Environmental Glance
The Trump administration announced Friday that it rolled back a key protection for endangered species.
Specifically, it said it was repealing a previous definition of prohibited “harm” to endangered animals and plants under the Endangered Species Act.
Under prior regulations, expressly prohibited “harm” includes significantly changing a species’s habitat to the point that it “actually kills or injures wildlife” by preventing food, shelter or breeding.
The administration said it was making its move to speed up approvals for projects that would have been slowed under previous rules of the road, which it described as outdated.
“For years, federal agencies abused the ESA to obstruct lawful land use and burden American families and businesses,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a statement.
Environmental advocates warned that repealing the definition could allow developers to trample over important habitats — harming at-risk animals and plants in the process.
A key government agency is proposing to lessen the scope of environmental reviews for nuclear reactors, limiting public input and exempting some reactors altogether.
Lake Powell, the US’s second-largest reservoir, threatens to plunge to unprecedentedly low levels this year after a historically bleak snowpack failed to raise its water level, scientists and water experts have said, adding renewed urgency to stalled talks over how to conserve a water source depended on by tens of millions of people in the US south-west.
Super Typhoon Bavi is bringing intense winds to the remote U.S. territories of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, as forecasters warn of the potential for severe damage.
A “prolonged, dangerous heatwave” was sweeping across parts of the central and eastern United States on Thursday, with forecasters warning that extreme record-breaking temperatures are expected to continue into the holiday weekend for millions of Americans.
Floodwaters tore through Kentucky neighborhoods, damaging homes and streets as photos capture the aftermath.
Hundreds of firefighters in Utah have struggled to suppress a wildfire that scorched an additional 20,000 acres (8,000 hectares) as of Saturday, as low humidity and strong winds accelerated the fire spread, according to state officials.
