Rachel Santarsiero

Last year, I filed a FOIA request with the EPA for documents about the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program. What I got back led me down a rabbit hole of industry influence on our government’s emissions reporting. My latest for @nsarchive.bsky.social and @desmog.com: nsarchive.gwu.edu/briefing-boo...

The EPA Is About to Hand Oil and Gas Companies a Huge Methane-Related Gift Via @motherjones.com by Scoville Fellow '22 @rsanta.bsky.social of the @nsarchive.bsky.social . www.motherjones.com/environment/...

For real. Plus, most of the low-producing wells the Trump admin is exempting from pollution regs are actually owned by large corporations. 🙃

Trump announces he's gutting methane regulations at a campaign rally in Lubbock, TX tonight: "In breaking news tonight, I'm pleased to announce another historic action to bring down energy costs and unleash Texas energy. Under crooked Joe Biden, 'Dumocrats' crushed the small oil & gas operators...

Trump just announced the rollback of the EPA’s methane rule at a campaign rally in Lubbock, TX, bringing a long-sought industry goal one step closer to fruition.

Today, the Trump administration is expected to announce rollbacks on methane and gas regulations, giving oil and gas execs “exactly what they’ve long wanted.”

In a little-noticed webpage update, the Environmental Protection Agency has announced a plan to decommission its online web archive at the end of the year, a move that would wipe tens of thousands of publicly available environmental resources from the web.

“Do I worry about this? Damn right I do.” @schiff.senate.gov warns that President Donald Trump could interfere in the midterms. What Schiff and others are doing to protect midterms, this week on Reveal.

The Trump administration has given some of the country's biggest sources of toxic pollution a free pass, according to an investigation out today by @ericlipton.nytimes.com and me. @nytimes.com gift link: www.nytimes.com/2026/10/24/c...

In a little-noticed webpage update, the Environmental Protection Agency has announced a plan to decommission its online web archive at the end of the year, a move that would wipe tens of thousands of publicly available environmental resources from the web.

🧪🌏👇This is huge. I hope someone is scraping and storing for the future. As a former EPA scientist, this is traimatic and infuriating. We the people own these data. www.motherjones.com/environment/...

EPA’s archive “houses everything from fact sheets and environmental reports to agency policy changes and regulatory actions, making it a tool for ‘democratic oversight,’ according to [EDGI’s] Gehrke,” who adds, “If the archive is decommissioned, that information will be lost.” tinyurl.com/3wsc83ce

The EPA’s latest move could further undermine public confidence at a time when trust in government is near historic lows.

“The EPA’s insistence on decommissioning its web archive will only continue to erode public trust—at the exact time the public and lawmakers need agency information the most,” FPF's @laurenleharper.bsky.social told @rsanta.bsky.social.

reminds me - now is a great time to support the Internet Archive/WayBack Machine if you have the resources, because clearly we can’t count on this admin to maintain historical data for the public

Tens of thousands of documents on contamination, clean power, and Trump’s climate deletions are now scheduled to disappear.

The EPA is trying to kill it’s online archive…again. For @motherjones.com, I reported on what’s at stake—tens of thousands of webpages, environmental assessments, policy actions—and what happened when the EPA tried to shutter the archive the first time. www.motherjones.com/environment/...

NEW: The EPA is quietly killing its web archive. Tens of thousands of documents on contamination, clean power, and Trump’s climate deletions are now scheduled to disappear.

"Models fail in the upper atmosphere." That was the title of a slide exhibited by Steven Koonin at a panel discussion earlier this year about the controversial climate report he coauthored for the Energy Department in 2025.

#ResistanceEarth When 80,000 Moroccans crossed the Mediterranean to the Spanish enclave of Ceuta, right-wing trolls ginned up traffic with conspiracy theories. There was no conspiracy. It was driven by climate change, and there will be many more waves to come. www.motherjones.com/environment/...

Wie zich zorgen maakt over migratie en asiel, moet inzetten op klimaatactie. Droogte, misoogsten en watertekorten vergroten de druk om te vertrekken. Wel klimaatbeleid slopen en minder migratie beloven? Dat is politiek die haar eigen problemen voedt. www.motherjones.com/environment/...

“Every story of human movement now is a climate story, whether we like it or not. Pretty much every case of forced or ‘voluntary’ migration has a climate element built into it.” @motherjones.com www.motherjones.com/environment/...

Climate change is often “mood music” behind mass migration events—not the main driver, but a constant presence that amplifies pressure exerted by a whole bundle of other things.

People should have the right to live safely in their homes and to move about freely. Climate emergencies threaten both of these rights.

80,000 people crossed into Ceuta, Spain, this summer. Few mentioned drought or heat. Both helped push them out.

There's a powerful, hidden force behind mass migration: climate change

Katie Zacharia sat on the advisory board of an organization that calls for women who have abortions to be executed “in the public square,” and for pro-choice Americans to lose their right to hold public office.

Trump called Democrats "communists" during the GOP's midterm convention last month. But backstage, GOP leaders feted an actual ex-communist -who was until recently barred from entering the US due to alleged corruption. What was he doing there? www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

If you're in a learning mode around the tech guys and their various pathologies, highly recommend Apocalyptic Authoritarianism (and yeah, familiar title, but it came out more than a year before End Times Fascism) drilled.media/news/hanna-m...

“Lee Zeldin’s EPA is giving oil and gas corporations exactly what they’ve long wanted, a toothless methane standard they can use to pretend they’re well-regulated, all while they continue to knowingly leak and flare dangerous amounts of the heat-trapping gas.” — Fieldnotes' @juliakane.bsky.social

A town devastated by wildfire needed help rebuilding. But the firm lobbying for it was also working for fossil fuel interests. Meet the “climate double agents.” New investigation from @DeSmog. buff.ly/IzHH5p7

New: Rep. Max Miller & his lawyer Larry Zukerman use bizarre legal & reputational threats to get their way—including, for example, accusing a doctor of "animal cruelty" for giving their own dog a steroid. www.motherjones.com/politics/202...

I said that! ⬇️

Fracking billionaire tycoon Harold Hamm has “tremendous sway over Trump,” @juliakane.bsky.social said. If the EPA completely deregulates methane, that’s likely Hamm. Trump has called Hamm a longtime friend and “amazing man.” @motherjones.com @fieldnotes.co www.motherjones.com/environment/...

Environmental advocates argue that the EPA’s proposed regulatory rollback reflects a coordinated industry wish list.

The EPA met with oil and gas industry representatives at least three dozen times during Trump’s first year of his second term to discuss methane regulations.

Fracking billionaire tycoon Harold Hamm has “tremendous sway over Trump,” @juliakane.bsky.social said. If the EPA completely deregulates methane, that’s likely Hamm. Trump has called Hamm a longtime friend and “amazing man.” @motherjones.com @fieldnotes.co www.motherjones.com/environment/...

"Lee Zeldin's EPA is giving oil and gas corporations exactly what they've long wanted: a toothless methane standard they can use to pretend they're well-regulated, all while they continue to knowingly leak and flare dangerous amounts of the heat-trapping gas" -@juliakane.bsky.social @fieldnotes.co

Last week, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said the agency would be announcing a new oil and gas proposal to roll back Biden-era methane regulations. It’s a fossil fuel industry wish-list. @motherjones.com www.motherjones.com/environment/...

Methane is 80 times more powerful than CO2 at trapping heat, and scientists say reducing those emissions could pull the “emergency break” on climate change. The EPA is about to gut regulations on the oil and gas operators that emit it. @motherjones.com www.motherjones.com/environment/...

“The oil and gas industry says it’s a ‘good-faith’ partner eager to help craft regulations, but time and time again, it’s worked behind the scenes to delay and weaken them. As a result, the United States today emits more methane from its oil and gas sector than any other country in the world.”

EPA is about to gut methane regulations, the result of “a coordinated industry strategy in which fossil fuel groups maneuvered behind the scenes to avoid regulatory accountability.” @rsanta.bsky.social reports for @motherjones.com:

"Lee Zeldin's EPA is giving oil and gas corporations exactly what they've long wanted: a toothless methane standard they can use to pretend they're well-regulated, all while they continue to knowingly leak and flare dangerous amounts of the heat-trapping gas" -@juliakane.bsky.social @fieldnotes.co