"At the start of wildfire season, California’s insurance regulator has backed sweeping changes to discourage home building in fire-prone areas, including looking at cutting off new construction in those regions from what is often their only source of insurance — the state’s high-risk pool."
Meet SEJ member David Boraks! David covers the environment, energy, development, housing and other topics for WFAE, the NPR affiliate in Charlotte, NC.
"China plans to strengthen controls in industries such as steel and aluminium which involve high energy use and produce high emissions, in an effort to promote low-carbon developments, the environment ministry said on Monday."
Climate change can mean doubling down on disasters, such as a combination of widespread power outages with the kind of extreme heat that kills. The latest TipSheet explores why such simultaneous disasters are so dangerous, where they’ve happened already, why they are increasingly likely to happen again and how to prepare to cover them in your area.
"China’s population is growing at its slowest pace in decades, with a plunge in births and a graying work force presenting the Communist Party with one of its gravest social and economic challenges."
"Biden proposal includes first major focus on restructuring roadways that divided cities and cut off minority neighborhoods".
"Lack of a current, national rainfall database means some states use 60-year-old statistics as they design roads, bridges and dams that are supposed to last 50 years".
"A long-running plan to build a community of 19,000 homes on vast Tejon Ranch north of Los Angeles has been halted by a judge who cited high wildfire risk."
"President Biden will unveil an infrastructure plan on Wednesday whose $2 trillion price tag would translate into 20,000 miles of rebuilt roads, repairs to the 10 most economically important bridges in the country, the elimination of lead pipes and service lines from the nation’s water supplies and a long list of other projects intended to create millions of jobs in the short run and strengthen American competitiveness in the long run."
The push for federal infrastructure legislation may mean money for local water and sewage projects under a long-standing and broadly bipartisan program called WIFIA. The new TipSheet explains how the program works and why the latest developments could spell news for local environmental reporters. Plus, story ideas and reporting resources.
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