Environmental Politics

"Climate change and the energy transition are driving a wave of state laws overriding local governments, with both parties driving their preferred policies."

"The Environmental Protection Agency is reconsidering whether facilities that recycle plastic chemically should be held to the same strict air pollution standards as incinerators. The possible change is alarming environmental advocates who say it would lead to more dangerous pollution spewing into communities, with fewer or no checks at the federal level."

"Risks from cancer and other diseases could be hidden with little accountability if justices favor big firms, critics warn"

"Despite hours of impassioned arguments from Sen. Tina Smith, the U.S. Senate ended a Biden-era moratorium on mining in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness watershed."

"A new Gallup survey found that a record-low 35 percent of American respondents rated the quality of their country’s environment positively, just more than a week before Earth Day."

"The Trump administration is considering Houman Hemmati, an ophthalmologist, entrepreneur and frequent Fox News guest, to serve as the nation’s next top regulator of vaccines and treatments for complex diseases, according to three people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe internal conversations."

"Public health officials in Omaha, Nebraska, say not enough kids who live near the country’s largest residential lead cleanup site are tested for the metal. Faced with similar crises or concerns, 13 states have passed laws requiring all kids to get a blood test for lead early in life."

"Implementation of a previously approved federal rule meant to help prevent black lung in the nation’s coal miners has been delayed indefinitely, according to an update posted this week in the Federal Register."

"Public health experts in California are pushing to ban engineered quartz in an effort to protect countertop fabrication workers from a growing epidemic of a deadly lung disease, but Republicans in Congress are trying to protect the industry with a bill that would ban lawsuits against manufacturers."

"The company founded and formerly run by Energy Secretary Chris Wright paid no federal corporate income taxes last year, according to its regulatory filings, and actually got more than $10 million back from the IRS."