"David Bernhardt, the agency’s acting chief, wants to roll back endangered-species protections on a tiny fish, a change that benefits few outside a California group he once represented as a lobbyist."
SEJ's Fund for Environmental Journalism has awarded $19,976 for seven new story projects selected through the Winter 2018-2019 round of competition for stories about drinking water and stormwater in the United States. Pictured: Grantee Arizona Daily Star's Tony Davis.
It’s a “make or break” year for a range of environmental and energy issues, advise leading journalists at the Society of Environmental Journalists’ annual “2019 Journalists’ Guide to Energy & Environment” event in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 25. The gathering also featured a surprise appearance by a top EPA official, who was questioned about administration policy on climate change. Read our coverage of the forum in this SEJ News report.
With 2019 in full swing, the SEJournal offers an analysis of the year ahead in environment and energy news, with an overview of our full special report, the “2019 Journalists’ Guide to Energy & Environment.” Plus, don’t miss SEJ’s Jan. 25 event with top reporters to help you keep track of the big stories on the beat. RSVP here to attend in-person or online.
"Another North Atlantic right whale calf and its mother have been spotted - the critically endangered species’ second confirmed newborn of the winter birthing season."
"The president signed U.S. Sens. Sherrod Brown’s and Rob Portman’s Water Infrastructure Flexibility Act into law that would provide local communities with increased flexibility when complying with Clean Water Act requirements for updates to sewer systems."
"Almost 16,000 desalination plants worldwide produce bigger-than-expected flows of highly salty waste water and toxic chemicals that are damaging the environment, a U.N.-backed study said on Monday."
"A multi-agency state task force assembled to tackle a ubiquitous chemical contaminant across Michigan continues to operate under the Whitmer administration, but without a director or the executive directive that created it."
"The ice in Antarctica is melting six times faster than it did just 40 years ago, a new study reports.
This dramatic acceleration of the ice loss is a clear indication of human-caused climate change, the study authors said.
Lead author Eric Rignot, an ice scientist at the University of California–Irvine, said the melting ice has caused global sea levels to rise more than half an inch since 1979.
While that may not sound like much, the amount is certainly alarming to climate scientists, as it's a preview of things to come:"
U.S. courts will be a key venue of environmental conflict in 2019, as the Trump administration pushes back against an extensive array of long-standing environmental law. This special edition Issue Backgrounder looks at seven key legal disputes, including cases involving climate change liability, intergenerational equity and policy, as well as conflicts over maintaining national monuments, defining which waters are subject to anti-pollution rules, disposing of coal ash and extending offshore drilling.
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