Infrastructure

"The Biden administration announced Tuesday it will open applications for the first tranche of funding — $400 million — to help states and territories take up energy-efficient building codes.

A senior administration official told reporters Monday that under the codes, new buildings and major renovations would be done with better construction and in a way that is more efficient and resilient.

The Energy Department said in a press release announcing the funding that homes built using modern energy codes are 40 percent more efficient than homes built 15 years ago."

"Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.), two of Congress’s most vocal proponents for aggressive climate action, on Monday called for President Biden to establish a Civilian Climate Corps (CCC)."

"A coal plant seeking hundreds of millions in public funding submitted an analysis riddled with mistakes, according to a former Energy Department official. But the government published it anyway."

"Take a mental picture of the Earth. Now shatter that image into 600,000 fragments. These fragments are carved out by road networks, which stretch across about 40 million miles of the Earth's surface."

"As the Blue Ridge Fire blazed across California's Orange County in 2020, O.P. Almaraz stared at the menacing glow on the horizon and evacuated his family to a hotel. The next morning, he walked out of his room into a jam-packed, buzzing, chaotic lobby."

"An EPA rule finalized last week that restores states’ veto power over pipelines and other major river-polluting projects is expected to face legal challenges before the dust settles, natural resources attorneys say."

"Internal agency communications confirm certain EPA experts, including a "key dioxin scientist," were not consulted until a month after the derailment."

"How a national macrogrid could accelerate the movement to electrify everything".

"Offshore wind projects need more federal funding and planning assistance to ensure they get built, the Democratic governors of six northeastern states told the Biden administration, warning that a cornerstone of the climate change fight could be in jeopardy."

"“The state wasn’t interested,” said an engineer who published a paper on why Derna’s dams, after decades of postponed repairs, might fail under the stress of a powerful storm."