WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency is revoking a Trump-era rule that overhauled how the agency evaluates air pollutants, a move the Biden administration says will make it easier to enact limits on dangerous and climate-changing emissions. EPA said Thursday it reviewed a rule issued by the Trump administration last...
Accusations Follow EPA's Ouster of California Regional Boss
WASHINGTON — The Environmental Protection Agency abruptly pushed out its top regional official for California and other points West, touching off an unusual public dispute between the two over the reason why. Mike Stoker, the EPA’s chief for California and other far West states and territories since 2018, said he...
Growers Group Leader Disappointed by Ag Pesticide Ban
LOS ANGELES — A widely used agricultural pesticide that California environmental officials have said has been linked to brain damage in children will be banned after next year under an agreement reached with the manufacturer, state officials announced Wednesday. Under the deal, all California sales of chlorpyrifos will end on...
Feds Set to Revoke California’s Fuel Mileage Rules
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is poised to revoke California's authority to set auto mileage standards, asserting that only the federal government has the power to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and fuel economy. Conservative and free-market groups have been asked to attend a formal announcement of the rollback set for...
Politics of Climate Change Put Corporations in Tough Spot
The polarizing politics of climate change have forced companies to choose between supporting the Trump administration's deregulation policies that could boost profits or opposing them to win over environmentally conscious consumers. That dynamic played out again Thursday when President Donald Trump's Environmental Protection Agency sought to revoke regulations on methane...
Amid Urgent Climate Warnings, EPA Gives Coal a Reprieve
WASHINGTON — Amid scientists' increasingly urgent warnings, the Trump administration ordered a sweeping about-face Wednesday on Obama-era efforts to fight climate change, easing restrictions on coal-fired power plants in a move it predicted would revitalize America's sagging coal industry. As miners in hard hats and coal-country lawmakers applauded, Environmental Protection...
Appeals Court Tells EPA to Ban Harmful Ag Pesticide
WASHINGTON — A federal appeals court has ruled that the Trump administration endangered public health by keeping a widely used pesticide on the market despite extensive scientific evidence that even tiny levels of exposure can harm babies' brains. The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco on Thursday...
Pruitt Resigns as EPA Chief, Says Trump Presidency is 'God's Providence'
WASHINGTON — Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt resigned Thursday amid ethics investigations of outsized security spending, first-class flights and a sweetheart condo lease. With Pruitt's departure, President Donald Trump loses an administrator many conservatives regarded as one of the more effective members of his cabinet. But Pruitt had also...