Stephen Lee

Trump EPA Touts Environment Enforcement It Says Surpasses Biden The EPA under President Donald Trump notched higher enforcement numbers across several key metrics in fiscal 2025 than it has in a decade, Jeffrey Hall, head of the agency’s enforcement division, said...

EPA reports sharp upticks across the board in enforcement. Jeffrey Hall, head of enforcement, says critics are wedded to a "preconceived narrative" that the agency gives free passes to favored industries. (No paywall.) news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-...

FEMA Must Consider Renewable Energy in Puerto Rico, Judge Rules The Trump administration must consider renewable energy alternatives in rebuilding Puerto Rico’s electrical grid, a federal judge ruled.

FEMA must consider renewables when rebuilding Puerto Rico's electrical grid, federal judge says. news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-...

EPA Wants Staffers to Skip Professional Law Association’s Events Environmental Protection Agency employees are being told not to participate in events hosted by one of the nation’s premier environmental legal associations, according to a letter reviewed by Bloomber...

EPA has told staff not to participate in events hosted by the Environmental Law Institute in their professional capacity. news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-...

Dozens of Congressional Dems tell appeals court the EPA "gold bars" video is "patently irrelevant" to the climate grants case; instead, it "concerns efforts to award different grant money <after> the November 2024 election."

White House Rolls Out New Action Plan to Speed AI Development The White House released a three-part action plan Monday to speed the development of artificial intelligence in the US.

White House released its new AI action plan today, centered around deregulation and faster permitting. "Stagnation is a political choice, and the Trump administration is choosing better." news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-...

EPA Allowed to Block Greenhouse Gas Grants, DC Circuit Says A federal appeals court on Tuesday ruled that the EPA can hold back billions of dollars in federal grants to reduce greenhouse gas emissions issued under the Biden administration.

DC Circuit rules that the EPA does have the authority to claw back $16 billion in climate grants, overturning a lower court decision. news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-...

EPA Fires Some Staffers Who Signed Letter Critical of Leadership The EPA on Friday terminated at least five of the roughly 140 employees who signed a public letter in June critical of the agency’s political leadership, according to the staffers’ union.

EPA has fired some of the employees who signed the dissent letter critical of Lee Zeldin. At least 10 other tenured employees got a notice of proposed removal. The rest had their administrative leave extended. news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-...

Google Among Groups Concerned With Trump’s Deep-Sea Mining Plan Google told the Trump administration it’s worried about a plan to mine the seafloor for critical minerals, saying it could damage the company’s planned underwater cable system.

Google's a little worried about the Trump administration's idea of mining the sea floor off the coast of American Samoa. news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-...

PennEnvironment notes it (along with the Clean Air Council) sued US Steel in 2019, saying "the crumbling, poorly maintained, highly polluting Clairton plant posed a health threat to communities across the Mon Valley, as well as to its own workers."

Trump Country Feeling Pain of Environmental Justice Grant Cuts In February the skies opened over southwestern Virginia, dumping seven inches of rain in a torrent that washed out roads, destroyed homes and businesses, and prompted Gov. Glenn Youngkin (R) to declar...

Many of the Trump administration’s environmental justice grant cuts are, paradoxically, hurting white communities that overwhelmingly support him. news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-...

Trump’s Plan to Speed Permitting for AI Criticized Over Land Use The White House’s new plan to fast-track AI data centers has critics worried about harms to the climate and environment, especially if the administration makes good on its bid to build on public lands...

Trump's plan to build AI data centers on federal lands and Superfund sites isn't sitting well with environmentalists or EJ activists. news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-...

New political hires today, brought on to help advance the Trump administration's energy/mining agenda: Taylor Childress and Scott Prutting (not Pruitt) at Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council

Trump Tax Law’s Permit Fee Seen as Speeding Environment Reviews There’s precedent for the expedited permitting fee tucked into the tax and spending law President Donald Trump signed last week—but also uncertainty about whether it will actually work as intended, fo...

It's not that unusual to let people pay extra for faster government service, as the One Big Beautiful Bill does for NEPA reviews, sources say. But will it actually improve permitting? news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-...

EPA Puts 139 Employees on Leave Who Criticized Leadership (1) The EPA has placed on administrative leave 139 employees who signed their names to a Monday letter that was sharply critical of the Trump administration.

EPA employees who signed a letter critical of Lee Zeldin have been placed on administrative leave. news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-...

Trump’s Permitting Boss Aims to Deliver on AI Data Center Plans The White House’s new permitting director wants to vastly expand her office’s work in getting projects built—including, for the first time, data centers and artificial intelligence facilities.

Emily Domenech, new head of the federal Permitting Council, says her goal is to get more data centers, AI facilities, and mines not just through the process faster, but also to a "yes." (No paywall.) news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-...

Trump’s EPA Develops New AI Tool to Aid Staff, Not Decide Policy The EPA is rolling out an artificial intelligence tool agency-wide on Thursday that it says will supercharge its staff’s capabilities, a goal the new administrator set when first joining the agency.

The EPA is rolling out an agency-wide AI chat tool and is encouraging all employees to use it as much as possible to analyze data, write statements, and do environmental monitoring. news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-...

Citing "a time when our members are facing unprecedented attacks," AFGE is hosting a webinar on suicide prevention for federal and DC government workers.

Biden’s Top EPA Cop to Help Cities, States Fight Trump in Court The top environmental enforcer during the Biden era is gearing up to help cities and states push back against the Trump administration in new roles at a boutique law firm and a top environmental law s...

David Uhlmann, who led EPA enforcement under Biden, is joining a boutique enviro law firm and returning to academia. news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-...

McGill platform becomes safe space for conserving U.S. climate research under threat The platform has been logging 39,000 weekly visits from academics and researchers

McGill platform becomes safe space for conserving US climate research under threat (Globe & Mail) www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/artic...

EPA Budget Would Be Deeply Slashed Under Trump’s Spending Plan The EPA’s budget would be cut by more than half under President Donald Trump’s fiscal 2026 budget request, released Friday.

President Trump's budget request would cut EPA's funding to its lowest level since the year of Chernobyl and the Buckner play. news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-...

New GSA program awards employees with cash rewards if their agency cuts travel, training, and contract spending by at least 30% by July 31.

Trump’s Dismissal of Key US Climate Report Panel Triggers Alarms The Trump administration’s dismissal of the authors of the National Climate Assessment poses risks for large sectors of the economy that depend on the report to guide everything from crop planning to ...

Why does the dismissal of the National Climate Assessment authors matter? Because industry and local govt's rely on it, and national security and US prestige are on the line. news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-...

Environmentalists Are Rethinking Nuclear. Should They? Fourteen years after the Fukushima disaster, nuclear power is being rebranded as a climate savior, and fission is in fashion.

Nuclear accidents are “traumatic for the human beings involved but have little appreciable effect on the biosphere.” @elizkolbert.bsky.social in the New Yorker. www.newyorker.com/magazine/202...

White House Moves to Soften Project Permitting Rules at Agencies The Trump administration is moving to reshape the way individual agencies handle environmental permitting, according to a White House document reviewed by Bloomberg Law.

The White House is quietly circulating guidance to the agencies about how they should change their internal permitting rules. (Agency-level rules had been seen by enviros as a bulwark against the recent nixing of the White House rules.) news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-...

Federal Judge Unfreezes Climate Grant Money Trump Tried to Seize A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily ordered the Trump administration to turn the climate grant funding spigots back on nationwide, at least while lawsuits over frozen funds are pending.

A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to turn the funding taps back on, nationwide. "Agencies do not have unlimited authority to further a president's agenda." news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-...

EPA Seeks Pause in Climate Grants Case, Says Funds Could Be Lost The Trump administration asked a federal court on Tuesday for an emergency stay pending its appeal in a legal tussle over $20 billion in EPA grants, saying the recipients will quickly spend the money ...

Climate United response to EPA's request for emergency stay in frozen grants case: "Climate United will not--and legally cannot--go on a multi-million dollar spending spree with federal funds for our own benefit." news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-...

EPA to staff: agency will monitor compliance with back-to-work requirements via badge swipes, laptop activity, and timecards. Failure to comply--which can include not being "forthcoming and candid"--will trigger formal discipline, up to and including removal from federal service.

End of White House Permitting Rules Leaves Developers Lukewarm Permitting specialists on both sides of the aisle say they’re not expecting an infrastructure boom now that the White House’s implementing regulations for environmental permitting have been swept away...

The federal permitting rules under NEPA go up in smoke today, in theory paving the way for a building boom. Only developers aren't seeing it that way. news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-...

EPA is pilot-testing a new tool to automate the "what did you do last week" emails. "Collecting your accomplishments in a standard way will make it easier for you."

23 states to Interior: "If America is going to continue to lead the way in other forms of tech development (like semiconductor manufacturing and quantum computing), it will need substantial amounts of stable power—power that coal can provide." ago.wv.gov/Documents/Le...