Environmental Politics

The U.S. Needs Wildland Firefighters More Than Ever, but Is Losing Them

"Black Butte is an inactive volcano that rises from the high desert in eastern Oregon. In May 2022, a turboprop plane approached its pine-blanketed slopes, carrying about 10 men wearing bulky Kevlar outfits. They were smokejumpers with the United States Forest Service, the agency that directs the majority of the nation’s efforts to manage wildfires."

Source: ProPublica, 03/19/2024

"An Oregon Bill to Cut Millions in Timber Taxes Is Dead, Despite Backing"

"The legislation aimed to reformulate how Oregon funds the rising costs of fighting wildfires. It sparked debate within the Democratic-controlled Legislature about who should pay: taxpayers or big timber owners, who won steep tax cuts in the 1990s."

Source: ProPublica, 03/19/2024

"5th Circuit Denies Biden Request To Review Nuclear Waste Ruling"

"An appeals court with a famously conservative bent narrowly rejected the Biden administration’s request to reconsider its August ruling that stripped the Nuclear Regulatory Commission of authority to license private nuclear waste storage facilities not located at a reactor site."

Source: E&E News, 03/19/2024

"FBI Sent Several Informants To Standing Rock Protests, Court Documents Show"

"Up to 10 informants managed by the FBI were embedded in anti-pipeline resistance camps near the Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation at the height of mass protests against the Dakota Access pipeline in 2016."

Source: Grist, 03/19/2024

"U.S. Approves $500 Million for Bahrain Oil Project, Despite Opposition"

"A federal bank that finances projects overseas voted Thursday to put $500 million toward an oil and gas project in Bahrain, a transaction that critics said was out of step with President Biden’s climate commitments."

Source: NYTimes, 03/19/2024

Clean Electricity? These Are The Overlooked Elected Officials Who Decide.

"On a Tuesday morning in January, college student Aurora Gray stepped up to the podium in a windowless room in Atlanta, around the corner from the state capitol building. In front of her sat a five-member panel of elected officials that oversees how and where nearly every Georgia resident gets their power."

Source: Yale Climate Connections, 03/18/2024

DOE Conditionally Approves $2.26 Billion Loan For Huge Nevada Lithium Mine

"President Joe Biden’s administration has conditionally agreed to loan more than $2 billion to the company building a controversial lithium mine in Nevada with the largest known U.S. deposit of the metal critical to making batteries for electric vehicles key to his renewable energy agenda."

Source: AP, 03/18/2024

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