Weekend Reader for January 7

Weekend Reader for January 7

This week, the Trump Administration reprised a Reagan-Era blunder.

In the early 1980's President Reagan and Interior Secretary James G. Watt proposed opening up virtually the entire U.S. coastline -- Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic oceans -- to offshore oil exploration. Problem was, the oil industry had virtually no interest in entering most of the areas proposed.


Current oil and gas prices are extremely low. Offshore oil and gas exploration and drilling is inherently more expensive than land-based drilling. Oil prices would have to once again shoot through the roof if there were any expectation that the oil industry actually wants the gift that it's being offered. The New York Times has the national view, while the Tampa Bay Times reports on how Florida's Republican governor is set to battle the White House on offshore drilling.

Top Weekend News

From Lisa Friedman of the New York Times:Expect environmental battles to intensify in 2018.

From the AP's Seth Borenstein: Ocean oxygen levels are taking a plunge. A new study also shows a dramatic increase in coral bleaching.

With a metro area of thirty million, Jakarta is one of the world's largest cities. They're contemplating a future underwater.

You may not have heard of Paul Nyden. The pioneering environmental journalist died this week at age 72. Nyden was among the first to report on mountaintop removal, the then-new coal mining method that lived up to its own name, blasting the tops of mountains to bits to remove the coal seams below, with the resulting waste rock dumped into valleys and streams below. Nyden stood up to the dominant coal industry as a reporter for the Charleston (WV) Gazette, mentoring other fearless reporters like Ken Ward, Jr., who had the difficult task of writing Nyden's obituary .

This Week in Trump

The Interior Department is axing regulations that don't comport with a Trump World view: Conservation and climate change need no longer be considered in many agency decisions.

Over at EPA, they're moving quickly to write new climate change rules that could wipe out any last vestige of Obama's climate policy.

While you were away..... Good rundown from Outside Magazine on Trump Administration rollbacks over the holidays.

The Interior Department also ended a decades-long standoff over building a road through wilderness on the Alaska Peninsula.

Opinions and Editorials

Michael Mann is a deeply respected climate scientist, at least among those who respect science. He offers this piece on the much discussed "Bomb Cyclone" and cold snap in the Northeast.

Writing for the Center for Health Journalism, Dr. Daniel Turner-Lloveras writes that EPA's unwillingness to ban chloprpyrifos would guarantee more illness and death among farm workers.

When wildfires threaten lives and raze entire communities, other hazards can get obscured. This op-ed highlights the added toxic risk from burning carpets laden with toxic chemicals.

From this week's Living On Earth: Peter Dykstra joins Steve Curwood to assess the environment and politics as the year turns, and finds little cause to think the current deregulatory push by the Trump Administration will change. Still, the states have become bright spots in the renewable energy sector and Congress is showing a bit more commitment to climate action.

Losing Bears Ears: Amy Irvine, a Utah mom, on what it means to see the new Bears Ears National Monument drastically reduced in size.

Obama quote that he'll never live down

The Obama Administration also tried a less ambitious expansion of offshore drilling. Shortly before Deepwater Horizon's blowout, he said this about how oil spills didn't much happen anymore. Ouch.

Black and orange oil pump jack in the middle of a field

New order weakens protections for public lands and wildlife

President Trump’s Interior Secretary Doug Burgum issued a directive making it easier to develop fossil fuels on public lands, reversing conservation efforts and threatening migratory birds, national monuments and endangered species.

Lisa Sorg and Wyatt Myskow report for Inside Climate News.

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Senator Whitehouse & climate change

Senator Whitehouse puts climate change on budget committee’s agenda

For more than a decade, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse gave daily warnings about the mounting threat of climate change. Now he has a powerful new perch.
Two men carrying a solar panel

Trump’s climate funding freeze leaves rural businesses in limbo

The Trump administration’s freeze on climate and energy funding has disrupted businesses, nonprofits and local governments, with rural projects in conservative-leaning states facing stalled reimbursements and financial strain.

Jeff St. John reports for Canary Media.

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Elon Musk gesturing and speaking at an event

Musk-backed effort threatens USAID’s climate programs

A freeze on USAID funding, supported by Elon Musk and the Trump administration, has halted key climate initiatives, potentially jeopardizing disaster preparedness and clean energy projects worldwide.

Chico Harlan reports for The Washington Post.

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Person in fingerless gloves using macbook pro

Researchers fight to save  environmental data erased from federal websites by Trump's administration

The Trump administration has swiftly deleted climate and environmental justice data from federal websites, prompting scientists and advocates to scramble to preserve critical resources.

Naveena Sadasivam reports for Grist.

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Curved facade of the Environmental Protection Agency building in Washington DC.

EPA partially unfreezes environmental funding after court ruling

A federal judge’s order has prompted the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to lift a spending freeze on some programs under the bipartisan infrastructure law and Inflation Reduction Act, though major climate-related funds remain paused.

James Bikales and Zack Colman report for POLITICO.

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Aerial photography of icebergs on body of water during daytime.

Polar ice melt may collapse key ocean current by 2050, scientists warn

Global warming has accelerated since 2010, raising concerns that a critical Atlantic Ocean current could shut down within decades, leading to extreme sea level rise and disruptive climate shifts.

Bob Berwyn reports for Inside Climate News.

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Map showing the Gulf of Mexico.

Greg Grandin: Renaming the Gulf of Mexico while oil drilling and pollution surge

Donald Trump’s push to rename the Gulf of Mexico as the "Gulf of America" draws attention away from decades of offshore drilling, pollution and environmental devastation affecting marine life and coastal communities.

Greg Grandin writes for The Guardian.

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From our Newsroom
wildfire retardants being sprayed by plane

New evidence links heavy metal pollution with wildfire retardants

“The chemical black box” that blankets wildfire-impacted areas is increasingly under scrutiny.

People  sitting in an outdoors table working on a big sign.

Op-ed: Why funding for the environmental justice movement must be anti-racist

We must prioritize minority-serving institutions, BIPOC-led organizations and researchers to lead environmental justice efforts.

joe biden

Biden finalizes long-awaited hydrogen tax credits ahead of Trump presidency

Responses to the new rules have been mixed, and environmental advocates worry that Trump could undermine them.

Op-ed: Toxic prisons teach us that environmental justice needs abolition

Op-ed: Toxic prisons teach us that environmental justice needs abolition

Prisons, jails and detention centers are placed in locations where environmental hazards such as toxic landfills, floods and extreme heat are the norm.

Agents of Change in Environmental Justice logo

LISTEN: Reflections on the first five years of the Agents of Change program

The leadership team talks about what they’ve learned — and what lies ahead.

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