"The Environmental Protection Agency’s inspector general will open “new reviews” into ethics questions surrounding Administrator Scott Pruitt, including his $50-a-night rental of a lobbyist’s Capitol Hill condo last year."
"WASHINGTON - The Trump administration on Friday proposed relaxing a rule on offshore oil wells that was finalized after the 2010 BP Plc disaster and crude spill in the Gulf of Mexico, as part of its effort to slash regulations it considers burdensome on industry.
The exact revisions to the 2016 well control rule proposed by the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement (BSEE), an office of the Department of Interior, will be known next week when they are published in the Federal Register.
"The Trump administration has drafted a proposal that would freeze fuel-efficiency standards for automobiles starting in 2021 and challenge California’s ability to set its own fuel-efficiency rules, changes that would hobble one of the Obama administration’s most significant initiatives to curb climate change."
"The agency charged with the critical missions of predicting the nation’s weather, monitoring its climate and protecting its coasts has lacked a permanent leader for one year and 95 days, since Donald Trump was elected president."
"Scott Pruitt, the Environmental Protection Agency chief, had an easier time than expected on Capitol Hill on Thursday as he deflected Democrats’ pointed questions about accusations of ethical infractions and lavish personal spending at the taxpayers’ expense."
"Sources within EPA tell Guardian that proposals are threadbare and muddled – ‘they’re are just making it up as they go along’"
"Democratic senators are demanding information about what they call the Koch brothers’ “infiltration” of the Trump administration, charging that Koch-linked personnel have secured key federal jobs and are determining US environmental and public health policy."
"A private investment firm led by Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s son has notified the Securities and Exchange Commission that it’s seeking investors for a new energy fund, raising concerns about the potential for private businesses run by the offspring of high-ranking government officials to benefit from their parents’ policy decisions without the public being aware."
"Sinclair Broadcast Group executives reprimanded and ultimately ousted a local news reporter who refused to seed doubt about man-made climate change and “balance” her stories in a more conservative direction."
"The Texas hornshell is a sleek green-grey mussel that once thrived in the Rio Grande watershed, its habitat stretching from southern New Mexico down into the arid Texas borderlands. Some of its habitat happens to overlap with rich deposits of oil and gas."
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