A federal judge on Friday restored a 2016 moratorium on coal leasing on federal lands that had been overturned by the Trump administration. In the ruling, Judge Brian Morris of the District of Montana, an Obama appointee, ordered the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to reimpose the moratorium until it has conducted a more thorough…
Author: Zack Budryk
Energy & Environment — Western drought threatens water, power resources
Today we’re examining the drought conditions impacting Lake Powell and Lake Mead. Plus: Average gasoline prices drop below $4 per gallon and a new study finds the Arctic is warming even faster than previously thought. This is Overnight Energy & Environment, your source for the latest news focused on energy, the environment and beyond. For…
Oil residue from Deepwater Horizon spill still detectable along Louisiana coast: Study
Traces of the oil spilled in the 2010 Deepwater Horizon explosion remained in areas along the Gulf Coast, beyond the reach of cleanup efforts, a decade later, according to research published in the journal Frontiers in Marine Science. Researchers, led by retired Louisiana State University environmental chemist Edward Overton, analyzed about a decade of research on the…
Arctic warming up to four times as fast as global average: study
The Arctic is warming at a more rapid pace than previously thought — and four times faster than the world at large, according to research published Thursday in the journal Communications Earth & Environment. Between 1979 and 2021, the Arctic warmed about four times as fast as the global average, significantly more than previous estimates of two…
DRIED UP: Lakes Mead and Powell are at the epicenter of the biggest Western drought in history
A formerly sunken boat rests on a now-dry section of lakebed at drought-stricken Lake Mead on May 10. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images) The American West is experiencing its driest period in human history, a megadrought that threatens health, agriculture and entire ways of life. DRIED UP is a series of stories examining the dire…
Seven stats that explain the West’s epic drought
The American West is experiencing its driest period in human history, a megadrought that threatens health, agriculture and entire ways of life. DRIED UP is examining the dire effects of the drought on the states most affected — as well as the solutions Americans are embracing. It’s difficult to capture the scale of the drought…
HHS launches community-level environmental justice hazard calculator
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) on Wednesday formally launched its Environmental Justice Index (EJI), which will assign communities numerical scores based on the health burdens of environmental conditions. The EJI is based on data from the individual census tract and assigns an overall environmental score based on 36 factors. The tool also includes data…
Wyden introduces bill to double tax on excess oil profits
Legislation introduced by Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.) would double excess-profit taxes on oil companies making over $1 billion a year. The bill, the Taxing Big Oil Profits Act, would impose a 21 percent tax on the excess profits of oil and gas companies making more than $1 billion annually. Excess profits are determined by current…
Reconciliation package includes $4B for Western drought resilience
The reconciliation package slated for a congressional vote this weekend includes $4 billion in new funding for the drought pummeling the Western U.S. The package, dubbed the Inflation Reduction Act, includes the new funding specifically for the Bureau of Reclamation to address the 22-year drought, the worst to hit the region since the year 800,…
Judge rejects federal plans for fossil fuel mining in Powder River Basin
A federal judge on Wednesday night threw out two resource management plans developed by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM), finding they failed to account for the risk of fossil fuel leasing on public lands in Montana and Wyoming. The plans, developed during the Trump administration but defended in court by the Biden BLM, outline…