President Trump blamed “mismanagement” of California’s forests for ongoing deadly wildfires, threatening to withhold federal payments after multiple blazes killed 9 people and prompted evacuation orders for some 250,000 state residents, Politico reports.

Said Trump: “There is no reason for these massive, deadly and costly forest fires in California except that forest management is so poor. Billions of dollars are given each year, with so many lives lost, all because of gross mismanagement of the forests. Remedy now, or no more Fed payments!”

“The Supreme Court on Friday night refused to halt a novel lawsuit filed by young Americans that attempts to force the federal government to take action on climate change, turning down a request from the Trump administration to stop it before trial,” the Washington Post reports.

“The suit, filed in 2015 by 21 young people who argue that the failure of government leaders to combat climate change violates their constitutional right to a clean environment, is before a federal judge in Oregon. It had been delayed while the Supreme Court considered the emergency request from the government.”

A new Washington Post-KFF poll found that nearly one year after Hurricane Maria, many Puerto Ricans are still struggling with basic necessities.

The survey found that a full 83% of residents said they have suffered either major property damage, long-term loss of electricity, employment setbacks or worsening health problems.

Key takeaways: 93% of residents said their roads and highways remain dangerous and 50% said their households lacked an adequate supply of drinking water.

“The Trump administration, taking its third major step this year to roll back federal efforts to fight climate change, is preparing to make it significantly easier for energy companies to release methane into the atmosphere,” the New York Times reports.

“Methane, which is among the most powerful greenhouse gases, routinely leaks from oil and gas wells, and energy companies have long said that the rules requiring them to test for emissions were costly and burdensome.”

“The state allowed hundreds of residents in two Wichita-area neighborhoods to drink contaminated water for years without telling them, despite warning signs of contamination close to water wells used for drinking, washing and bathing,” the Wichita Eagle reports.

“In 2011… the state discovered dry cleaning chemicals had contaminated groundwater at 412 W. Grand in Haysville. The Kansas Department of Health and Environment didn’t act for more than six years.”

The Trump administration “made public the details of its new pollution rules governing coal-burning power plants, and the fine print includes an acknowledgment that the plan would increase carbon emissions and lead to up to 1,400 premature deaths annually,” the New York Times reports.

“The proposal lays out several possible pathways that individual states might use for regulating coal-fired power plants, and what the consequences would be for pollution and human health in each case. In the scenario the E.P.A. has pegged as the most likely to occur, the health effects would be significant.”

“In that scenario, the Trump E.P.A. predicts its plan will see between 470 and 1,400 premature deaths annually by 2030 because of increased rates of microscopic airborne particulates known as PM 2.5, which are dangerous because of their link to heart and lung disease as well as their ability to trigger chronic problems like asthma and bronchitis.”

“The $43,000 phone booth that former EPA administrator Scott Pruitt installed in his office may not have been worth all the headaches it caused him,” the Washington Post reports.

“He only placed one phone call to the White House, newly released records from the agency show. It lasted five minutes.”

“The Trump administration is proposing to dispose of federal land in Utah that was protected within the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument until its boundary was redrawn by the Interior Department earlier this year — despite Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke’s assurance last year that he would not sell public lands,” the Washington Post reports.

Said Zinke at his Senate confirmation hearing: “I am absolutely against transfer or sale of public land.”

Update: The Washington Post report Zinke backed off the plan.

“A federal appeals court ordered the Trump administration Thursday to revoke approval for a widely used pesticide that studies show can harm the brains of children,” the Los Angeles Times reports.

“A three-judge panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals gave the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency 60 days to ban chlorpyrifos, a pesticide initially developed as a nerve gas during World War II.”

Architects Newspaper: “One of the most dangerous construction-related carcinogens is now legally allowed back into U.S. manufacturing under a new rule by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). On June 1, the EPA authorized a ‘SNUR’ (Significant New Use Rule) which allows new products containing asbestos to be created on a case-by-case basis.”

“According to environmental advocates, this new rule gives chemical companies the upper hand in creating new uses for such harmful products in the United States.”

“The lawyer nominated to run the Superfund toxic cleanup program is steeped in the complexities of restoring polluted rivers and chemical dumps. He spent more than a decade on one of the nation’s most extensive cleanups, one involving Dow Chemical’s sprawling headquarters in Midland, Mich,” the New York Times reports.

“But while he led Dow’s legal strategy there, the chemical giant was accused by regulators, and in one case a Dow engineer, of submitting disputed data, misrepresenting scientific evidence and delaying cleanup, according to internal documents and court records as well as interviews with more than a dozen people involved in the project.”