California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and top state Democrats announced Tuesday they would seek an extension of the state’s cap-and-trade emissions reduction program — countering Trump administration efforts to thwart such initiatives. Newsom — along with state Sen. Mike McGuire, the Senate president pro tempore, and Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas — made this decision following a recent federal executive...
Author: The Hill
Agriculture Department cancels $3B grant program for climate-friendly crops
The Trump administration canceled a $3.1 billion grant program for climate-friendly crops, the Agriculture Department announced Monday. In a press release, the department said that it was canceling Biden-era Partnerships for Climate-Smart Commodities, which funded 141 projects that sought to advance climate-friendly farming practices. Projects funded under the program supported things like planting cover crops, which...
Insects are devouring Colorado’s trees, thanks to climate change: Report
Climate-induced warming is fueling the proliferation of insects keen on invading Colorado’s forests and leaving the trees they devour for dead, a new report has found. After a wet and cool 2023, weather in the Centennial State shifted back to near-record heat and minimal precipitation last year — driving the spread of forest pests and...
Energy Department considers more than 40 percent of its staff nonessential as layoffs loom
The Energy Department (DOE) considers more than 40 percent of its staffers to be nonessential — meaning these people could be on the chopping block — as mass layoffs loom at the agency and across the federal government. A document viewed by The Hill on Friday states that out of the agency’s current headcount of 15,994...
Trump administration announces plans to build AI data centers on federal land
The Trump administration identified 16 sites for the development of artificial intelligence (AI) data centers Thursday on land owned by the Department of Energy. The centers comprise rows of servers providing processing capacity for machine learning, cloud storage and AI systems that require massive amounts of electricity and computing power. “The global race for AI...
Supreme Court weighs which courts can hear Clean Air Act disputes
The Supreme Court appears poised to keep at least some Clean Air Act disputes in federal courts outside of D.C. — preventing what at least one justice described as “home court advantage” for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The justices heard a pair of cases on Tuesday about whether certain Clean Air Act disputes should be heard...
How Texas oil workers, technology are helping build a new renewable boom
On any other day, David Rodriguez’s truck would have been helping extract oil, and as he sucked mud from a well beneath a towering drilling rig, any passersby might have assumed he was doing just that. “Compared to oil and gas, it’s the same thing, man,” Rodriguez shouted over the motor. But he was working to produce...
Trump signs order on critical mineral production
President Trump on Thursday signed an executive order intended to boost production of critical minerals in the United States and confirmed a deal to gain access to minerals in Ukraine was still on track. Trump signed the order behind closed doors at the White House. A spokesperson said the order would streamline permitting to allow...
Trump blocks rule to implement methane fee for oil and gas companies
President Trump on Friday signed a resolution to block the implementation of a fee on oil and gas companies’ excess methane emissions. The resolution blocked the Environmental Protection Agency’s 2024 rule that implemented the fee program, which was established in the Democrats’ 2022 climate, tax and health care bill. Read more in The Hill here.
Senators eye national standard for wildfire response on federal lands
Bipartisan legislation introduced by first-term Sens. Tim Sheehy (R-Mont.) and Andy Kim (D-N.J.) would establish a nationwide response time standard for wildfires affecting public lands. Under the bill, the Wildfire Response and Preparedness Act, all wildfires on Interior Department- or Agriculture Department-administered lands would be subject to a half-hour response standard. In a statement, Sheehy and Kim...









