2017 is a record-breaker for climate disasters – “The Trump administration has spent its 2017 dismantling federal actions designed to both address the root causes of climate change and to prepare for its impacts”

By Alice Hill 20 December 2017 (CNN) – As this year comes to a close, 2017 is on track to set the all-time record for the most billion-dollar weather and climate disasters in any single year in US history. There were 15 in the first nine months (equal to all of 2011, which set the […]

FEMA says most of Puerto Rico has potable water. That can’t be true.

By Mekela Panditharatne 21 December 2017 (The Washington Post) – The weeks after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico brought remarkable images of people desperate to find clean water, drinking from hazardous Superfund sites and thrusting containers under makeshift spigots on the sides of mountains.According to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, this particular problem has subsided […]

Major layoffs announced in western Kentucky coal mines

By Annie Moore 19 December 2017 LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) – More than 500 employees in Kentucky’s coal sector will be impacted by the latest round of layoffs and terminations. The Office for Employment and Training announced two Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) notices. Beginning February 18, Armstrong Coal in Madisonville anticipates laying off all […]

Fueling dissent: how the oil industry set out to undercut clean air

By Jie Jenny Zou 14 December 2017 (The Guardian) – On sunny days, when his classmates run out to play, Gabriel Rosales heads to the school nurse for a dose of Albuterol. The fine mist opens his airways, relaxing the muscles in his chest. Without it, recess could leave the nine-year-old gasping for breath. He […]

CDC gets list of forbidden words from Trump administration: evidence-based, science-based, fetus, transgender, diversity – “Are you serious? Are you kidding?”

By Lena H. Sun and Juliet Eilperin 15 December 2017 (The Washington Post) – The Trump administration is prohibiting officials at the nation’s top public health agency from using a list of seven words or phrases — including “fetus” and “transgender” — in any official documents being prepared for next year’s budget.Policy analysts at the […]

Trump administration bid to stop childrens’ climate case gets December court date

By Karen Savage 17 November 2017 (Climate Liability News) – Attorneys for the Trump administration will have to convince a judge that pre-trial discovery in a climate change lawsuit filed against the U.S. government would cause it irreparable harm.The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals announced on Thursday that it will hear oral arguments on Dec. […]

Fossil fuels’ fishy new friends: How public affairs firms engineered a “grass-roots” group defending oil and coal investments

By Benjamin Elgin and Zachary Mider 16 November 2017 (Bloomberg Businessweek) – James Short, a retired deputy fire chief, is the founder of an organization called Protect Our Pensions. At least that’s what it says on the group’s website.But ask Short about his role at Protect Our Pensions, formed last year to oppose efforts to […]

U.S. Democrats assail Trump environmental nominees over climate science – “You have a fringe voice that denies science, economics, and reality”

By Lisa Friedman8 November 2017WASHINGTON (The New York Times) – A Senate hearing on nominees for two top environmental posts on Wednesday quickly turned testy over the Trump administration’s ambivalence on climate change science. Andrew R. Wheeler, a lobbyist for Murray Energy, which is owned by Robert E. Murray, an Appalachian coal mining magnate and […]

EPA staffers speak about the agency under Trump – “Do the opposite thing you did 18 months ago”

By Rachel Leven 10 November 2017 (Vox) – Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt doesn’t hide his contempt for how the agency has been run, but he does profess to care about one of its key programs: Superfund, which oversees the cleanup of the nation’s worst toxic waste sites. In April, he toured a site […]

Citing climate change “death and destruction”, Philadelphia group sues U.S. government for knowingly endangering U.S. citizens through climate policy rollbacks

By Bobby Magill 6 November 2017 (Climate Liability News) – An environmental group and two Pennsylvania children filed suit against the Trump administration Monday, accusing the federal government of using “junk science” to reverse federal climate policies and knowingly increasing the “damages, death and destruction” that result from climate change.The suit, filed by Philadelphia’s Clean […]

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