Climate Point: Disgraced Trump officials strike gold, New York goes green, rivers go brown
Janet WilsonWelcome to Climate Point, your weekly guide to climate change, energy and the environment. I'm Janet Wilson, writing to you from Palm Springs, which could soon share the crown for smoggiest city in the USA, along with Los Angeles.
That's right, bachelorettes, golfers and festival goers: regulators say the hazardous haze here is as bad as it is in LA — and that's where most of it comes from. Regulators say lung-scarring ozone here and across the West spiked in the past two years, possibly due to wildfires and climate change. If you want to see how your part of the U.S. is faring, check out this interactive map. You can find more information on other air pollutants too. Clue: PM 2.5 means soot. Bad stuff.
Here are some other things you might want to know:
MUST READ STORIES
All God’s children. A broad array of groups raced to meet Wednesday’s deadline to submit comments opposing the Trump administration’s rollback of mercury regulation, including anti-abortion Christians worried about unborn children, writes Rev. Mitchell C. Hescox in The Hill. “Children in the womb are uniquely vulnerable to mercury — a potent neurotoxin." Utilities, unions and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce also have joined environmental and health groups in opposing relaxing mercury controls on power plants and other sources.
New York, New York. More than 100 cities have climate policies aimed at slashing emissions and ramping up clean energy. The Big Apple took a bite today, as Alexander Kaufman reports for HuffPost, with the City Council passing a package to cap emissions from skyscrapers, among other measures. Supporters say it's the largest mandate to cut climate pollution by any city and will create 9,000 jobs. Others note 70 percent of city residents live in Brooklyn and Queens, where there are few high rises.
Out here in the fields. Federal officials say there's no link between sewage sludge fertilizers used by farmers and Hepatitis A, a highly contagious liver damaging disease. But Florida officials grappling with an outbreak are questioning that, noting the center of the state has the highest concentrations of both. Tyler Treadway takes a look for Treasure Coast Newspapers.
ENERGY CLEAN AND DIRTY
Wheeler dealing in Indiana. Trump's disgraced former Cabinet secretaries are wasting no time finding new employment. Scott Pruitt left the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency mired in scandal. Now the former administrator will lobby Indiana lawmakers, as Emily Hopkins reports for the Indianapolis Star. Pruitt's filings identify his lobbying topics as "energy" and "natural resources," and he has ties to the coal industry. As Hopkins also reports, Wyoming coal interests are spending heavily in Indiana to keep two power companies from switching to wind.
Zinke strikes gold. Meanwhile, former U.S. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has landed a more than $100,000-per-year post at a Nevada gold mining company and is pursuing involvement in natural gas exports, which have surged under Trump, he told Matthew Brown and Ellen Knickmeyer with Associated Press. Zinke left his Cabinet position overseeing mining and gas four months ago. A grand jury is also reportedly probing whether he lied to federal investigators.
POLITICAL CLIMATE
Step right up. Meanwhile Zinke's replacement, David Bernhardt, just confirmed last week, is already facing an ethics probe by the agency's inspector general for possible conflicts of interest involving former oil, gas and water utility clients while he was deputy secretary, as USA TODAY's Ledyard King reports. And as Emily Holden with the Guardian tells us, internal records show the new Interior secretary met with a lawyer for a Native American tribe that tangled with Zinke.
States rights. Pres. Trump has been sued by state attorneys general more in his first two years of office than Barack Obama and George W. Bush were during their entire tenures, often over climate and environment rollbacks, as Maureen Groppe with USA TODAY reports.
Howling away. Wolves, sage grouse and other endangered species are all at risk due to Trump's energy agenda, writes King with USA TODAY. But the Mexican wolf, once nearly wiped out, is making a slow but steady comeback in Arizona, as Priscilla Totiyapungprasert with the Arizona Republic chronicles.
WATER, WATER EVERYWHERE
Cry me a river. The USA's top 10 most endangered rivers range from the Gila in New Mexico to the Stikine in Alaska, according to American Rivers. The Gila got the top spot due to the grave threat that climate change and a proposed diversion project pose to the free-flowing river. The Hudson River between New York and New Jersey is No. 2, as Scott Fallon with North Jersey Newspapers reports, both because of a pricey post-Sandy project and challenges after a $1.7 billion GE clean-up of PCBs it dumped there.
Cleveland river rocks. One river won an award for greatest comeback: Cleveland's Cuyahoga was named "River of the Year", marking the 50th anniversary of it catching fire that helped spark the nation’s environmental movement, and its dramatic clean-up. Happy Earth Day to that!
Way out west. Pres. Trump signed the multi-state Colorado River drought plan into law, as Andrew Nicla reports for The Arizona Republic, calling it a "big deal" but a rural California water district sued to halt it the same day, as I report for the Desert Sun.
AND ANOTHER THING
Catching hell. Eastern hellbenders, North America's largest aquatic salamander, have been denied Endangered Species Act protection by the feds, writes Karen Chavez with the Asheville Citizen-Times. Also known as water dogs or snot otters, the amphibians, which can grow to two feet, can only survive in pristine, fast moving water, much of which is gone. North Carolina has made it illegal to catch, sell or own them.
Here's this week's carbon dioxide numbers. Scientists say to keep a livable planet, we need to cut the amount to 350 parts per million. We're at 414 ppm, up again.
That's all for this week. For more climate, energy and environment news, follow me on Twitter @janetwilson66 You can sign up to get Climate Point in your inbox for free here.