EPA

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EPA Says Potomac Spill a 'Crisis of Historic Proportion'

Trump says local leaders need to ask for help politely

(Newser) - The Environmental Protection Agency has labeled the Potomac River spill "a sewage crisis of historic proportion." E. coli readings in the Potomac River exploded after a sewer main collapse last month sent roughly 243 million gallons of raw sewage coursing into the waterway north of Washington, DC, NBC...

6 Days After EPA's Big Rollback, Legal Battle Begins

Environmental, health groups file suit over scrapped 'endangerment finding'

(Newser) - The legal battle has begun over the EPA's move to strip away a central pillar of US climate policy. More than a dozen environmental and public health groups sued the agency Wednesday in the DC Circuit, arguing it acted illegally last Thursday when it scrapped its 2009 "endangerment...

Trump Scraps Landmark EPA Climate Finding

Zeldin calls it 'the single largest deregulatory action in the history of the United States'

(Newser) - President Trump has moved to erase the legal foundation of nearly every federal effort to curb climate change in the US. At the White House on Thursday, Trump announced the end of the Environmental Protection Agency's 2009 " endangerment finding ," the scientific determination that greenhouse gases pose a...

EPA Making Big Change on Air Pollution Standards

Agency plans to stop factoring in human ailments and deaths, reports the New York Times

(Newser) - The Environmental Protection Agency is poised to change how it weighs the impact of dirty air—by no longer putting a dollar figure on many of the lives it could save, reports the New York Times . The newspaper describes the move as a "seismic shift" that may make it...

Some Airlines Serve Potentially Unsafe H2O
You May Want to Skip the
Coffee, Tea on Your Next Flight
in case you missed it
Jan 11, 2026 2:25 PM CST

You May Want to Skip the Coffee, Tea on Your Next Flight

Research reveals that airline drinking water has become a public health issue

(Newser) - Next time you reach for a cup of coffee at 30,000 feet, you might want to think twice. The nonprofit Center for Food as Medicine & Longevity analyzed more than 35,000 onboard water samples from 10 major and 11 regional US airlines over a three-year stretch and concluded...

EPA Wants to Strip Protections From 85% of Wetlands

Areas with intermittent and ephemeral streams could soon be open for development

(Newser) - The Trump administration on Monday proposed a sharp rollback of federal protections for wetlands, rivers, and other waterways, a move that could remove safeguards from most wetlands around the country and potentially affect drinking water sources for millions of Americans. The proposed rule would limit the Environmental Protection Agency's...

Trump's Push Against EVs May Be Making All Cars Cost More

Industry frustrations bubble up amid ever-changing regulations among administrations

(Newser) - President Trump's campaign against electric vehicles and his broader rollback of environmental regulations may be hitting American drivers in the wallet, not just the automakers he's targeting. The average price of a new car exceeded $50,000 for the first time in September, and many experts in the...

States Take EPA to Court Over Scrapped Solar Program

States say agency overstepped authority by canceling $7B in solar grants

(Newser) - More than 20 states are suing the Environmental Protection Agency after it scrapped a $7 billion program designed to bring solar power to low-income households. The "Solar For All" initiative, launched during the Biden administration , was meant to fund rooftop and community solar projects for nearly a million additional...

EPA Pulled Flood Grant Months Before Storm Hit Alaska

Homes were washed away in Kipnuk

(Newser) - On Sunday, a devastating flood tore through the Alaska village of Kipnuk; five months prior, federal funding meant to help the village withstand disasters was abruptly cut. The Environmental Protection Agency had earmarked $20 million for riverbank stabilization—a project designed to shield the largely Alaska Native community from...

EPA Moves to Rescind a Major Key in Climate Regulation

'Endangerment finding' from 2009 found greenhouse gases were toxic to public health

(Newser) - President Trump's administration on Tuesday proposed revoking a scientific finding that has long been the central basis for US action to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and fight climate change. The proposed Environmental Protection Agency rule rescinds a 2009 declaration that determined that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases endanger...

EPA's Zeldin: We're Ditching Our Research Arm

Agency is getting rid of its R&D office, starting mass layoffs of thousands overall

(Newser) - The Environmental Protection Agency said Friday it's eliminating its main science arm and reducing agency staff by thousands. The agency's Office of Research and Development has long provided the scientific underpinnings for its mission to protect the environment and human health. The EPA, which in May said it...

EPA's Lab Animals Going Up for Adoption

Critics blame funding cuts, administration cites animal welfare concerns

(Newser) - The EPA is launching a new program allowing the adoption of some of its 20,000 lab animals as the agency faces major staffing and research cuts under the Trump administration. The plan to have staff members adopt animals including zebrafish and rats from an EPA lab in North...

139 EPA Employees Who Voiced 'Dissent' Are Put on Leave

They were accused of 'unlawfully undermining' the Trump administration's agenda

(Newser) - The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday put on administrative leave 139 employees who signed a "declaration of dissent" against its policies, accusing them of "unlawfully undermining" the Trump administration's agenda. In a letter made public Monday, the employees wrote that the agency is no longer living up...

EPA Employees Object to Trump's Policies

Around 200 staff members sign letter listing 5 actions they consider harmful

(Newser) - Around 200 employees of the Environmental Protection Agency have signed a declaration of dissent detailing their opposition to President Trump's policies and the dangers they see in his actions. Retired employees and scientists and academics who don't work for the agency, including 20 Nobel laureates, also signed the...

EPA Rolls Back Biden-Era Limits on Forever Chemicals in Water

We'll 'work to provide common-sense flexibility in the form of additional time for compliance,' says Zeldin

(Newser) - The Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday that it plans to weaken limits on some so-called forever chemicals in drinking water that were finalized last year, while maintaining standards for two common ones. The Biden administration set the first federal drinking water limits for PFAS, or perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, finding...

Trump Orders Federal Agencies to 'Sunset' Green Protections

President's executive order decries 'an energy landscape perpetually trapped in the 1970s'

(Newser) - Federal agencies like the EPA, Department of Energy, and Fish and Wildlife Service have received their mandate from the top: It's time to let go of a slew of environmental protections. On Wednesday evening, President Trump signed an executive order that directed agencies tied to energy and environmental guidance...

Kennedy Wants CDC to Reverse on Fluoride

EPA launches review of potential risks of putting fluoride in drinking water

(Newser) - Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Monday said he plans to tell the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to stop recommending fluoridation in communities nationwide. At the same time, the Environmental Protection Agency announced it is reviewing "new scientific information" on potential health risks of fluoride in...

A Liberal City Wins Fight Against EPA in Supreme Court

San Francisco challenged discharge rules and won

(Newser) - The Supreme Court on Tuesday dealt a blow to the EPA's ability to regulate water pollution, and the city that started the fight might come as a surprise: It was San Francisco, and as the local Chronicle puts it, the "case pitted a city that champions environmental policies...

EPA Chief Wants to Claw Back $20B in Grants

Clean energy advocates say attempt to rescind 'green bank' grants is illegal

(Newser) - In a major reversal, the new head of the Environmental Protection Agency says he will try to rescind $20 billion in grants awarded by the Biden administration for climate and clean-energy projects. In a video posted on X , Administrator Lee Zeldin says the EPA would revoke contracts for a still-emerging...

EPA Throws Hammer Down on 2 Toxic Chemicals

Full ban announced for TCE, partial ban of dry-cleaning staple perc—both tied to various cancers

(Newser) - Bans of two toxic chemicals first proposed last year have finally come to fruition. On Monday, the Environmental Protection Agency barred the use of trichloroethylene (aka TCE) and perchloroethylene, also referred to as perc—both solvents used in consumer products and industrial settings and that have been tied to various...

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