National (U.S.)

"Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt on Thursday defended his frequent taxpayer-funded travel and his purchase of a custom soundproof communications booth for his office, saying both were justified."

"Much of the attention to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke's review of national monuments has focused on sites across the West, but recommendations he made to President Trump show that a trio of marine monuments could also see significant changes. In a report Interior released yesterday, Zinke advised that commercial fishing be introduced to three ocean sites: Rose Atoll, Pacific Remote Islands, and Northeast Canyons and Seamounts marine national monuments."

"The Fish and Wildlife Service could be thinking twice about how it removed Endangered Species Act protections from Yellowstone-area grizzly bears, thanks to a critical court ruling on wolves."

"The Trump administration is rolling back a requirement for trains carrying highly explosive liquids — like the oil trains that run through the Columbia River Gorge en route to Northwest refineries."

"The Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) inspector general said this week it will investigate Administrator Scott Pruitt’s April meeting with a coal mining industry group."

"Republicans have little room for dissension as they debate a plan to overhaul the nation’s tax system, and the Senate wooed Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski by including a provision that allows oil exploration in a portion of Alaska’s North Slope. That doesn’t sit well with some moderate House Republicans, including Miami Rep. Carlos Curbelo."

"A top Volkswagen official in the United States was sentenced on Wednesday to seven years in prison for his role in the German automaker’s decade-long scheme to cheat on diesel emissions tests."

"Scientists at the Environmental Protection Agency will be free to publicly discuss their work from now on, Scott Pruitt, the agency’s administrator, has assured lawmakers who criticized the E.P.A. for preventing employees from presenting findings about climate change."

"The American Petroleum Institute on Tuesday launched a voluntary program to cut emissions of the greenhouse gas methane from oil and gas operations, a move environmentalists said was not strong enough to adequately protect the climate."