"President Trump’s choice to lead the Interior Department, David Bernhardt, a former oil lobbyist who has been accused of conflicts of interest, faced questioning Thursday from senators who must decide whether he is the right person to oversee some 500 million acres of public land and vast coastal waters."

"The European parliament has voted to ban single-use plastic cutlery, cotton buds, straws and stirrers as part of a sweeping law against plastic waste that despoils beaches and pollutes oceans.

The vote by MEPs paves the way for a ban on single-use plastics to come into force by 2021 in all EU member states. The UK would have to follow the rules if it took part in and extended the Brexit transition period because of delays in finding a new arrangement with the EU.

"Eleven federal judges were at times puzzled, perturbed and bemused during high-stakes oral arguments yesterday involving the pesticide chlorpyrifos."

"On Wednesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) joined Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.) in announcing the Climate Action Now Bill, which is intended to stop the United States from exiting the Paris Agreement. President Donald Trump vowed to pull out of the Obama-era agreement in 2017, saying that its terms would unnecessarily harm US industry."

"A federal judge today [Wednesday] dismissed a third lawsuit challenging a far-reaching EPA restriction on advisory committee membership, likely dealing a fatal blow to opponents' hopes of overturning the policy anytime soon."

"New Jersey sued chemical giant DuPont on Wednesday seeking financial damages for widespread pollution that contaminated air, soil and water at four sites across the state and endangered the health of thousands, including residents of a Pompton Lakes neighborhood who have had to endure cancer-causing solvents beneath their homes for decades."

"A federal jury on Wednesday ordered Monsanto to pay more than $80 million in damages to a California man whose cancer it determined was partly caused by his use of the popular weedkiller Roundup."

"John Sturgeon worried he was jinxing himself when he fixed up the mothballed hovercraft in his garage without knowing whether the Supreme Court would let him pilot it to his favorite moose-hunting grounds in Alaska."

"Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Tuesday directed Michigan’s environmental agency to develop drinking water standards for certain toxic industrial chemicals rather than waiting for updated federal guidelines."

"EPA chief Andrew Wheeler has promised not to weigh in on the Pebble mine proposal and toxic waste site cleanups connected to his former lobbying clients after media scrutiny."