"Three Senate Democrats asked the Environmental Protection Agency’s inspector general Thursday to probe whether agency chief Scott Pruitt received an improper gift from a top aide who conducted a housing search for him last year, citing new emails that show the staffer corresponded with a real estate agent during office hours on her agency email account."
"The board of scientists that advises the Environmental Protection Agency, including members recently appointed by Administrator Scott Pruitt, voted unanimously on Thursday to review the agency’s proposal to limit the kinds of scientific research it can use in crafting regulations, saying the policy requires more scrutiny from the scientific community."
"The fate of one of Alaska's largest and most contentious wetland projects may rest with a former congressional staffer who once said some nasty things about wetlands."
"Two Alaska Native corporations and a small oil services firm together have applied to do extensive seismic work next winter in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, the first move toward development there since Congress voted late last year to open up the pristine wilderness to oil and gas drilling."
"The Trump administration took a major step toward dramatically weakening an Obama-era rule designed to cut pollution from vehicle tailpipes, setting the stage for a legal clash with California that could potentially split the nation’s auto market in two."
"The United States is importing more organic corn and soybeans than it’s producing, according to recent data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service."
"Mudslides triggered by the soggy remnants of Alberto forced evacuations below a dam and closed an interstate highway in the western mountains of North Carolina on Wednesday."
"An Illinois environmental group filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday against the owner of a shuttered power plant where contaminants from old coal ash ponds are seeping into the state’s only National Scenic River, saying federal and state environmental agencies aren’t doing enough to stop it."
"The attorneys general (AG) from three states are suing the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) for failing to enforce a requirement meant in part to protect farmworkers from pesticides."
"The U.S. Transportation Department is repealing a rule, finalized in the closing days of the Obama administration as part of the fight against global warming, requiring states to track greenhouse gas emissions from vehicles on the nation’s highways."
