The Radical Reading Room

The Justice Department highlighted another federal court decision on October 15 striking down New York’s climate superfund law as unconstitutional. The immediate effect is another setback for blue-state climate finance, and another reminder that industry and the federal government are lining up to crush state-level ...

EPA rolled out a new page and video bragging about reorganization, savings, and a leaner agency. The administration says it is making the agency stronger; the subtext is that cuts and churn are being marketed as reform.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin used a Midwest swing to announce a farmer-friendly policy push, including a plan to reallocate 100 percent of additional refinery exemption volumes under the Renewable Fuel Standard.

EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced a proposal to reallocate 100% of certain small-refinery exemption volumes under the Renewable Fuel Standard. It is the latest deregulatory gift to the refinery side of the ledger, and a fresh reminder that the administration’s climate-and-farm policy keeps tilting toward fossil...

The Senate Intelligence Committee has a closed briefing on its calendar for September 29. It is not a scandal by itself, but it is a live institutional event in a climate where intelligence oversight and executive secrecy are both hot political issues.

The Trump administration released new fuel economy standards that ease pollution controls for cars and light trucks, drawing immediate criticism over the climate damage.

Federal prosecutors in Connecticut charged a Stamford man in a scheme involving stolen and altered U.S. Treasury checks. It is a smaller case than the election and climate fights, but it still reflects the scale of mail and payment fraud law enforcement is chasing.

EPA published a new final rule on September 28 that continues its recent pattern of revising chemical-risk and compliance requirements, part of a broader regulatory whiplash that businesses and environmental advocates are watching closely.

The department put out a celebratory readout after a Michigan federal court decision in the BP climate case, but the underlying litigation has become a reminder that the government is willing to wield federal power aggressively in state climate fights.

The White House and EPA leadership moved to reopen the East Palestine train-derailment fight by asking for an independent inspector-general investigation into the Biden-era response.

Two shipping companies pleaded guilty and were sentenced to pay a combined $1.75 million after the Justice Department said they concealed illegal oily waste discharges at sea.

Vice President J.D. Vance and EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin asked the EPA inspector general for an independent investigation into the Biden administration’s East Palestine response, turning a disaster response into a new round of partisan grievance theater.

EPA announced two scientific moves meant to replace animal tests in chemical reviews and pesticide work. It’s a real policy change with obvious animal-welfare and regulatory consequences, and it lands in the middle of a broader fight over how aggressively the agency will police chemicals.

Federal prosecutors filed a new lawsuit alleging a California utility district’s equipment sparked the Hobo Fire, turning an old blaze into a fresh accountability fight over preventable wildfire risk.

EPA’s public-notice docket hit an August 26 comment deadline for proposed clean-water settlements in Colorado and Washington. It is quieter than the big constitutional fights, but it is still a live enforcement event with real consequences.

A federal court cleared the way for a major Montana forest management project, undercutting another attempt to stop logging and wildfire-reduction work through procedural litigation.

EPA’s technical-assistance grant window for rural, small, and Tribal wastewater systems closed on August 14, putting real money and real deadlines behind a program the agency says is meant to shore up water infrastructure.

EPA issued a new statement on cross-border wildfire smoke and air-quality impacts, underscoring how climate-linked pollution keeps forcing emergency public-health responses. The politics are ugly because the agency is having to manage a problem the administration keeps trying to talk around.

A divided federal appeals court had already ruled the administration likely wrong to kill a major clean-energy grant program, and the August 10 fallout is that the money remains entangled in litigation. The case has become a high-stakes test of whether the administration can simply claw back congressionally approved...

The EPA’s recent rollback of a Biden-era emissions defense rule continues to shape a legal and political fight over who bears the cost of industrial pollution and accident risk.

As senators rushed to avoid a shutdown, the broader fight over Trump-era grant abuse and climate funding kept moving through the courts and agencies. The funding vote may calm one emergency, but it does nothing to resolve the administration’s habit of using the purse like a political weapon.

EPA posted a proposed settlement over Clean Water Act violations at an Alaska quarry, signaling another enforcement push with a public comment deadline already running.