Scott writes about the Interior Department and related agencies. He has reported on a wide range of topics during a 25-year reporting career, including U.S. EPA regulation of oil refineries, the potential health risks posed by toxic chemicals in household items and the role of federal lands in renewable energy development. Before joining E&E News in 2009, he was an environmental reporter with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and before that with the Pensacola News Journal. He has won numerous journalism awards, including the Scripps Howard Foundation's Edward J. Meeman Award for environmental reporting and the Society of American Business Editors and Writers winner for special projects.
The Interior Department today advanced a major new wind energy project on Native American lands, releasing a draft analysis of the proposal and an ambitious timeline that could see it approved by the end of the year.
Nearly a quarter of all federal lands leased to the oil and gas industry in the past decade used a noncompetitive leasing process that returns less revenue to taxpayers and locks up public lands for years, according to a report from a liberal-leaning government watchdog group.
Environmental groups today filed a federal lawsuit against the Interior Department in an effort to prompt protection for eight "highly imperiled species" under the Endangered Species Act.
House Natural Resources Chairman Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) introduced legislation yesterday designed to protect the nation's most threatened wildlife in response to a U.N.-requested biodiversity study that estimates 1 million species are at risk of extinction worldwide.
Interior Secretary David Bernhardt announced today that the agency will partner with the Department of Health and Human Services on a program to standardize oversight and management of billions of dollars in annual grants.