundra of northwestern Alaska, helping to turn it into a soggy sponge that intensifies global warming."
"The Trump administration is taking aim at climate-friendly investments with a plan to block retirement fund managers from decisions the Labor Department says would put social goals before profits."
