wildfire smoke, Montana
Gov/Politics

Harris-Trump Disconnect on Climate Is Glaring

The question to you both tonight is what would you do to fight climate change? Vice President Harris, we’ll start with you.” “Well, the former president had said that climate change is a hoax,” Harris said. “And what we know is that it is very real.” […]

Supreme Court 2024
Gov/Politics

SCOTUS Decisions Cancel, Imperil Environmental Protections

WASHINGTON, DC, July 1, 2024 (ENS) – The U.S. Supreme Court’s decision today in favor of Corner Post, Inc., a truckstop in rural North Dakota, and other rulings issued last week, alter the statute of limitations and other rules for challenging agency actions, threatening the stability of the laws that provide the United States with protections from the unchecked power of corporations such as polluting industries. […]

Biden, Harris Johnson SOTU 2024
Gov/Politics

Biden’s State of the Union Climate Points Short But Crucial

WASHINGTON, DC, March 8, 2024 (ENS) – President Joe Biden entered the House of Representatives Thursday night to deliver the final State of the Union address for this term with a brilliant smile and a long list of accomplishments to promote. The environment was barely there, mentioned just twice, but Biden’s two comments were strong. […]

U.S.-Mexico border wall
Gov/Politics

Biden Waives Vital Environmental Laws to Build Border Wall

WASHINGTON, DC, October 6, 2023 (ENS) – On his Inauguration Day, January 20, 2021, one of the first things Joe Biden did as President was to deliver a Proclamation lifting his predecessor’s 2019 declaration of an emergency at the U.S. southern border with Mexico, used to justify building a border wall. […]

Florida National Guard
Gov/Politics

Hurricane Politics: Biden Funds Florida Aid Despite Rude DeSantis

LIVE OAK, Florida, September 2, 2023 (ENS) – President Joe Biden saw from the sky Hurricane Idalia’s impact across a swath of Florida before he set out on a walking tour of a city recovering from the storm Saturday. Absent was Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, a Republican presidential candidate who declined to join Biden after he said that the Democratic president’s presence could hinder disaster response efforts. […]

Senate hearing room
Gov/Politics

Freight Train Derailment Politics

WASHINGTON, DC, March 9, 2023 (ENS) – Norfolk Southern President and CEO Alan Shaw apologized today during a hearing of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee for the February derailment of a Norfolk Southern train carrying toxic chemicals in East Palestine, Ohio, just a mile from the Pennsylvania border. […]

Paul Gosar Donald Trump
Gov/Politics

Climate Denier Gosar Rejoins House Natural Resources Committee

WASHINGTON, DC, January 18, 2023 (ENS) – Ally of industrial development and ex-President Donald Trump, far-right election denier Republican Congressman Paul Gosar of Arizona is back on the House Committee on Natural Resources where he sat for 10 years before he was removed by formal censure of the House in 2021. His return to the committee is a boon for resource extraction companies… […]

Hungary's Parliament
Gov/Politics

Europe Evaluates New Rules for Cleaner Air, Water

BRUSSELS, Belgium, October 27, 2022 (ENS) – The European Commission Wednesday proposed stronger rules on ambient air, surface and groundwater pollutants, and the treatment of urban wastewater.
All the new rules provide a clear return on investment thanks to benefits in health, energy savings, food production, industry, and biodiversity, the Commission said. […]

demonstration NYC
Gov/Politics

EPA Opens Environmental Justice Office to Support Civil Rights

WASHINGTON, DC, October 10, 2022 (ENS) – The Environmental Protection Agency, EPA, has just established the Office of Environmental Justice and External Civil Rights to serve underprivileged communities overburdened by the challenges created by lack of environmental justice. It will enforce civil rights laws, and deliver new grants and technical assistance. […]

Kentucky flood
Gov/Politics

Senate to Vote on Record $369 Billion Climate Change Spending

WASHINGTON, DC, July 29, 2022 (ENS) – Two of the Democrats’ most powerful senators have agreed to add a $700 billion climate change, energy security and debt reduction package, the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, to the Budget Reconciliation bill and vote in the Senate next week. […]

Gov/Politics

Germany’s G7 Puts Climate Infrastructure Front and Center 

SCHLOSS ELMAU, Bavaria, Germany, June 26, 2022 (ENS) – At a century-old retreat in a Bavarian Alpine nature reserve, the world’s seven largest and wealthiest liberal democracies today formally launched
the Partnership for Global Infrastructure to mobilize “hundreds of billions of dollars and deliver quality, sustainable infrastructure” to support climate action and improve cybersecurity, gender equality and health care. […]

Gov/Politics

Congress OKs Climate, Energy, Water Spending in $1.5T Bill

WASHINGTON, DC, March 12, 2022 (ENS) – In a bipartisan vote of 68-31, the U.S. Senate has passed an appropriations bill that will fund government climate, energy, water and wildfire activities, and provide $13.6 billion in new aid for Ukraine, sending the $1.5 trillion bill to President Joe Biden’s desk for signature.  […]

Gov/Politics

EU, USA Pledge Energy Security as Russia Threatens Ukraine

BRUSSELS, Belgium, January 28, 2022 (ENS) – In a joint statement today, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and U.S. President Joe Biden reinforced their cooperation on energy security. The two leaders made their positions clear in the face of Russia’s buildup of an estimated 100,000 troops on its border with Ukraine. […]

Gov/Politics

Green Values Shape Germany’s 2022 Government

BERLIN, Germany, January 8, 2022 (ENS) – In Germany’s September 2021 federal election, voters supported the Greens at historic levels, and Germany became the sixth and largest European Union Member State to have Green Party members in government, joining Austria, Belgium, Finland, Ireland, and Luxembourg. […]