"President Barack Obama designated two national monuments Wednesday at sites in Utah and Nevada that have become key flashpoints over use of public land in the U.S. West, marking the administration's latest move to protect environmentally sensitive areas in its final days."
Even if the incoming Trump Administration retreats from climate action, as many fear, state and local governments may fill the gap on climate policy. Our latest Issue Backgrounder takes a closer look, and offers sources and resources to help you cover the more localized climate stories that may result.
"U.S. EPA has given the Trump team a report detailing the status of major Obama administration policies, which could become a playbook for the incoming administration vowing to scrap many of those rules."
"Climate scientist Michael Mann can proceed with defamation claims against two writers who accused him of fraud and misconduct related to his iconic 'hockey stick' graph of global warming trends, a panel of three judges on the District of Columbia Court of Appeals ruled today."
"It seems increasingly likely that the Trump administration would either alter, or attempt to stop using entirely, an Obama-era metric known as the 'social cost of carbon' in its federal rule-making processes. And that could have have major effects on the way environmental policies are written (or unwritten) in the coming years."
"More than three years after an official prompt from the President, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has finalized a long-awaited rule aimed at preventing disasters like the 2010 refinery explosion that killed seven workers in Anacortes, Washington."
"Federal inspections of cattle and hog feedlots, turkey houses, and other animal feeding operations dropped for a fourth consecutive year, according to U.S. Environmental Protection Agency data. The number of fines and orders to change management practices for those same facilities fell for a fifth consecutive year."
"The city of Clovis won its more than three-month-long civil trial against chemical manufacturing giant Shell Oil Co. over the cleanup of a toxic chemical found in drinking-water wells around the city of 108,000 people."
"A federal jury in Columbus, Ohio, has ordered DuPont to pay $2 million to Kenneth Vigneron, concluding exposure to a toxic chemical from the company's Parkersburg, West Virginia, plant caused his testicular cancer."
"The Food and Drug Administration released draft guidelines Wednesday aimed at regulating lead levels in lipstick and other cosmetic products."
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