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Ben Wolfgang

Ben Wolfgang

bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com

Ben Wolfgang is a National Security Correspondent for The Washington Times. His reporting is regularly featured in the daily Threat Status newsletter.
Previously, he covered energy and the environment, Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign in 2016, and also spent two years as a White House correspondent during the Obama administration.
Before coming to The Times in 2011, Ben worked as political reporter at The Republican-Herald in Pottsville, Pa.
He can be reached at bwolfgang@washingtontimes.com.

Articles by Ben Wolfgang

While most of the study leaked Tuesday seems to reiterate what a host of other climate change research has said, it makes the case that global warming is getting worse and that significant action must be taken. (Associated Press/File)

EPA scientists leak climate change draft in clash with Trump administration

Environmental resistance inside the Trump administration hit new heights this week as a group of federal scientists leaked a draft of a sweeping climate change report to the press, pushing the study out into the bloodstream before their superiors had the chance to alter or approve it.

August 8, 2017

Ryan Zinke to relax Obama-era rules on sage grouse

Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on Monday announced the federal government will relax Obama-era rules designed to protect the imperiled sage grouse, saying the administration will offer states flexibility in how they choose to protect the bird and also will loosen restrictions on energy development in sage grouse habitat.

August 7, 2017
In this April 9, 2015, file photo, people walk into the south portal of Yucca Mountain during a congressional tour of the proposed radioactive waste dump near Mercury, Nev., 90 miles northwest of Las Vegas. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)

Donald Trump, Las Vegas face Yucca Mountain battle

The White House's plan to revive a nuclear waste dump at Nevada's Yucca Mountain has pushed President Trump into an all-out war with Las Vegas, as powerful casino owners and city economic leaders vow to fight the administration tooth and nail over the proposal.

August 6, 2017

Lisa Murkowski, Ryan Zinke reach health care detente over beers

After threatening to scrap Alaskan energy projects in response to Sen. Lisa Murkowski's "no" vote on Obamacare repeal, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on Wednesday night mended fences with the Alaska Republican over a couple of cold ones.

August 3, 2017
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt hasn't said one way or the other whether he plans to pursue the endangerment finding, which provided the legal underpinning for much of the Obama administration's agenda inside the agency. (Associated Press/File)

EPA endangerment finding tough for Trump to reverse

After dismantling a host of Obama-era regulations in its first six months, President Trump's Environmental Protection Agency has yet to begin what would be its toughest fight: reversing the agency's 2009 endangerment finding on greenhouse gases, a game-changing document that laid the foundation for many of the environmental and climate change regulations that followed.

July 31, 2017
Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, is surrounded by reporters as she walks toward the Senate floor on Capitol Hill in Washington, Tuesday, July 18, 2017. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta) ** FILE **

Trump looks for revenge on Murkowski after health care vote; Alaska projects in jeopardy

Long-awaited projects in Alaska -- including the potentially life-saving King Cove road and oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge -- are now in jeopardy as President Trump reportedly looks for revenge on the state and Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski in particular after her vote against the GOP health care bill earlier this week.

July 27, 2017
The Capitol Dome of the Capitol Building in Washington, Monday, July 17, 2017. The Senate has been forced to put the republican's health care bill on hold for as much as two weeks until Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., can return from surgery. (AP Photo/Andrew Harnik)

David Bernhardt violated disclosure laws, say green groups

Ahead of a contentious vote on his confirmation this week, David Bernhardt has become the latest target of environmentalists' ire, with green groups and other critics charging that the deputy Interior secretary nominee failed to disclose lobbying work he did on behalf of California's Westlands Water District while spearheading the Trump administration's transition team at the Interior Department.

July 23, 2017
An ethanol plant stands next to a cornfield near Nevada, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File) **FILE**

Ethanol bill defeated in Senate

In a major defeat for the ethanol industry, senators of both parties joined forces late last week to sink a controversial bill that would've allowed gasoline with 15 percent ethanol to be sold year-round.

July 23, 2017
Companies that offer higher ethanol blends can sell renewable identification numbers to those that provide only E0 gasoline to help them comply with the Environmental Protection Agency's fuel requirement of a 10 percent average. (Associated Press) ** FILE **

Pro-ethanol bill dead in Senate; no action before August recess

In a major blow to the ethanol industry and its supporters in Congress, a bill to expand the availability of gasoline containing 15 percent ethanol has stalled in the Senate and won't come up for a committee vote before the August recess.

July 21, 2017
An ethanol plant stands next to a cornfield near Nevada, Iowa. (AP Photo/Charlie Riedel, File) **FILE**

Pro-ethanol bill dividing both parties

An unlikely coalition of environmentalists, labor unions, boaters and some of the Senate's most conservative Republicans is mobilizing to fend off a pro-ethanol bill that has divided both parties and, if passed, would mark one of the biggest wins in recent memory for the industry.

July 19, 2017