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.
"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."
"UN talks on creating a global pact to stem plastic pollution collapsed in Geneva with no agreement or clear way forward after chaotic nights of negotiations failed to break a deadlock over whether to include measures aimed at curbing runaway plastic production."
The Trump administration’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” is anything but, especially in its unraveling of efforts to weave environmental and climate justice into American society, argues the new Voices of Environmental Justice. In her latest column, writer Yessenia Funes calls on journalists to report its ramifications not just for the planet but for the most vulnerable people living on it. Here are key stories to start with.
"Industry will have to wait longer for the report, which is expected to give the government’s response to childhood chronic diseases."
"Key California weather forecast offices will remain “criminally understaffed” while new hires get on board, former NWS meteorologists warn."
"The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has unilaterally dissolved a collective bargaining agreement with members of the union that represents its workers, the union said Friday."
"In the week after floods tore through Texas Hill Country, most survivors were unable to get through to a federal aid hotline because the Department of Homeland Security let funding lapse, according to publicly available contract records and internal FEMA call center logs obtained by NPR."
"The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration will hire as many as 450 people to shore up the National Weather Service after deep cuts this spring raised concern about dangerous understaffing, the Trump administration confirmed Wednesday."
"Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. announced Tuesday a crackdown on mRNA vaccine technology and research to develop it, following months of pressure from anti-vaccine activists."
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