Environmental Politics

"Folklore dating to ancient Egypt has held that cats have nine lives and in modern times that mystique certainly seems true for the Florida panther. Sometimes it feels like everything in the world is trying to snuff out the panthers — everything human, that is. The panthers, a mountain lion subspecies, nearly went extinct in the 1990s, when the population dwindled to 20. That would have been embarrassing for Florida, which — thanks to a 1981 vote by schoolchildren — had designated the panther as the official state animal."

"California sued the Trump administration Monday to block what it says is an unprecedented power grab: using emergency authority to force the restart of an offshore oil operation shut down more than a decade ago."

"The president has approved just 23 percent of blue state requests for disaster aid, compared to 89 percent for red states."

"Illinois has nearly 1.5 million lead service lines. A new report estimates replacing the unsafe plumbing has the potential to create 90,000 jobs."

"The industrial-grade buoys, already being installed in Brownsville, Texas, are meant to prevent unauthorized crossings. But experts warn the buoys could intensify flooding and change the river’s course."

"A new analysis warns that some of the world’s biggest fossil fuel companies have entered a ‘gaslighting’ phase to bolster their profits."

"The Trump administration reached a nearly $1 billion agreement with French energy giant TotalEnergies on Monday to cancel its offshore wind leases off the coasts of New York and North Carolina."

"A year ago, federal environmental regulators told West Virginia officials that their plan to clear sulfur and smog from skies over the state’s national wilderness areas wasn’t good enough because a dozen coal plants didn’t analyze whether they needed better pollution controls." 

"States are fighting a requirement that chargers getting federal funding be made with 100% American components — a standard no manufacturers currently meet."

"Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, will be the opening speaker at a conference next month sponsored by the Heartland Institute, a group that rejects the overwhelming scientific consensus on climate change, the organization has announced."