Arizona is nearing a deadline to approve a plan to ensure a key reservoir in the West doesn't become unusable as a water source for farmers, cities, tribes and developers. Other Western states are watching. The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation expects full agreement on a drought contingency plan by Thursday.
Subscribe to this Stream - It's Free
While it normally costs $0.03 per month, if you sign up now, you get $3 in free credit on your Transact account. We use Transact so it's easy for readers to pay as little as one cent for digital media. There is no cost for an account, and you don't even have to provide a credit card.
Trump promotes environmental record despite rollbacks
newsenvironmentnews ustype-text
President Donald Trump declared himself a champion of the environment Monday, working to boost his standing on climate change and pollution issues in advance of the 2020 election despite having launched some of the most sweeping rollbacks in air, water and other protections in decades. Former government regulators and environmental advocates said Trump's promotion of its environmental record strained credulity. "Trump's environmental record is such a toxic disaster it should be declared a Superfund site," said Carol Browner, who led the Environmental Protection Agency during the Clinton administration.
Want to read more?
Other notes like this one
Trump plan to reclassify nuke waste alarms environmentalists
Conservation groups are alarmed by the Trump administration's proposal to rename some radioactive waste left from the production of nuclear weapons to make it cheaper and easier to achieve permanent disposal. The U.S. Department of Energy is considering a change in its legal definition of high-level radioactive waste, which is stored at places like the Hanford.
Government shutdown delays, disrupts environmental studies
Environmental research projects on everything from endangered animals to air and water quality are being delayed and disrupted by the month-long partial federal government shutdown, and not just those conducted by government agencies. Scientists with universities, nonprofit organizations and private companies say their inability to collaborate with federal partners, gain access to federal lands and laboratories, and secure federal funding is jeopardizing their work.
Landmark environmental protections being rolled back
One after another, landmark U.S. protections for climate, air and land are in the crosshairs of the Trump administration as his agency leaders move past early fumbles and scandals to start delivering on a succession of promised environmental rollbacks.
Trump rejects key conclusion of climate report released by his own administration
The National Climate Assessment report said warming-charged extremes "have already become more frequent, intense, widespread or of long duration." The report noted the last few years have smashed U.S. records for damaging weather, costing nearly $400 billion since 2015. President Donald Trump said he read some of the report "and it's fine" but not the part about the devastating economic impact. "I don't believe it," Trump said, adding that if "every other place on Earth is dirty, that's not so good."
Croak to croon: City frogs sing more alluring love songs
Researchers found that the urban frogs call faster, more frequently and add more embellishments — a series of staccato "chucks" on the end of the initial whine — compared with those in the forest. Those fancy urban love songs are three times more likely to attract the ladies, as scientists learned by playing back recordings of both city and forest frog calls to an audience of female frogs in a laboratory.
Park Service to tap into entrance fees to keep operating
The National Park Service says it is taking the extraordinary step of dipping into entrance fees to pay for staffing at its highly visited parks in the wake of the partial government shutdown. P. Daniel Smith, deputy director of the service, said in a statement Sunday that the money would be used to bring in staff to maintain restrooms, clean up trash and patrol the parks. He acknowledged that the Trump administration's decision to keep the parks open during the weekslong budget impasse was no longer workable and so more extreme measures were warranted.
Rising sea levels could kill off 500-year-old trees in New Jersey forest
Scientists estimate the age of black gums in an old-growth forest surrounded by Bear Swamp in Cumberland County, N.J., ranges from 400 to 500 years, making it among the oldest trees in the oldest forest of its kind in the Northeast. But sea-level rise fueled by warmer oceans and sinking land is pushing saltwater ever closer to the trees, with the potential to kill them in the not-so-distant future.
Panel to take closely watched vote on pipeline station
A citizen panel that votes on air pollution permits was set to decide Monday whether Virginia's most powerful corporation can build a natural gas compressor station in a historical African-American community. But the state on Sunday announced the meeting was being pushed back to Dec. 19 because of a winter storm that has made roads dangerous.