The battle of humankind vs. nature might have been a draw this year — with several huge blows to the environment as the planet metaphorically struck back with devastating natural disasters. It is a fight with no winners.
Hurricane Harvey was supposed to be a 500-year event. Instead, it became the third and most destructive in three years. Whether Americans can outlast more catastrophic disasters will depend on the GOP’s willingness to acknowledge and combat the threat of climate change.
For 40 years, the federal government has failed to protect the public from toxic chemicals. Last year, a bipartisan Congress passed a law to change that state of affairs. Public health advocates worry that the Trump administration is now undermining it.
Government agencies continue to delay Obama-era regulations, leading to an influx of legal challenges from states.
Over half of the EPA’s Board of Scientific Counselors have been dismissed to make way for fossil fuel advocates, leading many to worry about the vanishing role of independent scientific review within the agency.
A former EPA official involved in a controversial study of the health effects of Monsanto’s glyphosate is being taken to court by public interest advocates who want to know more about his ties to the company and the chemical industry.
Last spring, a report published on the EPA’s website said glyphosate does not cause cancer. It disappeared within a week and an advocacy group’s efforts to obtain the information has been met with silence. Now it is suing for access.
Pro-business lawyers, scholars dominate Hill conference pushing deregulatory agenda.
A large batch of emails from Scott Pruitt’s time as Oklahoma Attorney General reveal an alarmingly cozy relationship with oil and gas industries. Will he put their interests first as head of the EPA or those of the American people?
Part 1 of this series revealed the technical difficulties in assessing the potential harm from chemical additives like BPA. Part 2 focuses on the contamination of scientific review by money and politics, and why chemical regulatory systems are not only broken — they are unfixable.
Barack Obama began his presidency with a promise of unprecedented openness in government. But heading into his final year in office, journalists see an administration that is more interested in message-control than transparency.
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