ENVIRONMENT POLICIES, ANALYSIS, AND RESOURCES
Latest Environment Posts
New Study Shows Americans are Dying Early from Air Pollution
Brief #135 – Environment Policy
By Jacob Morton
A new study published by the Health Effects Institute shows that Federal air pollution regulations are not doing enough to protect our elders from serious illness and death. The recent report published by HEI shows that Americans 65 and older are still at risk of death from exposure to fine soot pollution in the air, even at the levels allowed by the Federal government.
A Judge’s Gavel Keeps the Oil Drills from Spinning – for the Time Being
Brief #134 – Environmental Policy
By Todd J. Broadman
On January 27, the country’s largest ever oil and gas lease sales were canceled by a federal judge. A total of 308 tracts totaling nearly 1.7 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico had been auctioned to thirty-three oil companies – Shell, BP, Chevron and Exxon Mobil among them. $192 million had been paid to the government for drilling rights.
Electric Vehicles and a Collision Course with Public Lands Management
Brief #133 – Environmental Policy
By Timothy T. Loftus
The race to electrify the transportation sector, now the largest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions in the US, will entail controversial decisions and tradeoffs involving the use and management of America’s public lands.
The Politics of Heating Buildings
Brief #132 – Environment Policy
By Todd J. Broadman
Seventy million American homes and businesses depend on natural gas, oil, or propane on-site for heating, hot water, and cooking. The annual carbon dioxide generated is 560 million tons or 40% of total US emissions when you include the carbon used in building construction. The amount of methane, a far more potent CO2 gas, that routinely leaks as part of the gas distribution process, is equivalent to all US vehicle emissions.
EPA Strengthens Policy Against Lead in Drinking Water, But Is It Enough?
Brief #131 – Environment Policy
By Katelyn Lewis
Federal officials announced Thursday their plan to tighten restrictions on the amount of lead allowed in drinking water in an effort to reduce the health hazards such exposure has caused in poor, often minority communities across the U.S.
Dams Versus Salmon on the Snake River
Brief #130 – Environment Policy
By Timothy T. Loftus, Ph.D.
This past October, the Northwest News Network reported that a coalition of conservation groups, the Nez Perce Tribe, and the State of Oregon reached an agreement with the Biden Administration and federal agencies to pause, until next summer, long-running litigation over the operations of Snake River dams within the Columbia River Basin.
DOI Will Not Stop the Drilling in the Face of Climate Commitments
Brief #129 – Environment Policy
By Todd J. Broadman
With President Biden’s COP26 climate pledge as backdrop, his administration has been issuing oil leases at a record pace. Biden said that climate change is “the challenge of our collective lifetimes, an existential threat to human existence as we know it. And every day we delay the cost of inaction increases.” His pledge is to cut U.S. emissions by up to 51% over the next nine years. At the end of October, the administration had approved 3,091 new drilling permits on public lands at a rate of 332 per month, outpacing the Trump administration’s 300 permits per month in fiscal years 2018-2020.
Takeaways from the COP26 Climate Summit
Brief #128 – Environment Policy
By Jacob Morton
At the UN’s COP26 Climate Summit earlier this month, representatives from 197 nations gathered in Glasgow, Scotland with the goal of collectively accelerating global efforts towards achieving the climate goals of the Paris Agreement and the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change. The focus of the conference centered around three major pillars of climate change action: Adaptation, Finance, and Mitigation. Here are the key takeaways.
Can the U.S. Fulfill Its COP 26 Climate Promises?
Brief #127 – Environmental Policy
By Katelyn Lewis
Climate experts say the gathering of leaders from around the world in Glasgow, Scotland, for a two-week climate meeting led to imperfect, yet possible, updates to the Paris Agreement to slow global warming. The success of COP 26 depends on whether countries, including the United States, hold up their end of the bargain.