The Trump administration released a new environmental review for a portion of the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline, predicting some “moderate” impacts from its construction and operation. In its 300 page draft report, the State Department found that some of the biggest impacts from the project’s new route in Nebraska include injuries to wetlands and vegetation, but says much of the impact would be temporary. Monday’s release is just the latest development in a years-long, contentious fight over the Keystone pipeline. [node:read-more:link]

During the 2016 presiden- tial election, Republican Donald J. Trump embraced a simple and straightforward political strategy: Tell the people what they want to hear. [node:read-more:link]

Local municipalities are taking up the reins to combat global climate change as scientists around the world continue to sound alarm bells warning of the possibly irreversible effects of using greenhouse-gas emitting sources of energy.The Middleton City Council passed a resolution this month setting goalposts for utilizing renewable energy sources in 100 percent of energy consumption city-wide — for the city government’s operations but also for community residents and companies.Middleton’s plan is just one in the region either laid out or in the works.Dane County, which boasts 100 percent re [node:read-more:link]

Ohio regulators let FirstEnergy collect $168 million a year from ratepayers with virtually no strings attached for how it is spent.Ohio ratepayers have paid FirstEnergy’s utilities roughly a quarter of a billion dollars since January 2017 under a distribution modernization rider. The mandate for consumers to pay the rider is currently on appeal before the Supreme Court of Ohio. [node:read-more:link]

Democrats in the U.S. House are urging President Trump to give fisherman caught in the trade war with China the same benefits announced Tuesday for farmers. Sen. Lisa Murkowski issued a statement yesterday calling the aid to farmers an admission that “tariffs are hurting, not helping, our country.” She said American fishermen are also caught in the crossfire. They say America’s fishermen are hurt coming and going. First, they wrote, fishermen were disadvantaged by the U.S. tariff on imported steel and aluminum, which raises the cost of boats, crab traps and other metal gear. [node:read-more:link]

Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory completed a study in 2013 that used data collected from the sale of more than 50,000 homes in 27 counties, in nine different states. These homes were within 10 miles of wind projects, with 1,198 sales within one mile and 331 within half of a mile. This study also used data from before a project; the post-announcement, pre-construction period; and during operation. The study found no evidence of an effect on prices of homes in proximity to wind turbines. [node:read-more:link]

Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.) has sent a letter to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue questioning USDA’s process for approving three new Chinese poultry processing plants as eligible to export product to the United States. [node:read-more:link]

Several weeks ago, Joni Ernst, junior senator, Iowa, was being questioned by the moderator of CBS' "Face The Nation" on the topic of trade war and the significant price the Trump administration's policy was extracting from pork producers and soybean farmers in her red/purple state.  Sen. Ernst calmly declared that while her agricultural constituents were understandably anxious about the ultimate effectiveness of higher tariffs and continue to extol the virtues of free trade, Iowa proudly remained Trump country -- confident that the president's long-term plan made sense. [node:read-more:link]

In Washington, new evidence has appeared that a Trump Administration shift on US low carbon fuel policy may have cost US corn growers an estimated $3.65 billion. The mechanism? A secretive effort by Administration officials installed at the US Environmental Protection Agency that destroyed an estimated 1.37 billion gallons of annual demand for low-carbon renewable fuels, in favor of fossil fuels. [node:read-more:link]

The American meat industry today sent a letter to the White House, appealing directly to the president to clarify the regulatory future of high-tech, cell-cultured meats. The letter asks Donald Trump to give the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) sole regulatory authority over a class of products that have not yet hit the consumer market: meat grown from cells in a process that doesn’t require slaughtering animals or running large-scale farms that pump massive amounts of greenhouse gas emissions into the atmosphere. [node:read-more:link]