Lawyers for the pipeline company Energy Transfer and Greenpeace fired their opening salvos in a North Dakota courtroom Wednesday morning in a civil trial that could bankrupt the storied environmental group. The suit revolves around the role Greenpeace played in massive protests against construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline nearly a decade ago. The pipeline,…
During his cabinet meeting on Wednesday, President Trump casually mentioned that Lee Zeldin, the administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, intended to fire 65 percent of employees, an incision so deep that officials said it would hobble the E.P.A. Mr. Trump said Mr. Zeldin “thinks he’s going to be cutting 65 or so percent of…
The Trump administration and Republicans in Congress are preparing an unusual legislative maneuver in an effort to eliminate one of the country’s most ambitious climate policies, an order that was designed to shift the auto industry toward electric cars. They plan to vote to overturn a California ban on the sale of new gasoline-powered cars…
The Trump administration is beginning to unfreeze funding for at least one federal program aimed at reducing the pollution that is driving climate change. Some school districts on Thursday said they were able to access millions of dollars in federal grants to buy electric school buses. That funding, approved by Congress and overseen by the…
Environmental groups filed a lawsuit on Wednesday to stop the Trump administration from opening up vast new areas to offshore oil and gas drilling. The suit is an opening shot in what is likely to be a series of cases aimed at thwarting the White House’s push for what it calls “energy dominance” by pivoting…
Dickson Despommier, a microbiologist who proposed that cities should grow food in high-rises, popularizing the term “vertical farming” — an idea that crossed over from the realm of the purely fanciful to become a reality around the globe — died on Feb. 7 in Manhattan. He was 84. His wife, Marlene Bloom, confirmed the death,…
President Trump’s policies could threaten many big green energy projects in the coming years, but his election has already dealt a big blow to an ambitious California effort to replace thousands of diesel-fueled trucks with battery-powered semis. The California plan, which has been closely watched by other states and countries, was meant to take a…
Australian emergency services warn of potential threat to life and have issued shelter and evacuation warnings as cyclone is due to make landfall. A Category 5 tropical cyclone – the strongest on the scale with the capacity to cause widespread destruction – is bearing down on the Pilbara coastal region in Western Australia, the Australian…
Environmental groups that fought bruising courtroom battles with the first Trump administration are steeling themselves for another round amid a barrage of executive orders, firings and funding cuts. In interviews with more than a half-dozen of the most prominent groups, executives said that some — but not all — legal challenges could take time to…
It may be more heartbreaking than hearing your Thanksgiving dinner is wasteful or your Halloween chocolate is problematic. But yes: Those Valentine’s roses do have an environmental cost. The majority of cut flowers this time of year are flown in from Colombia and Ecuador on refrigerated airplanes, burning through fossil fuels. Commercial flower farming has…
