Activism

"A number of conservation groups are asking the Interior Department’s internal watchdog to investigate reports that political appointees are improperly interfering in the release of public records."

"U.S. environmental groups fighting fossil-fuel development made headlines years ago with public demonstrations against big pipeline projects including the Dakota Access and the Keystone XL - only to be steamrolled by President Donald Trump’s executive orders to approve them. Now the so-called ‘keep it in the ground’ movement has a new strategy to slow Trump’s pro-oil agenda: Burying the administration in formal written protests and lawsuits challenging nearly every oil and gas lease it plans on public land."

"A collection of activist groups delivered a petition with more than 200,000 signatures to the Democratic National Committee (DNC) headquarters Wednesday calling for a presidential debate focused on climate change."

"Three federal judges heard arguments Tuesday about whether young people have a constitutional right to be protected from climate change. In the lively, hourlong hearing, the judges, from the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, pushed skeptically on the arguments of both sides."

"The Trump administration wants harsher penalties for people who interfere with the operation or construction of pipelines, joining states and the pipeline industry in an effort opposed by civil rights groups and environmentalists."

"A career Bureau of Land Management official who was fired last month says the Trump administration is refusing to enforce federal laws and regulations governing livestock grazing in Nevada out of fear of sparking another armed standoff like the one five years ago involving rancher Cliven Bundy."

"European Green parties on Monday were cheering E.U. elections that vaulted them into a kingmaking position of power, as voters abandoned traditional political parties in favor of climate-focused activists in a green wave that swept several countries."

"NEW ORLEANS — A state law that carries a possible five-year prison sentence for anyone convicted of trespassing in the area of a pipeline should be declared unconstitutional, environmentalists and others said in a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday."