"Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Lee Zeldin appointed four chemical industry representatives to the agency’s Science Advisory Board last week, including employees of pesticide companies and of a leading manufacturer of the forever chemicals that now contaminate U.S. farm soils, waterways, and food."
"For 152 million Americans, including nearly half of the nation's children and teens, just breathing air in the places they live can be harmful. According to the American Lung Association's latest State of the Air report, 44% of the U.S. population reside in areas with unhealthy levels of pollution, including 33 million who are younger than 18."
"A Trump administration appointee has delayed publication of a Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) report that shows benefits related to the Covid vaccine, leading to concerns that the administration is engaging in behind-the-scenes tactics to undermine vaccines."
"After Texas regulators said Tesla’s lithium refinery near Corpus Christi wasn’t violating its permits by discharging what local officials reported as black wastewater into a drainage ditch, independent water testing there this month found two toxic metals and other contaminants."
"The pharmacologist gathered more than 60 researchers to push back on the retraction of a Monsanto-linked research paper."
"When the Supreme Court blocked President Barack Obama’s signature climate regulation a decade ago, conservative justices were worried about the cost to industry, according to private memos reported by The New York Times."
SEJournal is providing full coverage of all eight of the day-long tours from the annual Society of Environmental Journalists’ conference, April 15-18, in Chicago. In Part 2, contributors Meg Duff, Nathaniel Eisen, Nhung Nguyen and Marlowe Starling provide detailed reports from tours focused on the transitioning steel industry, microgrids, climate-friendly crop practices and evolving Midwestern agricultural systems.
Also check out the first round of tour coverage and read all the great work from our team of early-career freelance journalists, part of SEJournal’s live #SEJ2026 Live conference reporting.
Nearly as rejuvenating as attending the Society of Environmental Journalists’ annual gathering is perusing the après-conference spoof by contributing quipster David Helvarg. While it seemed he was mostly there unabashedly preselling his forthcoming book, he somehow found time to send up SEJ’s earnest sessions, lambast its blown-up tours and rib its beat dinners. Read his Chicago roast.
"Environmental groups sued the Trump administration on Monday to stop the British oil giant BP, which operated the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform that exploded in 2010, from starting a new $5 billion drilling project in ultra-deep waters in the Gulf of Mexico."
"Belching smoke from a new plastic waste processing plant in central Ohio has stirred opposition to an even larger “chemical recycling” factory planned for Arizona by the same company."
