"Ten years after the explosion of the Deepwater Horizon oil rig on April 20, 2010, Louisiana is one of five states reaping the benefits of a $20.8 billion settlement with BP PLC, the largest in U.S. history. If all goes as planned, the $200 million project will not only revive the Maurepas Swamp but provide a natural buffer from deadly hurricanes."
"The coronavirus has shut down most of Humboldt County, as it has the rest of the state, but some traditions of northwest California endure: Loggers keep felling redwoods, and eco-activists keep putting their bodies on the limbs to stop them."
"A vast region of the western United States, extending from California, Arizona and New Mexico north to Oregon and Idaho, is in the grips of the first climate change-induced megadrought observed in the past 1,200 years, a study shows. The finding means the phenomenon is no longer a threat for millions to worry about in the future, but is already here."
"The Trump administration on Thursday weakened regulations on the release of mercury and other toxic metals from oil and coal-fired power plants, another step toward rolling back health protections in the middle of a pandemic."
"Federal and state officials are scrambling to develop plans for how to fight the West’s wildfires during a pandemic, before a fire season forecast to be worse than normal flares up next month."
"Clean energy industries lost more than 106,000 jobs last month due to the novel coronavirus pandemic and could end up shedding over 15% of their entire workforce this quarter, according to a report released yesterday."
"California’s top environmental agency said it would “fill any enforcement gaps” left by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s decision last month to relax oversight in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic."
"A vocal set of conservative critics have increased their attacks recently on the data modeling behind the novel coronavirus response, and they claim — despite scientific evidence to the contrary — that the flaws also prove the limits of climate change forecasts."
