The Guardian

• ‘A small but mighty program’: little-known US light pollution agency threatened by Trump funding cuts

  The Natural Sounds and Night Skies Division strives to provide ‘full sensory experience’ in country’s national parks

  The Trump administration appears poised to cut the US Natural Sounds and Night Skies Division (NSNSD), a little-known office that works to rein in noise and light pollution in national parks, a task that is seen as a vital environmental endeavor.

  Advocates say the division’s work is quiet but important – many plants and animals rely on the darkness, and light pollution is contributing to firefly and other insect die-offs. The office led efforts to reduce light pollution at the Grand Canyon and snowmobile noise that drowned out sounds emanating from the Old Faithful geyser, among other initiatives.

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• Trump to merge wildland firefighting forces, despite warning of chaos

  Order aims to centralize efforts, which are now split among five agencies and two cabinet departments

  Donald Trump has ordered the US government to consolidate its wildland firefighting force into a single program, despite warnings from former federal officials that it could be costly and increase the risk of catastrophic blazes in the middle of peak wildfire season.

  The order aims to centralize firefighting efforts, which are now split among five agencies and two cabinet departments. Trump’s proposed budget for next year calls for the creation of a new Federal Wildland Fire Service under the US interior department.

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• Trump’s pollution rollback rewards wealthy plant owners — at the expense of Americans’ health

  Proposals this week to weaken EPA restrictions will help tiny group of owners while ‘the American people will breathe dirtier air’

  Donald Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) claimed on Wednesday that its plan to eviscerate power plant pollution standards will save the US about $1bn a year. In reality, though, this represents a starkly uneven trade-off, experts say.

  The savings for “Americans” will go entirely to power plant operators who won’t have to cut their pollution, while at the same time climate and health benefits for all Americans that are 20 times larger in dollar terms will be deleted.

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• Trump blocks California rules for greener vehicles and gas-powered car ban

  State says it would challenge president’s resolution, setting up a battle over California’s environmental measures

  Donald Trump has blocked California’s first-in-the-nation rule banning the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035, signing a resolution on Thursday to stymie the state’s ambitious attempt to tackle the climate crisis by pivoting to greener vehicles.
  
  The state quickly announced it was challenging the move in court, with California’s attorney general holding a news conference to discuss the lawsuit before Trump’s signing ceremony ended at the White House.
  
  The resolution was approved by Congress last month and aims to quash the country’s most aggressive attempt to phase out gas-powered cars. Trump also signed measures to overturn state policies curbing tailpipe emissions in certain vehicles and smog-forming nitrogen oxide pollution from trucks.

  California has some of the worst smog and air quality issues in the nation, and has for decades been able to seek waivers from the Environmental Protection Agency that have allowed the state to adopt stricter emissions standards than the federal government.

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• Trump’s EPA announces major rollbacks to power plant pollution limits

  More than 200 health experts say regulatory proposals will lead to biggest increase in pollution in decades

  US power plants will be allowed to pollute nearby communities and the wider world with more unhealthy air toxins and an unlimited amount of planet-heating gases under new regulatory rollbacks proposed by Donald Trump’s administration, experts warned.

  The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) unveiled a plan on Wednesday that would repeal a landmark climate rule that aims to mostly eliminate greenhouse gases from power plants by the 2030s and would, separately, weaken another regulation that restricts power plants’ release of hazardous air pollutants such as mercury.

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