Recent bouts of heavy mountain snowfall in parts of the U.S. West have helped quell a "snow drought" that was threatening to further desiccate an already arid region, federal meteorologists announced Thursday. A major, four-day blizzard earlier this month brought considerable improvements to the Sierra Nevada, freeing the entire region from the so-called "snow drought"...

{beacon} Energy & Environment Energy & Environment   The Big Story Hundreds let go from NOAA The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration began the process of firing hundreds of probationary workers Thursday, the latest mass job cuts within federal agencies, multiple sources with knowledge of internal operations told The Hill. © AP Photo/Patrick Semansky The...

Rep. Greg Casar (D-Texas) on Monday led 22 members of Congress in requesting that the Department of Energy add Texas to the areas serviced by proposed federal corridors for electrical transmission. In May, the department announced 10 proposed National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors (NIETCs) that, if implemented, could make federal funds available to expand grid...

The Treasury Department announced its Office of Foreign Assets Control will target and place sanctions on nine Iranian shadow fleet vessels and their owners who allegedly transported hundreds of millions in Iranian oil and petroleum to foreign markets. “Today’s sanctions target a critical component of how Iran generates the funds used to repress its own...

The U.S. will be “very strongly involved” in Venezuela’s oil industry, President Trump said Saturday after the capture of Venezuelan leader Nicolás Maduro. Asked about the future of the country’s oil industry on Fox News’s “Fox & Friends”, Trump said, “Well, I see that we’re going to be very strongly involved in it.” “We have the greatest oil...

The last 11 years have been the hottest 11 years on record.

Last year was the hottest year on record, the top 10 hottest years were all in the past decade and planet-heating carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere are at an 800,000-year high, a report Wednesday said. In its annual State of the Climate report, the World Meteorological Organization laid bare all the markings of an...

Senate Democrats say they will walk away from talks about legislation to speed up energy and infrastructure construction unless the Trump administration reverses its latest attack on wind power. Sens. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) and Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) say they will abandon the long-held permitting reform talks after the Trump administration said Monday it would suspend leases for...