“The third acting National Park Service director under the Trump administration abruptly announced on Friday he plans to retire next month amid a legal challenge to his appointment. Vela’s retirement comes after the nonprofits Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility and ...

“The head of the Interior Department’s coal mining bureau has a new title. Lanny Erdos, who has been leading the Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE) for 10 months, was previously the agency’s acting director. Watchdog groups noted in an E&E ...

“When Ken Cuccinelli was Virginia Attorney General a decade ago, he pursued an extraordinary legal campaign against one of the nation’s top climate scientists, in essence accusing him of fraud for his research tracking the rise in global temperatures. At the same time, ...

“The Environmental Protection Agency is failing to release records linked to a delayed interactive map for identifying local sources of “forever chemicals” known as PFAS, according to a lawsuit filed in a federal court in Washington. The EPA said in its per- and polyfluoroalkyl ...

“It’s not the first time that Republicans in Washington state have chosen a far-right gadfly as their nominee for the governorship, but Tuesday’s primary in which Loren Culp—a small-town cop who has never previously run for elective office—outpaced a large field to ...

“Senate Judiciary Committee Ranking Member Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) on Thursday introduced the Congressional Whistleblower Protection Act, a bill to strengthen protections for federal whistleblowers who share valuable information with Congress. The bill is endorsed by the ...

“Patricia Trap assumed her new role as superintendent of the Southeast Utah Group Area National Parks on August 2. Kate Cannon, who held the position since 2006, retired in January. The group includes both Arches and Canyonlands National Parks, as well as Hovenweep and Natural ...

“The acting head of the National Park Service abruptly announced his retirement on Friday, vacating a role that a Senate-confirmed nominee has not held during the entire Trump administration. David Vela, a 30-year career NPS official who assumed the role of acting director of the ...

“The new chairwoman of a federal agency that investigates major industrial accidents has an unusual problem: she’s the only person on its five-member board, and President Donald Trump wants it shut down. Katherine Lemos said she plans to continue the U.S. Chemical Safety Board’s ...

“David Vela reportedly was replaced Friday as acting director of the National Park Service, the latest upheaval the organization has endured under the Trump administration. There was no official word from the Park Service on Friday morning of the change, but three sources told  ...

“Acting National Park Service (NPS) Director David Vela is retiring, he announced Friday, leaving the job amid a lawsuit challenging the legality of his tenure in the post. The lawsuit from Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER) challenging continued use of ...

“Palm Beach County Inspector General John Carey said his office is determining whether to investigate Delray Beach’s problem-plagued water system. This week, the Tallahassee office of Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility issued a news release stating that the ...

“More than a year into the job that is officially still temporary, William Perry Pendley, the acting head of the Bureau of Land Management, is doing things that may be permanent, and Senate Democrats are seeking a chance to hold him to account. At Interior, heads of the BLM and the ...

“As President Trump nears the end of his first term, the federal agency tasked with protecting the environment from the impacts of coal mining still does not have a confirmed director. The Interior Department’s Office of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement oversees state ...

“Last month Massachusetts lawmakers finalized, and the Governor subsequently signed, emergency legislation S.2757, aimed at revamping the state’s approach to mosquito management. The final version of this mosquito reform bill continues to include certain problematic provisions, but ...

“A large coalition of environmental and social justice groups, including the NAACP, urged members of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee in a letter today to reject Pendley. Among other things, the letter cites Pendley’s “track record of dismantling the very ...

“Decades of conservation efforts have brought the Kemp’s ridley sea turtles back from the brink of extinction. It now looks like their future may be in peril once again. The National Park Service is proposing massive cuts in conservation officers. It’s a change that could have a ...

“William Perry Pendley, the longtime president of the Mountain States Legal Foundation, a conservative legal fund that has fought the federal government on a host of issues in the American West, is now preparing for confirmation hearings to become the permanent director of the Bureau ...

“EPA yesterday finalized a rule to speed up industry permit appeals, overhauling the decades-old process at the agency. In past decades, more states and tribes have assumed permitting authority under the law, EPA added. The final rule, the agency said, “clarifies the EAB’ ...

“On Monday, Montana’s Democratic governor Steve Bullock filed a lawsuit to block William Perry Pendley from using the powers of a BLM director. Bullock, who is also running for a Senate seat, argues that it’s illegal for Pendley to use that authority without Senate confirmation, ...