Climate Change and the Environment

The Hill |  Democratic lawmakers joined conservation groups Saturday in cheering President Trump’s announcement that Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is leaving his job by the end of the year. Zinke’s departure comes as Democrats prepare to take over as the majority in the House, which included gearing up to challenge policies created under… Read more »

Newsweek |  Donald Trump’s Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke will be leaving his post at the end of the year and top Democrat Chuck Schumer says “the swamp cabinet will be a little less foul without him.” “Ryan Zinke was one of the most toxic members of the cabinet in the way he treated our environment, our precious public lands, and the way he treated the [government] like it was… Read more »

Mother Jones |  On Saturday, President Donald Trump announced via Twitter that his Interior secretary, Ryan Zinke, will be leaving his position in the coming weeks. Zinke’s tenure overseeing the nation’s public lands has been controversial and has resulted in a number of federal investigations. (He reportedly used taxpayer money to purchase a $139,000 door, for example.)… Read more »

Congresswoman Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR), Ranking Member of the House Science, Space, and Technology Committee’s Environment Subcommittee, and Congressman Don Beyer (D-VA), Vice Ranking Member of the Committee, led 96 members in urging President Trump to heed the dire warnings in the second volume of the Fourth National Climate Assessment (NCA) and act on climate change. The NCA is… Read more »

The Hill |  Nearly 100 Democratic lawmakers called on President Trump to back federal climate change initiatives. In a letter, 96 House members urged Trump to heed warnings included in his administration’s national climate assessment released last month which spoke of the harsh economic repercussions climate change would reap on the U.S. “We write to convey our… Read more »

Rep. Don Beyer today issued the following statement on the Trump Administration’s proposal to significantly weaken protections for wetlands and waterways under the Clean Water Act’s jurisdiction: “Trump’s proposed rule to gut the Clean Water Act’s environmental protections for streams and wetlands will put at risk the water sources that tens of millions of Americans depend upon,” said… Read more »

The Hill |  A major Republican donor gave former Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) chief Scott Pruitt $50,000 for his legal defense fund before he stepped down in July. In an ethics filing the EPA released Thursday, Justina Fugh, the agency’s top ethics official, said the donation was “believed to be in cash” and that Pruitt did not seek ethics advice on receiving it.… Read more »

Rep. Beyer today called for swift consideration of his bill, the bipartisan Atlantic Seismic Airgun Protection (ASAP) Act, following an announcement by the National Marine Fisheries Service that the Trump Administration had formally approved permitting for seismic blasting in the Atlantic ocean. Beyer said: “Coastal states, communities, small businesses, political leaders from both… Read more »

The Hill |  The Trump administration took a major step Friday toward allowing testing for offshore oil and natural gas under the Atlantic Ocean. The National Marine Fisheries Service, part of the Commerce Department’s National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), is letting five companies commit “incidental” harassment of marine mammals like whales and dolphins as part of… Read more »

McClatchy |  The Trump administration on Friday approved permits for seismic testingon the Atlantic Coast, a prelude to offshore oil drilling and move that is sure to antagonize Republican governors and lawmakers in the Southeast, whose support the president will need in a 2020 re-election bid. The National Marine Fisheries Service, an arm of the U.S. Commerce Department,… Read more »