Natural Resources

"Virginia's longtime ban on uranium mining will remain in place after the Supreme Court issued a splintered decision upholding the policy."

"A number of conservation groups are asking the Interior Department’s internal watchdog to investigate reports that political appointees are improperly interfering in the release of public records."

"Documents that the federal Environmental Protection Agency tried to keep confidential show that its staffers criticized how Minnesota regulators drafted a key permit for the planned PolyMet copper-nickel mine, and concluded that the permit would violate federal law because it lacked pollution limits based on the state’s water quality standards."

"The very first trail I step on is sand — and not just a dusting of the stuff either, but the soft, deep, undulating variety you’d expect to find near a beach. In honor of its designation in February as the 61st and newest national park, I’ve chosen to work my way across Indiana Dunes — formerly a national lakeshore — on a sunny Saturday in April, and picked West Beach as my starting point."

"President Jair Bolsonaro appears intent on decriminalizing Amazon deforestation, ending most fines, straitjacketing law enforcement, and gutting environmental agencies with mass firings."

"The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday agreed to a hear a bid by a unit of British oil major BP Plc to avoid a lawsuit by private landowners in Montana seeking to force the company to pay for a more extensive cleanup of a Superfund hazardous waste site than what federal environmental officials had ordered."

"Members of EPA's Science Advisory Board grappled with whether and how to weigh in on the Trump administration's rollback of clean water standards given the administration's insistence that the proposal is a question of policy, not science."

"A federal judge has blocked the grazing permits issued to father and son ranchers who were the focus of a battle about public land."

"Democratic lawmakers are challenging a new Trump administration report they say is – along with other White House moves – a precursor to opening the Grand Canyon to uranium mining."