"Federal firings expected to undermine oil and gas permitting"

"The United Nations Environment Programme on Monday said a new round of negotiations toward a global plastics treaty will take place from August 5 to 14 in Geneva, Switzerland, after countries failed to agree on the parameters of a final agreement last December in Busan, South Korea."

"President Donald Trump, who pledged to send up to 100,000 federal workers outside of Washington, could move quickly to eject energy and environmental agencies from the nation’s capital."

"In a few short weeks, President Trump has severely damaged the government’s ability to fight climate change, upending American environmental policy with moves that could have lasting implications for the country, and the planet. With a flurry of actions that have stretched the limits of presidential power, Mr. Trump has gutted federal climate efforts, rolled back regulations aimed at limiting pollution and given a major boost to the fossil fuel industry."

"More than half of the senior executives at a key US government regulatory body responsible for overseeing safety of the US pipeline system will depart the agency in the next three months, according to a memo seen by Bloomberg."

"The Republican-controlled Congress has voted to repeal a federal fee on oil and gas producers who release high levels of methane, undoing a major piece of former President Joe Biden’s climate policy aimed at controlling the planet-warming “super pollutant.” The fee, which had not gone into effect, was expected to bring in billions of dollars."

"The administration is setting the stage for Congress to repeal a longstanding waiver that allows California to set its own pollution standards. State officials say the effort is illegal."

"Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin has privately urged the White House to strike down a scientific finding underpinning much of the federal government’s push to combat climate change, according to three people briefed on the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to comment publicly."

"EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin expects to cut most of that agency’s staff, President Donald Trump said Wednesday as he and his administration plow ahead with dramatic reductions to the federal workforce."