We finally have a solidifying picture of how Trump will "take the oil" from Venezuela. The US will: 1: Sell the oil indefinitely AND control the revenue 2: Send the crude to US gulf refineries 3: Ship to VZ the materials/chemicals for oil production

BREAKING: US will "indefinitely" take control of Venezuela's oil sales and the US government will be controlling the revenue from those sales, Chris Wright said. Controlling revenue = controlling govt. Unclear what the US will do with the money. www.notus.org/energy/chris...

Since Saturday, I've been trying to understand how the US oil industry actually benefits from the Maduro ouster. Where I've landed: The experts are confused. Industry itself a bit baffled. Trump is out on a limb with this one.

Chevron is the only American oil company currently in Venezuela. Their statement: "Chevron remains focused on the safety and wellbeing of our employees, as well as the integrity of our assets. We continue to operate in full compliance with all relevant laws and regulations."

EXCLUSIVE: Four House Republicans, including Colorado Rep. Jeff Hurd, joined Democrats to challenge the Trump administration’s dismantling of the nation’s leading weather and climate research institution.

Permitting reform is in even more trouble. @heinrich.senate.gov and @whitehouse.senate.gov say “there is no path” to permitting reform after the Trump admin’s attacks on every offshore wind project under construction today. Their statement 👇

Trump and Doug Burgum are halting a 2.6 GW wind farm off the coast of Virginia that is already mostly built. It’s the largest project in the US. It was going to provide enough power for 660,000 homes. And it has significant local Republican support.

The EPA’s internal watchdog has received ~6x as many calls about retaliation against whistleblowers in Trump’s first year compared to Biden’s last. DOE’s watchdog is reporting an even higher similar stat, about 9x this year over last year.

NEWS: @hickenlooper.senate.gov and Sen Michael Bennett say they are putting a hold on the Senate approps package over Trump’s plan to dismantle the nation’s leading weather research facility. Our original story 👇

White House looks very serious about dismantling the nation's premier weather research institution. NSF just said they're considering transferring the center's advanced computing facility to a new operator and divesting the two big research airplanes.

“All Americans rely on forecasts produced by atmospheric models developed at NCAR every day. They’ve done tremendous work on aviation weather safety,” said John Nielsen-Gammon, Texas’s state climatologist and a meteorologist at Texas A&M University. www.notus.org/trump-white-...

Update: it appears this is payback for Colorado’s governor not playing nice with Trump www.notus.org/trump-white-...

NEWS: White House suggested to me that they’re dismantling the nation’s most important weather research institute bc Trump is mad at CO Gov. Jared Polis “If Colorado had a governor who actually wanted to work with President Trump, his constituents would be better served.”

I’m donating to The Brown Daily Herald — the place that made me a journalist. These students were supposed to be closing shop and going home. Instead, they’re doing a better job covering this tragedy than any national paper. Donate here 👇

Earlier today, a federal judge ruled that FEMA needs to restore the grant program that helps states fund resiliency/disaster preparedness. "Defendants shall promptly take all steps necessary to reverse the termination of the BRIC program," he wrote.

This morning, Kristi Noem left a House hearing early for the big FEMA task force meeting, angering the members in the room. Then the FEMA meeting was cancelled just as it was supposed to begin. Members of the council had already flown into DC for it.

NEWS: FEMA Review Council meeting was abruptly cancelled minutes before it was supposed to start. Task force was expected to recommend dramatically downsizing FEMA. Kristi Noem left a House hearing early for the meeting, not clear she knew it was going to be cancelled.

To be clear: the new, near-exclusive emphasis on natural causes of climate change on the U.S. EPA's website is now completely out of synch with all available evidence demonstrating overwhelming human influence on contemporary warming trends.

I got documents that give insight into the Tennessee car magnate who - donates liberally to MAGA + Christian evangelical causes - owns the DC townhouse Mike Johnson lived in - Trump nominated for a utility board seat, despite having no energy experience

Outside analysis of Forest Service data being circulated by Democrats finds that the Trump administration is falling further behind on wildfire prevention. www.notus.org/climate-envi...

The Forest Service is getting slower and slower with wildfire prevention, just as the fires get worse and worse. “The workforce is so shot out and depleted, they’re even decreased expectations. We’re behind the targets, even when the targets have been reduced” — one fire manager to me.

🚨 Ring the fire alarm — via @annackramer.bsky.social of @notus.com ‬⁩ www.notus.org/climate-envi...

Until recently, the EPA had a pretty legendary group of scientists using cutting-edge computer science to speed up chemical toxicity research. This team helped with East Palestine, w/ GenX, etc. I found that at least 16 of them have now left for a single private lab.

The Trump admin is continuing to cut down Biden's climate legacy: This time by removing the major clean energy offices in the Department of Energy.

Is cloud seeding part of a weather control conspiracy? A MAHA-coded sustainable agriculture strategy? Or -- as Utah Republicans seem to think -- could it really just be about bringing water to an arid state? New from me and Addy Baird @ the SL Tribune: www.notus.org/climate-envi...

Steve Pearce, who pushed 2020 election conspiracy theories and fought public lands protections, is Trump’s new pick to manage hundreds of millions of acres of federal land. He’s also 78 years old.

There is truly no better place to learn about the elections last night than our @notus.com newsletter this morning. Everything you need to know is right here 👇 www.notus.org/newsletters/...

UPDATE: Karoline Leavitt said that USDA will in fact be paying out the partial SNAP payments in compliance with the court. Trump "does not want to have to tap into this fund in the future, and that’s what he was referring to in his true social post," she said.

Baffling twist: Trump just said that SNAP "will be given only when the Radical Left Democrats open up government, which they can easily do, and not before!" Just one hour earlier, USDA Secretary Brooke Rollins said SNAP guidance has been sent to states.

The Trump administration is insisting to me that it paused $11 billion worth of infrastructure projects in blue states. But they won't identify the projects. So I went and asked the states about it. None of them have received any notice of anything. Confusion reigns.

We’re running out of money to help the poorest Americans keep the lights on and the heat running If the shutdown doesn’t end soon, millions of Americans may see their electricity turned off or fuel deliveries stopped for the coldest winter months

NEW: A federal judge again blocked the Trump admin from conducting layoffs during the shutdown The admin said RIFs are "the democratic thing to do" The judge disagreed: The RIFs "are intended for the purpose of political retribution" w/ @annackramer.bsky.social www.notus.org/courts/feder...

NEWS: A federal judge has barred the Trump administration's mass layoff plan on a more permanent basis. During the hearing, Trump administration attorney Michael Velchik said about the RIFs: "Morally, this is the right thing to do." w/ @oriana.bsky.social

Last week, we reported that even staunch Republicans are angry at Kristi Noem for slow-walking recovery funds. I’m following up. 🚨If you know about a place that’s waiting on money to rebuild from a disaster, please share it with me.🚨 Signal: annakramer.54, email: [email protected]

“When the President says get somebody a permit… we’ve got a mechanism to do that.” — Interior Sec Doug Burgum just now, describing the national energy dominance council set up by Trump and how they speed up permits for companies and industries favored by Trump

The Interior Department plans to “imminently” fire at least 2,000 employees across the agency, including hundreds of National Park Service employees, according to a Monday legal filing. www.notus.org/trump-white-...

NEWS: The Interior Department is planning on firing more than 2000 people, including hundreds at the National Park Service. Interior gave new detailed numbers after a federal judge got very frustrated and expanded her restraining order. www.notus.org/trump-white-...

🔔 Follow us at @notusperspectives.bsky.social to read more www.semafor.com/article/10/1...

The Trump administration has angered another federal judge — this time on RIFs. "It is not complicated. During this time, these agencies should not be doing RIFs," Judge Susan Illston said just now. "Don't do it!" she added later, visibly frustrated.

NEWS: Interior has been planning mass layoffs across 68 areas of the agency, calling them "imminent" in a new legal filing. FYI Interior = National Park Service, BLM, Fish and Wildlife, USGS.

Russ Vought said that Army Corps is going to stop working on projects in Baltimore, New York, Boston, and SF, blaming shutdown + money running out. Worth noting that 97% of Army Corps employees are not furloughed and still getting paid bc their paychecks don't come from annual appropriations.

UPDATE: The unions suing the govt. over RIFs just added three more employee unions to the lawsuit: NFFE, SEIU, and NAGE. These unions represent people employed at Interior (which covers National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, US Fish and Wildlife)

ICYMI: Looks as if Interior Department is thinking about firing a bunch of people on Monday, according to a legal filing last night. This would violate a judge’s temporary restraining order on the shutdown firings.

NEW: Republicans are fed up with Kristi Noem and FEMA delays. “You would think a former member of Congress would have more fucking respect for the institution she used to serve in,” one GOP member told us. “She’s causing a lot of problems.”

NEW: Federal courts are flooded with lawsuits against the Trump admin — a result of legal groups’ months-long, and in some cases years-long, preparation for Trump 2.0 One lawyer said Trump’s 1st term was “dress rehearsal,” and now they know what they’re up against www.notus.org/courts/legal...

Today, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said that the US govt. would set “price floors” across a range of industries. The reporter doing the interview didn’t follow up on that comment, so we don’t know anything more about what he meant.

NEW: A federal judge temporarily blocked the Trump admin's shutdown RIFs and barred officials from conducting more layoffs "This hatchet is falling on the heads of employees all across the nation," the judge told Trump's lawyer in a hearing w/ @annackramer.bsky.social www.notus.org/courts/judge...

NEWS: A federal judge just temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s mass layoffs.

Energy Department finally giving out a list of the offices getting hit with layoffs. The cuts span every office that does work on efficiency, affordability, and clean power. No breakdown of how many people in each office. Also hearing that no one has actually been fired yet.

New: HHS appears to be cutting its entire family planning office. www.notus.org/health-scien...