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RFK Jr.’s Next Target: A Common Weedkiller
After targeting dyes and other chemicals allowed for use in food, U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is zeroing in on the active ingredient in Roundup in his bid to root out what he calls environmental toxins that contribute to chronic disease.
The herbicide glyphosate is expected to feature prominently in a report due out this week from President Trump’s Make America Healthy Again Commission (MAHA), which was charged with identifying top contributors to America’s chronic health problems. But some warn that clamping down on pesticides could cause major disruption of the food supply, with repercussions for agricultural interests and consumers.
In a speech last week, White House senior health adviser Calley Means previewed the report’s findings, pointing to chemical pesticides as contributors to Americans’ poor health. “Obviously it’s because of environmental toxins. We produce and ingest 25% of the world’s pesticides,” Means said at an event in D.C. launching the MAHA institute. “The leading herbicides and pesticides that we use in the United States — many of them are phased out or banned in every other country in the world.”
Trump Officials Want to Cut Limits of PFAS in Drinking Water — What Will the Impact Be?
The Trump administration has announced it would attempt to kill some of the strong new PFAS “forever chemical” drinking water limits set in April 2024. While the moves would deliver a clear win for the U.S. chemical and water utility industries, it is less clear whether the action will be successful, what it means long-term for the safety of the U.S.’s drinking water, and its impact on progress in addressing forever chemical pollution.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is attempting maneuvers that violate the law, observers say, and even if they survive a legal challenge, progress under the Biden administration cannot be fully undone.
There’s also some momentum in regulatory and legal battles that public health advocates have won at the state level and in courts that will ultimately improve water piecemeal, regardless of the EPA’s backtracking.
Pepsi, Coca-Cola to Blame for Plastic Waste Crisis in US Virgin Islands, Lawsuit Alleges
The U.S. Virgin Islands government is suing PepsiCo and Coca-Cola over the companies’ alleged roles in the territory’s “dire” plastic waste problem. The lawsuit claims the companies have deceived consumers by advertising their single-use plastic bottles as an “environmentally responsible choice,” according to an April 11 filing in the Superior Court of the Virgin Islands.
The defendants named in the case also include CC One Virgin Islands, LLC, a beverage distributor, and PepsiCo Caribbean, a division of PepsiCo. “Due in significant part to Defendants’ conduct in falsely promoting and distributing single-use plastic, the Virgin Islands faces a waste management crisis,” the lawsuit says.
USA TODAY contacted PepsiCo, Coca-Cola and CC One Virgin Islands on May 14 but has not received a response.
Fifteen Years After Largest U.S. Offshore Oil Spill, Researchers Reveal Most-Polluting Rigs
April 20 marked 15 years since BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig exploded, releasing 134 million gallons of oil off the coast of Louisiana in the country’s largest oil spill. Oil gushed for nearly three months, covering an area on the surface of the water the size of Oklahoma. The spill devastated fisheries, seabirds, turtles, whales and endangered species. Scientists are still studying the lasting harms today.
Days after the anniversary, the environmental nonprofit SkyTruth published its latest white paper, naming the top polluting offshore oil rigs in the world while calculating their environmental costs in spilled oil, greenhouse gas emissions and methane flaring.
Despite clear evidence that oil spills are an ongoing problem, the U.S. has only increased offshore drilling since then.
Last month, the Trump administration launched the five-year process for selling new oil and gas leases, including new areas off the coast of Alaska. At the same time, President Donald J. Trump signed an executive order to sunset rules for all new and existing offshore drilling regulations, among them those passed after the Deepwater Horizon spill aimed at preventing another such underwater rupture.
North Carolina Residents Condemn EPA’s PFAS Regulation Delay
People who have been struggling to clean up decades of industrial pollution in the lower Cape Fear River basin are expressing their dismay and anger at a federal delay announced Wednesday on a crackdown on so-called “forever chemicals” that have fouled their drinking water.
That day, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced plans to extend the timeline for water utilities to reduce the maximum safe levels for human consumption for a select group of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances known as PFAS.
In 2024, under the Biden Administration, the EPA finalized the first-ever enforceable standards for six PFAS compounds: PFOA, PFOS, HFPO-DA (GenX), PFBS, PFNA and PFHxS. At that time, water utilities had until 2029 to comply with the new standards.
A year later, the Trump Administration’s newly appointed EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced that the agency would uphold standards set for PFOA and PFOS — legacy PFAS that persist in the environment despite no longer being manufactured. But Zeldin also announced he would rescind and re-evaluate rules for the other four, including GenX.
Chubb No Longer Insuring Gulf Coast LNG Project That Faces Sustained Opposition Over Health Concerns
The global insurance giant Chubb is no longer providing property insurance for a contested liquefied natural gas export project in southwest Louisiana, according to documents obtained by the Rainforest Action Network and shared with Inside Climate News.
The Calcasieu Pass project, owned by LNG company Venture Global, has faced heavy opposition from residents in Cameron Parish, who fear it will add to already severe pollution, health harms and climate damage in a region that is at the center of the nation’s LNG buildout. Grassroots and international groups have been pressuring Chubb and other insurers to drop projects, like CP, that they argue are injurious to environmental and human health.
Through a public records request, RAN obtained a certificate of insurance placing a Chubb subsidiary, ACE American Insurance Co., on a list of 29 companies that provided property insurance to the project last year. In this year’s certificate of insurance, also obtained by RAN through a public records request and describing the project’s property insurance policy from March 2025 to 2026, ACE was no longer included. LNG terminals require a variety of insurance, including property insurance.
