"The Department of Energy is racing this year to finalize clean energy regulations and disburse billions of dollars in grants and loans as President Joe Biden’s prospects for securing a second term hang in the balance."
Health and environmental concerns about some beauty items — like the use of formaldehyde in certain hair straighteners — have started to emerge as a focus for federal regulation. But as the latest TipSheet points out, the response has been slow and fitful. Meanwhile, here are story ideas and resources to help reporters find local angles for this environmental and public health hazard.
"Several companies registered in Latin American countries claiming to have U.N. endorsement have persuaded Indigenous communities to hand over the economic rights to their forests for decades to come, a Mongabay investigation has found. The companies share commercial interests across various jurisdictions, and have not been able to demonstrate experience in sustainable finance projects."
"Congressional Republicans are putting President Joe Biden’s $400 billion green bank in their crosshairs, seeking a repeat of the political victory they scored in 2011 with the scandal over collapsed solar company Solyndra."
"Interior Department officials enter a thicket this year overgrown with tough choices, evergreen litigation and plenty of political heat no matter which direction they go."
"Study after study has found the country can’t build renewable energy at the pace needed to rapidly decarbonize the power grid without also building a massive amount of new power lines, fast. But over the past half-decade, grid growth has slowed, not accelerated, bogged down by conflicts over siting, permitting and paying for new transmission capacity."
"The Biden administration is negotiating with hydrogen industry leaders on legally binding commitments involving tens of thousands of new jobs and lower emissions, a pledge crucial to winning community support and achieving US environmental justice goals."
"Officials in Youngstown, Ohio, have dealt a setback to a company’s plan to build and operate a recycled tire waste-to-energy plant near the center of the city and adjacent to a neighborhood of predominantly Black residents, enacting a one-year moratorium on such industrial processes."
"Industrial developers describe facilities as “minor” polluters to avoid federal permitting requirements, and environmental lawyers say the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality lets it happen."
"With aquifers nationwide in dangerous decline, one part of California has tried essentially taxing groundwater. New research shows it’s working."
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