"Dems Look To Bypass EPA With Asbestos Ban"
"House Democrats hope to sidestep the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with a bill that would ban asbestos within a year."
"House Democrats hope to sidestep the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) with a bill that would ban asbestos within a year."
"The nation’s most productive agricultural state moved Wednesday to ban a controversial pesticide widely used to control a range of insects but blamed for harming brain development in babies."
"The House Oversight Committee on Tuesday threatened to withhold the salaries of Interior Department officials who have blocked lawmakers from interviewing agency employees about whether Secretary David Bernhardt was complying with recordkeeping laws."
"Senior officials at the Environmental Protection Agency disregarded the advice of their own scientists and lawyers in April when the agency issued a rule that restricted but did not ban asbestos, according to two internal memos."
"House Democrats this week are set to back significant spending increases for the fiscal 2020 funding bills that cover the bulk of energy and environmental programs."
"Environmentalists in Alaska filed a lawsuit on Tuesday seeking to block a Trump administration plan to open vast swaths of the nation’s largest national forest to logging, nearly a third of it in old-growth timber."
"After a long legal battle and a surprising loss in a lower court last year, green groups are celebrating their successful appeal of oil and gas drilling near New Mexico's sensitive Chaco Canyon area."
"The United States has refused to sign an agreement on challenges in the Arctic due to discrepancies over climate change wording, diplomats said on Tuesday, jeopardising cooperation in the polar region at the sharp edge of global warming."

The leasing of public lands to drill for oil and gas may seem a labyrinthine topic. But it could be time to get wonky and, ahem, drill down on it, as the politics of 2020 bring the controversial practice to the fore. The latest Backgrounder helps get you up to speed on the story.

Happen to have any air breathers in your audience? Then the latest State of the Air Report will give you fodder to cover the persistent pollution problems that plague the skies. This week’s TipSheet has the backstory on the fight against air pollution and five smart ways to tell the story from a local-regional context.