Tag Archives: environment

Reuters reports: U.S. President Joe Biden will ban new offshore oil and gas development along most U.S. coastlines, a decision President-elect Donald Trump, who has vowed to boost domestic energy production, may find difficult to reverse. The move is considered mostly symbolic, as it will not impact areas where oil and gas development is currently underway, and mainly covers zones …

The New York Times reports: President-elect Donald J. Trump has tapped Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota to run the Interior Department, leading the new administration’s plans to open federal lands and waters to oil and gas drilling.  Governor Burgum, 68, has longstanding ties to fossil fuel companies and acted as a liaison between the Trump campaign and the oil …

Courthouse News reports: Fossil fuel industry groups and over two dozen Republican-led states on Friday asked the Supreme Court to block the Environmental Protection Agency’s emissions regulations for power plants. In hopes of ushering in climate-friendly energy alternatives, the Biden administration’s rule would force fossil fuel power plants into retirement, West Virginia said. Joined by 24 other states, the Mountain …

The Washington Post reports: D.C. Water and Arlington County advised residents late Wednesday to boil their water for at least one minute before drinking, using it to cook food or giving it to pets, after the Army Corps of Engineers warned of clarity issues in local water sources. The warnings were issued because of “elevated turbidity levels in water supply …

The Tampa Bay Times reports: Gov. Ron DeSantis on Wednesday night vetoed a measure that would have increased warnings for Floridians and tourists when a beach or public waterway is polluted. The bill required the Florida Department of Health to issue health advisories if water quality failed to meet the agency’s standards and required closing polluted beaches “if it is …

The Associated Press reports: Sea turtles and marine birds will be protected under a new Florida law that bans the intentional release of balloons. The law, signed by Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, replaces an existing ban of releasing ten or more balloons within 24 hours. The Legislature approved the bill with bipartisan support in March and the law is praised …

Axios reports: Flooding — which has gotten increasingly severe in an era of extreme weather — costs the U.S. economy an estimated $179.8 to $496 billion per year in 2023 dollars, according to new data from Democrats on the Senate Joint Economic Committee. The estimates are the equivalent of over 1% of 2023’s gross domestic product, the report notes. It …

Miami’s ABC affiliate reports: One day after a video went viral showing a group of teens dumping trash just off the Boca Inlet, the public has responded with outrage. “It’s shocking, disheartening, a lot of anger, and honestly, the thing that was most shocking to me is the age of the people on the boat,” said Madeline Kaufman of Debris …

Gothamist reports: Transportation Commissioner Ydanis Rodriguez said on Tuesday that the event will be the biggest to date, with drivers getting the boot from sections of 53 streets between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m. on Saturday, April 20. That’s up from 30 car-free streets during last year’s event. Major areas where cars will be banned include Broadway in Manhattan from …

The New York Times reports: The Triassic was the dawn of the dinosaurs. The Paleogene saw the rise of mammals. The Pleistocene included the last ice ages. Is it time to mark humankind’s transformation of the planet with its own chapter in Earth history, the “Anthropocene,” or the human age? Not yet, scientists have decided, after a debate that has …

The Associated Press reports: Earth last year shattered global annual heat records, flirted with the world’s agreed-upon warming threshold and showed more signs of a feverish planet, the European climate agency said Tuesday. In one of the first of several teams of science agencies to calculate how off-the-charts warm 2023 was, the European climate agency Copernicus said the year was …

NPR reports: As 2023 draws to a close, it’s going out on top. “It’s looking virtually certain at this point that 2023 will be the hottest year on record,” says Zeke Hausfather, climate scientist at Berkeley Earth, a non-profit that analyzes climate trends. Though temperature records from December have yet to be finalized, climate scientists at the National Oceanic and …

The Washington Post reports: For the past several years, a small group of scientists has warned that sometime early this century, the rate of global warming — which has remained largely steady for decades — might accelerate. Temperatures could rise higher, faster. The drumbeat of weather disasters may become more insistent. And now, after what is poised to be the …

Reuters reports: Representatives from nearly 200 countries agreed at the COP28 climate summit on Wednesday to begin reducing global consumption of fossil fuels to avert the worst of climate change, a first of its kind deal signaling the eventual end of the oil age. The deal struck in Dubai after two weeks of hard-fought negotiations was meant to send a …

Bloomberg News reports: The people of Iceland are bracing for what could be the country’s most devastating volcanic eruption in 50 years, with a small fishing town at risk of being destroyed. There’s a significant likelihood of magma busting to the surface over the coming days at Grindavik, home to over 3,600 people, the Met Office said on Sunday. More …

The Hill reports: A federal appeals court on Thursday is tossing the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ban on a pesticide that has been linked to brain damage in children. The decision from the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals to send the rule back to the agency does not preclude the agency from reinstating the ban in the future. Chlorpyrifos has …

Roll Call reports: A group of GOP-led states and industry groups on Wednesday asked the Supreme Court to prevent the EPA from enforcing a Biden administration emissions and clean air rule. Ohio, Indiana and West Virginia filed a lawsuit to challenge the so-called Good Neighbor Rule, and last month a federal appeals court in Washington declined to stop the program …

Bloomberg News reports: This summer was the warmest on record globally by a large margin as extreme heat waves impacted North America, Europe and Asia, according to Europe’s Earth observation agency Copernicus. Temperatures in June, July and August were 0.66 degrees Celsius above the average between 1991 and 2020, Copernicus said. Last month was the warmest August on record globally …

Reuters reports: Japan started releasing treated radioactive water from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean on Thursday, a polarizing move that prompted China to announce an immediate blanket ban on all aquatic products from Japan. China is “highly concerned about the risk of radioactive contamination brought by… Japan’s food and agricultural products,” the customs bureau said …

ABC News reports: Floridians usually flock to the ocean to escape the summer heat. But this week, it may not have been much help as sea surface temperatures soared to the mid-90s, even encroaching 100 degrees Fahrenheit at some points. Some of the highest temperatures are off South Florida, with a NOAA buoy off the tip of the state recording …