Natural Resources

"On the morning of Aug. 21, 2018, David Bernhardt, then the deputy interior secretary, wanted to attend a White House meeting on the future of a threatened California fish, the delta smelt — an issue upon which Mr. Bernhardt had been paid to lobby until he joined the Trump administration a year before."

"The Trump administration changed a 25-year-old policy to make it easier for coastal communities to take sand from protected ecosystems to improve their beaches."

"A team of Trump administration advisers – consisting mostly of appointees from private industry – are urging “modernization” of national park campgrounds, with a vision of food trucks, wifi and even Amazon deliveries."

"Top Trump administration officials have said that they plan to hold an oil and gas lease sale in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge before the end of the year. But that goal now appears out of reach because of two procedural steps still necessary before a sale can take place."

"Illegal loggers in the Amazon ambushed an indigenous group that was formed to protect the forest and shot dead a young warrior and wounded another, leaders of the Guajajara tribe in northern Brazil said on Saturday."

"The Grand Canyon Centennial Protection Act, which passed the House today [Wednesday] by a vote of 236–185, would permanently withdraw more than 1 million acres of public lands surrounding the Grand Canyon from new mining claims."

"Chaco Culture National Historical Park is at the center of a decades-long debate over how to manage oil and gas development in a sprawling area of northwestern New Mexico that is dotted by sites tied to the park but that lie outside its boundaries. The U.S. House is set to vote Wednesday on legislation that would prohibit drilling on the checkerboard of federal land that borders the park."

"Conowingo Dam owner Exelon Corp. and the state of Maryland have reached a settlement under which the Chicago-based energy company will invest $200 million to clean up the Susquehanna River, and, by extension, the Chesapeake Bay."

"Federal officials yesterday asked the Supreme Court to keep records related to Endangered Species Act decisions under lock and key. The government said a lower court's ruling that certain draft documents should be publicly disclosed under the Freedom of Information Act could have a chilling effect on discussions around federal decisionmaking."