"The Trump administration is preparing to unveil its plan for undoing Barack Obama’s most ambitious climate regulation — offering a replacement that would do far less to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions that are warming the planet, according to POLITICO’s review of a portion of the unpublished draft."
"The Environmental Protection Agency privately challenged the Trump administration’s rationale for freezing Obama-era mileage standards, saying the proposal would actually increase U.S. highway deaths."
"Trump International Hotel & Tower is endangering fish and other aquatic life in the Chicago River, Illinois Attorney General Lisa Madigan alleges in a new lawsuit targeting the president’s skyscraper for multiple violations of clean water laws."
"Federal scientists at EPA, the Interior Department and other agencies are reporting political interference with their work, requests to remove 'climate change' from research and declining staff levels, a new survey of government employees said."
"The US interior secretary, Ryan Zinke, has blamed environmentalists for California’s ferocious wildfires and claimed, contrary to scientific research, that climate change had “nothing to do” with them. Instead, he said the fires were worsened because of limits on logging."
"An influential conservative organization last week mirrored a broad debate within Republican circles over states' rights on environmental issues — it's OK sometimes, but not always."
"Former EPA Administrator Scott Pruitt's legacy took another hit last week as a federal court ordered EPA to ban a heavily used farm chemical.
During the Obama administration, EPA said it would ban chlorpyrifos after health assessments showed current uses posed dietary and drinking water risks to humans, especially children. But Pruitt reversed the proposed ban in March 2017, declaring that the agency was returning to "sound science."
"Top officials at the Environmental Protection Agency pushed through a measure to review applications for using asbestos in consumer products, and did so over the objections of E.P.A.’s in-house scientists and lawyers, internal agency emails show."
"The Trump administration’s decision to impose tariffs on Canadian newsprint is hastening the demise of local newspapers across the country, forcing already-struggling publications to cut staff, reduce the number of days they print and, in at least one case, shutter entirely."
"Bill Nelson, Rick Scott tangle over blame for the state’s toxic algae blooms and other water quality problems".
