Our Neighborhood

Earth

Keeping It Green

Fracking's Toll on the Indigenous
• Climate Justice Defined

Environmental Justice

Stories of Interest

• Recent News Stories

Page Updated:
July 4, 2026

• • Climate Activists Sue TotalEnergies

  Demand Sale Details of Nigerian SPDC Oil Stake

  

  July 1, 2026 -Several nonprofits including Friends ?of the Earth France sued oil major TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA), opens new tab in a French civil court on Wednesday, seeking to obtain environmental documents related to an onshore Nigerian oil asset it is attempting to sell.

  Nigerian regulators have not yet approved the sale announced in January of Total's 10% stake in the asset, which was formerly known as SPDC, to local company Vaaris.

• • Supreme Court Energy Wins Set Up a Blockbuster Climate Fight

  The Justices Gave Big Business Key Victories This Term...
  
  {GREENWIRE}

  July 1, 2026 -The Trump administration and big business scored some notable Supreme Court wins on environmental and energy issues this term.

  But the next major test for the federal government and the oil industry on one of the defining environmental issues of our time — climate change — won’t come until next year.

• • Europe Is Hot as Hell

  Why Doesn’t It Want Air Conditioning?
  
  {THE WALL STREET JOURNAL}

  June 30, 2026 -Luca Funaro, a 32-year-old with a rare genetic illness, suffered through this month’s record-breaking heat wave in his apartment in the French capital without an air conditioning system. His neighbors won’t allow one.

  They have refused his requests to install a unit in the courtyard of his building in the Marais, a bustling neighborhood in central Paris. They said the device would be too loud. Funaro, who relies on a wheelchair and breathes with a ventilator, has taken the neighbors to court, his family spending thousands of dollars on a legal battle that has lasted two years and counting.

• • New Florida Law Bans Local Net-Zero Emissions Policies

  Gov. Ron DeSantis Characterized the Clean Energy Goals the Law Bans As “Radical Climate Policies

  

  June 30, 2026 -A new state law limits Florida communities’ aims to offset greenhouse gas emissions that are warming the global climate and intensifying disasters such as hurricanes.

  Specifically, HB 1217 prohibits local governments from pursuing net-zero emissions goals. At least 10 cities and counties have implemented such policies, including Fort Lauderdale, Miami, Orlando and Leon County, where Tallahassee, the state capital, is located. But the new law will not necessarily upend these policies, said Bradley Marshall, senior attorney at Earthjustice, an advocacy group.

• • Court Rules Against Trump Administration On Air Pollution Limits

  Circuit Court Finds the EPA Under President Joe Biden Had Authority to Issue Stricter Controls On Fine Particulate Matter, the Nation’s Deadliest Air Pollutant

  

  June 26, 2026 -Qiyam Ansari woke from a medically induced coma to the sound of beeping medical equipment. The last thing he remembered was walking up the stairs with a bowl of cereal when he started to feel like he was drowning. Then everything went black.

  Doctors told him his lung had collapsed. And they offered a stern warning: Be wary of tiny airborne pollutants, which can be especially harmful for people with asthma like him.

• • Oil Industry Lawyers Fight a $50
  Billion Climate Case in Oregon

  The Lawsuit Aims to Hold Fossil Fuel Companies Responsible For a Heat Wave in Portland Five Years Ago

  

  June 26, 2026 -Nearly five years to the day that an unprecedented heat dome descended on the Pacific Northwest, dozens of lawyers coalesced in a Portland courtroom this week to debate an extraordinary lawsuit that attempts to hold oil companies responsible for the deaths that resulted.

  The $50 billion lawsuit argues that the deadly heat dome — the most extreme heat event in the region’s recorded history — was a result of the defendants’ decades-long campaign to cover up the dangers of global warming.

• • Paris Court Rules TotalEnergies Must Disclose
  Climate Risks Linked to Emissions of Its Products

  Thursday’s Ruling Marked a Partial Victory For Campaigners and the City of Paris in Their Attempt to Hold Totalenergies Responsible For Global Warming
  
  {EARTH.ORG}

  June 26, 2026 -A French court on Thursday found fossil fuel giant TotalEnergies liable for failing to fulfill its climate vigilance obligations.

  The case was brought by a coalition of French local authorities, alongside five local civil society organizations, who challenged TotalEnergies’ continued expansion of oil and gas production – the primary fossil fuels driving climate change alongside coal – despite extensive and indisputable scientific evidence of their impact on global climate. The France-based multinational is one of the world’s top six “supermajor” oil companies and one of the 20 largest historical emitters of planet-warming greenhouse gases.

• • North Carolina Assails Administration’s PFAS Pollution Deal

  The Settlement Addresses the Dumping of PFAS “Forever Chemicals...

  

  June 25, 2026 -The Trump administration is moving to settle a landmark case with the chemical giant Chemours over its yearslong illegal dumping of PFAS “forever chemicals” across three states. The $480 million settlement would be the first by the federal government to resolve pollution claims against a maker of the chemicals, which have been linked to cancer and other health risks.

  The proposed deal, released Wednesday, immediately came under attack from North Carolina, which said it did nothing to clean up water contaminated by the chemicals. Several environmental groups also called the deal inadequate.

• • Court Dismisses Lawsuit Over Gulf Oil
  and Gas Analysis After ‘God Squad’ Ruling

  A Federal Judge Ruled a Challenge to a 2025 NOAA Fisheries Analysis Was Moot After the Species Extinction Committee Exempted Oil and Gas Activities in the Gulf of Mexico From Endangered Species Act protections
  
  {E&E NEWS}

  June 25, 2026 -A federal judge has ruled a lawsuit seeking more analysis of the effect of oil and gas activities on endangered species in the Gulf of Mexico is moot after the “God Squad” handed down an exemption from federal protections in the region earlier this year.

  In a decision issued from the bench Wednesday, Judge Deborah Boardman of the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland dismissed a challenge to NOAA Fisheries’ 2025 biological opinion. Environmental groups claimed the analysis was arbitrary and capricious and repeated errors of an earlier biological opinion.

• • Medford Square Shut Down After
  Multiple Manhole Fires Break Out

  Evacuations Ensue
  
  {WCVB5}

  June 25, 2026 -Forest Street to Lawrence Road and down Riverside Ave to River Street have all been closed off as crews put out the fires.

  Drivers and pedestrians have been advised to avoid the area.

  Fire crews tell NewsCenter 5 that businesses in the area are also being evacuated as a precaution.

• • Supreme Court Delivers a Victory For Pesticide
  Companies in Fight Over Cancer Claims

  In a 7-2 decision, the Court Determined That Federal Law Prohibits “Failure to Warn” Lawsuits Against Pesticide Companies For Health Harms Not Formally Recognized By the EPA

  

  June 25, 2026 -A Supreme Court ruling issued Thursday limits Americans’ ability to sue pesticide makers over alleged health harms from their products.

  The 7-2 decision overturned a 2023 Missouri circuit court ruling that required agrochemical company Monsanto to pay John Durnell of St. Louis $1.25 million in compensatory damages for failing to warn customers of the cancer-causing potential of its popular weedkiller, Roundup.

• • Congress Expands Disaster Aid, as Trump Seeks to Limit It

  The Measure Passed By Both Chambers This Week Would Send Billions of Dollars to Lower-Income Communities Reeling From Catastrophe
  
  {E&E NEWS}

  June 24, 2026 -Congress dramatically expanded federal support for disaster recovery by approving legislation Tuesday that could add billions of dollars to rebuilding communities after storms and wildfires.

  The measure is expected to increase the amount of funding that goes to lower-income areas and households through the Department of Housing and Urban Development, a move that analysts say would rebalance federal disaster aid by steering some money away from wealthier communities.

• • New York Weakened Its Climate Law

  Now Comes the Hard Part
  
  {CLIMATEWIRE}

  June 24, 2026 -Gov. Kathy Hochul’s success in weakening New York’s climate law will have a cascading impact on the state’s energy policies.

  The changes Hochul secured in the budget shift the battlefield for environmental advocates, utilities, power generators and large energy users and spark a new round of regulatory fights. The governor’s push gives her administration more time and flexibility to determine how to move away from fossil fuels.

• • Peru Just Gave Stingless Bees Legal
  Rights in a World First For Insects

  These Tiny Amazon Bees Can Now Be Represented in Court
  
  {ZME SCIENCE}

  June 24, 2026 -Two municipalities in the Peruvian Amazon have granted native stingless bees the legal right to exist, thrive and be represented in court. This is the first time any insect has been recognized as a rights-bearing entity anywhere in the world, according to a correspondence published in Nature.

  The ordinances passed in the municipalities of Satipo and Nauta, in Peru, guarantee the bees’ right to exist, reproduce and flourish. This establishes a legal framework allowing Indigenous groups and conservationists to sue on behalf of the bees.

• • Are Power Companies Still Planning For Climate Regulation?

  Utilities Are Leaning Into a Regulatory Future Free of Carbon Restrictions. But...
  
  {E&E NEWS}

  June 23, 2026 -Power utilities are making future plans with an eye toward coming Trump administration climate rule rollback. Demand is surging, and decarbonization goals are no longer in the driver’s seat.

  But an examination of power providers’ planning documents shows they aren’t ruling out the possibility of a future administration launching new climate change regulations.

  The Trump administration aims to prevent future presidents from using the Clean Air Act to curb greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector. A final repeal of Biden-era power standards is now under White House review, and EPA is expected to soon transfer a supplemental proposal designed to make it impossible for a Democratic administration to use the landmark law to regulate power plant climate pollution.

• • 17 States and Trade Group Sue California
  Over Plastics Packaging Law

  A Cause For Worry

  

  June 23, 2026 -A coalition of 17 states and a trade association representing U.S. wholesalers and distributors have sued California to block the enforcement of a stringent recycling law that aims to reduce plastic packaging waste.

  The lawsuit, filed Monday in federal court, argues that California’s recently finalized regulations that will gradually require companies to scale back single-use plastics and ensure all packaging is recycling or compostable should be struck down. The plaintiffs called the regulations “onerous mandates” that will cause steep price increases in everyday necessities that will be passed on, at least in part, to consumers.

• • Wildfire Smoke From Utah Expected to Reach Colorado

  What Doctors Want You to Know
  
  {DENVER7abc}

  June 22, 2026 -Wildfire smoke from fires burning in Utah is likely to drift into Colorado, according to the Blue Sky Canada smoke forecast.

  At Bluff Hills Regional Park in Lone Tree, visitors were enjoying the fresh air on Monday.

• • Justice Department Makes It Easier to
  Bypass Pollution Controls on Pickups

  It Has Stopped Criminal Prosecutions of People Who Install “Defeat Devices,” Which Make Diesel Trucks Faster and More Efficient But Also Dirtier

  

  June 22, 2026 -It was one of the easiest ways to make a diesel truck faster, more powerful and more reliable: Pay a local shop to quietly gut the emissions controls with an illegal “defeat device.”

  Now the federal government has largely stopped prosecuting the people who sell and install them.

• • Environmental Defenders Remain Among
  World’s Most Targeted Activists

  A New Report Found That Environmental Defenders Are Increasingly Encountering Overlapping Networks of Government Officials, and More

  

  June 22, 2026 -Environmental and Indigenous rights defenders remained among the world’s most targeted human rights advocates in 2025, despite landmark rulings by international courts affirming governments’ obligations to protect both the environment and those who defend it.

  At least 358 human rights defenders were killed last year, according to a report released last week by Front Line Defenders, a Dublin-based group that provides support for global human rights activists.

• • Justice Department Makes It Easier
  to Bypass Pollution Controls on Pickups

  It Has Stopped Criminal Prosecutions of People Who Install “Defeat Devices,” Which Make Diesel Trucks Faster and More Efficient But Also Dirtier

  

  June 22, 2026 -It was one of the easiest ways to make a diesel truck faster, more powerful and more reliable: Pay a local shop to quietly gut the emissions controls with an illegal “defeat device.”

  Now the federal government has largely stopped prosecuting the people who sell and install them.

• • Tesla Faces Federal Probe After Model 3 Slams Into Texas Home

  It killed a 76-Year-Old
  
  {CNBC}

  June 22, 2026 -The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said on Monday that it has opened a special crash investigation into a Tesla incident where a Model 3 slammed into a home in Katy, Texas, killing 76-year-old Martha Avila.

  Harris County authorities said that the driver, Michael Butler, was cooperating with their investigation on the scene and said that he had been using Tesla’s partially automated driving systems when his vehicle barreled out of its lane and into the home in the Houston suburb.

• • Greenpeace’s Dutch Anti-SLAPP Case
  Against Oil Pipeline Giant Advances

  But a $345 million U.S. Verdict Against the Environmental Group Hangs Over the Case

  

  June 21, 2026 -A lawsuit filed by Greenpeace International against the U.S.-based fossil fuel company Energy Transfer in the Netherlands is moving forward after a Dutch court recently ruled in favor of the environmental organization in rejecting the company’s bid to toss out the case.

  The suit is connected to the ongoing litigation in the U.S. between Energy Transfer and Greenpeace International entities over the 2016-2017 indigenous-led protests of the Dakota Access Pipeline, which resulted in a staggering jury verdict delivered against Greenpeace in North Dakota last year.

• • Global Framework For Reparatory Justice
  Adopted at Landmark Ghana Conference

  More Than Money: the Logic of Slavery Reparations

  

  June 19, 2026 - A global framework for reparatory justice has been adopted at a conference in Ghana, as African and Caribbean leaders demanded formal apologies from countries that benefited from the transatlantic slave trade.

  Heads of state and government and other officials formally approved the strategy on Friday at a gathering in a hotel in the capital, Accra, which was the first major meeting since the adoption of the landmark United Nations (UN) resolution declaring the trafficking of enslaved Africans as the gravest crime against humanity.

• • How Shining a Light on Ships Could Help Solve Illegal Fishing

  Sixteen Countries Have Adopted the Mombasa Declaration to Combat Illegal, Unregulated and Unreported Fishing

  

  June 18, 2026 -Mamadou Sarr remembers when an artisanal fisherman in Dakar only had to helm his wooden pirogue a single kilometer offshore to find a rich bounty of sardines and cuttlefish. For generations, Senegal’s near shore was the staging ground for a noble trade passed down from father to son.

  Today, as a result of industrial overfishing by foreign fleets and the effects of climate change, local fishermen must brave an often dangerous journey almost 100 kilometers into the Atlantic to find the same seafood their communities have depended on for generations.

• • Trump DOJ Wants to Sideline Citizens In Pollution Fights

  In a Court Filing Backing Elon Musk’s AI Company, the Trump administration Said the Federal Government Can Stop Americans From Suing Over Air Pollution
  
  {E&E NEWS}

  June 17, 2026 -The Trump administration is making the case that the federal government can quash citizen Clean Air Act lawsuits against polluters, a move environmental lawyers warn would rewrite decades of enforcement law.

  If successful, the argument, made by the Department of Justice< in a court filing supporting Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company, would dramatically undermine the power of U.S. residents to fight pollution at tens of thousands of industrial sites across the country.

  “It would be a pretty sweeping change in the way enforcement works for the federal pollution control statutes,” said Tom Mariani, former chief of environmental enforcement at DOJ.

• • Elon Musk’s A.I. Company Faces
  Lawsuit Over Gas-Burning Turbines

  The Company, xAI, Has Installed Several Dozen Turbines In Memphis Without Proper Permits, Polluting a Nearby Community

  

  June 17, 2026 -Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company xAI, which runs the Grok chatbot, is facing a legal challenge led by the NAACP over air pollution from its supercomputer facility in Memphis.

  xAI’s South Memphis data center, near predominantly Black neighborhoods, has been operating natural-gas-burning turbines without the proper permits, the NAACP alleged in a notice of an intent to sue filed on Tuesday. Those turbines were sending noxious emissions toward local homes, said Derrick Johnson, president of the NAACP.

• • Science ‘Under Attack’ From Fossil Fuel Interests at UN Climate Talks

  A Coalition of Some Rich Nations and the World’s Most Vulnerable Have Vowed to Protect Climate Science in UN Negotiations
  
  {CLIMATE HOME NEWS}

  June 17, 2026 -Dozens of countries have called out growing “coordinated attacks” by fossil fuel interests aimed at undermining the role of climate science in the UN negotiations at the mid-year talks in Bonn.

  Under the banner of ‘Friends of Science’, in an overflowing press conference room lined with negotiators and civil society supporters, diplomats from Fiji, Nepal, the European Union, Switzerland, Sierra Leone and Panama vowed to ensure that decision-making in the UN climate process remains based on the “best available science”. That includes reports from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the UN's climate science body, they said.

• • DOJ Aims to Block Suit Over Musk Data
  Center Pollution, Citing National Security

  The Justice Department’s Move To Stop Litigation in Mississippi Comes After It Defended Elon Musk’s Firm in a Different Lawsuit.

  

  June 16, 2026 -The Justice Department is seeking to quash a lawsuit against a power plant operating without permits that is run by Elon Musk’s AI company, arguing that its gas-powered turbines are vital to national security interests, including the war in Iran.

  The NAACP and several environmental groups have sued Musk’s xAI, saying the power plant’s turbines violate the Clean Air Act, a statute long used by environmental groups.

• • Bonn Bulletin: Adaptation Fund Stalemate Puts People At Risk

  To Receive Money From the Paris Agreement Carbon Market, the Adaptation Fund Must Change Its Status But That’s Blocked By Divisions On Who’s Responsible For Climate Finance
  
  {CLIMATE HOME NEWS}

  June 16, 2026 -Dark clouds are gathering over adaptation finance. The US has all but stopped providing it and European countries are slashing their aid budgets to spend more on their militaries. Much of what is flowing comes in the form of loans and doesn’t reach the most vulnerable, as we’ve reported.

  Over the years, one bright spark has been the Adaptation Fund and its grants to developing countries for pioneering work in communities. It has allocated $1.6 billion to 226 projects, benefiting 90 million people, its website says. And, while rich nations are failing to give the fund all the money it needs to finance its growing pipeline, new revenues are supposed to come in from the Paris Agreement’s new carbon market, known as Article 6.4.

• • UN’s First Paris Agreement Carbon Credits
  Face Human Rights and Climate Concerns

  Civil Society Groups Allege the Cookstove Project in Myanmar Exaggerated Its Climate Impact While Maintaining Ties With Military Junta
  
  {CLIMATE HOME NEWS}

  June 15, 2026 -Civil society groups have called for an investigation into the first carbon credits approved under a new UN mechanism, alleging that the project is linked to Myanmar’s military junta - which the UN says is guilty of human rights abuses - and has “massively” overstated its climate impact.

  The programme, which aims to cut emissions by distributing efficient cookstoves across Myanmar, received approval to issue around 650,000 carbon credits from the Article 6.4 Supervisory Body in February, in a landmark moment for the Paris Agreement's carbon market. Only two projects have been given the green light by the mechanism's regulator so far.

• • Tensions Are Rising Among States That Rely on the Colorado River

  A Prolonged Drought Means the Nation’s Largest Reservoirs Are Dwindling, and Litigation Over Access to Water Could Lie Ahead

  

  June 15, 2026 -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 administration, which twice gathered governors in hopes of a breakthrough that never came. States are already sniping at aspects of a water-use plan the federal Bureau of Reclamation is set to unveil this summer and impose later this year, and they’re threatening to sue each other over water deliveries, raising the prospects of prolonged legal battles just as Western states face demands to sharply reduce water use.

• • $82M in Biden-Era DOE Clean Energy Grants Are Back In Action

  Plus, a Win For Wind
  
  {energy central}

  June 14, 2026 -These reinstated funds are headed for clean energy projects in NY, OR, CT, MN and CO. The Trump administration canceled them last October (along with over 300 other grants in Democrat-run states), but a federal judge has vacated the cancellations.

  Déjà vu: This is the second time a court has sided with companies seeking to revive recently axed DOE grants. In January, the agency was ordered to reinstate $28M in awards.

• • Trump’s EPA Unlawfully Cancelled
  Environmental Justice Grants, Judge Rules

  The Decision Voided the EPA Guidance to Terminate the $2.8 Billion Grant Program. But...

  

  June 12, 2026 -A federal judge in South Carolina ruled this week that the Trump administration’s termination of environmental justice grants was “illegal.” The decision dealt a setback to efforts to dismantle a Biden-era program that funded projects addressing environmental and public health challenges in underserved communities across the country.

  In the ruling, U.S. District Judge Richard Gergel found that the Environmental Protection Agency’s decision to eliminate the $2.8 billion Environmental and Climate Justice Block Grant Program was unlawful and voided the action.

• • Colorado River States Inch Closer to
  Court Battle As Water Experts Testify In D.C.

  Federal Water Officials Are Targeting a Mid-Summer Deadline For a New Water-Sharing Plan
  
  {KJZZ}

  June 11, 2026 -Colorado River experts were in the nation’s capital on Wednesday to testify in front of the Senate Energy & Natural Resources committee. Water officials told senators, including Arizona’s Ruben Gallego, about the dire state of the water supply as the likelihood of a messy court battle over its future grows stronger.

  Water levels in major reservoirs are dropping due to drought and climate change, and state negotiators have spent more than a year in negotiations with no agreement about how to cut back on demand.

• • The Pacific Made History in the Courts –
  Now We Must Do It in the Negotiations

  Legal Clarity Alone Will Not Lead to Reduced Emissions, More Finance Or Stronger National Climate Plans – Political Will Is Key to Meeting States’ Obligations
  
  {CLIMATE HOME NEWS}

  June 11, 2026 -When the International Court of Justice (ICJ) delivered its advisory opinion on climate change last year, it marked a turning point not just for the Pacific, but for international climate law.

  The court was unambiguous: states have legal obligations to protect the environment from greenhouse gas emissions, and they face accountability when they fail. For those of us who carried this campaign from a classroom in Vanuatu to Europe and New York, it was a moment of profound validation.

• • Inside the Campaign to Discredit a Key Climate Science Report

  An Emerging Field of Research That Can Measure How Much Climate Change Has Worsened Individual Disasters is Under Attack By Friends of the Fossil Fuel Industry
  
  {PROPUBLICA}

  June 8, 2026 -June 11, 2026 -Oil industry allies are quietly targeting a field of climate research that could cost fossil fuel companies billions of dollars.

  In the crosshairs is a forthcoming report from the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine that will examine research into the ways corporate climate pollution is intensifying natural disasters.

  The conservative offensive could weaken the report’s perceived credibility at a time when it threatens to raise the legal jeopardy facing Exxon Mobil and other energy giants that are accused of contributing to fatal catastrophes in dozens of lawsuits, according to lawyers and scientists tracking the cases

• • Super-Rich’s Assets Cause Outsized
  Amount of Climate Harm, Study Says

  Greenpeace Calculates That Wealthiest Contribute Nearly $1tn of Damage a year With Ownership-Based Emissions

  

  June 10, 2026 -Ultra-wealthy people zooming across the world on their private jets, lounging on yachts and conspicuous by their Instagrammable consumption are among the most easily identified individual culprits when it comes to the climate crisis – but new research argues that it is not just their heady lifestyles to blame, but also their bank accounts.

  Through their ownership of companies and private financial and physical assets, from oil producers to property developments, the super-rich are responsible for an outsized slice of the greenhouse gases that are overheating the planet. The top 1% of people by wealth, through their shareholdings and investments, control about a quarter of global annual emissions in total.

• • North Carolina Sues Chemical Company
  for Polluting a Nearby Creek

  Since 2023, the City of Durham Has Fined Brenntag $157,000 For Violations Related to Water Contamination

  

  June 10, 2026 -Acetone and ethanol, 1,4-dioxane and “mucilaginous goo.”

  For decades, state regulatory documents show, a chemical repackaging and distribution company in Durham has discharged high levels of toxic chemicals, as well as other unknown substances, into a neighborhood creek that flows behind an elementary school, through a public park in a predominantly Black neighborhood, and into a major drinking water supply.

  Now, the North Carolina attorney general is suing Brenntag Mid-South on behalf of state regulators over the alleged illegal releases, according to a complaint filed Monday in Durham Superior Court.

• • North Carolina Sues Chemical Company
  For Polluting a Nearby Creek

  Since 2023, the City of Durham Has Fined Brenntag $157,000 For Violations Related to Water Contamination

  

  June 10, 2026 -For decades, state regulatory documents show, a chemical repackaging and distribution company in Durham has discharged high levels of toxic chemicals, as well as other unknown substances, into a neighborhood creek that flows behind an elementary school, through a public park in a predominantly Black neighborhood, and into a major drinking water supply.

  Now, the North Carolina attorney general is suing Brenntag Mid-South on behalf of state regulators over the alleged illegal releases, according to a complaint filed Monday in Durham Superior Court.

• • Troubled by Spreading Landfill Pollution,
  a Long Island Community Demands Action

  For Decades, a Landfill Has Towered Over the Town of Brookhaven. A Groundwater Contamination Plume Has Spread Beneath Nearby Properties

  

  June 8, 2026 -The crowd grew restless at Brookhaven Town Hall on Long Island as residents voiced their concerns about groundwater contamination from a nearby landfill that has spread beneath parts of their community.

  At the meeting in late March, speakers criticizing the landfill’s operations were met with applause and shouts of support from the audience.

• • Trump Administration Killed Criminal
  Investigation of GOP Senator’s Coal Companies

  EPA and Justice Department Officials Were Looking Into Potential Criminal Violations By the Vast Coal Empire Owned By Sen. Jim Justice.
  
  {PROPUBLICA}

  June 8, 2026 -Trump administration officials earlier this year killed a federal criminal investigation into the coal empire owned by Sen. Jim Justice, a Republican from West Virginia and a close ally of the president’s.

  The investigation examined potential criminal violations of the Clean Water Act by the multistate mining operations largely run by Justice’s son, Jay, according to current and former officials familiar with the matter.

• • Unusual Greenpeace Lawsuit May Proceed, Dutch Court Says

  Greenpeace International is Arguing Under Dutch Law That an American Pipeline Company, Energy Transfer, Sought to Silence It With a Costly Lawsuit In North Dakota

  

  June 3, 2026 -A Dutch court ruled on Wednesday that Greenpeace International could proceed with its unusual countersuit against the pipeline company Energy Transfer in the Netherlands.

  The environmental group is suing under Dutch law, accusing the American company of using a yearslong legal battle in North Dakota as a bullying tactic.

• • Louisiana Seeks to Shield Oil Industry From Climate Lawsuits

  Four Other States Have Passed Similar Legislation This Year
  
  {E&E NEWS}

  June 3, 2026 -Legislation that would make Louisiana the fifth state this year to buffer oil and gas companies from climate lawsuits is awaiting the governor’s signature.

  The bill has cleared both of the state’s legislative chambers and would prohibit litigation seeking compensation for the effects from greenhouse gas emissions in the state.

  Existing lawsuits would not be affected, including a host of legal disputes that asks courts to hold companies financially accountable for Louisiana’s rapidly eroding coastline. A state Senate committee revised the legislation last month to exclude those lawsuits, angering critics of the challenges filed by coastal parish governments.

• • A Judge Said the Trump Administration
  Can’t Dismantle a Weather Research Center

  The Damage May Already Be Done
  
  {POLITICO}

  June 3, 2026 -The Trump administration cannot dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research, a federal judge ruled this week. But the damage may already be done.

  Staff are fleeing, equipment has been offered for sale and multiple critical projects are paused, possibly never to be started again.

• • Paxton Sues Texas Rooftop Solar Company Over ‘Deceptive Acts’

  The Lone Star State’s Attorney General Alleged in a court Filing That CAM Solar Misled Its Customers
  
  {EE NEWS}

  May 22, 2026 -Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announced Thursday that his office sued San Antonio-based CAM Solar for deceptive practices amid a statewide investigation into alleged fraud in the rooftop solar industry.

  The state argued in its lawsuit this week that CAM Solar installed defective solar systems, misrepresented energy bill savings, failed to respond to service requests and didn’t disclose maintenance fees. The suit was filed in the District Court of Bexar County, Texas.

  “Far too many Texans have been misled into purchasing expensive and complex solar systems under the guise of ‘green energy,’” Paxton said in a statement. “That ends now. I will aggressively pursue any bad actor in the solar panel industry that attempts to cheat Texans.”

• • UN General Assembly Backs Historic World Court Climate Ruling

  The International Court of Justice Ruled Last Year That Government Actions Driving Climate Change Are Illegal and...
  
  {EARTH.ORG}

  May 21, 2026 -The United Nations General Assembly on Thursday adopted a long-sought resolution validating a landmark 2025 ruling by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the obligations of states in respect of climate change.

  The resolution, drawn up by the Pacific island nation of Vanuatu and several other countries, was adopted with 141 votes in favour, eight against and 28 abstentions. The United States was among the countries voting against it, alongside petrostates Saudi Arabia, Russia and Iran as well as Yemen, Israel, Belarus, and Liberia.

• • UN Backs Historic Climate Crisis Ruling,
  Despite US Attempts to Stop Resolution

  The US, Russia, Iran and Saudi Arabia – Some of the Highest Oil-Producing Nations and Major Greenhouse Gas Emitters – Opposed the Measure

  

  May 20, 2026 -The UN has voted 141-8 to adopt a resolution backing a world court opinion that countries have a legal obligation to address climate change, with the US – which is the world’s biggest historical emitter – among the small group opposing it.

  The UN secretary general, António Guterres, said Wednesday’s general assembly vote, in which 28 countries abstained, underscored that governments are responsible for protecting citizens from the “escalating climate crisis”.

• • A U.S. Reckoning Over Chemical Pollution From Military Bases

  New Mexico is Suing the Federal Government Over PFAS Contamination From Cannon Air Force Base

  

  May 20, 2026 -Two men walked through livestock pens with .22-caliber rifles, killing Art Schaap’s cows. One man would raise his rifle, its barrel inches from a cow’s forehead. A shot would ring out, the cow would fall and the men would move on to the next cow.

  There were 3,665 cows at the Highland Dairy in Clovis, N.M., a city in the flatlands near the Texas border. After six hours of gunfire, there were none.

• • DOJ Says It Might Help Musk In Lawsuit Over AI Pollution

  The Trump Administration Told a Federal Court That It's Considering Intervening in a Case By the NAACP and Southern Environmental Law Center Against the Billionaire's Company xAI
  
  {CLIMATEWIRE}

  May 18, 2026 - The federal government is considering whether to intervene in a lawsuit against Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company.

  The NAACP and Southern Environmental Law Center have accused the company, xAI, of operating 27 natural gas turbines without pollution controls or Clean Air Act permits to power the Southaven, Mississippi, data center known as Colossus 2. The groups sued xAI in April and last week asked for a preliminary injunction to stop pollution from the tractor-trailer-sized generators.

• • DOE Exceeded Its Authority With Coal
  Retirement Delay, States Tell Appeals Court

  The DOE’s Coal Retirement Freeze Just Got Its Day in Court
  
  {energy central0}

  May 18, 2026 - The agency has faced several legal challenges over its orders to keep aging fossil fuel plants online—now, one has made it to the oral argument stage for the first time.

  What happened: Lawyers representing states and public interest groups told the D.C. Circuit that the DOE overstepped when ordering a Michigan Consumers Energy coal plant to keep running past its planned May ‘25 retirement. The DOE’s response? MISO is facing a grid emergency.

• • Top Climate Research Center At Risk
  of Cuts Sues Trump Administration

  Universities That Run the National Center for Atmospheric Research Want to Keep it From Being Dismantled

  

  May 9, 2026 -In one of the highest-profile battles yet between the US research community and the administration of President Donald Trump, lawyers faced off in a Colorado courthouse yesterday over the future of a research centre that has been called the global ‘mothership’ of climate science.”

  Under Trump, the US government has said that it will take steps to dismantle the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) in Boulder, Colorado, alleging that it promotes climate alarmism. The organization that manages NCAR — a coalition of around 130 universities called the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research (UCAR) — sued the government in March to stop NCAR’s break-up.

• • Inside the Indigenous Fight to Save Alaska’s Bristol Bay

  Commercial Fishermen and the Conservation Community Came Together to Stop a Gold and Copper Mine

  

  May 9, 2026 -In 2001, a Canadian mining company proposed a massive gold and copper mine at the headwaters of Bristol Bay, a pristine water system on the coast of the Alaska Peninsula that’s home to the largest sockeye salmon run in the world. The salmon support a thriving ecosystem and are a cultural and economic lifeblood for native Alaskans, who have stewarded the land and water for thousands of years.

  As the company moved ahead with plans to build the largest open-pit mine in North America, those Indigenous communities joined together to bring it to a halt. In 2023, they secured a rare “EPA veto” of the proposed Pebble Mine, and the 2026 Goldman Environmental Prize for North America recognizes an Indigenous leader in this fight.

• • Greenpeace Suffers Another Blow
  in Court Fight With Pipeline Giant

  In an Unusual Move, a North Dakota Court Said Greenpeace International Shouldn’t Be Allowed to Pursue a Lawsuit in Europe

  

  May 8, 2026 -Greenpeace International, the global coordinating body of the environmental organization, suffered an unusual setback on Thursday when the North Dakota Supreme Court said the organization should not be allowed to pursue a lawsuit in the Netherlands, where it is based.

  It is rare for a court in one country to try to block a lawsuit in another country.

• • The Trump Admin is Trying to Stop State Climate Lawsuits

  It Isn’t working
  
  {E&E NEWS}

  May 7, 2026 -In a world that sometimes feels consumed by bad news, here’s a story that will restore your faith in humanity: Everyday people are quietly protecting an absolutely stunning 85 million acres of private land for conservation across the United States and Australia. This incredible movement is being driven not by governments or corporations, but by generous, forward-thinking citizens who care deeply about preserving nature for future generations.

  Australia has emerged as a shining example, now boasting one of the world’s largest networks of privately-conserved land. The country has amassed an incredible 24 million acres of protected habitat, and the numbers keep growing.

• • Is It Time to Tax the Oil and Gas Industry’s Windfall?

  The War in Iran Has Meant Big Profits For Fossil Fuel Companies, Prompting Some Lawmakers to Call For a Tax, But...

  

  May 5, 2026 -As U.S. gas prices soar to their highest levels in four years, it’s becoming clear that the war in Iran has been very profitable for oil and gas companies. BP boasted about “exceptional” performance in the first quarter of this year, and TotalEnergies, which is based in France, announced $5.4 billion in net profits, Patricia Cohen reported last week.

  Now, the finance ministers of a handful of European countries, including Germany and Italy, along with a few Democrats in the Senate, are calling for windfall taxes on the war-related gains of oil and gas companies. These excess profits are the result of the war in Iran, the argument goes, as opposed to savvy business decisions, and should be taxed more. Governments could then use the proceeds to send money back to consumers saddled with high energy bills or invest in renewable energy sources.

• • California Energy Commission Issues Subpoena to
  Golden State Wind As Federal Protections Stall

  The California Energy Commission Has Issued an Administrative Investigative Subpoena to Golden State Wind Regarding Its Deal With the Trump Administration to Abandon an Offshore Wind Project
  
  {California ENERGY COMMISSION}

  May 4, 2026 -Today, the California Energy Commission announced that it has issued an administrative investigative subpoena to Golden State Wind LLC seeking documents and information related to the company’s recent agreement with the U.S. Department of the Interior to accept a payout in exchange for voluntarily abandoning its offshore wind lease.

  “The Trump Administration is recklessly spending billions of taxpayer dollars on backroom deals that would turn back the clock on innovation” said CEC Chair David Hochschild. “Californians deserve immediate answers about the nature of this payout. Taxpayer dollars should be used to build a sustainable energy future, not to pay to make projects disappear.”

• • What the US Could Learn About Mining
  On Indigenous Peoples’ Ancestral Lands

  Tribes Navigating the U.S. Lithium Boom Have Little Power to Influence Decisions On Homelands Seized From Them

  

  May 3, 2026 -In the U.S., many Native American tribes maintain deep cultural and historical ties to ancestral lands outside of reservation boundaries. A 19th-century mining law still governs much of today’s lithium boom—and it doesn’t require the federal government to consult tribes before mining projects advance on these ancestral lands.

  While some federal policies attempt to fill that gap, tribal consultation often remains discretionary and occurs too late—leaving tribes with little power to influence project outcomes.

• • How the Rush to Mine the Metal of the
  Future Echoes America’s Colonial Past

  Tribes Are Among the Most Affected

  
  

  May 3, 2026 -Trina Lone Hill wasn’t surprised that mining companies had found lithium in South Dakota’s Black Hills. Gold and uranium had drawn drillers to the Lakota Sioux tribe’s hallowed ground in these western highlands years ago. Now, with this new mineral powering the global green-energy transition, the tribe’s historic preservation officer had one thought: “Here we go again.”

  About 1,000 miles away in southwest Nevada, Joe Kennedy, of the Timbisha Shoshone tribe, watched a sacred stream fade after a lithium-mining company began drilling in search of the mineral—all while his tribe fought to prevent a second company from boring into the aquifer beneath its reservation.

• • Nations Preserve a Plan to Adopt
  a Global Fee On Shipping Emissions

  But Keep Their Options Open

  
  

  May 1, 2026 -The world’s maritime nations preserved a plan to adopt the first global carbon fee on shipping, as they agreed to keep working on it in the fall and adjourned their meeting Friday.

  However, they also agreed to continue discussing alternative proposals and entertain new ones, which could change the plan substantially.

  Nations met this week at the International Maritime Organization headquarters in London in preparation for potentially voting in the late fall on new, global regulations to clean up shipping, or the “Net-zero Framework.” Instead of finishing the discussions, the delegates scheduled more meetings for the fall to keep working ahead of a vote, keeping the framework as a foundation for their negotiations.