By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. — For 25 years since I was first hired by newspapers to cover the environment as a news beat activists have begged, pleaded and prodded the federal government to pass and enforce laws and regulations to force polluting industries to do more to protect public health. Progress had been…
Environmental Protection Agency
Biden Administration Announces Tough Auto-Emissions Standards to Combat Climate Change and Promote Electric Vehicles
By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. — The stakes could not be higher for the future of the United States and humanity. There is a consensus based on an overwhelming amount of scientific evidence that continuing to burn fossil fuels for energy and transportation will doom the next generation of humans to living through a…
Biden Administration Releases $1 Billion for Work at 100 Superfund Sites
Staff Report – WASHINGTON, D.C. — In sharp contrast to the policies of the previous administration, the Biden administration is going all out to combat pollution of the natural environment. As part of this renewed effort and with funds provided by the $1.2 Trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act passed in November, 2021, the Environmental…
Biden Administration Seeks Public Comments on Large Offshore Wind Project on Virginia Coast
Staff Report – WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Biden administration is seeking public comments on a large offshore wind farm project along the coast of Virginia in the Atlantic Ocean. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced the opening of a 30-day public comment period on Jan. 29 for a draft Clean Air Act Outer Continental Shelf…
Biden Administration to Require Replacing All Water Pipes Containing Lead in 10 Years
Staff Report – WASHINGTON, D.C. — While the nations of the world gather in Dubai for the 28th United Nations Climate Change Conference, the Biden administration announced a comprehensive plan to replace all water pipes in the United States that contain the harmful pollutant lead. The Environmental Protection Agency announced a proposal on Thursday to…
Biden Administration Accelerates Removal of Lead Pipes With $15 Billion in New Spending
Staff Report – WASHINGTON, D.C. — Are you better off than you were three years ago? That’s a perennial question that pops up like a weed every four years in Washington politics, or at least the media coverage of it. Think about it. Three years ago, in November 2020, the global Covid-19 pandemic was at…
New Report Shows Major Emissions Reductions in Electricity Sector from President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act
Staff Report – WASHINGTON, D.C. — A new report claims that President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, billed as “the largest climate investment ever,” spurs major carbon dioxide emission reductions from the electricity sector and across the economy in the United States. The report, released Tuesday by the Environmental Protection Agency, finds that the Inflation Reduction…
Biden Administration Moves to Fund Reduction in Methane Emissions, a Greenhouse Gas
Staff Report – WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Biden administration announced new funding options Monday to reduce methane emissions, a major greenhouse gas that leads to climate change due to global warming from the burning of fossil fuels for energy and transportation. Methane is the primary contributor to the formation of ground-level ozone, a hazardous air…
EPA Announces New Standards for Renewable Energy Sources, Reducing Reliance on Foreign Oil Imports
Staff Report – WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Biden administration made moves this week to strengthen the nation’s energy independence, advance low-carbon fuels and support agricultural communities as well as fight climate change due to global warming from the burning of fossil fuels for energy and transportation. The Environmental Protection Agency issued a final rule under…
Conservative Supreme Court Rules to Limit EPA’s Power in Regulating the Destruction of Wetlands
By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. — In another disastrous ruling destroying decades of established legal precedents, the conservative majority on the United States Supreme Court on Thursday ruled in favor of Idaho farmers and against the Environmental Protection Agency in a case involving the protection of wetlands near waterways. In response to the decision…
Biden Administration Shoots for the Moon on Regulating Pollution from Power Plants
By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. — Defying critics and in an effort to bring the United States back to its leadership role on the world stage in fighting climate change due to global warming from the burning of fossil fuels for energy, the Biden administration announced major new regulations to limit greenhouse pollution from…
Biden Administration Proposes Tough New Pollution Standards for Cars and Trucks
Staff Report – WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Biden administration announced the most ambitious federal vehicle emissions standards ever on Wednesday that will accelerate the ongoing transition to a clean vehicles future by requiring that two-thirds of new passenger cars and a quarter of new heavy trucks sold in the United States are all-electric by 2032.…
Biden Administration Proposes Stronger Mercury and Air Toxic Standards for Power Plants
New standards would reduce hazardous air pollutants from coal-fired power plants, further protect public health and advance environmental justice – Staff Report – WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Biden administration released a set of proposed new pollution standards on Wednesday to update the Mercury and Air Toxics Standards for coal-fired power plants, advancing tougher requirements to…
Biden Administration Moves to Remove Harmful Lead in Drinking Water
Staff Report – WASHINGTON, D.C. — Just as we are learning the full disastrous history of Thomas Midgley Jr., the mechanical engineer who first figured out that mixing lead with gasoline would make cars run smoother on Ethyl put out by General Motors, DuPont and Standard Oil beginning in 1923, the Biden Administration is rolling…
Biden Administration Announces $250 Million in Spending to Tackle Climate Pollution
Staff Report – WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Biden administration announced Wednesday it is making $250 million available to develop innovative strategies to cut climate pollution and build clean energy economies. The money will distributed in the form of planning grants through the Environmental Protection Agency, and the funding will go to states, local governments, Tribes,…
Norfolk Southern Policy Lets Officials Order Crews to Ignore Safety Alerts
By Topher Sanders and Dan Schwartz – ProPublica – ProPublica learned of the policy after reviewing the rules of the company, which is engulfed in controversy after one of its trains derailed this month, releasing toxic flammable gas over East Palestine, Ohio. The policy applies specifically to the company’s Wayside Detector Help Desk, which monitors…
Biden Administration Announces Details of Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund
Staff Report – WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Biden administration announced guidelines for the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund program this week created under the Inflation Reduction Act, which will dole out $27 billion in federal spending over the next few years to mobilize billions more in private capital to reduce pollution and improve public health, lower…
State of the Union Followup: Biden Administration Rolls Out First Electric Buses at Kansas School
EPA Administrator Regan Marks Delivery of Kansas’ First Electric School Buses, Announcing Electric Utility Pledge to Support Electric School Buses Nationwide – EPA Highlights Progress to Invest in America Through Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law – Staff Report – WASHINGTON, D.C. – Just on the heels of President Joe Biden’s State of the Union Address, with…
EPA to Accelerate Lead Pipe Replacement and Protect Underserved Communities
Staff Report – WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Biden administration announced a major national initiative on Friday to begin work to replace lead pipes across the country using funding provided by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law. The Environmental Protection Agency, which is still trying to recover from being gutted and corrupted by the Trump administration, will lead…
Biden Administration Announces Tough New Pollution Standards for Trucks
Staff Report – WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Biden Administration announced the strongest-ever national clean air standards to cut emissions from trucks, vans and buses beginning with model year 2027, the first update to clean air standards for trucks in more than 20 years. According to the announcement from the Environmental Protection Agency, the new standards…