Environmental Politics

"Priests, pastors and ministers nationwide are spreading the gospel of climate change — as are imams and rabbis."

"How we view the costs of future climate change, and more importantly how we quantify them, may soon be changing. A much-anticipated new report, just released by the National Academy of Sciences, recommends major updates to a federal metric known as the “social cost of carbon” —  and its suggestions could help address a growing scientific concern that we’re underestimating the damages global warming will cause."

"A new front has opened in the fight against the developer of the Dakota Access Pipeline. The battleground this time is rural west Texas, where a small, yet intense opposition to building the Trans-Pecos Pipeline has gained force in recent days."

"Letters from both supporters and opponents of Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) nominee Scott Pruitt landed in senators’ inboxes on Thursday."

"Rex Tillerson told the Senate panel considering his nomination for secretary of state that he supported the United States remaining in the Paris climate agreement and that he has made his views known to Donald Trump."

"Secretary of state nominee Rex Tillerson on Wednesday said he believes 'the risk of climate change does exist, and the consequences could be serious enough that action should be taken.' But while the Obama administration and other world leaders have aggressively pursued efforts to slash carbon dioxide emissions and stave off global warming, the former ExxonMobil chief executive expressed little such urgency when testifying before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee on Capitol Hill Wednesday."

"With just days until President-elect Donald Trump’s inauguration, the Department of the Interior finalized a report Wednesday calling for major changes to the federal coal program by which the U.S. manages the leasing of land to companies for exploration and production across 570 million publicly owned acres."

"Attorney general nominee Jeff Sessions did not disclose his ownership of oil interests on land in Alabama as required by federal ethics rules, according to an examination of state records and independent ethics lawyers who reviewed the documents."

"Outspoken vaccine critic Robert Kennedy Jr. has accepted a position within Donald Trump’s administration as chair of a panel on vaccine safety and scientific integrity — the clearest sign yet of the president-elect’s suspicions about vaccines."

"A total of 640 businesses and investors sent a letter to President-elect Trump and Congress on Tuesday, strongly urging continued investment in the clean energy sector. The letter, coordinated by the nonprofit group Ceres, which works with investors and companies to promote sustainability, contains big tech names like Adobe, SalesForce, eBay, HP, SolarCity, Symantec and Tesla."