Climate Change

"The Environmental Protection Agency is preparing to move ahead with a slate of major air and climate rules this year to make gains on the Biden administration’s long-promised climate goals.

The agency is due as early as the spring to propose and finalize closely watched emissions rules, including legal underpinnings for mercury regulations, ozone transport standards, and greenhouse gas regulations for existing coal-fired power plants.

"The seven states that rely on water from the shrinking Colorado River are unlikely to agree to voluntarily make deep reductions in their water use, negotiators say, which would force the federal government to impose cuts for the first time in the water supply for 40 million Americans."

"Hundreds of climate and environmental groups from around the world released a letter Thursday that decried the nomination of an oil executive to oversee the United Nations climate negotiations at COP28 this year.

Earlier this month, the United Arab Emirates, host of the U.N. climate talks this year, named Sultan al-Jaber to the presidency of the conference Nov. 30 to Dec. 12. The company he runs as chief executive, the Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., produces 4 million barrels of crude oil per day and hopes to expand to 5 million daily by the end of the decade.

"The oil and gas industry donated millions of dollars to members of the House in the last election cycle. Now, many of the top recipients are well-positioned to advance its interests."

"The Colorado River begins as melting snow, trickling from forested peaks and coursing in streams that gather in the meadows and valleys of the Rocky Mountains. Like arteries, its major tributaries take shape across Colorado, Wyoming, Utah and New Mexico, coming together in a great river like no other — a river that travels more than 1,400 miles and has defined the rise of the American Southwest over the last century."

"Puerto Rican authorities have hired a natural gas company to operate the island’s publicly-owned fleet of fossil fuel power plants, despite the commonwealth facing increasing pressure to rapidly transition its aging energy system to renewable sources."

"The Biden administration on Thursday said it will establish a 20-year moratorium on mining upstream from Minnesota’s Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness, a vast preserve of lakes and woods that has been at the center of a fierce dispute over a proposed copper and nickel mine."

"In pointed language, federal regulators rebuffed a request Tuesday from the operator of California’s last nuclear power plant that could have smoothed its pathway to securing a longer operating life for its twin reactors."

"Pennsylvania’s environmental regulator says, over a five-year period, more than half of conventional oil and gas operators failed to report how much gas they pulled from the ground and whether their equipment is safe."