Environmental Health

"David Bernhardt's new firm is making big bucks lobbying for major energy corporations, agricultural giants and more." 

"Disaster survivors are having to wait longer to get aid from the federal government, according to a new Associated Press analysis of decades of data. On average, it took less than two weeks for a governor’s request for a presidential disaster declaration to be granted in the 1990s and early 2000s. ... It’s taking more than a month, on average, so far during Trump’s current term, the AP found."

"N.C. research would have provided crucial data on understudied effects of the burgeoning industry on predominantly Black, Indigenous and Latino residents."

"The administration is cranking up efforts to kill state laws and legal cases that would force fossil-fuel companies to pay for climate damage." 

"The EPA couldn’t justify scaling back startup, shutdown, and malfunction liability shields in Title V air permitting rules, according to a Friday judgment from the US Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit."

"The smoke from the wildfires that burned through Los Angeles in January smelled like plastic and was so thick that it hid the ocean. Firefighters who responded developed instant migraines, coughed up black goo and dropped to their knees, vomiting and dizzy."

"Federal scientists and engineers working to prevent deadly disasters and the spread of disease in miners could soon lose their jobs, even as President Donald Trump moves to supercharge U.S. production of coal and critical minerals."

"The energy and natural resource sector has spent hundreds of millions of dollars lobbying the federal government so far this year, according to data compiled by the nonprofit OpenSecrets."

"As climate change exacerbates the risks of extreme heat across California, the state’s prison officials plan to embark on a $38 million pilot project to figure out how to keep their prison cells cool."

"As the US wrestles with how to deal with widespread PFAS pollution in drinking water supplies, most utilities are lacking advanced filtration systems that could protect public health from not just PFAS but an array of harmful contaminants, according to a new study."