The Trump administration on Monday moved to relax environmental rules governing the extraction of oil, gas and coal from public lands across the country. The Interior Department issued a pair of proposed rules that would reduce costs and weaken requirements for fossil fuel companies that operate on federal lands. The first rule would drastically lower…
President Trump wanted the Reflecting Pool at the Lincoln Memorial to look pristine. Photosynthesis had other plans. Days after the Trump administration completed a $14.2 million project to coat the Reflecting Pool’s concrete floor with dark blue waterproofing material, clumps of algae dotted the surface on Sunday and Monday, giving parts of the pool a…
A group of lawmakers warned the Trump administration on Monday that officials could face fines or even criminal prosecution if they push forward with building the president’s 250-foot triumphal arch in Washington without the approval of Congress. In a letter sent to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and two National Park Service officials, one Senate independent…
Water in the Colorado River is dwindling to levels that haven’t been seen in decades, and the seven states whose residents and farmers depend on the river can’t agree on a fair way to divide up what’s left. Negotiations are going nowhere despite more than six months of ongoing talks, plus cajoling by the Trump…
A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked the National Park Service from removing or revising signs, films and other materials at national parks across the country to comply with a directive from President Trump. The ruling pauses enforcement of an executive order that called for removing or covering up materials at national parks that “inappropriately…
An auction of oil leases in Alaska’s remote Arctic National Wildlife Refuge ended on Friday with just nine bids covering only about 10 percent of the available land, undercutting President Trump’s claims that drilling in the pristine wilderness area would set off an economic boom. The sale brought in about $3.7 million, nearly half of…
Seven Democratic-controlled states sued the Trump administration on Tuesday over its move to block a planned wind farm off the coast of New York. The lawsuit seeks to overturn an extraordinary deal that the Trump administration reached in March with the French energy giant TotalEnergies. That agreement saw the government pay TotalEnergies $928 million to…
Diesel fuel has spilled onto the National Mall at least twice in the past two weeks during preparations for an event celebrating the country’s 250th birthday, according to a government document and a spokeswoman for the Interior Department. The first spill occurred on May 20 and contaminated a cistern that provides water for irrigating the…
The National Park Service is using at least $67 million worth of park entrance fees to help fund President Trump’s beautification projects in Washington, according to a New York Times analysis of federal records. Nearly $60 million in fees paid by visitors to national parks across the country is funding repairs to nine of the…
Soil at a public golf course in Washington where the Trump administration dumped debris from the demolition of the White House East Wing has tested positive for lead, chromium and other toxic metals, according to data released by the National Park Service. The data, which the Park Service published on its website last week, showed…
