Environment

The Senate parliamentarian — a nonpartisan congressional advisor — says Republicans are violating a budget reconciliation rule in their attempt to fast-track some parts of President Trump’s agenda.

The Trump administration is thinking about scrapping a ban on white asbestos, a material used in roofing, chlorine manufacturing, and more. White asbestos is banned in many countries; exposure to it has been linked to lung cancer and other serious health risks.

The Trump administration is apparently trying to shut down the board that investigates chemical explosions in the US. What could go wrong?

Senate Republicans’ version of President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” — similar to the bill the House passed last month — would slash tax incentives for electric vehicles, wind, and solar power.

Ten more states joined the suit filed today against President Trump and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Congress recently voted to revoke EPA waivers that allow California to set tougher air pollution standards for vehicles than the nation as a whole, in what the plaintiffs allege was an unlawful use of the Congressional Review Act.

This saga has spanned several administrations since President Obama first tried to enact limits on greenhouse gas emissions causing climate change. Donald Trump tried to replace those rules with his own, weaker standards, only to be stymied by Joe Biden changing course.

Climate.gov will soon stop publishing new content after most of the people maintaining the website saw their contacts terminated, the Guardian reports. We don’t know yet if the website will continue to be accessible to the public.

The worst wildfires in decades are tearing through Saskatchewan, Canada, and at least two people have been killed in blazes in the neighboring province of Manitoba.

2024 holds the current record, beating 2023. Now, there’s an 80 percent chance that at least one of the next five years will take the title, according to a recent forecast from the World Meteorological Organization.

The Environmental Protection Agency is crafting a plan to eliminate greenhouse gas pollution limits on coal and gas-fired plants, the New York Times reports. Power plant emissions account for about a quarter of the nation’s planet-heating emissions.

He signed a series of executive orders today meant to revive the nuclear energy industry in the US, which has struggled to compete with cheaper sources of electricity. The president could also hit the Nuclear Regulatory Commission with layoffs as part of a broader reorganization of the agency.

GOP lawmakers passed resolutions rescinding federal approval of California’s plans to require that all car sales be zero-emission by 2035, as well as policies limiting nitrogen oxide emissions and other pollutants from trucks.

The Empire Wind project off the coast of New York can restart construction, about a month after the Trump administration abruptly issued a stop work order. The project was reportedly bleeding $50 million a week during the pause as President Trump waged his war against windmills.

Microsoft, TikTok, and other big names have signed deals with Climeworks, a company developing technologies to filter CO2 out of the air, as a way to try to clean up some of their planet-heating pollution. But Climeworks hasn’t even been able to capture enough CO2 to offset its own carbon footprint yet.

Teen Vogue points out the irony of turning to water-intensive and energy-hungry generative AI in a recent op-ed. The rush to build massive new AI data centers is driving up electricity demand, prolonging the use of fossil fuels, and hitting nearby communities with more pollution.

House Republicans proposed cutting crucial Biden-era tax credits for wind, solar, and geothermal energy even though Republican districts have the most to gain from investments in renewables.

The Trump administration announced its decision Thursday to retire the database of billion dollar weather and climate disasters, part of an ongoing purge of federal scientific data. The number of billion dollar disasters hitting the US has increased over the years as climate change fuels stronger storms, floods, and fires — a trend the US is no longer tracking.