environment
Climate grief and the stark choice that confronts us
If the five stages of grief are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance, Americans can be found at all points along the continuum when it comes to global climate change and the environmental crisis that accompanies it. Like many who’ve contemplated a grim healthcare diagnosis that seems to belie of how they feel in the moment, millions […]
Federal public lands rule would be yanked under bill passed by U.S. House panel
The U.S. House Natural Resources Committee on a party-line 20-16 vote Wednesday approved a bill to force the Bureau of Land Management to drop its proposed rule that would allow the agency to lease parcels of land for conservation. The committee vote allows the bill, written by Utah Republican John Curtis, to get a vote […]
Central Ohio solar project can be model for solar, farming mutual benefits
While the world’s science community implores governments to speed the transition away from fossil fuels before a tipping point of no return is reached, the process of approving clean energy projects has gotten bogged down in local disputes. Some reports say Ohio is actually leading all states in this regard. 10 counties have now banned solar and […]
GOP U.S. House passes bill opening more public land to development if reserve oil is tapped
U.S. House Republicans passed a bill Friday to force the White House to make more federal land and waters available for oil and gas development if the president orders the withdrawal of more oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The bill, passed 221-205, mostly along party lines, would strip the president’s power to remove oil from […]
Little appetite for Manchin permitting bill in congressional lame-duck session
Among the items on Congress’ lengthy to-do list by the end of the year is U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin’s proposal to speed up the federal government’s permitting process that certifies energy projects do not harm the environment. But the bill, which was a condition of the centrist West Virginia Democrat’s support for his party’s larger […]
Even as drought forces water cutbacks, climate gets short shrift in midterm election
LAKE MEAD, Nev. —The streaks of white on the rock ringing the nation’s largest reservoir show how far its water levels have dropped since it was last full. Lake Mead and nearby Lake Powell, which send water to 40 million people in the Southwest, are at their lowest levels since they were filled in the […]
Report says many utilities are slow-walking clean energy goals
DENVER – A report released this week by the Sierra Club faults dozens of utilities that provide a major chunk of U.S. electric generation for failing to speed up their decarbonization efforts. “For the sake of our communities and planet, we must do everything in our power to create a clean, renewable electric grid by […]
Amid a massive American clean energy shift, grid operators play catch-up
For the better part of the past century, the American electric power system evolved around large, mostly fossil fuel power plants delivering electricity to residences, businesses and industry through a network of transmission and distribution wires that collectively came to be called the electric grid. But as the threat of climate change driven by carbon […]
U.S. House members raise doubts about Manchin environmental permitting deal
More than 50 U.S. House members are objecting to a push to revise federal environmental permitting requirements for energy projects — part of a deal Democratic leaders struck with U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin III to win passage of their climate, health and taxes bill that passed last month. The House members signed onto a letter […]
Vilsack: America’s voluntary approach to agriculture is better than Europe’s mandates
BOONE, Iowa — The more than $1 billion the federal government is devoting to voluntary efforts to reduce agriculture’s adverse effects on the environment is a better long-term strategy than mandating new rules for farmers, U.S. Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack said Tuesday. While state and federal officials in the United States have tended to […]
Tiny micro-plastics huge environmental problem for rivers, ocean, researchers say
If the plastic food container that contained your lunch today winds up in a river, a local creek, or the Atlantic Ocean, 60 years from now people could find it, reasonably intact. The rest of the container will have degraded into micro-plastics — teeny particles that are visible only under a microscope. Fish or shrimp […]
4 New Year’s resolutions for a healthier environment in 2022
By Viniece Jennings, Agnes Scott College When many people think of New Year’s resolutions, they brainstorm ways to improve themselves for the year ahead. What if we expanded those aspirations to include resolutions that benefit our communities, society and the planet, too? It might not be a typical approach, but it can broaden your horizons […]