"The Trump administration's push to allow oil and gas development in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge's coastal plain will have a hard time surviving required environmental reviews, a former Interior Department official said today at a Capitol Hill Democratic forum."
"The Interior Department said Thursday it plans to approve the Palen solar farm, which would be built on public lands just south of Joshua Tree National Park, in the open desert east of California's Coachella Valley. The 3,100-acre, 500-megawatt power plant would be one of the country's largest solar projects, generating enough renewable energy to balance out the planet-warming emissions of 17,000 average homes in nearby Palm Springs."
"For all of the administration's efforts to open more federal and tribal lands to drilling, oil and gas companies bid on just 6.7 percent of the acreage offered for sale by the Bureau of Land Management in President Trump's first year."
"President Trump late Thursday replaced an executive order signed by former President Obama that sought to reduce federal agencies’ energy use and greenhouse gas emissions."
"Samantha Dravis, who was the EPA’s senior counsel and director of its Office of Policy until she resigned last month, had more than 90 scheduled meetings with representatives of energy and manufacturing companies, trade associations, agricultural interests, car makers, and other industry groups between March of 2017 and January of this year, according to emails that were made public as a result of a lawsuit filed by the Sierra Club. "
"Plans for the state’s largest solar farm are stuck in limbo while a coal giant, once run by West Virginia’s governor, drags its feet on required reclamation."
"Most U.S. regions are prepared to meet power and natural gas demand this summer, but shortages are possible in Southern California due to low hydropower and gas supplies and Texas following the retirement of several coal plants, federal energy regulators said in a report on Thursday."
"Scott Pruitt has reportedly hired an outside defense attorney after a string of federal investigations into controversies related to his ethics and spending as head of the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)."
"Industry groups pitched EPA a proposal last spring that closely resembled what became Administrator Scott Pruitt's "secret science" plan, according to emails released this week under Freedom of Information Act litigation."
"House appropriators this morning quickly advanced a $44.7 billion Energy and Water Development spending bill for fiscal 2019, debating only a few amendments on nuclear weapons, the funding of energy offices and "poison pill" riders."
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