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Page Updated:
Sept. 1, 2026

• • Judge Strikes Down New York’s Climate ‘Superfund’ Law

  The Court Said the Measure, Which Required Energy Companies to Pay $75 Billion to the State, Conflicted With Federal Law

  

  Sept. 1, 2026 -A federal judge struck down New York State’s new climate “superfund” law on Monday, ruling that it conflicted with federal law.

  The New York law was modeled on the 1980 federal Superfund program to clean up industrial waste, and several other states have been considering similar climate legislation. Republican-led states, the Trump administration and business groups have challenged New York’s law as well as a similar one in Vermont.

• • Who Pays for Wildfire Damage? California Can’t Agree

  Lawmakers Balk at Newsom’s Proposal to Limit Utilities’ Wildfire Liabilities, Sending Shares Down Sharply
  
  {THE WALL STREET JOURNAL}

  August 31, 2026, -A last-minute bid by California Gov. Gavin Newsom to reduce electric utilities’ wildfire liabilities failed in the state legislature after an outcry from survivors.

  Instead, California lawmakers introduced a bill Saturday that includes limits on executive compensation at utility companies that start wildfires, a “fast pay” program for victims, and a ban on private-equity funds from buying wildfire claims. They are set to vote on it Tuesday before closing out their current legislative session.

• • Nepal Puts Cost of Disaster at $5
  Billion, Blaming Climate Change

  The Country is Seeking Urgent Help From a Special U.N. Climate Fund, But...

  

  August 31, 2026 -Putting the cost of recovery at $5 billion, a senior Nepali official said his country had requested urgent financial help from the United Nations’ special fund for climate-disaster recovery.

  The official, Maheshwar Dhakal, the climate change chief in the Ministry of Agriculture, Forest and Environment, explicitly asserted that human-caused climate had been a factor in last week’s horrific glacial collapse and flooding. In an interview on Monday he framed the event as an inequity in which decades of greenhouse-gas emissions from richer nations are harming vulnerable countries like his that can’t cope.

• • A Native Tribe’s Way of Life
  Was Threatened By Canada Tariffs

  More Are Coming

  

  August 29, 2026 -The July day dawned warm and dry, like it was designed for haying, but by midafternoon, farmer Wayne Smith had yet to cut a single blade of grass.

  His baler had broken that morning, and as soon as he fixed it, his tractor refused to run. He knew what would make the machine go again — a pointed metal fitting the size of a half-smoked cigar — but he also knew that he didn’t have one and, because of President Donald Trump, the part would be hard to find

• • Delaware Gov. Matt Meyer Signed First-of-Its
  Kind Legislation Requiring Data Centers
  to Generate (and Pay for) Clean Energy

  Proposed Data Centers Are Set to Double Delaware’s Energy Usage and Raise Electricity Prices By Up to 80% By 2029
  
  {energy central}

  August 27, 2026 -BYONCE: Data centers and other large energy users must supply their own power while aligning with state renewable standards (which order DE utilities to source 40% clean energy by 2035).

  The package: Meyers signed a handful of laws to protect ratepayers, including legislation that 1) requires large loads to pay for infrastructure upgrades 2) bans data centers from obtaining certain tax credits and 3) restricts costs that monopoly utilities can recover from residential customers.

• • Who Pays For Wildfire Damage?

  Newsom Returns to a Defining California Fight
  
  {FACTOR THIS}

  August 27, 2026 -The bookends of California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s nearly eight years in office have been defined by a crucial question: Who should cover the cost of damage from wildfires caused by utility equipment?

  The most destructive wildfire in state history, a blaze that killed 85 people and destroyed more than 18,000 buildings in Northern California, started two days after Newsom won the governorship in 2018. Investigators determined it was caused by Pacific Gas & Electric equipment. Facing tens of billions of dollars in liability, the giant utility filed for bankruptcy just weeks after Newsom’s inauguration.

  Months later, Newsom signed a law creating a $21 billion fund, paid for by utility shareholders and ratepayers, to help utilities pay for wildfire damages if they take certain safety measures.

• • Nevada Sues in Federal Court to Block Colorado River Cuts

  Nevada Officials Pointed Directly at Colorado and Its Fellow Upstream States Saying Water Cuts Need to Be Shared By Everyone
  
  {THE COLORADO SUN}

  August 25, 2026 -Nevada became the first to sue over the Colorado River’s future Monday, citing frustrations over the steep, federally imposed water cuts it faces and the lack of mandatory cuts in upstream states, like Colorado.

  The lawsuit came three days after the Department of the Interior released its final management plan for the river basin’s key reservoirs, Lakes Mead and Powell. States and tribes have heatedly debated how to manage the reservoirs after 2026, when the current management rules expire. The decision impacts 40 million people, economies and environments across the West.

• • The Biggest Carbon Polluters Are to Blame for
  Half of U.S. Western Water Lost to Climate Change

  Some of the Most Impactful Changes Have Come in the Stressed Colorado River Basin

  

  August 25, 2026 -Some of the largest fossil fuel companies on Earth are disproportionately responsible for the water crisis in the American West, according to a first-of-its-kind study published Tuesday.

  From 2014 to 2024, climate change sapped over a third of the region’s typical annual snowpack and decreased streamflows by about 13 percent, the authors found in the paper, which appeared in Nature’s Communications Earth and Environment journal. About half of those losses are attributable to emissions from “carbon majors,” 122 fossil fuel companies and cement producers, the study concluded.

• • It Just Got Way Easier to Sue Fossil
  Fuel Companies Over Climate Change

  For Years, Industry Has Argued You Can’t Prove Which Company Caused Which Disaster. A New Study Says Otherwise
  
  {Mother Jones}

  August 24, 2026 -Deadly heatwaves in May smashed records in the UK, France, Spain, and parts of North Africa. India, Pakistan, and Bangladesh saw April temperatures soar to 113-122 degrees Fahrenheit. A late spring heat dome in the US marked the hottest March on record, and in a 1,000-year July storm, parts of Texas were left reeling after flash flooding killed multiple people. That same month, wildfires in Canada turned skies orange and exposed over 106 million North Americans to hazardous air quality. In the US alone, catastrophic events from 1980 to 2026 have killed approximately 17,377 people and cost over $3.2 trillion.

  In terms of the sheer scope of heat and extreme weather, 2026 has been a year of climate disasters.

  Meanwhile, the fossil fuel industry—by far the greatest contributor to global climate change, accounting for approximately 68 percent of greenhouse gas emissions and almost 90 percent of carbon dioxide emissions—is holding firm.

• • Sarasota Flood Victims Suffer Setback
  In Fight For Compensation

  Victims Seeking Compensation After Tropical Storm Debby Suffer a Setback in Their Lawsuit Against the County

  

  August 24, 2026 -Residents seeking compensation from Sarasota County for flooding from Tropical Storm Debby in 2024 received a setback Aug. 12 when 12th Judicial Circuit Court Judge Dana Moss granted most of Sarasota County’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit.

  The lawsuit includes an inverse-condemnation claim alleging that Sarasota County’s actions or inaction resulted in an uncompensated taking of the plaintiffs’ property or substantially deprived them of its beneficial use.

• • Mold Is Driving America’s Homeowners Crazy

  And They Want Builders to PaY
  
  {THE WALL STREET JOURNAL}

  August 24, 2026 -It is in showers, behind walls, and deep in linen closets. It is black and slimy, white and fuzzy, or green and spongy. It is making homeowners struggle to breathe and costing them millions in repairs and healthcare bills, they say.

  Mold is driving Americans crazy, and they want their home builders to pay.

  Modern energy efficiency codes have lowered the margin of error for builders when it comes to moisture management. And construction defects can cause mold growth, which thousands of Americans believe is making them sick.

• • Environmental Group Sues Trump Administration
  Over Plan to Dismantle Boulder’s NCAR

  The EDF Filed a Lawsuit Against the Trump Administration Seeking to Stop Its Attempt to Dismantle Boulder’s National Center for Atmospheric Research
  
  {Boulder ReportingLab}

  August 20, 2026 -The lawsuit follows a similar lawsuit filed in March by the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, a nonprofit consortium of 129 universities that manages NCAR. Like UCAR’s lawsuit, the environmental group argued that the federal government violated the Administrative Procedure Act by failing to provide an explanation for the attempt to dismantle NCAR.

  The Trump administration first moved to break up NCAR in December, shortly after Trump attempted to pardon election official Tina Peters, who was convicted of felonies related to 2020 election conspiracy theories. The pardon was ineffective because Peters faces state, not federal, charges. Both UCAR and EDF argue that the attempt to dismantle NCAR was retaliation for Peters’ conviction and Colorado Gov. Jared Polis’ refusal to pardon her.

• • A Supreme Court Case May Be Slowing
  Trump’s Next Climate Rollback

  “EPA is Trying to Have Their Cake and Eat It, Too,”
  
  {E&E NEWS}

  August 20, 2026 -The Trump administration’s next major step toward dismantling federal climate regulation has been stalled at the White House for more than three months. A looming Supreme Court case may help explain why.

  EPA’s planned repeal of Biden-era power plant carbon standards has been under Office of Management and Budget review since May, an unusually long pause for an administration that trampled procedural norms last year in its haste to get out of the business of regulating climate emissions.

• • Inside the Struggle to Dismantle
  America’s Greenhouse Gas Data

  New Accounts Show the Oil and Gas Industry Trying to Weaken Methane Reporting While Saving the Federal Emissions System It Relies On
  
  {DeSmog}

  August 18, 2026 -When the Trump administration announced plans last year to repeal the federal government’s greenhouse gas reporting system, rather than celebrate, many oil and gas companies publicly urged the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to preserve it. But for more than a year, behind closed doors, the fossil fuel industry has been pushing to weaken one of the reporting program’s most consequential elements.

  Oil and gas companies fear this Biden-era revision to the methane reporting rule, known as Subpart W, would force them to disclose much higher — and previously hidden — pollution levels. Those concerns, brewing for years, grew into a wave that ultimately would break onto the friendly shores of the Trump EPA, in response to the agency’s expected overhaul of both the methane reporting rule and the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program, the most comprehensive system for tracking the nation’s greenhouse gases, industry comments and public records show.

• • Environmentalists Sue to Halt First
  Sale of Seabed-Mining Rights

  U.S. Decision to Allow Mining For Minerals In American Waters Didn’t Consider the Potential Harm to Endangered Species

  

  August 18, 2026 -A coalition of environmentalists and community advocates sued the federal government Tuesday in an effort to halt the first-ever commercial sale of deep sea mining leases in American waters.

  The Marine Minerals Administration, which oversees offshore mineral mining, last month announced plans to sell mining leases for 31 million acres of seabed in the Pacific Ocean off American Samoa, in U.S. territorial waters. The lawsuit challenges a finding by the National Marine Fisheries Service that mining “is not likely to adversely affect” species protected by the Endangered Species Act. That finding greenlit the sale.

• • Court Blocks Road Through Alaskan Wildlife Refuge

  The Trump Administration Broke the Law When It Approved a Deal to Allow a Road Through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge

  

  August 18, 2026 -A federal judge on Tuesday blocked a land exchange that would have allowed a contentious road to be built through the Izembek National Wildlife Refuge, a vast wild area in southwestern Alaska.

  The decision by Judge Sharon L. Gleason of U.S. District Court for the District of Alaska was a setback for the Trump administration, which finalized the land swap deal in October. It was a victory for Alaska Native tribes and environmental groups that sued to stop road construction.

• • They Were Told to Park Outside.
  Then Their Cars Burst Into Flames

  Modern Vehicles Don’t Need to Be Moving — Or Even Turned On — to Catch Fire

  

  August 17, 2026 - Late last year, when Sarah Lammersen learned her 2022 Jeep Wrangler plug-in hybrid was being recalled because the high-voltage battery could catch fire at any time — even when the vehicle was parked — she jokingly texted the dealership, “I hope the car doesn’t catch on fire while we wait to schedule an appointment.”

  Days later, the Jeep burst into flames. No one was injured in the blaze, which occurred while Lammersen’s daughter drove the vehicle, but the Jeep was destroyed, according to a lawsuit over the incident.

• • Fixing Seattle’s Power Outages
  Continues a 1960s Class Divide

  More than 300 miles of These Cables Are Decades Past Their Useful Life. They Will Cost More Than $2 Billion to Fix Over at Least 15 Years

  

  August 16, 2026 -Since moving to Queen Anne in 2021, Anna Romanova has lost power more than 20 times, including six times through the first half of the year.

  When the lights go out, her family and neighbors are living through a failing more than 50 years in the making: deteriorating underground power lines.

  The fraying cables were mostly installed as part of a 1960s-era beautification effort in the city’s wealthiest neighborhoods. Today, they are leading to more frequent blackouts in parts of Seattle, making it one of the slowest utilities in the country for restoring power outages.

• • The ‘Country Hicks’ Who Refused
  $26 Million from an AI Data Center

  A Kentucky Mother and Daughter Turned Down a Life-Changing Offer for Their Farmland
  
  {THE WALL STREET JOURNAL}

  August 15, 2026 -The offer arrived out of nowhere just over one year ago.

  An unknown company was scooping up Kentucky farmland, and few plots were more valuable than those owned by Delsia Bare and her mother, Ida Huddleston.

  The money would be life-changing. From Bare’s farm, the company wanted 463 acres at $48,000 apiece. From Huddleston’s nearby piece of property, it sought 71 at $60,000 per acre.

• • South Africa’s Top Court Blocks Shell’s
  Offshore Oil Exploration Right

  Constitutional Court Rules That Shell and Its Partners Failed to consult affected communities and Did Not Properly Consider Environmental Risks
  
  {CLIMATE HOME NEWS}

  August 14, 2026 -After a five-year legal battle, the Constitutional Court of South Africa has blocked Shell and local partner Impact Africa's permit to explore for oil and gas off the country's East Coast, in a landmark victory for local communities and civil society.

  “Today’s judgment makes me feel very happy and proud that the ocean is not for profit for mining companies,” said East Coast resident and environmental campaigner Siyabonga Ndovela.

• • Judge Rejects Suit That Sought
  Professor’s Emails on Climate Law

  A Conservative Group Tried to Force the University of Michigan to Hand Over Messages From a Law Professor Who Worked on “Climate Superfund” Bills

  

  August 14, 2026 -A lawsuit against the University of Michigan demanding the emails of a professor who has worked on “climate superfund” laws has been dismissed by a state judge.

  Conservative groups and the energy industry oppose these laws, which would require oil companies to help cover the mounting costs of climate change.

• • Trump Administration Fights Republican
  Effort to Lower Flood Insurance Costs

  Justice Department Lawyers Are Defending a FEMA Program That Environmentalists Support
  
  {E&E NEWS}

  August 14, 2026 -The Trump administration is defending a flood policy imposed by the Biden administration and supported by environmental groups against efforts by Republican-led states to overturn it in court.

  The Justice Department under President Trump recently asked a federal judge in Louisiana to dismiss a lawsuit brought by 10 Republican state attorneys general who say the policy has unfairly raised the cost of federal flood insurance.

  The policy was launched in 2021 by the Biden administration after decades of offering discounted insurance had led the federal government to understate the flood risk faced by millions of properties covered by the Federal Emergency Management Agency program. The higher insurance rates were hailed by environmentalists as a way to discourage construction in flood-prone areas. Rates are decreasing for roughly 20 percent of the insurance program’s 4.5 million policies.

• • NIPSCO Wants MISO Ratepayers to Cover the
  $38M it Spent Running a Coal Plant Under Federal Orders

  So Far, the DOE’s Emergency Orders to Fossil Fuel Plants Around the Country Have Cost Ratepayers Over $400M
  
  {energy central}

  August 12, 2026 -The hole: The two Indiana coal units cost $116.7M to operate this January-March…but they earned $33.5M. Now, NIPSCO is preparing for potential DOE emergency orders through late 2028.

  For context: The DOE’s 202(c) authority lets the feds force generators to stay online in the name of reliability. For NIPSCO’s plant, Energy Sec. Chris Wright first invoked 202(c) on Dec. 23; these retirement-blocking orders have been renewed every 90 days since (and they’re currently set to expire on Sept. 19).

• • Amazon Accused of ‘Greenwashing’ Seafood Products

  Something 'Fishy' Here

  

  August 5, 2026 -On Amazon, some seafood products are labeled “wild caught” and “responsibly sourced,” but a lawsuit filed Friday suggests there’s something fishy going on.

  In a proposed class-action lawsuit filed in Seattle federal court, two consumers accused the e-commerce giant of “greenwashing,” or falsely marketing seafood products as sustainable. The lawsuit targets dozens of tuna, salmon and other seafood products sold by Amazon online and in stores under brands including Chicken of the Sea, Bumble Bee, StarKist and 365 by Whole Foods.

• • Federal Appeals Court Revives Lawsuit
  Over Colorado Refinery Pollution

  A Lower Court Judge Was Too Quick to Dismiss a Challenge From Environmental Groups, the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Ruled
  
  {POLITICOPRO}

  August 3, 2026 -An environmental lawsuit over alleged air pollution from a Suncor refinery in Colorado is getting a second life after a federal appeals court on Monday reversed a lower court that had tossed the case.

  The question of when groups can sue over pollution from power plants, refineries and other industrial facilities comes as the Trump administration has eased off environmental enforcement. It intervened in a different citizen suit over emissions from an xAI data center in Memphis for the novel purpose of quashing the challenge.

• • Migrant Crisis Pits Spain’s Leader Against Critics Across Europe

  Prime Minister Lashes Out at EU Colleagues Who Blame His Policies For Ceuta Episode
  
  {THE WALL STREET JOURNAL}

  August 3, 2026 -As most migrants left a tiny Spanish territory in North Africa this weekend, Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez pivoted to a new crisis—one playing out in Europe’s halls of power.

  His country had just experienced an extraordinary breach of sovereignty, with some 50,000 migrants illegally pouring into Ceuta from neighboring Morocco.

• • Revealed: Major Oil Firms Make $93Bn
  Profits Amid War and Climate Crisis

  Iran Conflict Windfall Over Three Months Reignites Calls For Companies ‘Cashing In On Human Misery’ to Pay For Environmental Damage

  

  August 2, 2026 -Eight of the biggest oil companies amassed profits of more than $90bn (£67bn) in just three months as the Iran conflict sent energy prices soaring and the emissions-fuelled climate crisis caused deadly heatwaves.

  The windfall war profits have reignited calls for oil and gas supermajors such as Saudi Aramco and BP to pay for the environmental damage caused by “cashing in on human misery” and fund a rapid transition to renewable energy.

• • Michigan Lawmakers Move to Block
  State’s Climate Case Against Oil Companies

  The State Attorney General Said She Doesn’t Need the Legislature’s Permission to Sue Fossil Fuel Producers For Contributing to Climate Change
  
  {E&E NEWS}

  July 30, 2026 -Lawmakers in Michigan have found a new way to target climate lawsuits against the oil and gas industry: cut off funding to the lawyers.

  A new provision in the state’s 2027 budget prevents the state attorney general from “joining a multistate lawsuit or taking part of a lawsuit against the federal government or an oil or gas entity” without legislative approval. The language appears to have been added during budget negotiations between Democrats who control the Senate and Republicans who control the House.

• • The Case For Making Polluters Pay Moves Into the Mainstream

  With Fossil Fuel Firms Set to Report Huge Profits Off the Back of the Iran War Amid Heatwaves and Wildfires in Europe, Public Debate is Asking Who Should Pay For the Damage?
  
  {CLIMATE HOME NEWS}

  July 28, 2026 -This coming week, as record-breaking heat has morphed into killer wildfires, major oil and gas companies will report their second-quarter earnings and are widely expected to announce profits that have doubled or even quadrupled in the last three months. The obscenity of that contradiction is impossible to ignore.

  Oxfam analysis, released as the Q2 earnings season gets underway, shows that the world’s six largest fossil fuel corporations - BP, Chevron, Eni, ExxonMobil, Shell and TotalEnergies - are on course to nearly double their combined net income compared with the first quarter of the year, from $23 billion to around $45 billion.

• • Boulder Asks the Supreme Court to
  Keep Its Climate Lawsuit Alive

  The Fossil Fuel Industry has Argued That Federal Law Bars the Lawsuit. But...
  
  {E&E NEWS}

  July 28, 2026 -Two Colorado communities are asking the Supreme Court to allow them to continue suing fossil fuel producers for climate change, saying the lawsuit is an “exercise of traditional state power.”

  In a brief filed Monday, the city and county of Boulder outlined their arguments in Suncor v. Boulder, a blockbuster climate case the court will take up in the fall that could derail nearly two dozen similar lawsuits against the oil and gas industry.

  The governments are asking the court to reject the industry’s bid to overturn a 2025 Colorado Supreme Court decision that allowed the lawsuit to proceed in state court.

• • Johnson & Johnson to Pay $5.5bn
  Settlement In Talc Cancer Lawsuit

  Landmark Deal Covers About 76,000 Claims and Could End Contentious, Decade-Long Legal Battle

  

  July 28, 2026 -Johnson & Johnson said it would pay an estimated $5.5bn to resolve tens of thousands of lawsuits alleging its baby ?powder and other talc products caused ?ovarian cancer, in a landmark deal that could end a contentious, decade-long legal battle.

  Johnson & Johnson on Monday said the settlement covers about 76,000 claims, including ones consolidated in a federal court in New Jersey, and related cases in state court,representing nearly all of the remaining talc claims against the company.

• • Climate-Impacted Communities Across
  Asia Are Taking Their Fight To Court

  Communities In South Korea, the Philippines, India and Indonesia Are Increasingly Turning to the Courts to Demand Justice and Accountability
  
  {EARTH.ORG}

  July 25, 2026 -When Super Typhoon Rai – equivalent to a Category 5 hurricane – began battering Batasan Island in Bohol, Philippines, in December 2021, Trixy Elle and her husband, two children, and father waded into the storm, fearing they would be trapped in their home. Holding on to one another, they were determined not to let go.

  By morning, the house Elle and her husband had spent years building was gone. So was much of the island. They were left with just the clothes on their backs. In the days that followed, the family survived in conditions that stripped life to its barest terms, at one point, eating livestock they had found dead in the storm’s aftermath.

  The 35-year-old mother felt a deep sense of injustice. The typhoon – locally known as Odette – affected 10.6 million people in the Philippines, killing more than 400 and displacing 1.4 million from their homes. Elle began to question why communities like hers had to endure such devastation despite contributing so little to the climate crisis. “Why are we the ones struggling the most?”

• • Two Dozen States Sue Trump White House
  For Politicizing FEMA Disaster Aid

  The 25 Democratic Attorneys General Say Administration Imposed ‘Unlawful’ Conditions On Federal Disaster Grants

  

  July 24, 2026 -A group of 25 Democratic attorneys general led by California’s Rob Bonta are taking the Trump administration to court for imposing “unlawful” conditions on federal grants for disaster preparedness and response.

  The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and Federal Emergency Management Agency (Fema) have been placing stipulations on federal grants that amount to a “campaign of coercion” designed to force states to adopt the White House’s preferred voting and immigration policies says the lawsuit, filed in federal court in Rhode Island on Thursday.

• • Flash Floods Kill at Least 23 in Afghanistan

  Dozens Remained Missing After Floods Swept Through a city in Nuristan...

  

  July 21, 2026 -At least 23 people died and more than 80 others were injured in flash floods that struck a province in eastern Afghanistan on Monday, local officials said, adding that the death toll would likely rise as dozens remained missing.

  The floods, caused by heavy monsoon rains, hit communities in Parun, the capital city of Nuristan Province on the border with Pakistan. Torrents of muddy water cascaded down surrounding mountains in the middle of the afternoon and killed Parun’s mayor, according to Faraidoon Samim, a spokesman for Nuristan’s governor.

• • Allegations of Harm At China-Backed
  Transition Minerals Projects Rise

  The Growth In Recorded Abuses Linked to Chinese Investments Comes As a New Mediation Mechanism Between Companies and Communities Gets Underway
  
  {CLIMATE HOME NEWS}

  July 21, 2026 -Reports of human rights and environmental abuses linked to Chinese companies’ overseas investments in the mining and refining of minerals needed for the clean energy transition are on the rise, research by a monitoring group has found.

  The number of recorded allegations of harm at projects tied to Chinese firms have increased every year since 2021, rising to 148 in 2025, according to the Business and Human Rights Centre (BHRC). On Wednesday it released new data showing that a total of 434 allegations of abuse were made against Chinese-backed projects over the five-year period in projects across the world.

• • Trump Officials Withhold $1 Billion
  in Medicaid Funds From 2 States

  The Administration Accused California and Minnesota of Fraudulent Activity in Their Public Health Insurance Programs

  

  July 21, 2026 -The Trump administration announced Tuesday it was withholding an additional $1 billion in Medicaid funds from California and Minnesota, the second time it has targeted the two states with Democratic governors for suspected fraud in their public health insurance programs.

  The federal government will hold more than $867 million in payments from California and about $200 million from Minnesota until they can provide proof that certain claims were legitimate, officials said.

• • Hundreds of Rohingya Vanish at Sea

  ‘They Are Invisible People’:

  

  July 17, 2026 -When Nur Kalima’s two young children ask where their father is, she tells them he will be back soon. In reality, she is convinced he has been dead for weeks.

  She said that she thinks her husband, Abdul Rahman, was on one of the two boats that the United Nations says sank off the coast of Myanmar early this month. The vessels were headed to Malaysia, where its passengers, mostly members of the persecuted Rohingya Muslim minority of Myanmar, had hoped to build a better life. On Thursday, the U.N. said that it fears more than 500 people died.

• • The Report Oil Companies Are Worried
  About: Climate Attribution Science

  New Report Says Our Ability to Tie Weather Damages to Climate Change is Improving
  
  {arsTECHNICA}

  July 17, 2026 -Climate change is being driven largely by the greenhouse gases we’ve pumped into the atmosphere, which trap more of the Sun’s energy there. That added energy increases the odds of extreme events: longer, more intense heat waves and droughts, interspersed with excessive precipitation. But these sorts of events have happened in the past—how can we tell if any given weather disaster has been made more likely by the climate?

  It’s a question with implications for everything from building codes to disaster preparedness. And there’s some good news: According to a report released by the US National Academies of Science on Thursday, the field of climate attribution is growing increasingly mature and can answer some questions for us with far greater confidence than it could just a decade ago. The report also notes that there are still important limits and suggests steps to address them.

• • New Climate Report Adds Fuel to Billion-Dollar Legal Fight

  Both Sides of the Political Spectrum Are Using a National Academies Review of Attribution Science...
  
  {E&E NEWS}

  July 17, 2026 -The credibility of research linking climate pollution to specific natural disasters got a major boost Thursday. But the multibillion-dollar battle over the implications of that finding is just beginning.

  On one side of the fight are scientists, environmentalists and Democratic lawmakers. They argue that a new review of extreme weather attribution science by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine has more clearly established that fossil fuel companies are responsible for exacerbating heat waves, floods and hurricanes that have damaged the U.S. in recent years.

• • How to Abandon Your Climate
  Commitments and Get Away With It

  Big Business Made Big Promises About Saving the Planet, But...

  

  July 17, 2026 -Not so long ago, many of America’s biggest companies were making bold promises about saving the planet.

  They pledged to stop polluting, get off fossil fuels and use recyclable materials. Some even promised to reinvent their core business practices, speaking aspirationally about a new, more sustainable economy.

• • Britain: Southern Water Fined £7M After
  Illegally Dumping Sewage Off Kent Coast

  Firm Pleaded Guilty to 13 Offenses Over Discharges at Margate and Broadstairs Wastewater Pumping Stations

  

  July 17, 2026 -Southern Water has been fined more than £7m after illegally dumping sewage off the Kent coast between 2019 and 2021.

  The company, described by the judge as having a “record of criminality” that was “an exceptionally serious aggravating factor”, pleaded guilty to 13 offense at Medway magistrates court last April over sewage discharges at Margate and Broadstairs wastewater pumping stations between 2019 and 2021.

• • Top Science Panel Backs Research Linking
  Extreme Weather to Climate Change

  That Could Support Lawsuits Seeking Damages For Severe Events Worsened By Global Warming

  

  July 16, 2026 -The nation’s top scientific advisory body issued a report on Thursday backing a growing field of science that could help governments hold oil, gas and coal companies responsible for the damage caused by extreme weather.

  The field, known as extreme event attribution, seeks to answer an increasingly common question: How much was the latest heat wave, downpour, drought or wildfire worsened by climate change?

• • Italy Braces For a Verdict On Its Bridge Disaster

  The Price For Aging Infrastructure
  
  {The Economist}

  July 16, 2026 -On Thursday an Italian court sentenced Giovanni Castellucci, the former toll-road boss responsible for Genoa’s Morandi motorway bridge disaster, to 12 years. The collapse of the bridge in August 2018 killed 43 people. Mr Castellucci is currently serving a six-year term related to a separate highway crash that killed 40 people. He is one of 57 defendants in the Genoa trial.

  The incident exposed the fragility of Italy’s ageing infrastructure, much of it built during the post-war economic boom. Researchers estimate that at least 250 bridges in Italy have collapsed since 2000, though most caused no fatalities.

• • Lawsuit Claims San Isabel Electric is
  Responsible For the Aspen Acres Fire

  Four People Have Filed a civil lawsuit against the San Isabel Electric Association...
  
  {DENVER7}

  July 16, 2026 -Four people have filed a civil lawsuit against the San Isabel Electric Association, claiming the company is allegedly responsible for the Aspen Acres Fire and the damage it caused.

  All four people who filed the lawsuit live in either Pueblo or Custer counties.

  Four people have filed a civil lawsuit against the San Isabel Electric Association, claiming the company is allegedly responsible for the Aspen Acres Fire and the damage it caused.

  Lawsuit claims San Isabel Electric is partially responsible for the Aspen Acres Fire

  All four people who filed the lawsuit live in either Pueblo or Custer counties.

  The lawsuit alleges that on the morning the Aspen Acres Fire started, June 29, 2026, a witness reported seeing a large tree leaning on a power line in the area

• • Major Emitting Countries Knew of Climate
  Risks Decades Earlier Than Claimed

  Governments Have Known Since At Least the 1960s That Fossil Fuel Use Was Warming the Planet
  
  {CLIMATE HOME NEWS}

  July 15, 2026 -Much has been written about when fossil fuel companies knew their products cause harm to the climate, public health, and the environment. Less attention has been paid to just how long governments have known, too, and what they did or failed to do with that knowledge. That information is not just a matter of historical record - it’s a matter of legal responsibility.

  A year ago this month, the world’s highest court affirmed that countries have been under an obligation to curb climate change since they knew about the foreseeable risks it posed and to remedy its harms. This historic advisory opinion opened the door for States to be held accountable not only for failing to act on climate change, but also for making it worse by perpetuating its primary cause: fossil fuel production and use.

• • High-Profile Report Linking Disasters
  to Climate Change Coming Thursday

  The National Academies Report Has Been the Subject of Intense Scrutiny By Energy Industry Allies Ahead of Its Release
  
  {POLITICOPRO}

  July 15, 2026 -One of the nation's most respected scientific institutions is expected to release a report on Thursday that could be used to support billion-dollar climate lawsuits against the fossil fuel industry.

  The report has been under development for more than three years by a panel of experts assembled by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, which Congress created 163 years ago to advise policymakers on pressing scientific issues.

• • He Sued the Oil Industry For $51B

  Now He Faces Republicans in a Private Grilling
  
  {E&E NEWS}

  July 14, 2026 -It’s a rare occurrence for a private lawyer to be hauled before a congressional committee and be deposed. But in the sharply political world of climate and energy litigation, Roger Worthington is no ordinary lawyer.

  A champion among environmental activists and a villain to the Trump administration and congressional Republicans, the ambitious attorney’s latest gambit — representing Multnomah County, Oregon, in a $51 billion lawsuit that accuses the oil and gas industry of contributing to a heat wave that killed 69 people in 2021 — has landed him in the hot seat before the <House Judiciary Committee.

• • PG&E Could Owe $22M for a Fire That Burned 76K Acres

  This Settlement Would Add to the Utility’s “Significant” Financial Burden From Recent Wildfires
  
  {energy central}

  July 14, 2026 -The California PUC is proposing a settlement that would “penalize” PG&E for the 2022 Mosquito Fire. During an investigation, the CPUC discovered that PG&E

  The payout: Under the agreement, PG&E would hand $21M in shareholder funds to the state. It would also pay $1M for a third-party review of its transmission inspection practices.

• • Lancashire Chemicals Factory Facing
  Potential Legal Claim Announces Closure

  More Than 90 Residents Have Expressed Interest in Contamination Claim Against AGC Chemicals Europe

  

  July 13, 2026 -A Pfas factory in Lancashire has announced plans to close down, just days after the Guardian revealed that more than 90 residents had signed up to be involved in a potential legal claim over contamination of the local area.

  AGC Chemicals Europe is consulting with employees and their union representatives about plans to cease operations at its manufacturing plant in Thornton-Cleveleys, Lancashire. The consultation is expected to last for at least 45 days.

• • Corpus Christi Residents and Businesses
  Subsidized Industrial Water Bills for Years

  A Judge Will Hear Arguments This Week in an $80 Million Dispute Over the Texas City’s Water Rates For Chemical Plants and Refineries

  

  July 13, 2026 -For at least a decade, Corpus Christi sold water to a handful of large industrial plants at a steeply discounted rate, according to documents and interviews with city officials. Residents and businesses paid more than $100 million to subsidize water for some of the world’s richest energy companies, the city’s rate models show.

  Three years ago, Corpus Christi doubled the companies’ water rates in an effort to correct the imbalance. But the companies, including Valero, Citgo and LyondellBassell, protested to state regulators, sparking a legal battle that will come to a head today as a public hearing over the matter begins in front of an independent state agency in Austin.

• • Grassroots Justice Group Challenges Trump
  Administration Order to Keep Florida Coal Plant Running

  Advocacy Groups Said the Order Failed to Establish an Energy Emergency

  

  July 10, 2026 -The Trump administration is facing a new legal challenge over an emergency order keeping a Florida coal-fired power plant, which had been scheduled for retirement, in operation.

  The motion, filed by the Environmental Defense Fund, Sierra Club and Earthjustice, on behalf of Florida Rising, a grassroots group representing communities of color, asks the Department of Energy to reconsider the order, arguing it fails to show that an emergency actually exists. The groups also say the order exceeds the department’s statutory authority and violates the National Environmental Policy Act.

• • A Court Ruling Leaves Some of New York’s
  Most Important Wetlands Unprotected

  The Decision Opened Gaps in State Protections At the Same Time That Federal Wetland Regulations Were Weakened

  

  July 9, 2026 -Four years ago, the New York State Legislature made a major move to better protect wetlands. Now some of those safeguards are delayed for potentially several more years.

  The 2022 amendment to the 1975 Freshwater Wetlands Act brought more than 1 million additional acres of wetlands under the purview of the state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC). Instead of regulating only previously mapped wetlands—records that had “substantial inadequacies and inaccuracies,” according to the DEC—the agency would protect all wetlands greater than 12.4 acres or of “unusual importance.”

• • New York Sues 3M, DuPont, Others Over
  ‘Forever Chemicals’ in Consumer Goods

  Other defendants Include Chemours, Corteva and EIDP
  
  {CNBC}

  July 9, 2026 -New York sued 3M, DuPont and other companies on Thursday for causing a public nuisance by selling “forever chemicals” that they knew were toxic, for use in consumer products.

  The state’s Attorney General Letitia James accused the companies of hiding the chemicals’ environmental and health risks from consumers for decades, even as they began phasing out some of the chemicals, which are known as PFAS.

• • The Loss and Damage Fund Needs Far
  More Finance to Deliver Climate Justice

  The Fledgling Fund Must Also Help Vulnerable Communities Take Action to Recover From Disasters
  
  {CLIMATE HOME NEWS}

  July 9, 2026 -This week, the Fund for Responding to Loss and Damage (FRLD) faces a significant decision that will determine its ability to address the harms being done by climate change.

  Discussions on the Fund’s Resource Mobilisation Strategy must get the scale and accessibility of the Fund right. Failure to do so would risk undermining its role to channel finance to countries ex­periencing loss and damage, and undermine obligations to climate justice and human rights.

• • Costco Faces Lawsuit Over Orgain
  Protein Powder With Toxic Metals

  Costco Did Not Respond to a Request For Comment

  

  July 9, 2026 -What do tariffs, rotisserie chicken and grain-free dog food have in common? Each has sparked a lawsuit against Issaquah-based warehouse retailer Costco.

  The list doesn’t stop there — protein powder has joined the ranks. On Tuesday, consumers filed a proposed class-action lawsuit against Costco in federal court for the Western District of Washington, alleging it sold Orgain’s organic plant-based protein powder knowing it was contaminated with toxic heavy metals and failed to disclose the risk to consumers.

• • As Blue Economy Gathers Pace,
  Communities Must Benefit From Ocean Boom

  As Governments Turn to The Ocean For Jobs, Growth and Climate Solutions, Campaigners At the Our Ocean Conference In Mombasa Warned Coastal Communities Must Not Be Left Behind
  
  {CLIMATE HOME NEWS}

  July 8, 2026 -As governments and institutions pledged billions for offshore wind, cleaner shipping and marine protection at last month’s Our Ocean Conference in Mombasa, countries are increasingly turning to the ocean as a source of jobs and climate action.

  But civil society groups warn that the push to expand the “blue economy” may reproduce familiar inequalities unless coastal communities have a greater say in how projects are designed, financed and governed.

• • Ugandan Farmers Launch UK Court Case
  Against East African Oil Pipeline

  Crowdfunded Lawsuit Filed At London’s High Court Seeks to Enforce Uganda’s Laws Against EACOP Ltd.
  
  {CBS NEWS}

  July 7, 2026 -Four Ugandan farmers filed a case with London’s High Court on Tuesday, aiming to stop the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) from starting to operate by asking the court to apply Uganda’s laws against the project’s UK-registered company.

  The controversial 1,443-kilometre (897-mile) pipeline, majority-owned by French energy company TotalEnergies, aims to carry crude from Ugandan fields for export through neighbouring Tanzania. About 80% has been built so far, according to its developers.

• • Trump Pardons Violators of the Clean
  Air Act and a Major Donor

  Trump Used His Clemency Power to Further Undermine Environmental Laws and to Help a Political Supporter

  

  July 3, 2026 -The White House announced on Friday that President Trump had issued pardons to 11 men, most of whom had been convicted of crimes related to the Clean Air Act, a bedrock environmental law.

  The president also pardoned Adam Kidan, a major donor to Republicans, including Mr. Trump. He had served about two and a half years in prison for his role in a fraud scheme involving the disgraced former lobbyist Jack Abramoff.

• • Rights of Nature Laws Are Coming Up
  Against Legal Systems Designed for Destruction

  Landmark Court Rulings in Colombia and Bangladesh Gave Rivers a Voice, but...

  

  July 2, 2026 -Years after landmark court rulings in Colombia and Bangladesh recognized rivers as legal persons, the waterways remain polluted and under threat—an outcome a new study attributes in part to a systemic issue: Legal systems are still overwhelmingly designed to treat nature as an object for humans to use and profit from.

  The report, released Monday by the nonprofit Stockholm Environment Institute, focused on how rights of river laws are being implemented and found that legal recognition is not, by itself, enough to stop toxic contamination and the destruction of ecosystems.