"The U.S. Justice Department has withdrawn from an agreement with the city of Houston to curb illegal dumping in Black and Latino neighborhoods, part of the Trump administration’s broad dismantling of environmental justice initiatives."
"A proposed critical minerals mine in southern Arizona that was the first added to a federal permitting process designed to be quicker and more transparent has reported water with levels exceeding the state’s regulatory limits of a mineral that can damage the heart, lungs, stomach and eyes."
Explore our 10th annual Journalists’ Guide to Environment + Energy, as we scour the beat to identify 15 top stories to put on your radar for 2026. Our updated format for the special report provides a quick read and a broad scope — with insights on climate change and environmental justice, bird and insect declines, data centers and deep sea mining, deregulation and PFAS and much more. Get started here.
"Exxon Mobil has pulled the plug on what would have been one of the world’s largest hydrogen plants, the latest setback for the effort to scale production of low-carbon versions of the fuel."
For more than a century, oil and gas companies have been drilling — and abandoning — wells across the country, leaving hundreds of thousands to potentially leak pollutants into the air, water and soil. Climate and environment reporter Martha Pskowski looks at how funding and regulatory issues are impacting efforts to identify and plug these wells, and offers resources for drilling into their story.
"Two captive whitetails tied to the Texas “ghost deer” investigation tested positive for chronic wasting disease at a Tom Green County facility owned by breeder Ken Schlaudt, according to records obtained by Public Domain."
"Southwestern states are bracing for many of their streams to lose federal safeguards under the EPA’s proposal to lift Clean Water Act protections for many wetlands and waterways across the US. New Mexico, Arizona, California, and other arid states face the brunt of the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposal because it explicitly excludes streams that only run when it rains—one of the most common kinds of waterways in the desert Southwest."
"Environmental groups sued the Trump administration on Tuesday over a plan to sell oil and gas leases in the Gulf of Mexico. The groups say the sale violates a core environmental law and threatens coastal communities and endangered whales."
"The Trump administration’s expected rollback of an oil and gas drilling ban around New Mexico’s Chaco Canyon is pitting tribes and environmental groups against each other as they prepare for possible legal challenges."
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