Environmental Politics

"Green groups celebrated Republican leadership’s decision to pull an Interior and Environment spending bill amid a raucous debate over the Confederate flag on Thursday."

"As she knocked on the federal government's door for aid in the wake of a damaging earthquake in 2011, Oklahoma Gov. Mary Fallin (R) avoided talking about one aspect of the earthquake -- its cause."

"The site of some of the fiercest environmental wars over water in recent years is now the subject of a federal investigation into millions of dollars that whistleblowers say were intended to secure water for drought-stricken fish but flowed instead to farmers and ranchers."

"ExxonMobil, the world’s biggest oil company, knew as early as 1981 of climate change – seven years before it became a public issue, according to a newly discovered email from one of the firm’s own scientists. Despite this the firm spent millions over the next 27 years to promote climate denial."

"The Natural Resources Defense Council is spending $1 million on a television ad, starting Tuesday, attacking Sen. Mark Kirk, R-Ill., for a vote he made allowing states to opt out of federal rules dealing with power plants and the environment."

"The CVS Health Corporation said on Tuesday that it would resign from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce after revelations that the chamber and its foreign affiliates were undertaking a global lobbying campaign against antismoking laws."

"QUITO, Ecuador — Pope Francis on Tuesday called for increased protection of the Amazon rain forest and the indigenous people who live there, declaring that Ecuador must resist exploiting natural riches for “short-term benefits,” an implicit rebuke of the policies of President Rafael Correa."

"The Obama administration on Tuesday strongly criticized a Republican budget proposal that would undermine regulatory work at the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Interior."

"A donor trying to push Republicans toward climate policies has given his first major donation of the 2016 election cycle to Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.)."

"Despite reports of U.S. Catholics’ largely positive reception to Pope Francis’s beginning campaign on the issue, not everyone is optimistic that the Catholics of Texas will suddenly start trying to shut down their local coal plant."