The Environmental Protection Agency plans to demote career employees who oversee scientific research, the enforcement of pollution laws, hazardous waste cleanup and the agency’s human resources department and replace them with political appointees, according to two people familiar with the approach. The move would give Trump administration loyalists more influence over aspects of the agency that were traditionally led by …
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E.P.A. Demotes Career Employees Overseeing Science, Enforcement and More
The Environmental Protection Agency plans to demote career employees who oversee scientific research, the enforcement of pollution laws, hazardous waste cleanup and the agency’s human resources department and replace them with political appointees, according to two people familiar with the approach. The move would give Trump administration loyalists more influence over aspects of the agency that were traditionally led by …
Read More »Senate Confirms Lee Zeldin to Head E.P.A.
The Senate on Wednesday voted to confirm Lee Zeldin to run the Environmental Protection Agency, where he will be charged with executing President Trump’s orders to dismantle major environmental regulations, and possibly parts of the 55-year-old agency itself. The Senate voted 56-42 to confirm Mr. Zeldin, a former House member with little experience in environmental regulation. He is expected to …
Read More »Airborne Lead and Chlorine Levels Soared as L.A. Wildfires Raged
At the height of the Los Angeles County wildfires, atmospheric concentrations of lead, a neurotoxin, reached 100 times average levels even miles from the flames, according to early detailed measurements obtained by The New York Times. Levels of chlorine, which is also toxic at low concentrations, reached 40 times the average. The spiking levels underscore the added danger from wildfires …
Read More »Lee Zeldin, Trump’s Pick to Head E.P.A., Faces Senate Confirmation Hearing
Of all the government agencies that President-elect Donald J. Trump has threatened to shrink or eliminate, perhaps none has been a greater target than the Environmental Protection Agency. During the first Trump administration, the nation’s top regulator of air and water pollution and industrial chemicals saw its budget slashed, leading to an exodus of employees and weakened enforcement of environmental …
Read More »Even Homes That Evade the Fire Face Toxic Ash Risk, Studies Show
Armed with two garden hoses hooked up to a sputtering tap, Matthew Craig battled fire and smoke to save his house from the onslaught of flames that devastated much of Altadena, a once leafy corner of Los Angeles County. The wind felt like dragon’s breath, he said, and “we were all eating smoke.” But even though his home is secure, …
Read More »Far From the Fires, the Deadly Risks of Smoke Are Intensifying
It kills more people each year than car crashes, war or drugs do. This invisible killer is the air pollution from sources like cars and trucks or factory smokestacks. But as wildfires intensify and grow more frequent in a warming world, the smoke from these fires is emerging as a new and deadly pollution source, health experts say. By some …
Read More »01 After Fierce Lobbying, Treasury Sets Rules for Billions dollars in Hydrogen Subsidies
The Biden administration on Friday made final its long-awaited plan to offer billions of dollars in tax credits to companies that make hydrogen, in the hopes of building up a new industry that might help fight climate change. When burned, hydrogen mainly emits water vapor, and it could be used instead of fossil fuels to make steel or fertilizer or …
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