Environmental Politics

"The oil and natural gas industry has a clear favorite in the 2020 presidential election: Republican Donald Trump."

"The nation's top energy regulators yesterday paved the way for states to incorporate a carbon tax into regional power markets in an unprecedented move that is garnering mixed reviews, including pushback from conservatives and progressive environmentalists."

"A shuffle to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) independent board of science advisers will add a longtime consultant who has worked for the tobacco and chemicals industries while promoting a member listed as someone “not to pick” by the Union of Concerned Scientists to be the panel's chair."

"President Donald Trump on Tuesday created what he called a “subcabinet” for federal water issues, with a mandate that includes water-use changes sought by corporate farm interests and oil and gas.

An executive order from Trump put Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Andrew Wheeler in charge of the interagency water body.

Establishment of a water subcabinet “will streamline decision-making processes” across federal agencies, the EPA said in a statement.

"The presidential election is just weeks away, and climate change has broken through as a defining issue for Americans this year, even amid a historic pandemic and deep economic uncertainty weighing upon the nation."

"Supreme Court nominee Amy Coney Barrett called climate change 'a contentious matter' and declined to acknowledge the existence of the scientifically established phenomenon during the third day of her confirmation hearing."

"During the Democratic presidential primaries, James T. Kunz, who leads the operating engineers union in Western Pennsylvania, worried the party would choose a nominee determined to cripple the natural gas industry that has boosted the livelihoods of thousands of fellow Pennsylvanians."

"Mountain Valley Pipeline was given another two years Friday to complete a natural gas pipeline already marked by six years of community opposition, environmental damage, legal fights and delays."

"U.S. coronavirus cases are rising again, driven by rapid transmission in Midwestern states and sparking fears that a forewarned wave of infections this fall and winter has begun."