Environmental Politics

"One year ago, the Nuclear Regulatory Commission was an independent agency, setting safety standards without White House interference. Those days are over."

"Environmental group Extinction Rebellion said on Wednesday it was under federal US investigation and that some of its members had been visited by FBI agents, including from the agency’s taskforce on extremism, in the last year."

"President Donald Trump plans to nominate a former senior aide to Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to serve as director of the National Science Foundation."

"National Institutes of Health Director Jay Bhattacharya will also temporarily become acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, an administration official said Wednesday."

"Republicans on the House Agriculture Committee on Friday released text for the farm bill and announced they will mark up the bill on Feb. 23 — with the framework drawing immediate criticism from the top Democrat on the panel who accused Republicans of filling the package with poison pills."

"Ozone and particulate matter air pollutants cause over 100,000 premature deaths per year and affect the health of millions of Americans. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said last month that his agency would stop considering those costs when drafting new regulations."

"The legislation would make oil and gas firms pay for climate damages from burning their products. Trump has referred to such laws as ​'extortion.'"

"Polychlorinated biphenyls, or PCBs, haven’t been produced since 1979, after studies found that exposure to them could cause a variety of harmful health effects, including cancer. But they were so widely used before then and so long-lasting that they still impair water quality in much of the tidal Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries."

"In a bold bid to put costly US Roundup litigation behind it, Bayer on Tuesday announced a $7.25 billion proposed class action settlement for users of its glyphosate-based weed killing products who have cancer now or develop cancer in the next several years, with average awards ranging from $10,000 to $165,000."

"A coalition of scientific, preservation and historical groups on Tuesday sued the Trump administration, arguing that the removal of information about civil rights, climate change and other topics at multiple national parks amounts to illegal censorship."