Latest news with #CenterforBiologicalDiversity
San Francisco Chronicle
4 hours ago
- Health
- San Francisco Chronicle
The Environmental Protection Agency wants to bring back the weed killer dicamba
The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed allowing the weed killer dicamba for genetically engineered soybeans and cotton, two crops that are grown extensively in the United States. This week's recommendation comes after the first Trump administration made the same move, only to have courts block it in 2020 and 2024. This is the first year since 2016 that dicamba has not been allowed to be used on crops, according to Nathan Donley, the environmental health science director at the Center for Biological Diversity, a national conservation nonprofit. Environmental groups say they will once again go to court to try to block it. 'This is an unfortunate roller coaster ride that the country has been in for about 10 years now, and it's just incredibly sad to see our Environmental Protection Agency being hijacked by this administration and facilitating decisions that are objectively going to make our environment less healthy," Donley said. The EPA said via email that it 'will ensure that farmers have the tools they need to protect crops and provide a healthy and affordable food supply for our country' and the agency is 'confident these products won't cause issues for human health or the environment.' The EPA added that the proposal will be open for public comment for 30 days and included a list of proposed guidelines on the use of the three dicamba-containing products in question. Dicamba is a common weed killer and has been used for over 50 years in the U.S., but it has become more widespread on farms in the past decade, according to data from the EPA and the U.S. Geological Survey. Researchers have been working to better understand the health risks it might pose to humans. A 2020 study in the International Journal of Epidemiology found that dicamba exposure was linked to some cancers, including liver cancer and a type of leukemia affecting the blood and bone marrow. Dicamba can also drift far from its intended targets to kill other plants on neighboring farms and in local ecosystems, posing threats to wild flora and fauna, according to the National Wildlife Federation. An agency can tweak a decision after a court strikes it down, and then dicamba would be approved until a new legal challenge succeeds. Past court rulings on dicamba have taken years, 'leaving many farmers with questions and uncertainty in the middle of the growing season,' National Agricultural Law Center staff attorney Brigit Rollins said in a background summary of dicamba legal cases. ___
Boston Globe
a day ago
- Politics
- Boston Globe
EPA proposes allowing use of Dicamba weed killer on some crops
In a statement Wednesday the EPA said, 'these new products would give farmers an additional tool to help manage crops and increase yields in order to provide a healthy and affordable food supply for our country.' Agriculture groups applauded the decision. Advertisement Dicamba became one of the most widely used herbicides on the market after agribusiness companies such as Monsanto released genetically engineered seeds that could tolerate it in 2016. The idea was that farmers could spray their fields with dicamba and weeds would wilt while the crops would survive. Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up Dicamba-tolerant seeds were developed in response to growing weed tolerance to another widely used herbicide, glyphosate, the active ingredient in Roundup. Starting in the 1990s, Monsanto marketed genetically engineered 'Roundup Ready' crop seeds alongside the popular herbicide Roundup. This line of corn, cotton and soy seeds was bred to resist glyphosate, and by 2011 more than 90% of soybeans grown in the U.S. were genetically engineered. The EPA's decision drew an immediate rebuke from the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmental advocacy group that has sued over the use of dicamba. In a statement, Nathan Donley, the group's environmental health science director said, 'this is what happens when pesticide oversight is controlled by industry lobbyists.' Advertisement Last month, Kyle Kunkler, a former soybean industry lobbyist who has been a vocal proponent of dicamba, joined the EPA's Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention as its deputy assistant administrator. This article originally appeared in
Politico
2 days ago
- Automotive
- Politico
How Trump will hit Tesla's bottom line
Donald Trump is vaporizing an easy source of profit for his onetime 'first buddy' and campaign donor Elon Musk. We're talking about America's opaque but lucrative system of emissions credits — a windfall for Tesla that Trump has been busy dismantling. The president erased the biggest market for the credits in June when he signed a bill to revoke California's vehicle emissions standard. Republicans then doubled down in the megalaw by removing any fines against automakers that don't meet fuel economy standards. The consequences may start weighing on Tesla as soon as Wednesday when the company reports its latest financial update. 'I think Tesla is going to take it on the tailpipe,' said Dan Becker, a transportation advocate at the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity. 'Elon Musk has made an unforced error that is going to cost Tesla a lot of money.' Environmentalists aren't the only ones coming to this conclusion. For years, financial analysts have known that these emission-trading systems, which were designed to improve air quality while giving automakers flexibility, are a windfall for Tesla. Because it produces only electric cars, Tesla can sell its zero-emissions credits to other automakers who fall short of pollution standards. In many past quarters, Tesla would have shown a loss without the money from those credits. Instead it reported profits, forming the basis for the company's sky-high market value. For example, in the second quarter of last year, Tesla's $890 million of regulatory credits made up 63 percent of its profit. The impact this year is even higher. In the first three months of this year, with credits removed, Tesla's $409 million in profits would have turned into a $186 million loss. And now, 'going forward, that source of extra earnings is going to be slim to none,' Pavel Molchanov, an analyst at investment bank Raymond James, said in an interview. California's clean car credits are critical The biggest hit to Tesla, watchers say, will be the end of California's market for clean-car credits (though the state is appealing Congress' repeal of its clean-car program). No one knows how much money Tesla makes from California's market — or any other market — for emissions credits, since the prices aren't transparent like a stock market's. But Tesla's competitors probably would have paid the electric automaker a lot. The penalty for failing to meet California's rules was $20,000 per individual car, and the per-car requirements were poised to ratchet up dramatically starting with models going on sale later this summer. Less impactful, but still important, is the megalaw provision that removed any fines against automakers that don't meet Corporate Average Fuel Economy standards. Those rules have been a key driver of improving fuel economy in America's cars since the 1970s. 'Basically, it's an invitation to cheat,' said Becker. For automakers, an appealing way to cheat — er, not comply — would be to stop paying millions of dollars to Tesla for its fuel-economy credits. With Trump's new rules, an automaker's 'willingness to pay would soften substantially,' said James Sallee, an economics professor at the University of California, Berkeley. It's Tuesday — thank you for tuning in to POLITICO's Power Switch. I'm your host, David Ferris. Power Switch is brought to you by the journalists behind E&E News and POLITICO Energy. Send your tips, comments, questions to dferris@ Today in POLITICO Energy's podcast: Zack Colman breaks down how Republicans are favoring fossil fuels and nuclear energy. Power Centers Trump's anti-renewables pushThe Trump administration's battle against renewables is ramping up, Benjamin Storrow writes. On the heels of the megalaw, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum announced that no renewable energy projects on public lands could move ahead without approval from him or one of his deputies. Developers are concerned that it will lead to more rejected projects. 'The Trump administration is extremely anti-renewables,' Michael Wara, a senior research scholar at Stanford University, told Ben. 'I think this is fundamentally distorting the market and the broader transition that's already occurring in the U.S. and occurring everywhere on the planet.' Burgum is also taking the anti-renewable message to Congress. On Tuesday, the Interior secretary spoke at the GOP weekly meeting, just weeks after Republicans passed a megalaw with provisions to fast-track fossil fuel projects and phase out clean energy tax credits. Members said Burgum spoke about further unwinding the Biden administration's policies to boost renewables, Andres Picon writes. Picking winners with gustoRepublicans are embracing big government intervention to help fossil fuels and nuclear power, after spending four years slamming the use of the same federal arsenal to help clean energy, Zack Colman writes. 'They're picking winners and losers, no doubt of that,' said Shuting Pomerleau, director of energy and environmental policy at center-right think tank American Action Forum. 'There has been a convergence of both Democrats and Republicans into the industrial policies propping up the industries or technologies they love with the resources and the legal authorities they have.' The aims, however, are worlds apart. The Trump administration is offering billions of dollars to fossil fuel producers while rolling back environmental rules. The Biden administration set out to steer hundreds of billions of dollars to clean energy manufacturing in an effort to counter climate change. Upcoming barriers to wind and solarWind, solar and grid batteries could face more roadblocks once the Treasury Department releases guidelines next month for projects to receive federal tax credits, Christa Marshall writes. The guidance is the result of an executive order after the megalaw's passage that called for 'ending the massive cost of taxpayer handouts to unreliable energy sources.' In Other News Tariff troubles: General Motors' profits in the second quarter fell by more than a third, but its sales of electric vehicles more than doubled. Curbing crude: China's consumption of oil is expected to hit a peak in 2027 and then fall, as the nation moves away from imported fossil fuel and toward electric vehicles. Subscriber Zone A showcase of some of our best subscriber content. Maryland regulators said they won't change the approvals for an offshore wind project that the Environmental Protection Agency said contained an error. House Republicans included language in a spending bill that would prohibit Washington from spending any money from its climate lawsuit against the fossil fuel industry. California Rep. Scott Peters was named Democratic co-chair of the House Bipartisan Climate Solutions Caucus. That's it for today, folks! Thanks for reading.
E&E News
2 days ago
- Politics
- E&E News
Legal fight grows over offshore drilling's impact on endangered species
Environmentalists are doubling down on their challenge to the Fish and Wildlife Service's assessments of threatened and endangered species in the industrialized Gulf of Mexico, parts of which the Trump administration has relabeled the Gulf of America. Citing the dangers posed by offshore oil and gas drilling, the nonprofit Center for Biological Diversity on Monday augmented an earlier lawsuit that challenged a 2018 FWS assessment. The revised lawsuit contends that a 2025 update by the agency likewise failed to meet Endangered Species Act standards. 'Federal officials have forgotten the lessons of the Deepwater Horizon disaster, because they've missed obvious threats to some of the Gulf's most vulnerable critters,' Kristen Monsell, the environmental group's oceans legal director, said in a statement. Advertisement Monsell added that the service's 2025 updated assessment 'falls far short of what the law and science demand,' and she called on the FWS to 'redo these assessments with a much larger dose of reality and much less deference to oil and gas interests.'
Yahoo
10-07-2025
- General
- Yahoo
Conservation groups urge release of Mexican wolf pack after delay
Conservation groups across the country are calling for the release of Mexican gray wolf Asha and her family after what federal officials said is a logistical delay. Asha, known as F2754 by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, became somewhat of a local legend after wandering north of Interstate 40 beyond the Mexican Wolf Experimental Population Area in New Mexico twice before her capture in December 2023. Officials said they would release Asha, her mate, Arcadia, and their pups after Asha gave birth. Asha's five pups were born at Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge in May, but the release did not take place as scheduled, according to a news release from the Center for Biological Diversity. The pack's release was originally slated for June 23 to align with elk calving season — which typically occurs late May into June — so Asha could teach her pups how to hunt their native prey, said Greta Anderson, deputy director of the Western Watersheds Project. It was to take place at the biodiverse Ladder Ranch in south-central New Mexico. "If the Fish and Wildlife Service waits any longer, they're missing an optimum window for the wolves to learn how to be wild wolves," Anderson said. The Western Watersheds Project and the Center for Biological Diversity are two of 36 conservation groups that signed a letter sent Tuesday to the Fish and Wildlife Service and the U.S. Department of the Interior, requesting the immediate release of Asha and her family, dubbed the "Caldera Pack." Although Fish and Wildlife told Anderson in an email the delay was due to "logistical reasons," the conservation groups expressed concern in their letter that lobbying efforts by the livestock industry may have spurred it. "We are troubled that wolf recovery may be being stymied for political reasons," the letter reads. Wolf reintroduction and conservation has long been a controversial subject in the West, with farming and ranching groups and many rural conservatives decrying their impact on livestock and game animals. A week-and-a-half ago Arizona Republican Rep. Paul Gosar introduced legislation to remove endangered species protections for the Mexican wolf. The American Farm Bureau Federation, a Washington-based agriculture lobbying group, released a report Monday highlighting the impact of the Mexican wolf population growth on ranch incomes. "For many ranching families, the return of wolves is not just a wildlife management question, it's a daily reality shaped by decisions made in distant urban centers, often by voters and officials who will never have to look into the eyes of a mother cow searching for her calf," the report reads. But conservationists say Mexican wolves like Asha are integral for a diverse ecosystem. "The longer they stay in captivity, the less likely it is that the pack will be successful if and when they are eventually released, and that their genes will ultimately be introgressed into the population at large," said Center for Biological Diversity Senior Conservation Advocate Michael Robinson. The Mexican wolf — nearly eliminated from the Southwest in the 20th century before it was listed as endangered in 1976, according to the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service — now has a population in the wild of at least 286 between New Mexico and Arizona, The New Mexican reported in March. Last month, K-12 students named Asha and Arcadia's pups: Kachina, Aspen, Sage, Kai and Aala. "In a multitude of public polls over the course of decades, large majorities of New Mexico and Arizona residents in both urban and rural areas support recovery of the Mexican wolf," the conservationists' letter reads. "School children named the members of this wolf family and the public is eager for their success."
