By Derrick Z. Jackson If fish could wail, they would scream over the lethal powers granted to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in part of the draft farm bill recently rolled out by the House Agriculture Committee. The bill, passed out of committee by Chairman Mike Conaway (R-TX) on a party-line vote last month, […]
In all the media attention gobbled by U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) head Scott Pruitt, it’s important to remember that Trump’s appointed Department of Interior (DOI) leader Ryan Zinke is also extremely dangerous for the environment. Before being chosen to head the DOI, Zinke was a Montana representative with a three percent environmental voting record […]
In response to a legal victory by the Center for Biological Diversity, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service today gave Endangered Species Act protection to a freshwater mussel that lives in Maryland, North Carolina and Virginia. The yellow lance is threatened by pollution from agriculture, logging and urban development, as well as by climate change. […]
By Elly Pepper In early November—the same week the Trump administration announced its disastrous decision to allow elephant and lion trophy imports from Zimbabwe and Zambia—the administration decided to create an advisory committee, the International Wildlife Conservation Council (IWCC), to advise Trump on how to enhance trophy hunters’ ability to hunt internationally. Yup, that means […]
Yellowstone grizzly bears could be legally hunted for the first time in four decades under a proposal issued by Wyoming officials last week. The move comes less than a year after the iconic bears were stripped of Endangered Species Act protections. Wyoming Game and Fish Department’s new draft regulation would allow the killing of up […]
The yearly count of monarch butterflies overwintering in Mexico, released Monday, shows a decrease from last year’s count and confirms the iconic orange and black butterfly is still very much at risk. The count of 2.48 hectares of occupied winter habitat is down from 2.91 hectares last winter. Overall, monarchs have declined by more than […]
A federal judge in San Diego ruled Tuesday that the Trump administration can waive a slew of environmental laws and other regulations to build the president’s highly vaunted U.S.-Mexico border wall in California. Federal laws waived by the Department of Homeland Security for construction of a border wall include the Endangered Species Act, the Clean […]
The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works, led by Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), will hold a hearing Wednesday advancing its goals of repealing the Endangered Species Act and gutting the Clean Water Act. The hearing will highlight testimony from industrial-scale agribusinesses and preview environmental attacks likely to be included in the 2018 Farm Bill, […]
The Trump administration re-nominated Kathleen Hartnett White on Monday to be chair of the Council on Environmental Quality (CEQ) after she failed to secure a Senate confirmation last year. The CEQ chair oversees environmental policy across all federal agencies. But during Senate hearings in November, White struggled to answer basic questions about the CEQ’s role […]