Change

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Administrator Scott Pruitt enraged environmental groups on Thursday after saying in a television interview that he doesn’t believe carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions are a primary contributor to climate change.

Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry told lawmakers that he regrets saying he would dismantle the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and said he believes climate change is real, making him the third high profile appointment to break from President-elect Donald Trump on the issue.

Introducing himself as an “unapologetic admirer of Teddy Roosevelt,” Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT) told lawmakers considering his confirmation as the next secretary of the Department of Interior (DOI) that he believes climate change is real, a significant departure from President-elect Donald Trump.

Former ExxonMobil Corp. CEO Rex W. Tillerson said he would recuse himself for one year from matters directly related to his 41-year employer if he is confirmed as President-elect Trump’s Secretary of State.

Despite sober assessments on climate change and the prospects for a carbon tax, President Obama on Monday defended natural gas and hydraulic fracturing (fracking) as necessary tools in the transition away from greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions.

In the first lawsuit of its kind, an environmental group is claiming that ExxonMobil Corp. not only is leaking pollution beyond its permit limits into Boston Harbor, but it alleges that the supermajor did not prepare the oil storage terminal for the impacts of climate change.

Congressional critics of the Obama administration’s final guidance to federal agencies for quantifying greenhouse gas emissions accused the White House in a hearing Wednesday of giving environmental groups ammunition to bring lawsuits against energy projects.

Amid a chorus of praise from California’s environmental and climate activist groups, California Gov. Jerry Brown on Thursday signed into law two precedent-setting bills (SB 32 and AB 197) designed to accelerate the state’s reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions by deemphasizing the burning of fossil fuels while increasing reliance on renewable energy, storage and efficiency.

Natural gas faces an “unsettling and unpredictable” future following last December’s landmark agreement in Paris on climate change, and the outlook for oil isn’t much better, according to an analysis published by London-based Chatham House.