"The top U.S. infectious diseases expert is warning that distributing a COVID-19 vaccine under special emergency use guidelines before it has been proved safe and effective in large trials is a bad idea that could have a chilling effect on the testing of other vaccines."
"Environmental groups filed lawsuits aimed at halting efforts by the Trump administration to open up wide swaths of Alaska’s Arctic to oil drilling. Two separate lawsuits were filed late Monday challenging the Bureau of Land Management’s plan to allow drilling on more than 18 million acres of land in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska."
"Environmentalists and Alaska natives are challenging the Trump administration’s decision to sell drilling rights in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, arguing the government gave short shrift to the impact on polar bears and the region’s other wildlife. The groups said they filed a pair of lawsuits Monday in a U.S. district court in Alaska, setting up an election-year battle over the controversial plan, even as the Interior Department prepares for a possible auction."
"Thousands of oil and gas operations, government facilities and other sites won permission to stop monitoring for hazardous emissions or otherwise bypass rules intended to protect health and the environment because of the coronavirus outbreak, The Associated Press has found."
"Senate Democrats are set to release a 200-page plan arguing that significant US climate action will require stripping the fossil fuel industry of its influence over the government and the public’s understanding of the crisis."
"The Trump administration will say Monday that it is not ready to grant a permit for a controversial gold and copper mine in Alaska, according to three individuals briefed on the decision, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations, on the grounds that the firm must do more to address how it will harm the environment."
"Federal approval of a controversial gold and copper mine in Alaska that would be the largest in North America may be put on hold after a small group of influential Republicans — including the president’s son, Fox News host Tucker Carlson, a wealthy Trump donor and one of the vice president’s former top aides — launched a full-court press to block the project."
"At least four people have died as a result of wildfires fueled by a heat wave and a blitz of lightning strikes in [California's] northern areas. The clusters of fires merged into orange infernos that are creeping up on residential areas, turning neighborhoods into ash and smoldering ruins."
"Offshore wind — a multibillion-dollar industry poised to go up along the Atlantic seaboard — seemingly is the optimal candidate to benefit from President Trump's overhaul of the National Environmental Policy Act last month."
"The Trump administration’s method of keeping the controversial acting head of the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in power even after his nomination is withdrawn is likely not legal, according to experts who have reviewed the orders."
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