EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt, "a former Oklahoma attorney general who built a career out of suing the agency he now leads, has moved to stock the top offices of the agency with like-minded conservatives — many of them skeptics of climate change and all of them intent on rolling back environmental regulations that they see as overly intrusive and harmful to business."
"The Senate is set to roll back another Obama-era environment rule this week. Senators on Monday will begin the process of repealing a Bureau of Land Management rule to reorganize the government’s land planning and management guidelines."
"The chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee is asking budget writers to set aside $50 million to account for the costs to transfer federal land to state or local governments."
"President Trump and congressional Republicans are poised to roll back a series of Obama-era worker safety regulations targeted by business groups, beginning Monday night with a vote by the Senate to kill a rule that required federal contractors to disclose and correct serious safety violations."
"A high-stakes legal battle between ExxonMobil and the New York attorney general's office is roiling around documents held by the company's auditors. Those documents, usually dry disclosures that hold little public interest, could afford a candid—and perhaps damaging—glimpse into Exxon's private calculations of the business risks posed by climate change."
"U.S. coal miner Peabody Energy Corp said on Monday it has agreed to set aside collateral to cover future mine cleanup costs as part of its bankruptcy reorganization plan, ending its controversial use of 'self-bonds.'"
"Rick Ostfeld and Felicia Keesing have been studying Lyme disease and ways to stop it for more than 20 years. The couple has come up with a way to predict how bad a Lyme season will be a full year in advance."
"For nearly 50 years, Oroville Dam has been the linchpin of a sprawling state plumbing system that draws water from wet Northern California to 25 million people and thousands of acres of farmland in the arid south. That changed Feb. 7 when a crater as large as a football field dropped out of the dam's concrete-lined spillway."
"For years, the Obama administration proposed cuts to a Pacific salmon recovery program — and for years, Congress ignored the request and fully funded the program within the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration."
Wondering what WOTUS is? Or how the Clean Water Rule relates to the Clean Water Act and to the Section 404 permitting program meant to prevent the destruction of U.S. wetlands? Our Beat Basics column explains the history and background of the rule to help you cover White House, EPA and court action likely ahead.
