It’s a category of more than 4,000 industrial chemicals that affect our lives nearly every day — and many of which are toxic. So what do journalists need to know to report on the emerging contaminants known as PFAS? Our most recent Issue Backgrounder offers a detailed primer on what PFAS are, where they come from, what their health effects are and how they might be cleaned up.
"More than half of EPA's science advisory committees could be vulnerable to repeal by the end of the fiscal year under an executive order released Friday."
"For the first time in nearly 40 years, the National Weather Service’s flagship computer prediction model has received a major makeover, which its leadership says will pave the way for improved forecasts."
"At a crucial moment in ethanol policy, the U.S. Department of Agriculture is doubling down on its argument that ethanol is better than conventional fuel."
"A top Environmental Protection Agency official gave a presentation last year at a gathering of some of the most zealous deniers of climate science, highlighting the influence a small, fringe movement hawking crank theories now wields in Washington."
"Once a skeptic about climate change, Jim Bridenstine came around to the prevailing view of scientists before he took over as NASA administrator. That evolution did not sit well with a Trump environmental adviser, nor a think-tank analyst he was consulting, according to newly disclosed emails that illustrate how skepticism of global warming has found a beachhead in the Trump White House."
"president Donald Trump is trying to take an ax to federal advisory committees, ordering that their numbers be slashed. Trump signed an executive order Friday that directs every federal agency to evaluate the need for all of its advisory committees created under the Federal Advisory Committee Act. And it gives agency heads until September to terminate at least one-third of current committees created by agency heads."
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"Two key research agencies in the Department of Agriculture will move to the Kansas City area, Secretary Sonny Perdue announced today. The plan will move hundreds of jobs at USDA's Economic Research Service (ERS) and the National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA) out of Washington, despite objections from employees and some members of Congress."
"Environmental Protection Agency is battling its own board of science advisers over its controversial plan to dismiss certain types of scientific research from consideration when issuing rules."
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