POLICY:
• Sources say President Trump will sign an executive order this week that seeks to expand offshore oil and gas drilling. (Politico)
• A new bill introduced by Democrats in Colorado would create bonds to retire coal plants and finance worker retraining. (Greentech Media)

POLITICS: A brief history of how the Republican party has come to embrace anti-environmentalism. (Vox)

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CLIMATE: Carbon dioxide in the Earth’s atmosphere reaches a record-breaking 410 parts per million, according to measurements taken at Hawaii’s Mauna Loa Observatory. (ThinkProgress)

SOLAR:
• A bankruptcy court approves the sale of California-based Sungevity, as the company lays off two-thirds of its remaining technical staff with no severance pay. (Greentech Media)
• A 149,000-panel solar farm being built by Starbucks in North Carolina will be fully operational next month. (Puget Sound Business Journal)
• If the Georgia-based solar company Suniva successfully convinces the International Trade Commission that solar imports have caused “serious injury” to the industry, President Trump may have the opportunity to help struggling U.S. solar manufacturers. (Greentech Media)
• The final day of the North Carolina Utilities Commission’s biennial hearing with Duke Energy and solar industry representatives was contentious, as the two sparred over power prices and solar policies. (Charlotte Business Journal)

HYDRO: The Bureau of Land Management says a proposed hydropower project near Joshua Tree National Park in California won’t harm the environment. (Desert Sun)

TRANSPORTATION: Portland and Seattle will receive “a large and even transformative investment in electric mobility” from Volkswagen as part of the automaker’s diesel-scandal settlement. (Portland Business Journal)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• EV charging stations can be hard to come by in rural areas, leaving many drivers with constant “range anxiety.” (Associated Press)
• Midwest utilities looking to develop electric vehicle charging stations are dealt another blow, this time as Missouri regulators deny Ameren the ability to pass costs to ratepayers. (Midwest Energy News)

ADVOCACY: An environmental organization’s history in the Southeast could provide a template for other advocacy groups to defend clean energy policies under the Trump administration. (Southeast Energy News)

OIL & GAS:
• The federal government says it will not give Exxon Mobil special permission to drill in Russia, which is currently under sanctions. (Reuters)
• U.S. oil giants like Chevron, ConocoPhillips and Marathon Oil are divesting from their Canadian tar sands holdings. (Triple Pundit)
• One of President Trump’s top advisers says “we’re going to permit” a controversial proposed liquefied natural gas terminal in Oregon. (Washington Post)

POLLUTION: Americans would be willing to pay an estimated $17.2 billion through a one-time tax in order to prevent another catastrophe like the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, according to a recent study. (Huffington Post)

PIPELINES:
• A “safety summit” is held in Pennsylvania to draw up school evacuation plans in the event of an explosion or leak from an impending natural gas pipeline, following complaints from thousands of elementary school parents. (Philadelphia Inquirer)
• Authorities drop nearly three dozen cases against Dakota Access Pipeline protesters, after prosecutors struggled to provide evidence of criminal trespassing. (Bismarck Tribune)

COAL:
• Lawmakers from coal-mining states continue their push to extend retired coal miners’ health benefits that are set to expire this week, as House Speaker Paul Ryan’s plan could prompt a partial government shutdown. (Associated Press, McClatchy)
• The company behind a proposed coal export terminal in Oakland, California, which has said a local coal ban doesn’t apply to its project, will be allowed to proceed with a lawsuit against the city. (San Francisco Business Times)

COMMENTARY:
• The U.S. court system will make it hard for President Trump to roll back Obama-era environmental regulations, says a senator from Rhode Island. (Grist)
• West Virginia should follow Kentucky’s lead by converting former mountaintop coal mines into solar farms, according to an editorial in the Charleston Gazette-Mail.