Environment

The New York Times reports: The Trump administration is set to cancel tens of millions of dollars in grants to scientists studying environmental hazards faced by children in rural America, among other health issues, according to internal emails written by senior officials at the Environmental Protection Agency. The planned cancellation of the research grants, which were awarded to scientists outside …

The Associated Press reports: The Trump administration has granted nearly 70 coal-fired power plants a two-year exemption from federal requirements to reduce emissions of toxic chemicals such as mercury, arsenic and benzene. A list quietly posted as of Tuesday on the Environmental Protection Agency’s website lists 47 power providers — which operate at least 66 coal-fired plants — that are …

The Washington Post reports: The Trump administration has removed environmental protections covering more than half of the land managed by the U.S. Forest Service as part of the president’s aim to significantly bolster the U.S. logging industry. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said “heavy-handed federal policies” have prevented the United States from making use of its “abundance of timber resources that …

The Guardian reports: The US could be plunged back into an era of toxic acid rain, an environmental problem thought to have been solved decades ago, due to the Donald Trump administration’s rollback of pollution protections, the scientist who discovered the existence of acid rain in North America has warned. A blitzkrieg launched by Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on …

CBS News reports: The U.S. beekeeping industry is in crisis over the shocking and unexplained deaths of hundreds of millions of bees over the last eight months. It’s an unfolding disaster for the industry. Blake Shook, one of the nation’s top beekeepers, has found tens of thousands of dead insects at his businesses. He said that he’s never seen losses …

NewsNation reports: The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has set up a portal allowing polluters to request exemptions to nine Clean Air Act rules. The EPA posted online this week that it had set up an email address allowing companies to more easily request such presidential exemptions. The news comes after the EPA recently announced that it planned to roll back …

Politico reports: A list circulating inside the Energy Department suggests cutting funding for the development of four hydrogen production hubs in mostly Democratic-leaning states while maintaining funding for three hubs spread across mostly red states, three people familiar with the plan said Wednesday. The cuts, if carried through, would politicize the federal funds that Congress and the Biden administration awarded …

Courthouse News reports: A federal judge temporarily blocked the Environmental Protection Agency from suddenly canceling three multibillion-dollar clean energy grants on Tuesday. U.S. District Judge Tanya Chutkan found that the EPA had likely violated the law by issuing identical termination letters to Climate United Fund, Coalition for Green Capital and Power Forward Communities, which said their grants were terminated, effective …

Bloomberg reports: US President Donald Trump said he would look to counter China’s economic advantage from coal-based electricity by authorizing his administration to ramp up production of power from the fossil fuel. It’s not clear what Trump was referring to or how his social media decree would affect US policy. Trump already signed an executive order declaring a national energy …

The New York Times reports: The Environmental Protection Agency plans to eliminate its scientific research arm, firing as many as 1,155 chemists, biologists, toxicologists and other scientists, according to documents reviewed by Democrats on the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. The strategy is part of large-scale layoffs, known as a “reduction in force,” being planned by the Trump …

Reuters reports: The Trump administration announced a wave of regulatory rollbacks on Wednesday that included a repeal of emissions limits on power plants, reduced protections for waterways and a rollback of tailpipe pollution curbs in an effort to deliver on President Donald Trump’s energy dominance agenda. The Environmental Protection Agency is moving to unwind 31 Biden-era regulations intended to boost …

The New York Times reports: The Trump administration intends to eliminate Environmental Protection Agency offices responsible for addressing the disproportionately high levels of pollution facing poor communities, according to a memo from Lee Zeldin, the agency administrator. In the internal memo, viewed by The New York Times, Mr. Zeldin informed agency leaders that he was directing “the reorganization and elimination” …

The Telegraph reports: More than 30 casualties have been brought ashore after a cargo vessel collided with an oil tanker in the North Sea. Some crew members are yet to be accounted for with both vessels ablaze off the coast of east Yorkshire. A Coastguard helicopter and other aircraft were deployed alongside lifeboats from Skegness, Bridlington, Maplethorpe and Cleethorpes to …

NBC News reports: U.S. embassies and consulates have stopped monitoring air quality abroad, ending a program that had provided essential public health data for more than a decade. The State Department said its collection of air pollution data at more than 60 U.S. embassies and consulates around the world had been suspended as of Tuesday due to “budget constraints.” The …

From the Nature Conservancy: We carefully review the implications of the multiple executive orders and instructions from the new administration to ensure we can continue to make progress for people and nature. The Nature Conservancy has been working in the Gulf for more than 40 years, through hurricanes and oil spills, in close partnership with private, state and federal partners. …

The Associated Press reports: Environmental groups sued President Donald Trump and other federal officials Wednesday, arguing that Trump exceeded his authority with an executive order that seeks to reverse the Biden administration’s ban on new offshore oil and gas leasing in vast swaths of U.S. coastal waters. Earthjustice filed the lawsuit in federal court in Alaska on behalf of a …

USA Today reports: High flow toilets and incandescent light bulbs could make comebacks as President Donald Trump works to end previous environmental standards. Trump called for “common sense standards on LIGHTBULBS” on his social media platform Truth Social on Tuesday, and said he was instructing Environmental Protection Agency Secretary Lee Zeldin to immediately change the requirements. High-efficiency toilet standards were …

The Ohio Capital Journal reports: President Donald Trump comes into office vowing to ease environmental regulations on the utility industry. Now companies that own coal-burning plants in Ohio are asking the new administration to excuse them from cleaning up acres of toxic waste that is soaked in groundwater. They include the owners of what has been called the nation’s deadliest …

The New York Times reports: The Trump administration has warned more than 1,100 Environmental Protection Agency employees who work on climate change, reducing air pollution, enforcing environmental laws and other programs that they could be fired at any time. Many had been hired to work on programs that Congress created through two recent laws, doing things like helping communities replace …

USA Today reports: The Senate voted Wednesday to confirm former congressman Lee Zeldin as President Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency administrator. Zeldin, who is expected to pursue a deregulation push at the EPA, was confirmed by a vote of 56 to 42. Trump wants to rollback environmental rules, declaring when he announced Zeldin as his choice for EPA administrator that …