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GOVERNMENTAL DIRECTORY

• Note Worthy

Page Updated:
June 25, 2026

• • Internal Memo Orders Staff Not to Reveal Deaths in National Parks

  The Interior Department’s Guidance Instructs Parks Staff Not to Confirm Deaths, the Severity of Injuries Or Other Details

  

  June 24, 2026 -On Friday, a 17-year-old girl drowned in Sequoia National Park after slipping into a river. On Saturday, a 23-year-old man died after falling over a waterfall in Yosemite. The same weekend, a body was found in the desert at Organ Pipe Cactus National Monument, while a motorcycle accident killed one person in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

  But recent internal guidance prohibits park staff or other Interior Department employees from directly notifying the public about the deaths. The department, which oversees the National Park Service, had not issued any statements on this weekend’s deaths on the department website or social media as of Wednesday afternoon.

• • DEA Reportedly Let Fentanyl Flood Border States

  ‘We 100% Got People Killed’
  
  {DAILY CALLER}

  June 22, 2026 -The U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) intentionally allowed hundreds of thousands or even millions of fentanyl pills to cross the New Mexico border from 2023-2025, according to the Associated Press.

  In a response to the Daily Caller, the DEA rejected the characterization that they had knowingly permitted fentanyl to reach communities.

• • U.S. Chemical Safety Board Faces
  Steep Cuts During Longview Probe

  The May 26 Implosion Caused a Spill of a Highly Caustic Chemical, Killing 11 Workers at the Pulp and Paper Mill

  

  June 2, 2026 -As federal investigators descend on Longview to make sense of the catastrophic implosion at a pulp and paper mill, Congress is weighing a proposal to cut the investigating agency’s budget by more than 40%.

  The May 26 disaster at Nippon Dynawave Packaging killed 11, tainted the Columbia River and rocked the tight-knit, industrial Southwest Washington community. Gov. Bob Ferguson called it the deadliest industrial incident in modern state history. Within a day, the U.S. Chemical Safety and Hazard Investigation Board launched an inquiry to determine what went wrong and whether similar tragedies could be prevented elsewhere.

• • Hurricane Season is Here, and FEMA is Shorthanded

  The Agency’s Workforce Has Shrunk By Almost 20 Percent Under President Trump
  
  {POLITICO}

  May 31, 2026 -The Trump administration is approaching hurricane season with the smallest disaster workforce since 2021, a huge backlog of state aid requests and 15 vacancies in top emergency management jobs.

  President Donald Trump’s cuts to agencies that help with everything from clearing roads to finding emergency lodging are raising fears that a catastrophic hurricane could overwhelm the government’s ability to help desperate people and demolished communities.

• • Brain Drain at DOJ Strains Defense of Trump EPA Regs

  “Understanding What EPA has Done Over the Decades, and Why, Can Be Very Important In Defending EPA,”
  
  {E&E NEWS}

  May 14, 2026 -The Department of Justice’s historic loss of experienced environmental lawyers since President Donald Trump’s return to office could hamper its defense of EPA’s deregulatory agenda.

  Since the start of the second Trump term, DOJ’s Environment and Natural Resources Division has shed environmental lawyers, with some in areas like enforcement or environmental justice being reassigned or forced out. While Trump political officials haven’t targeted the division’s regulatory defense team, about half of the roughly 60 lawyers who worked in the Environmental Defense Section at the end of the Biden administration have left.

• • Battery Company Files For Bankruptcy After DOE Axes Project

  The Massachusetts-Based Firm was In Line for More than $300 Million in Federal Funding
  
  {GREENWIRE}

  April 10, 2026 -A battery company that was hit with a $316 million award cancellation from the Department of Energy last year said late Thursday it was filing for bankruptcy.

  Ascend Elements, which has been planning a $1 billion Kentucky plant to recycle electric vehicle batteries, is the latest casualty of a pullback in federal funding for renewable energy and other projects to build a climate-friendly grid.

• • While Floating Energy Budget Cuts, Washington
  is Writing Huge Checks For Longshot Tech

  Is Solar Manufacturing Investment Bouncing Back From the Supply Glut
  
  {energy central}

  April 8, 2026 -ARPA-E is set to pour $135M into fusion over the next 18 months, while DARPA just handed Avalanche Energy $5.2M to develop radiovoltaics that could turn fusion’s alpha radiation into usable electricity.

  DOE is also rolling out up to $69M for critical minerals processing, including lithium extraction from geothermal brines and clays.

• • Forest Service Will Close Research Stations That Study Wildfire Risk

  Scientists Say Their Work On Fires and Climate Change Could Be Lost as the Agency Moves Its Headquarters to Utah From Washington and Shuts 57 Research Stations

  
  

  April 3, 2026 -The U.S. Forest Service is closing 57 of its 77 research facilities in 31 states under a reorganization plan announced this week, threatening science that looked at how wildfires, drought, pests and global warming are putting pressure on forests.

  The agency plans to consolidate its research division into a centralized office in Fort Collins, Colo., and move field researchers to locations in nearby states. But employees said they feared the move would lead many scientists to leave instead. The reorganization will also move the agency’s headquarters to Salt Lake City from Washington, affecting 260 employees.

• • RFK, Jr., and EPA Announce Plan to Track
  Microplastics in Tap Water and Humans

  But Experts Say Doing So Will Be Difficult

  
  

  April 2, 2026 -The Trump administration is going after microplastics in drinking water. A new plan to study and regulate plastic pollution was announced on Thursday by Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., and Environmental Protection Agency head Lee Zeldin. The policy is aimed at addressing the growing concern over microplastics in tap water and their effect on health more generally.

  “Today we mark a turning point. The EPA and [the Department of Health and Human Services] are acting together to confront microplastics as a human health threat, and we are doing it with urgency and discipline,” Kennedy said at a press conference to announce the plan.

• • E.P.A. Moves to Weaken Limits on a Cancer-Causing Gas

  The gas, Ethylene Oxide, Plays a Crucial Role in Sterilizing Medical Devices. But...

  
  

  Mar. 13, 2026 -The Environmental Protection Agency on Friday proposed to weaken limits on emissions of ethylene oxide, a cancer-causing gas, from manufacturing facilities that use it to sterilize medical devices.

  The move revived a long-running debate about the paradoxical effects of ethylene oxide on public health. While it plays a crucial role in sterilizing lifesaving medical devices like pacemakers and syringes, long-term exposure can cause leukemia and other types of cancer among people who work in or live near medical sterilization facilities.

• • US Department of Energy to Invest
  $1.9 billion for Power Grid Upgrades

  The DOE is Offering Up ~$1.9 Billion to Speed Up Much-Needed Grid Upgrades
  
  {energy central}
  
  

  Mar. 12, 2026 - The agency says the freshly freed-up cash aligns with an executive order issued last January, which prioritizes domestic energy development and reduced costs for consumers.

  DOE will hand out these funds to Advanced Transmission Technology projects, including high-capacity conductors, that prove they can make the grid more efficient, resilient, and secure. The agency will take applications until late May 2026, and expects to make selections by August.

• • Interior Claws Back NEPA Regs

  Critics Say the Move is Illegal
  
  {E&E NEWS}
  
  

  Feb. 23, 2026 -The Interior Department on Monday unveiled a final rule that pulls back more than 80 percent of the agency’s regulations tied to implementing the National Environmental Policy Act, the nation’s bedrock environmental law.

  Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said NEPA for decades “has been twisted into a weapon” to block energy, infrastructure and conservation projects.

  “Under the leadership of President Trump, this administration is fixing that,” Burgum said in a statement. “We are cutting unnecessary bureaucracy, speeding up approvals, and putting Americans back to work, while enforcing NEPA as Congress originally intended.”

• • Anxious Greens Await Death of Endangerment Finding

  Environmental Groups Are Planning Protests to Oppose EPA’s Upcoming Move to Repeal the Scientific Finding
  
  {E&E NEWS}
  
  

  Jan 23, 2026 -Environmentalists are bracing for the imminent release of an EPA rule that would gut the agency’s ability to regulate climate pollution.

  EPA is poised to finalize its rollback of the endangerment finding — a scientific assertion that undergirds its authority over greenhouse gases — within weeks, or sooner. The move promises to help the Trump administration demolish existing climate rules that force industries to reduce global warming pollution from sources like cars and power plants.

  But when and how it will be released are such tightly held secrets that environmental groups have been scouring the travel itinerary of EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin for signs of a high-profile announcement.

• • Energy Dept. Is Canceling $30 Billion in Clean Energy Loans

  The Announcement Underscored the Drastic Change In the Energy Landscape Under President Trump.

  
  

  Jan. 22, 2026 - The Energy Department said on Thursday that it was in the process of revising or canceling more than $83 billion in loans for clean energy technologies that had been approved under the Biden administration.

  The announcement came from the agency’s loan programs office, which played a central role in the Biden administration’s efforts to develop new technologies to fight climate change. Under President Biden, that office finalized or issued conditional commitments for roughly $104 billion in lending for battery factories, transmission lines, hydrogen plants and many other projects.

• • Will Trump’s Push to Drill on California Public
  Lands be More Successful This Time Around?

  The BLM has Revived Its Effort to Open More of California’s Public Lands to Oil Extraction

  
  

  Jan. 16, 2026 -While President Donald Trump pursues Venezuelan oil reserves abroad, his administration continues to double down on efforts to expand drilling in the United States, most recently in California.

  The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) on Monday proposed plans to open nearly 2 million acres of land from Santa Barbara to the Bay Area for oil drilling and fracking, including land adjacent to national and state parks, along coastlines and waterways, and areas near schools and homes.

• • 3 Things to Watch in EPA’s Endangerment Repeal

  Legal Experts Say Its Success Could Hinge On These Details
  
  {E&E News}
  
  

  Jan. 16, 2026 -EPA is on the verge of finalizing its sweeping rollback of the endangerment finding — the scientific cornerstone that allows it to regulate climate pollution — in a move that would help President Donald Trump topple multiple rules aimed at forcing American industries to reduce their carbon emissions.

  It stands to be a game changer for a president who has rejected the basic tenets of climate science as he works to accelerate the production of fossil fuels, the main source of pollution that has led global temperatures to reach levels never seen before by modern humans. Repealing the 2009 finding would eliminate the regulatory authority that EPA relied on to enact climate rules on sources such as power plants and vehicles, easing Trump’s ability to revoke them — and making it harder for future presidents to replace them.

• • E.P.A. Moves to Limit States’ Ability to Block Pipelines

  The EPA Will Limit States’ Ability to Block the Buildout of Oil Pipelines, Coal Export Terminals, and Other Potentially Polluting Energy Projects
  
  {energy central}
  
  

  Jan. 14, 2026 -The EPA aims to narrow Section 401 of the Clean Water Act, which allows states and tribes to review federal permits for energy projects that could impact nearby waterways.

  The rationale: Citing the urgent need to power data centers, officials aim to stop governors from using the law as a means to restrict fossil fuel infrastructure.

• • Trump’s DOJ Turns Its Attention to Local Gas Bans

  It Has Sued Two California Cities to Overturn Their Gas Bans, Arguing Local “Zero-Emission” Rules Violate Federal Law
  
  {energy central}
  
  

  Jan. 13, 2026 -Following an executive order to protect domestic energy resources, the DOJ is suing Morgan Hill and Petaluma, alleging their bans on gas hookups in new buildings violate the 1975 Energy Policy and Conservation Act (EPCA) by effectively regulating appliance standards—a power reserved for the feds.

  Yes, but: Legal experts argue this is a symbolic victory. California's state-level building codes have already "moved on," using strict efficiency standards and subsidy cuts to make gas construction economically unviable regardless of municipal bans.

• • US Wildland Fire Service Launched, Despite Lack of Funding

  And Without Majority of Nation’s Firefighting Resources
  
  {Wildfire Today}
  
  

  Jan. 12, 2026 -The United States Department of the Interior on Monday officially announced the launch of the “U.S. Wildland Fire Service,” an effort by the department to unify the wildfire-fighting resources of numerous agencies.

  Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum first announced the department’s intent to establish the new service in September as a continuation of President Donald Trump’s executive order in June, which directed all agencies represented by the National Interagency Fire Center to enhance their wildland firefighting capabilities. The new Service will consolidate all department sub-agencies’ wildland firefighting forces, including those in the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Indian Affairs, and U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.

• • NASA’s Largest Library Is Closing Amid Staff and Lab Cuts

  Holdings From the Library At the Goddard Space Flight Center, Which Includes Unique Documents From The Early 20Th Century to the Soviet Space Race, Will Be Warehoused Or Thrown Out
  
  
  

  Dec. 31, 2025 -The Trump administration is closing NASA’s largest research library on Friday, a facility that houses tens of thousands of books, documents and journals — many of them not digitized or available anywhere else.

  Jacob Richmond, a NASA spokesman, said the agency would review the library holdings over the next 60 days and some material would be stored in a government warehouse while the rest would be tossed away.

• • Scientists Denounce Trump’s Plan to
  Kill Crucial Atmospheric Science Center

  The U.S. Government Is Dismantling the National Center for Atmospheric Research, Jettisoning Key Climate Science Projects In the Process
  
  
  

  Dec. 17, 2025 -The Trump administration is dismantling the National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), long considered the crown jewel in the U.S.’s earth science infrastructure. Scientists who study climate, weather and other earth sciences have decried the move, first reported by USA Today, as “taking a sledgehammer” to an “iconic” center dedicated to studying our planet.

  “NCAR is quite literally our global mothership,” wrote Katharine Hayhoe, a climate scientist at Texas Tech University and chief scientist of the Nature Conservancy, on Bluesky. “Dismantling NCAR is like taking a sledgehammer to the keystone holding up our scientific understanding of the planet. Unbelievable.”

• • The EPA Is Wiping Mention of Human-
  Caused Climate Change From Its Website

  Some Pages Have Been Tweaked to Emphasize “Natural Forces”; Others Have Been Deleted Entirely
  
  
  

  Dec. 9, 2025 - The Environmental Protection Agency has removed references to human-caused climate change from its website — tweaking some pages to focus on the “natural processes” driving climate change and wiping other pages from the internet.

  In October, the EPA page on “Causes of Climate Change,” for example, included a statement from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change that noted, “It is unequivocal that human influence has warmed the atmosphere, ocean, and land.”

• • History of the Clean Water Act

  History of the Clean Water Act

  Sep. 12, 2019  (EPA)- The Federal Water Pollution Control Act of 1948 was the first major U.S. law to address water pollution. Growing public awareness and concern for controlling water pollution led to sweeping amendments in 1972. As amended in 1972, the law became commonly known as the Clean Water Act (CWA).

  The 1972 amendments:
  
  Established basic structure for regulating discharges into the waters of the U.S.
  Gave EPA the authority including setting wastewater standards for industry
  Maintained requirements for water quality standards
  Illegalized discharge any pollutant into navigable waters, unless a permit was obtained under its provisions
  Funded the construction of sewage treatment plants
  Recognized the need for planning to address the critical source pollution problems

• • Is Ethanol Really a Good Idea?

  Food Vs. Fuel: What
  Trump's Ethanol Policy
  Means For The Food System

  Forbes Magazine -The EPA moved forward with President Trump’s directive to lift a federal ban on high ethanol blended gas during the summer months, though not quickly enough for Senator Chuck Grassley of Iowa, who Reuters reports is urging the EPA to lift the ban on a much quicker timeline.

  Lifting the ban is a policy shift that’s being celebrated by large-scale corn growers and decried by biofuel opponents. But the policy has implications for the food system too, as many food system reformers say the last thing U.S. farmers should be growing is more corn.

• • EPA to Halt Fuel Economy Standards

  California Getting Ready
  to Fight Back

  Mar. 29, 2018 - The Trump administration is poised to abandon America's pioneering fuel economy targets for cars and SUVs, a move that would undermine one of the world's most aggressive programs to confront climate change and invite another major confrontation with California.

  The EPA is expected to announce in the coming days that it will scrap mileage targets the Obama administration drafted in tandem with California that aim to boost average fuel economy for passenger cars and SUVs to 55 miles per gallon by 2025, according to people familiar with the plans.

• • The E.P.A is a Sinking Ship

  E.P.A. Officials,
  Disheartened by Agency’s
  Direction, Are Leaving in Droves

  Dec. 22, 2018 - More than 700 people have left the Environmental Protection Agency since President Trump took office, a wave of departures that puts the administration nearly a quarter of the way toward its goal of shrinking the agency to levels last seen during the Reagan administration.

• • How Low Can the EPA Go?

  EPA Reverses Policy on
  'Major Sources' of Pollution

  Jan. 25, 2018 - WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said on Thursday it was withdrawing a provision of the Clean Air Act that requires a major source of pollution like a power plant to always be treated as a major source, even if it makes changes to reduce emissions.

  The decision to withdraw the "once-in always-in" policy is part of President Donald Trump's effort to roll back federal regulations and was sought by utilities, the petroleum industry and others. Never mind about the health of the American people.

• • Trump Imposed Tariffs on PV Imports

  30% Tariff Disappoints
  Trade Industry

  Jan. 22, 2018 - Trump has agreed to a recommendation by the International Trade Commission (ITC) to grant U.S. solar manufacturers relief from unfair trade practices in the form of tariffs on solar cells and modules imported to the U.S.

  This will hurt the solar industry which currently employs over 250,000 workers.

• • Fed. Compromise on Anti-PACE Law

  Industry, Lawmakers Compromise
  on Anti-Property Assessed
  Clean Energy Legislation

  Dec. 27, 2017 - A financing program that’s let more than 180,000 homeowners pay for solar panels and clean-energy appliances through their local tax bills is poised to survive an effort by Republicans to add regulations that would have effectively shut it down.

• • The National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA)

  Summary of the National
  Environmental Policy Act

  Originally Passed in 1968 (EPA) — NEPA was one of the first laws ever written that establishes the broad national framework for protecting our environment. NEPA's basic policy is to assure that all branches of government give proper consideration to the environment prior to undertaking any major federal action that significantly affects the environment.

  NEPA requirements are invoked when airports, buildings, military complexes, highways, parkland purchases, and other federal activities are proposed. Environmental Assessments (EAs) and Environmental Impact Statements (EISs), which are assessments of the likelihood of impacts from alternative courses of action, are required from all Federal agencies and are the most visible NEPA requirements.

  Click now for more,
  including a history of this act.

• • Shouldn’t We Abolish Fossil Fuel Subsidies?

  America Spends Over $20Bn Per
  Year On Fossil Fuel Subsidies.

  July 30, 2018 (The Guardian) -Imagine that instead of taxing cigarettes, America subsidized the tobacco industry in order to make each pack of smokes cheaper.

  A report from Oil Change International (OCI) investigated American energy industry subsidies and found that in 2015–2016, the federal government provided $14.7bn per year to the oil, gas, and coal industries, on top of $5.8bn of state-level incentives (globally, the figure is around $500bn). And the report only accounted for production subsidies, excluding consumption subsidies (support to consumers to lower the cost of fossil fuel use – another $14.5bn annually) as well as the costs of carbon and other fossil fuel pollutants.

• • The D.O.E. Solar Decathlon

  How To Shine In The Solar Village

  October 6, 2017 - At noon Eastern Standard Time today — the second day of competition for the U.S. Department of Energy’s Solar Decathlon in Denver — the Northwestern University team was sitting in first place, according to scores released on the competition website.

  The Solar Village, where all 13 teams’ houses are standing for the competition, is now open to the public.

  With scoring under way on three of the 10 competition categories — Heath & Comfort, Appliances, and Home Life — Northwestern was tied with Swiss Team and UC Berkeley/U of Denver on the three segments in Health & Comfort — temperature, humidity and indoor air quality.

• • Budget Slashed for Clean Energy

  Trump’s Budget Expected
  to Massively Slash Research
  On Renewable Energy
  — And ‘Clean Coal’

  May 18, 2017 -The Trump administration is expected to propose massive cuts to federal government research on wind and solar energy next week, according to current and former Energy Department officials familiar with budget discussions.

  The department’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy (EERE), which funds research on advanced vehicles as well as other aspects of clean energy, would face a roughly 70 percent cut in 2018, carving about $ 1.45 billion from its $2.09 billion 2017 budget.

• • The SunShot Initiative

  What is the SunShot Initiative?

  The U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Solar Energy Technologies Office focuses on achieving the goals of the SunShot Initiative, which seeks to make solar energy cost-competitive with other forms of electricity by the end of the decade.

• • The Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act

  Notes from the Solar Underground:
  US Solar’s Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act

  The global solar industry relies on mandate. Let's hope it doesn't go away.

• • Carbon Tax Center

  What is the Carbon Tax Center?

  Why revenue-neutral carbon taxes are essential,what’s happening now, and how you can help.

  In a carbon-constrained world, a permanent U.S. carbon tax is essential to reduce emissions that drive global warming.