Perhaps the Senate, in its hearing on Scott Pruitt’s nomination to head the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), should have questioned Pruitt as the chief pediatrician for America’s children. As head of the EPA Pruitt gets to decide what is safe for our kids—in the air they breathe, the water they drink, the food they […]
By Lauren McCauley Throwing the weight of his office behind the nation’s biggest polluters, President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order directing his administration to dismantle the Obama-era Clean Water Rule. Surrounded by other foes of environmental regulation, including the newly confirmed U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) head Scott Pruitt, the president declared […]
By Jessica A. Knoblauch A U.S. District Court judge took the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to task on Jan. 10 for withholding government documents related to the agency’s approval of genetically engineered (GE) salmon. The judge’s decision is a big win for public transparency, but it’s also a small step toward finally doing […]
By Andy Rowell Early yesterday, work restarted on the highly controversial Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), less than a day after the Trump administration granted a final easement to allow the project to go ahead over the disputed land near the Standing Rock reservation. Army Corps to Grant Final Permit for #DAPL https://t.co/YbQSP4Dxn0 — Robert F. […]
President Donald Trump‘s nomination of Judge Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court has been criticized by environmental groups and human health advocates, who fear that the conservative judge would side with corporations, limit the federal government’s regulatory responsibilities, and gut environmental and health protection if confirmed. The 49-year-old federal appeals court judge from Colorado has […]
The Army Corps of Engineers disappointed environmental groups and tribal leaders Wednesday by not amending a complex permitting system that expedites oil and gas pipeline approval. 20+ Proposed #Pipelines Threatening #Indigenous Communities via @EcoWatch https://t.co/wfZht9rDZu #NoDAPL @sierraclub @UR_Ninja @350 — EcoWatch (@EcoWatch) December 12, 2016 The permit structure, which allowed for the approval of the […]
Following weeks of speculation, President-elect Donald Trump has officially nominated Rex Tillerson—the longtime leader of world’s largest fossil fuel company, ExxonMobil—to be secretary of state. On the president-elect’s favorite mode of communication, Trump tweeted that Tillerson is “one of the truly great business leaders of the world” and likes his “vast experience at dealing successfully […]
There’s something the farm lobby doesn’t want you to know: how much their use of antibiotics in livestock poses a risk to you and your children. Drug resistant infections are on the rise, according to the Review on Antimicrobial Resistance, “with numbers suggesting that up to 50,000 lives are lost each year to antibiotic-resistant infections […]
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit issued its decisions Friday on whether federal and Hawai’i state laws preempt Hawai’i counties’ authority to regulate genetically engineered (GE) crops and pesticide use. Of significance to state and local communities throughout the U.S., the Ninth Circuit ruled that federal law—specifically, the Plant Protection Act—does not […]