Fire season is back, if it ever went away. And it's no longer a natural disaster story limited in geographic scope. Now it's a nationwide U.S. story touching on climate, money, politics, zoning, pollution and more. The latest Tipsheet runs down key information sources, plus what make a good peg for your local wildfire reporting.
"Ivanka Trump is planning to meet next week with Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt about the Paris climate change agreement."
"As the Environmental Protection Agency proceeds with a large-scale update of its website, its climate change site has been taken down, pending review. But several climate scientists contacted by The Post argue that this is unnecessary."
"One of the coal industry's biggest boosters has joined U.S. EPA. Christian Palich, who started this week as a deputy associate administrator in the Office of Congressional and Intergovernmental Relations, is the former president of the Ohio Coal Association."
"Potentially harmful human-caused noise pollution affects nearly two-thirds of all protected areas in the United States, according to a report released on Thursday."
"The wind power industry just chalked up its strongest first quarter in eight years. Tax credits play an important role." "Every two and a half hours, workers installed a new wind turbine in the United States during the first quarter of 2017, marking the strongest start for the wind industry in eight years, according to a new report by the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA) released on May 2."
"The United States will shoot itself in the foot if it quits the Paris climate accord because China, India and Europe will snap up the best power sector jobs in future, U.N. Environment chief Erik Solheim said on Thursday."
"Unrelenting rain will drench the already saturated U.S. Midwest on Thursday and Friday, forecasters said, after floods in the region killed at least five people and forced residents in vulnerable areas to evacuate their flooded communities."
"Congress’s bipartisan spending agreement could fund federal government operations for less than a year, but its effects on climate policy could persist through future presidential administrations."
"The U.S. Chemical Safety Board (CSB) has concluded that a 2015 explosion at a Torrance, California, refinery then owned by Exxon Mobil Corp could have been prevented, the agency concluded in a report issued on Wednesday."
