"After the worst fire season in California history and as drought conditions raise fears of what’s to come, Gov. Gavin Newsom and legislative leaders unveiled a $536-million proposal Thursday to boost efforts at firefighting and a variety of prevention measures, including vegetation management and the construction of fire-resistant structures across the state."
"As an academic, Robert Anderson advocated giving sharper "teeth" to policies requiring outreach to Native Americans and called "intriguing" a move to enhance the clout of the Interior Department's top American Indian affairs official. Now, as the Biden administration's newly named nominee to serve as Interior solicitor, the law school professor could be much closer to putting his tribe-empowering ideas into practice."
One especially ambitious element of the Biden infrastructure plan would swap out millions of lead pipes. It’s a massive, costly endeavor, but could remove from the country’s water supply a neurotoxin that harms human health, especially of kids and the poor. TipSheet looks at the new plan and offers ideas for reporting the story in your area.
"President Joe Biden’s push to elevate racial justice and the needs of disadvantaged communities is starting to overshadow a key player at the forefront of environmental justice for more than two decades: the Environmental Protection Agency."
"The White House today [Monday] announced a group of community leaders and green activists to join the Council on Environmental Quality's Environmental Justice Advisory Council. Members include Texas professor Robert Bullard, regarded as the father of the environmental justice movement."
The CDC, long a storied agency of serious import not just to health and science reporters, but also to environmental journalists, took a massive hit to its credibility during the Trump administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The latest WatchDog opinion makes the case it can do better, and offers 15 steps that may help restore the federal entity to its gold-standard days.
The push for federal infrastructure legislation may mean money for local water and sewage projects under a long-standing and broadly bipartisan program called WIFIA. The new TipSheet explains how the program works and why the latest developments could spell news for local environmental reporters. Plus, story ideas and reporting resources.
March 24, 2021 — The Society of Environmental Journalists wrote to President Biden, calling on him to keep his campaign promise to speak out publicly against the murder of the Saudi Arabian journalist and Washington Post columnist, Jamal Khashoggi. Full text of the letter.
"Conservatives have long argued against regulating fossil fuel production for the climate’s sake, claiming that doing so would interfere with the holy free market. A new study shows that’s a total fairy tale because the invisible hand isn’t responsible for dirty fuels’ market dominance—implicit government subsidies are. The findings show those subsidies total in the billions each year."
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