Government

"Two nominees to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) were confirmed to the panel by voice votes on Monday."

As the nation's hospitals are being overwhelmed by coronavirus patients, the federal data system for tracking them, poleaxed this summer by the Trump administration, is giving inaccurate and unreliable data to officials trying to manage the crisis.

"Top House Democrats are calling on congressional appropriators to block funding for President Trump's order that would make it easier to fire career employees like EPA scientists."

"President Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency was rushing to complete one of its last regulatory priorities, aiming to obstruct the creation of air- and water-pollution controls far into the future, when a senior career scientist moved to hobble it."

"Over four decades, Mary Nichols has been the regulator behind some of the nation’s most ambitious climate policies and, in recent years, she’s been their staunchest defender against President Donald Trump’s effort to dismantle them."

"New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern’s government is to declare a climate emergency in a symbolic step to increase pressure for action to combat global warming."

"House Democrats are asking the Trump administration to turn over a list of employees who will be slotted into a new category of federal employment that critics fear will be used to retain Trump political appointees."

"EPA chief Andrew Wheeler is canceling a planned trip to Taiwan next month that had threatened to stoke anger with Beijing, after concerns were raised about the costs of the travel near the end of the Trump administration."