"The Supreme Court has [agreed to hear] green-lighted the fossil fuel industry’s latest attempt to quash a swath of lawsuits seeking to hold oil companies accountable for the costs of climate change."
"The Trump administration is reopening a loophole to allow more mercury emissions from some coal-fired power plants, provoking swift denunciations from public health advocates who said the rollback will leave children at further risk of exposure to the brain-damaging element."
The enforcement of environmental laws suffered a dramatic collapse during the Trump administration’s first year, several studies have found. Even the most serious violations, typically referred to the Department of Justice, are left unpursued because of DOJ staffing declines. The latest Backgrounder has the details, a look at the administration’s rationale for the decline and the implications for the environment and public health.
"When an international organization sought to create guidelines on climate risk, insurance lobbying groups pushed back."
"Donald Trump approved a federal emergency declaration Saturday related to a sewer main break north of Washington DC that threatens to put a stink on the US’s 250th anniversary celebrations in the US capital this summer."
"A declaration recognizing whales as legal rights-holders is influencing legislation in New Zealand and sparking an international push to translate Indigenous customs into binding protections."
"Peggy Shepard walked into her living room on Tuesday morning when her husband told her Jesse Jackson, the civil rights titan from South Carolina, had died. “Immediately tears started coming,” said Shepard, co-founder and executive director of WE ACT for Environmental Justice, a New York City-based nonprofit."
"House Republicans are investigating environmental groups over their efforts to stop a major oil and natural gas project in Alaska."
"In a stretch of Louisiana with about 170 fossil fuel and petrochemical plants, premature death is a fact of life for people living nearby. The air is so polluted and the cancer rates so high it is known as Cancer Alley."
"Residents and elected officials are speaking out against a proposed border barrier through Texas’ biggest state park and one of the jewels of the national park system."
