"The Transportation Department today announced historic funding to replace and repair the nation’s aging bridges. The $26.5 billion will also be used to ensure bridges are resilient to the increasingly severe effects of climate change."
"More than 150 former Environmental Protection Agency employees are urging Virginia lawmakers to oppose the nomination of the Trump administration’s EPA chief to a high-ranking environmental position."
"The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration is readying its first-ever restrictions on methane emissions and planning to press pipeline companies on the issue in the coming months, marking a significant shift for a federal agency traditionally focused on safety and oil spills."
"For Chuck McGinley, an engineer who devised the go-to instrument for measuring odors, helping people understand what they smell is serious science."
"While bald eagle populations have slowly recovered since the pesticide DDT was banned in 1972, toxic lead ammo has reduced population growth by 4% to 6% annually in the Northeast U.S., according to a new study."
"President Biden is expected to nominate Sarah Bloom Raskin, one of the United States’ most prominent climate finance hawks, to be the Federal Reserve’s top bank cop."
"The Supreme Court’s order yesterday blocking vaccine-or-test requirements for large employers sent a daunting message to environmental lawyers. Legal observers say the court, which is now dominated by six conservative justices, has signaled its interest in reining in the regulatory authority of federal agencies. And EPA could be next."
"The Biden administration last week quietly and abruptly announced that developers can no longer rely on decisions made under a high-profile Trump-era Clean Water Act rule about which waters are federally protected to obtain new permits."
As the Society of Environmental Journalists prepares for its annual conference in Houston this March, the SEJournal asked Texas-based reporter Greg Harman to explore the Lone Star State's most critical stories for 2022. Here, in this special Texas-focused TipSheet, are leads, resources, encouragements and challenges.
With billions of infrastructure dollars now on the table to clean up orphan oil wells, states are already elbowing their way in for a taste. But as our new Backgrounder explains, the process to ensure they cannot pollute the environment or spew climate-change gasses is a complex one. And the sheer (and largely unknown) number of orphaned wells adds to the complications.
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