Trump Admin Nixes Tighter Soot Rules, Despite Link to Covid Deaths
"The Trump administration on Monday declined to tighten controls on industrial soot emissions, disregarding an emerging scientific link between dirty air and Covid-19 death rates."
"The Trump administration on Monday declined to tighten controls on industrial soot emissions, disregarding an emerging scientific link between dirty air and Covid-19 death rates."
"President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. has selected Xavier Becerra, the Democratic attorney general of California, as his nominee for secretary of health and human services, tapping a former congressman who would be the first Latino to run the department as it battles the surging coronavirus pandemic."
"EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said in a statement Wednesday that he has been exposed to Covid-19 and will quarantine until he's 'gone through the proper testing protocols.'"
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.

Automakers are at the heart of the conflict over climate change policy, thanks to the prevalence of transportation-related greenhouse gas emissions. That may now be changing. And not just because of the incoming Biden administration, but also with shifting investment in the future of electric vehicles. A look at how car companies are piloting that path, from the latest Backgrounder. Electric Hummer, anyone?

A rush of last-minute regulatory (and deregulatory) actions are underway in the waning days of the Trump administration. And the latest TipSheet has suggestions not only for how to keep track, but also how to bird-dog the numerous ways the incoming Biden administration might try to reverse Trump’s course.
In New Mexico, the journalism community — as well as friends and the listening public — are mourning the death of KUNM interim news director, Hannah Colton. An SEJ member, Colton covered not only environmental issues, but also mental health, homelessness, COVID-19, elections, politics and protests that rocked the state over the past few years.

"President-elect Joe Biden on Monday outlined his plan for rehabilitating the U.S. economy, emphasizing the importance of getting control of the coronavirus pandemic."

The toxic compounds known as PFAS are causing a crisis in the waste and recycling industry, which faces mounting regulation and litigation over handling its presence in the waste stream. One reporter on the PFAS front lines explains the industry’s dilemma, as well as the challenges of covering the story and how a financial prism led to important insights into industry’s response.