BY Associated Press and Spectrum News Staff Nationwide
PUBLISHED 4:38 PM ET Jun. 09, 2021

The Biden administration began legal action Wednesday to repeal a Trump-era rule that ended federal protections for hundreds of thousands of small streams, wetlands and other waterways, leaving them more vulnerable to pollution from development, industry and farms.

The rule — sometimes referred to as “waters of the United States” or WOTUS — narrowed the types of waterways that qualify for federal protection under the Clean Water Act. It was one of hundreds of rollbacks of environmental and public health regulations under President Donald Trump, who said the rules imposed unnecessary burdens on business.

BY Associated Press and Spectrum News Staff Nationwide
PUBLISHED 4:06 PM ET Jun. 01, 2021

The Biden administration is suspending oil and gas leases in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as it review environmental impacts of drilling in the remote region that has been the focus of a political fight for decades, according to two people who have been briefed on the administration’s plan.

The Interior Department order was set to be announced later Monday. It follows a temporary moratorium on oil and gas lease activities imposed by President Joe Biden on his first day in office. Biden’s Jan. 20 executive order suggested a new environmental review was needed to address possible legal flaws in a drilling program approved by the Trump administration under a 2017 law approved by Congress.

BY Spectrum News Staff Nationwide
PUBLISHED 3:09 PM ET May. 06, 2021

The Biden administration provided the outline Thursday for its “America the Beautiful” initiative, releasing a report compiled by multiple Cabinet agencies outlining a collaborative vision for restoring and conserving America’s lands, waters and wildlife over the next decade.

The report builds on an executive order issued by President Biden in his earliest days in office, which ordered federal agencies to submit a report on how the U.S. can conserve “at least 30% of our lands and waters by 2030."

BY Ryan Chatelain Nationwide
UPDATED 11:23 AM ET Nov. 20, 2020 PUBLISHED 3:15 PM ET Nov. 19, 2020

The coronavirus pandemic has sent greenhouse gas emissions from U.S. businesses plummeting to their lowest level in nearly three decades, according to analysis from BloombergNEF, an energy research group.

Greenhouse gases generated by the economy are projected to drop to 5.9 billion metric tons in 2020, down 9.2% compared to last year, the study says. That is about the same level seen in 1983, when the U.S. economy was less than 40% its current size.

BY Associated Press and Spectrum News Staff International
PUBLISHED 3:47 PM ET Oct. 14, 2020

Earth sweltered to a record hot September last month, with U.S. climate officials saying there’s nearly a two-to-one chance that 2020 will end up as the globe’s hottest year on record.