[Source: The New York Times] The Trump administration has formally revised a proposal that would significantly restrict the type of research that can be used to draft environmental and public health regulations, a measure that experts say amounts to one of the government’s most far-reaching restrictions on science. The revisions made public Tuesday evening mean Read More…
Newsroom
Why coronavirus could hit small businesses the hardest
[Source: Yahoo Finance] Keeping the U.S. economy on its feet as coronavirus pervades American borders is up to consumers and how much they’re willing to go out and spend, especially at small and midsize businesses, supply chain management expert Hitendra Chaturvedi says. Chaturvedi, a professor at Arizona State University’s W.P. Carey School of Business, said Read More…
Coronavirus: NASA images show China pollution clear amid slowdown
[Source: BBC News] Satellite images have shown a dramatic decline in pollution levels over China, which is “at least partly” due to an economic slowdown prompted by the coronavirus, US space agency NASA says. NASA maps show falling levels of nitrogen dioxide this year. It comes amid record declines in China’s factory activity as manufacturers Read More…
Tackling air pollution may accidentally trigger serious health issues
[Source: NewScientist] Cities tackling one major air pollutant risk inadvertently making things worse by fuelling the growth of another, potentially more harmful type of pollution. Many urban areas around the world are in breach of World Health Organization guidelines on PM2.5, particulate matter with a maximum diameter of 2.5 micrometres. Vehicles are a common source of Read More…
Proposition 13 would spend $15 billion on California schools
[Source: Associated Press] Lake Elementary School, just a half-hour drive northeast of San Francisco, is a relic from 1957. Much of the school’s scuffed flooring is old linoleum that contains asbestos, as does the insulation around the school’s hulking old steel furnace where grey duct tape is wrapped around rusting pipes. “The heating system is Read More…
Why Texans don‘t want any more Californians
[Source: The Atlantic] Across a frightened nation divided by politics and culture, a fragile harmony is ascendant, as Americans in small towns and large cities alike cry out in trembling unison: Hey, where did all these Californians come from? Talk of a “California Exodus” is sweeping the country—and so are anxieties about its effects on Read More…
Ready or not here it comes—State groundwater regulation
[Source: CalChamber] January 31, 2020 marks the first time in California’s history that groundwater will be regulated. Twenty-one critically over-drafted groundwater basins must submit detailed plans showing how they will reach sustainability by 2040. The plans must include ways to monitor groundwater on a day-to-day basis, short-term, seasonal, and year long. Sustainability generally means eliminating Read More…
NEPA climate overhaul could unleash energy projects
[Source: E&E NEWS] The White House is poised to exclude climate considerations from its controversial rewrite of rules surrounding the nation’s core environmental law. The Council on Environmental Quality’s proposed changes to National Environmental Policy Act guidelines will likely emerge this week. NEPA, signed into law by President Nixon, gives communities input and allows them Read More…
New study details economic impact of fracturing ban
[Source: Midland Reporter Telegram] As the 2020 presidential election campaign heats up, some candidates have called for a total ban on hydraulic fracturing while other groups support a “keep it in the ground” policy against producing fossil fuels. Such comments come as the Global Energy Institute, part of the US Chamber of Commerce, issued a Read More…