"A Texas-based federal judge assented to a Trump administration request Tuesday and ended Endangered Species Act protections for the lesser prairie chicken."
"Renewable projects have historically been able to qualify for federal tax credits once a developer spent 5 percent of a project’s cost. But that threshold would be scrapped under the new Treasury Department guidance."
"The Republican lawmakers who voted for Donald Trump’s anti-environment tax and spending bill have accepted more than $105m in political donations from the fossil fuel industry, a new analysis has found, raising concerns about their relationship with big oil."
"The Trump administration is also looking to revive mining in the popular wilderness area"
"California has approved an unprecedented plan to protect the iconic Joshua tree from climate change and development."
"In El Paso, heat deaths hit record highs in 2023 and 2024. Advocates say not enough is being done to protect the region’s most vulnerable people."
"The agency plans to fast-track these projects through the development process. Nuclear energy experts worry about the feasibility and safety of the plan."
"One of the largest deer-smuggling networks in the state’s history aimed to skirt chronic wasting disease-containment rules, officials say."
As expanded development on Washington’s Olympic Peninsula encroaches on prime wildlife habitat, big cats find it harder to avoid people, and many wind up dead. In this Inside Story Q&A, Liza Gross of Inside Climate News describes how she and photographer/editor Michael Kodas worked with a local cougar protection team to track a family of big cats to their den and through the area.
Public databases — a boon to good environmental reporting — have long been a priority for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, as evidenced in its just-published “open data plan.” But as an analysis in the latest Reporter’s Toolbox notes, that pioneering approach may succumb to Trump 2.0 policies. What’s at stake and what’s already being lost.
