Disasters

"Touting the potential for disposable plastic bags to help prevent coronavirus spread in grocery stores, the heavily Republican Ohio Senate passed a bill Wednesday that would prohibit local plastic bag bans for 12 months."

"From doubling public transport to expanding electric bike rentals, Colombia's second city wants to use the virus recovery to reach climate goals".

"The EPA’s biggest union is pushing back against the agency’s plans to start the process that could lead to reopening some of its offices."

"Federal pipeline inspectors didn't like what they found when they looked at construction of the Permian Express pipeline."

"International negotiations designed to address the sweeping global threat of climate change will quite likely be delayed by a full year because of the coronavirus pandemic."

"Because of increasing rates of sea level rise fueled by global warming, the remaining 5,800 square miles of Louisiana’s coastal wetlands in the Mississippi River delta will disappear. The only question is how quickly it will happen, says a new peer-reviewed study published Friday in Science Advances."

"An executive order signed by President Trump directing agencies to slash regulations in order to boost the economy is likely to lead to a number of court challenges."

A report to Congress "doubles down on the administration’s stance that individual states, not the federal government, should bear primary responsibility for carrying out diagnostic tests to help curb the pandemic."

"For decades, the backbone of the nation’s disaster response system — and a hallmark of American generosity — has been its army of volunteers who race toward danger to help shelter, feed and counsel victims of hurricanes, wildfires and other calamities. However, the Covid-19 pandemic has exposed a critical weakness in this system."