Budget Includes Increases for National Park Service, EPA – Staff Report – WASHINGTON, D.C. — It’s hard to remember a time when a president’s budget plan was greeted with more enthusiasm than the $5.8 trillion budget proposal issued by the Biden Administration on Monday. The last time this happened was probably 1999, in Bill Clinton’s…
By Glynn Wilson – The Trump administration’s blatant disregard for protecting the environment has landed in court again. Attorneys general for Maryland, Virginia, Delaware and the District of Columbia filed a lawsuit against the Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday, asserting the executive branch federal agency neglected to enforce a decade-old agreement to reduce water pollution…
By Glynn Wilson — WASHINGTON, D.C. — The news seems surreal in Trump’s swamp as a seven day heat wave grips the nation’s capital and wildfires burn all over the west even before the fire season is set to begin in earnest. Every news outlet in the land jumped to break the news that Environmental…
By Lorie Shaull – As a candidate for president, Donald Trump made exaggerated promises tailor-made for his base. One of those was a vow to eliminate the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency “in almost every form.” In its most literal sense, the idea seemed ludicrous. But that did not stop a Florida congressman from introducing a…
By Glynn Wilson – New EPA administrator Scott Pruitt recently told Fox News that Trump’s new executive order abandoning work on climate change and promoting fossil fuels is a return to “core EPA originalism.” This is clearly a perfect example of “doublespeak,” a term inspired by George Orwell’s book Nineteen Eighty-Four. The creation of the…
By Glynn Wilson – A freshman Florida congressman has introduced legislation to abolish the Environmental Protection Agency and he’s joined by co-sponsors in Georgia, Mississippi and Kentucky. Matt Gaetz, a Republican from Fort Walton Beach, introduced House Bill 861: To terminate the Environmental Protection Agency on February 10 to be effective on December 31, 2018.…
By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON, D.C. — The Obama administration’s Environmental Protection Agency issued a mixed report Thursday on the impacts of hydraulic fracturing or “fracking” for methane gas on drinking water. The agency’s draft assessment, put together at the behest of Congress, shows that while hydraulic fracturing activities in the U.S. are carried out…
By Glynn Wilson – The Obama administration on Friday released the first national regulations to provide for the safe disposal of coal ash from coal-fired power plants. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announced the final rule that establishes safeguards to protect communities from coal ash impoundment failures, like the catastrophic 2008 spill in Kingston, Tennessee,…
By Glynn Wilson – At the behest of President Obama and after months of planning and public feedback, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released the much anticipated Clean Power Plan proposal on Monday. It seeks to cut carbon pollution from existing coal-fired power plants — the largest source of carbon pollution in the country —…
Glynn Wilson – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is now seeking public comment on what information could be reported and disclosed about chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing operations. As we reported in-depth two years ago, when the Alabama division of the U.S. Forest proposed opening up large tracts of the Talladega National Forest to natural…
By Glynn Wilson – The United States Supreme Court upheld the authority of the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate the air pollution from coal-fired power plants on Tuesday in a ruling that is being hailed as a major victory for the environment but a political setback for the Obama administration. The 6-to-2 ruling upholds the…
Slashing Air Pollution and Providing Health Benefits to ThousandsBy Glynn Wilson – The Obama administration issued the final emission standards for cars and gasoline Monday to improve fuel efficiency in cars and trucks, significantly reduce harmful pollution and prevent thousands of premature deaths and illnesses every year. Based on extensive input from the public and…
By Glynn Wilson – How the federal government fights climate change will be on the docket of the U.S. Supreme Court on Monday in a rare 90 minute oral argument session, an indication that the court thinks cases against the Environmental Protection Agency filed by chemical industry groups, conservative states and the U.S. Chamber of…
EPA to Decide Legality of Mines on a ‘Case-by-Case Basis’By Glynn Wilson – WASHINGTON. D.C. — To clear up a legal controversy about diesel fuel in methane gas mining, the Obama administration released revised rules on underground injection wells that use diesel fuels in hydraulic fracturing operations, commonly referred to as the controversial method of…
By Glynn Wilson – The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed new Clean Air Act standards to cut carbon pollution from new power plants “in order to combat climate change and improve public health,” according to the announcement sent out Friday morning. The new standards are set to go into effect by June 1, 2014. The…
