National (U.S.)

"California researchers have found new evidence that several chemicals used in plastic production and a wide array of other industrial applications are commonly present in the blood of pregnant women, creating increased health risks for mothers and their babies."

The Interior Department proposed a rule that would significantly increase how much energy companies must pay to lease and drill on federal lands. It would also give the Bureau of Land Management greater authority to keep fossil fuel development away from sensitive ecosystems and cultural sites.

"Conservationists are working to preserve eastern Montana’s intact prairie and return its assemblage of native wildlife."

"The homebuilding industry has been slow to adopt changes that can better protect against extreme weather. Some architects are showing what’s possible."

"The Supreme Court may soon step into a legal brawl over whether Congress violated the Constitution when it passed a law ensuring completion of the Mountain Valley pipeline — a fight that could have important implications for the power of the judiciary."

"The latest bid by conservationists and tribal leaders to block construction of a huge lithium mine already in the works along the Nevada-Oregon line was denied by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday."

"Language blocking a ban on gas stoves has been incorporated into a bipartisan Senate appropriations bill, giving it a significant chance to ultimately become law."

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"Jeff Springman climbed the metal stairs on an oil storage tank at a production site in west Texas and opened the small hatch at the top. He was going to test the fluid in the tank before pumping it into his truck, a practice known as manual gauging. Instead he was engulfed by invisible chemicals that had built up inside."

"When he was growing up in the coastal California village of Bolinas in the 1980s, Ole Schell remembers, the monarchs that returned each fall to their overwintering sites seemed 'endless.'"

"Fiberglass revolutionized boating, but decades later, discarded and degraded vessels are adding to marine pollution."