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.
Dozens of ranchers and other landowners contracted by the Bureau of Land Management to care for thousands of federally protected wild horses and burros will once again start getting paid as the partial government shutdown drags on.
A coalition of more than 30 conservation groups pressed acting Interior Secretary David Bernhardt to order his agency to "immediately cease work on any and all oil and gas permitting and planning activities."
Some private landowners contracted by the Bureau of Land Management to care for tens of thousands of federally protected wild horses and burros say they are no longer getting paid due to the partial government shutdown.
The Forest Service may sell about 165 wild horses currently in holding at California's Modoc National Forest without limitations on the future use of the animals — even if that means some horses could end up in slaughterhouses.
Beetle infestations continue to rapidly spread in forests across Colorado and last year "caused widespread tree mortality" in and around Rocky Mountain National Park and other iconic landscapes.