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…
ENVIRONMENT
Biden Administration Announces $48.6 Million in Spending to Combat Climate Change and Fight Wild Fires
Staff Report – WASHINGTON, D.C. – The Biden administration announced new spending of $48.6 million Tuesday on projects to mitigate wildfire risks across the country, which will also improve water quality, restore forest ecosystems and combat climate change. The announcement comes from the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA), which along with the Natural Resources Conservation…
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…
Biden Administration Invests $2.7 Billion to Improve and Expand Rural Electric Infrastructure
EDITOR’S NOTE: There’s been much hand wringing and commentary on what’s wrong with America, democracy and why people don’t trust the federal government, which led in part to the Jan. 6 Capitol attack. We submit that the reason is pretty obvious and right in front of everyone’s face. Republicans have been running for office for…
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 Launches Efforts to Fight Wildfire Crisis
Staff Report – WASHINGTON, D.C. — To reduce the threat of wildfires in the American West, the Biden administration announced new spending measures this week through the Department of Agriculture to improve forest health and reduce fuel for fires by the U.S. Forest Service. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced expanded efforts to reduce wildfire risk…
Senator Angus King of Maine Presses Biden Administration on ‘Inadequate’ Maintenance Budget and Staff Shortages at National Parks
Staff Report – WASHINGTON, D.C. – Anyone who works in national parks, volunteers with the National Park Service or visits the parks can attest to the fact that staff shortages and maintenance backlogs have plagued the parks for years, through the administrations of Republicans and Democrats. If there is any truth to documentary filmmaker Ken…
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…
Biden Administration Announces $981 Million in Spending for Rural Infrastructure Investments
Staff Report – WASHINGTON, D.C. — Back during the height of news covering during the midterm election campaign, mainstream media pundits and commentators often blamed Democrats for ineffective messaging and failing to get the word out on how President Joe Biden’s legislative successes would help suffering people even in rural America, where working class people…
Biden Administration Announces the Release of $6 Million in Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Funds to Support Tribal Nations in Reducing Nutrient Pollution in the Mississippi/Atchafalaya River Basin
Staff Report – WASHINGTON, D.C. — In case you were wondering how the administration was spending the money allocated under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed in November, 2021, the availability of $6 million in funds was announced Monday to support Tribal Nations across the Mississippi/Atchafalaya River Basin to reduce nutrient pollution in the third largest…
F.B.I. Headquarters Move Could be a Legacy Project for Greenbelt’s Congressman, Steny Hoyer
By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. — Some people say you shouldn’t talk about politics at family gatherings on holidays like Thanksgiving, as incendiary as that can be these days. But as power is shifting in the nation’s capital city and the Capitol building, and with juicy political plums to be plucked after Christmas, you…
President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law to Conserve Ecosystems, Clean Up Legacy Pollution Sites Across the Country
About $10 million committed to 17 project sites – Staff Report – WASHINGTON, D.C. — New federal spending of $10 million from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill will go to fund 17 projects to address legacy pollution and conserve ecosystems around the country, according to an announcement on Wednesday from the Department of the Interior,…
America Plans Return to the Moon For the First Time in 50 Years
By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. — All things being stable, the United States of America will launch a rocket to the moon this Wednesday for the first time since the Apollo 17 mission in 1972, 50 years ago. While many critics say the billions of dollars being spent on this Artemis moon mission that…
Biden Administration Launches New National EPA Office to Advance Environmental Justice
Staff Report – WASHINGTON, D.C. – With less than six weeks to go before the critical midterm elections, the Biden administration and the Environmental Protection Agency have announced the establishment of a new national office charged with advancing environmental justice and civil rights to deliver on President Biden’s commitment to elevate these critical issues to…
The Story of Wild, Native Brook Trout and Why They Are So Ecologically Important Like the Canary in the Coal Mine for Climate Change
When the Brook Trout Leaps – By Anonymous – The slender dew-tipped grasses are trembling in the breeze, The east is blushing rosy red beneath the Sun’s caress, The wild rose bends to kiss the stream—but only Nature sees, And the reed-harps play weird music just above the water cress. The quail is calling loudly…
Biden Administration Announces $65 Million Investment from Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill in Clean Water Projects, Roads and Trails
Staff Report – The Biden administration announced more than $65 million in spending this week for the U.S. Forest Service to invest in projects nationwide to prepare for climate change by improving roads, trails, fish habitat and water quality. Made possible by President Joe Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the first round of a $25.5 million…
Biden Administration Launches Major Funding Effort to Create More Outdoor Recreation Opportunities Across America
The FICOR Program Will Also Help Prepare the Country for the Worst Impacts of Climate Change – By Glynn Wilson – ANALYSIS – If you are a long-time nature lover who understands the environmental, biological, economic, psychological and sociological needs to protect and expand green spaces across the country, or a new convert who discovered…
Artemis: We Are Going Back to the Moon, Onto Mars…
Forest Service Takes Emergency Measures to Protect Giant Sequoia Trees on Federal Land
Staff Report – The U.S. Forest Service is initiating emergency measures to provide for the long term survival of giant sequoia groves on public land against immediate wildfire threats. The agency, under the authority of the Department of Agriculture’s existing framework and the National Environmental Policy Act, will conduct emergency fuels reduction treatments as expeditiously…