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New EPA order limits telework post-pandemic

by The Hill | March 24, 2020
“A newly implemented order from the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) requires employees to work from the office at least three days per week, though the agency says it does not apply to the current situation involving the coronavirus pandemic. Tim Whitehouse, the executive ...

County health officials ask Yellowstone to close, while Glacier sees busy weekend

by KVPI | March 23, 2020
“Health officials in Park and Gallatin counties have called on Yellowstone National Park’s superintendent to lock the gates. A Yellowstone spokesperson said park Superintendent Cam Sholly did not have a response to the requests. She instead said the agency is standing by ...

National parks are getting “mixed messages” on coronavirus guidance

by Government Executive | March 23, 2020
“National parks are getting “mixed messages” on coronavirus guidance, the nonprofit Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility said on Monday. Over 100 have closed, but most are still open and the Interior Department waived entrance fees to all parks. PEER said the ...

Will FOIA be a pandemic casuality?

by E&E News | March 20, 2020
“The Bureau of Land Management missed a key deadline in an ongoing lawsuit over Freedom of Information Act requests due to the agency’s response to the COVID-19 outbreaks. The disclosure, made in internal communications between the Justice Department and the plaintiff, Public ...

Rangers at Risk as Parks Remain Open in Pandemic, Advocates Say

by Bloomberg | March 20, 2020
“Former Interior Department employees and advocacy groups say the Trump administration isn’t doing enough to protect federal employees as it allows national parks to remain open—and with free entrance to the public—during the coronavirus pandemic. “The risk to average ...

Grand Canyon lodging, food services shuttered in face of coronavirus

by Verde News | March 20, 2020
“Grand Canyon National Park is still open, but the same cannot be said for lodging and food services in the park that will be shuttered for the next two months by concerns over coronavirus. The Grand Canyon Lodging announcement comes one day after Interior Secretary David Bernhardt ...

Second EPA employee tests positive for coronavirus

by The Hill | March 19, 2020
“A second Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) employee has tested positive for coronavirus, and another worker has come into contact with someone who tested positive. The EPA sent an email to staff Thursday informing them that the two employees work in the New England region, which ...

Anti-PFAS advocates obtain test results from U.S. military

by Colorado Springs Independent | March 18, 2020
“Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER), a nonprofit group that protects government workers who support environmental activism, released the results of tests for per- and poly-fluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in private wells south of the Air Force Academy. PFAS, a ...

DEC Minimizes Concern Over New Dunn Dump PFAS Report

by WAMC/Northeast Public Radio | March 17, 2020
“After traces of PFAS chemicals were found in water samples taken near the Dunn Landfill in Rensselaer, activists are stepping up their campaign to convince the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation to close the landfill. Kyla Bennett from PEER – Public ...

Former Officials Call Fowl

by Politico | March 17, 2020
“Former communications officials at the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service called on the Interior Department’s internal watchdog to investigate “potential ethical and procedural violations” stemming from a FWS press release, Pro’s Alex Guillén reports. The Jan. ...

The Park Service is selling out to telecom giants

by High Country News | March 16, 2020
“The telecom giants — AT&T, Verizon and more — are pushing to build out infrastructure on protected public lands across the country. These corporations hope to extend their reach into some of the most iconic and remote corners of the United States.  And they have found a ...

Ex-Hill aide, vocal Trump ally returns to EPA in key role

by Greenwire | March 16, 2020
“A vocal defender of President Trump’s environmental and energy agenda starts today as EPA’s chief of staff. Mandy Gunasekara has returned to the Trump EPA after resigning from the agency more than a year ago. She was a top air policy adviser, rising to the position of ...

Water tests show toxins near Rensselaer landfill, environmental groups say

by Times Union | March 14, 2020
“Water tests taken at three locations near the Dunn Landfill found elevated levels of toxic chemicals, environmentalist groups said Saturday. The groups, the Rensselaer Environmental Coalition and Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility, said the toxic levels of PFAS ...

Blue Ridge Parkway Roads and Trails Swell to 15 Million Visitors in 2019, Budget Shrinks

by Citizen Times | March 10, 2020
“Nancy Midgette, in her volunteer role as a ‘Craggy Rover,’ acting as a helping arm to the Blue Ridge Parkway rangers at Craggy Gardens, learned she can talk for four hours straight. That’s about how long she spent talking to visitors on her four-hour shifts last summer ...

How Trump Has Filled High-Level Jobs Without Senate Confirmation Votes

by NPR | March 9, 2020
“The titles are a mouthful. There’s the deputy director exercising the authority of director for the National Park Service, and the senior official performing the duties of the director at U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. This is how President Trump is filling dozens ...

USFW Finds ‘No Significant Impact’ of Drilling on Baca Refuge; Lexam Given Green Light?

by The Crestone Eagle | March 9, 2020
“On Wednesday, October 22, 2008 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) released a Final Environmental Assessment for the Planned Gas and Oil Exploration on Baca National Wildlife Refuge, Saguache County, Colorado (Final EA) authorizing the Canadian firm Lexam Explorations (U.S.A ...

Cal-OSHA, Coronavirus, Worker Dangers & Crisis In CA with Dr. Larry Rose, Former Director

by indybay.org | March 8, 2020
“Dr. Larry Rose, former Cal-OSHA Medical Director talks about the serious staffing crisis at the agency with only 1 doctor and 1 nurse for California’s 19 million workers. He also talks about how this affects the health and safety of not only workers but the public and the ...

Proposed Federal Rules Would Allow More Killing by States of Fish-Eating Cormorants

by newyorkupstate | March 6, 2020
“A federal lawsuit put a halt in 2016 to many lethal measures being used to controlling growing numbers of double-crested cormorants in New York and 23 other states east of the Mississippi River. That may soon change as the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service is currently soliciting ...

New Sagebrush Rebellion Prompts Look at Who Controls Old West (2)

by Bloomberg Environment | March 5, 2020
“A warm winter in the sagebrush-flanked valleys of northern Nevada has left snow-free grasses where rancher J.J. Goicoechea has his federal grazing allotment ripe for his cows to feed—if only he was allowed to use it this time of year. For years, he’s argued in vain that ranchers ...

Playing Politics With Science Spawns New Threat to Endangered Whales

by Roll Call | March 5, 2020
“Scientists at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration warned that blasting air guns in an area where a rare whale migrates and gives birth could push it closer to extinction. But those findings conflicted with the Trump administration’s push for drilling in the ...
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