Trump offers up one simple trick to violating the Clean Air Act

The Trump administration offered to streamline exemptions for coal- and oil-burning power plants that want to keep releasing toxic chemicals, including mercury, into the air. The Environmental Protection Agency cited an obscure section of the Clean Air Act that gives the president authority to exempt facilities from rules if the technology needed to meet those rules isn't available, and if the president finds it's in the interest of national security.

The EPA provided a detailed guide to companies that want to pollute, including a template they can use to request approvals, and a dedicated e-mail inbox for the requests. "The president will make a decision on the merits," the notice says.

The EPA offer is just one of the ways the Trump administration is trying to throw a lifeline to the dying coal industry.

Here's what else you might have missed this week:

• The Trump administration said it was considering selling off public land as far as ten miles away from towns with as few as 5,000 residents, a recipe for suburban sprawl
• The Bureau of Land Management gave the public just five days to comment on a lithium project in Oregon
• President Trump halted a program to plug orphaned oil and gas wells
• Arches National Park closed access to the Fiery Furnace area because of DOGE staffing chaos
• DOGE's park cuts are already affecting summer vacation bookings in gateway communities across the country
• A judge reinstated Alaska's state-owned oil leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
• A resolution backing Utah's land grab got no support in the Montana legislature

Quick hits

Meet the lawyers, lobbyists, and industry insiders running the Interior department

Public Domain

Trump orders Interior secretary to restore racist statues and monuments

Associated Press | HuffPost | USA Today | Deadline | Los Angeles Times

Alaska Natives want the U.S. military to clean up its toxic waste

Grist

Bridges and tunnels in Colorado are helping animals commute

New York Times

Hickenlooper introduces bill to rehire NPS and USFS employees

KOAA | KREX

Thanks to DOGE, national park visitors should prepare for the unexpected this year

National Parks Conservation Association | National Parks Traveler

Commentary: Energy Secretary Chris Wright is not a 'climate realist.' He's a climate arsonist

Colorado Newsline

More than 300 elected officials tell Interior secretary to protect public lands

National Parks Traveler | Mountain PACT

Quote of the day

It’s not a matter of if we’ll get cancer, but when. We feel that they have turned their back on us. We wanted our lands to be turned back in the same condition when they turned over.” 

—Yupik Alaska Native Viola Waghiyi, Grist

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