USA

Five years ago, Superstorm Sandy ripped through the most populous city in the United States, spreading destruction fueled by climate change. Today, New York City's mayor said it was time to "break the cycle" by suing the culprits — fossil fuel companies.

On Thursday, the Trump Administration moved to open up vast expanses of protected coastline for offshore drilling. The plan opens up 90 percent of U.S. offshore reserves to private companies: from 2019 to 2024, forty-seven new leases are planned for the waters off Alaska, California, the Eastern seaboard and Gulf of Mexico.

A discharge of 16,500 gallons of "hazardous wastewater" from pipeline testing in Agawam has prompted intervention by the two U.S. senators that represent Massachusetts.

In a letters to federal regulators, U.S. Sens. Edward Markey and Elizabeth Warren said Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co.'s release of pressure testing wastewater Nov. 20 poses a threat to public health and the environment in surrounding communities.

December 22

Louisiana is finalizing a plan to move thousands of people from areas threatened by the rising Gulf of Mexico, effectively declaring uninhabitable a coastal area larger than Delaware.

A draft of the plan, the most aggressive response to climate-linked flooding in the U.S., calls for prohibitions on building new homes in high-risk areas, buyouts of homeowners who live there now and hikes in taxes on those who won’t leave. Commercial development would still be allowed, but developers would need to put up bonds to pay for those buildings’ eventual demolition.