An analysis of the mammoth Wonder Valley data centre suggests it would release the equivalent of 23 atom bombs of heat waste into the boreal forest of northwestern Alberta every day. A Utah State Univ...

A grain farmer from central New South Wales, Sheldon Jeffrey Dalton, has been fined $225,000 for unlawfully clearing nearly 950 hectares of native vegetation on his property at Wallanthery between May and October 2023. The court found that Dalton, who admitted to using machinery and fire to clear the land, knowingly destroyed habitat for the threatened malleefowl species. Justice Sarah Pritchard convicted him of two charges, stating he caused 'actual environmental harm.' Dalton claimed he was unable to document regeneration efforts due to fears of encountering fugitive Julian Ingram, who was wanted for a murder spree in Lake Cargelligo. Ingram, a former council gardener, was found dead in May after being missing for over 100 days. Dalton stated police advised him to remain indoors, preventing him from photographing burnt areas on adjacent property to prove land recovery. Despite hiring a consultant to draft a notification about clearing invasive species, he also destroyed ecologically valuable woodlands. Justice Pritchard emphasized the fine was intended as a deterrent, stating it should outweigh any commercial benefits of illegal clearing. The court ordered the conviction to be published in rural newspapers, warning of 'serious consequences' for land clearing and urging farmers to consult Local Land Services. Dalton expressed remorse, noting the charges weighed heavily on him and his wife, and that this was his first environmental law breach in 40 years of farming.

Political action committees funded by technology companies, the state’s major utilities and other corporate interests have spent nearly twice as much to pass a ballot measure that would greenlight major development projects with minimal environmental or public review as public interest and labor groups have spent opposing it. Developers and other corporate interests aim to streamline the California Environmental Quality Act, or CEQA, which requires public agencies to identify, disclose and mitigate a development project’s negative impacts on a wide range of environmental resources, including wildlife, air and water quality and tribal cultural resources. Proposition 45 shifts who determines the scope of environmental review from public agencies and communities to project developers by rewriting the state’s foundational environmental law to fast-track major projects. Supporters of Prop 45, sponsored by the California Chamber of Commerce, have spent more than $56 million to pass the measure, the most recent state records show. Opponents, led by a coalition of more than 550 labor, health and environmental organizations, have spent close to $30 million to defeat what they say will give polluters a free pass. “Prop 45 will modernize the approval process for essential projects by establishing clear, enforceable timelines for agency decisions and...

This is an installment of the Landline, a monthly newsletter from High Country News about land, water, wildlife, climate and conservation in the Western United States. Sign up to get it in your inbox. In May of 2023, the Biden administration’s Bureau of Land Management issued a final approval to Pattern Energy for its long-planned SunZia transmission line, which would carry wind power from eastern New Mexico to a major grid hub in the Phoenix area, where it could then be transmitted across the Southwest.Clean energy advocates lauded the move, which would enable Southwestern states to fill in the power gap left when the sun goes down by using something other than natural gas, thus reducing the grid’s carbon footprint. The approval came after 17 years of review by various federal agencies, and after a previous 2015 BLM approval was scrapped and the project sent back to the drawing board after New Mexico regulators balked at its potential impacts to migratory birds. The climate crisis needs to be addressed now, advocates said, and there wasn’t time for clean energy-enabling projects to have to wade through the bureaucracy for another decade or so — only to be potentially blocked by a...

All 10 S’pore-based firms acknowledge NEA notices on haze law; majority say they will cooperate: Indofood Agri Resources, TSH Global Plantation and TSH Oversea did not explicitly say they would cooperate. #Singapore #Haze #EnvironmentalLaw #NEA #ClimateChange

As the EU-Canada Summit in Montreal on October 29, 30 approaches Prime Minister Mark Carney wants to forge a new “Alliance for the Future” by strengthening Canada’s economic, defence and social ties with the European Union. He says the shared values between the EU and Canada and how we could make our positive relationship even better with greater integration and alignment. But while the PM rightfully talks up the positive possibilities of greater EU alignment, his government is actually racing in the opposite direction in key areas: climate action, environmental protection and the transition to clean transportation. In fact, on most elements of these files Canada looks to be aligning with the Republican administration in the US. The Prime Minister has scrapped the consumer carbon price, the oil and gas emissions cap, and the EV fleet adoption rules. He also weakened our clean electricity rules. He told us not to worry. That we would get replacements that would work better. He said that industrial carbon pricing would do the heavy lifting on emission reductions. But surprisingly, in late 2025 Alberta and Ottawa signed an MOU to actually weaken it and make carbon prices too low to be effective. New research...

Washington has a gift for cloaking unpopular ideas in appealing names. One recent example is the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act of 2026, or BAAJA, a sweeping “permitting reform” measure introduced this September by Sens. Shelley Moore Capito, Mike Lee, Sheldon Whitehouse, and Martin Heinrich. Once stripped of its deceptive branding, the bill is an out-and-out assault on the National Environmental Policy Act, the bedrock environmental law that has for more than 50 years required the federal government to look before it leaps. NEPA’s genius is its modesty. As the Supreme Court has repeatedly noted, it’s a purely procedural statute. It dictates no outcomes but requires agencies to stop and think — to generate, consider, and disclose the potential environmental consequences of their actions before shovels hit the ground. Often called the “Magna Carta” of environmental law, NEPA has been emulated worldwide. BAAJA keeps NEPA’s title while hollowing out nearly everything that makes it work: detailed review of environmental risks, rigorous analysis of available alternatives with less harmful effects, meaningful public input before agencies commit to harmful actions, and — most dangerously — the ability of courts to enforce any of it. The bill has a minor positive or...

Aquarium founding director recognized for her contributions to ocean conservation and environmental policy.

Big Tech companies and California’s largest oil and gas well operator are spending millions to pass a ballot measure that would clear hurdles for industrial projects such as gas pipelines and possibly data centers. Proposition 45 would alter the California Environmental Quality Act, known as CEQA, which requires often time-consuming reviews and public input for infrastructure and other construction projects. Those requirements would be clipped if voters pass the proposition in November, making projects harder to stop or delay. The half-century-old environmental law has come under scrutiny for slowing housing construction, among other complaints. Last year, the state Legislature passed and Gov. Gavin Newsom signed bills exempting housing in developed urban and suburban areas from the law and giving “advanced manufacturing” businesses a pass. It wasn’t enough to speed along needed housing, clean energy and other projects, say the proposition’s backers. California needs Proposition 45 to further “cut bureaucratic red tape and unnecessary delays,” as the measure’s text puts it, and make the state more affordable. But the initiative’s opponents say such appeals are disingenuous. Housing and clean energy have never been “the real agenda behind this ballot measure,” said Woody Little, a campaign organizer with Last Chance Alliance, which...

via NBC News Top Stories — The judge said the administration’s argument that the downing of hundreds of trees at the golf course was unrelated to Trump’s renovation plan wasn’t credible.

A Manila court has sentenced a business owner to a maximum of 20 years in prison for illegally importing hazardous waste materials from Canada, according to the Department of Justice (DOJ). The Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) found the business owner guilty of aiding and facilitating the importation of hazardous waste in 10 container vans at the Port of Manila in June 2013. The court imposed a sentence of 12 years and one day to 20 years in prison, along with a P1-million fine, with subsidiary imprisonment in case of insolvency. The shipment was initially declared as compressed plastic scrap but contained mixed, unsorted, and heterogeneous plastic materials that allegedly entered the country without the required clearance from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR). The DOJ stated that the business owner's actions violated environmental regulations, as the waste was not properly declared or permitted for importation. Meanwhile, the Manila RTC acquitted two customs brokers after the prosecution failed to establish their guilt beyond reasonable doubt. This case highlights the legal consequences of illegal waste importation and the importance of adhering to environmental regulations in international trade. The incident involved 69 containers of waste that were eventually returned to Canada from the Philippines, as documented in a June 2019 photo showing containers at Global Container Terminals in Delta, British Columbia. The case serves as a reminder of the strict enforcement of environmental laws and the penalties for those who disregard them.

A peat bog saved. A court victory. And hardly anyone heard about it. In Estonia, the peat extraction company OÜ Hiiu Turvas received a 30-year permit to exploit a raised bog. The Estonian Ornithologi...

Introduction: Environmental law enforcement is a comprehensive effort that involves all aspects, including indigenous communities, by accommodating the perspective of legal pluralism. Purposes of the....