Environmental Politics

"President Donald Trump’s pick to lead the Federal Emergency Management Agency wrote a memo last spring laying out how to kill the disaster agency."

"The Trump administration unlawfully began painting the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool basin blue without conducting the required consultations before altering a registered historic landmark, a new lawsuit alleged Monday."

"A class action settlement proposed in the nationwide Roundup litigation would award $675 million to lawyers who negotiated the settlement, while plaintiffs suffering from cancer would receive, on average, $10,000 to $165,000 each, according to a new court filing in the case."

"xAI has added 19 natural gas turbines to its second data center campus in Southhaven, Mississippi, over the past two months, according to internal emails seen by WIRED. The additions come as xAI is fighting a lawsuit from the NAACP and several environmental groups, alleging that the company is violating the Clean Air Act by operating more than two dozen natural gas turbines at the site without appropriate air permits."

"EPA on Monday proposed allowing data centers, power plants and other industrial facilities to begin certain construction work before obtaining required federal air permits."

"“America’s 250th anniversary celebration is supposed to be an occasion for strengthening public trust in our democratic institutions,” said one advocate. “Freedom 250 is a privately managed slush fund.”"

"A group of 18 state attorneys general are pushing EPA to delete its public online database of chemical facilities, citing vulnerabilities to hackers or other security threats."

"Across the country, wildland firefighters are staring down what could be one of the most severe fire seasons in recent history. Among those figuring out how to prepare is the U.S. Wildland Fire Service, a brand new agency created by the Trump administration."

"Scott Boyd walks through deep mud where the Stillaguamish River empties into Puget Sound, an arm of the Pacific Ocean."

"Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has said little publicly about vaccines in recent months, at the behest of a White House worried that his unpopular stance will hurt Republicans in November’s midterm elections. But he has not abandoned his quest for evidence that they are unsafe."