Public databases — a boon to good environmental reporting — have long been a priority for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, as evidenced in its just-published “open data plan.” But as an analysis in the latest Reporter’s Toolbox notes, that pioneering approach may succumb to Trump 2.0 policies. What’s at stake and what’s already being lost.
"EPA expressed alarm at contamination in a creek near a predominantly Black neighborhood. Then the agency eliminated its civil-rights office and has taken no further action."
"The recently passed spending bill sets logging targets that federal officials don’t have the capacity to meet" "The new law sets aggressive timber harvesting goals and slashes spending for the Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management. Environmental advocates and industry insiders say those goals are contradictory and unworkable."
"Acting NASA Administrator Sean Duffy said Thursday that climate and earth science at the agency will “move aside” as it refocuses solely on space exploration."
"The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has declared that an emissions agreement between California and four major truck makers is “unenforceable” — paving the way for noncompliance with the Golden State’s pollution rules, which are stricter than federal standards."
"The Trump admin’s scheme to keep old fossil-fuel plants running could saddle utility customers with nearly $6 billion a year in unnecessary costs, a report finds."
"As the Trump administration aims to bolster fossil fuels at the expense of clean energy expansion, new research shows the oil and gas sector has so far failed to become a major jobs creator for heavily fracked areas of northern Appalachia."
"The Pennsylvania county where an explosion at a U.S. Steel plant south of Pittsburgh killed two people and injured more than 10 others announced Thursday that it is stepping up air quality monitoring in the area of the sprawling facility that has a troubled environmental record."
"Officials in the northern Caribbean warned Thursday of heavy rains and dangerous swells as Tropical Storm Erin approached the region."
"Debbie Blankenship’s wheelchair carved perfect lines in the grass as she rolled into her backyard garden, passing a wooden arch filled with small grapes, a bush with plump blueberries and yellow crates filled with sprouting potatoes. She stopped at a dirt patch with a burial marker for her beagle — the latest of her dogs to die of cancer."
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