ENVIRONMENT POLICIES, ANALYSIS, AND RESOURCES
Latest Environment Posts
The Move Away from Plastic is Looking Just as Flimsy
Brief #150 – Environment Policy
By Todd J. Broadman
We are a world addicted to plastic, the most perceivable, persistent and pervasive indicator of the Anthropocene. Plastics are produced from natural gas, feedstocks derived from natural gas processing, and each year more is produced. The current production rate is 400 million metric tons and is the source of 5% of CO2 emissions. By 2030 it will be 600 million metric tons, and 800 by 2040.
Americans Find Toxic Water at The Bottom of Their Well
Brief #149 – Environment Policy
By Todd J. Broadman
Worldwide, 1 in 10 people cannot access clean water within a 30-minute walk from their home and by 2030 this situation is projected to grow and displace up to 700 million. Closer to home, as the water treatment infrastructure in the U.S. continues to deteriorate, many Americans are facing a similar plight.
Environmental Provisions of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act
Brief #148 – Environment Policy
By Jacob Morton
On August 16, 2022, President Joe Biden signed into law the Inflation Reduction Act, H.R. 5376. The new law is a scaled-back version of the Biden administration’s Build Back Better Act, intended to reduce the national deficit and lower inflation while investing in domestic energy production, creating jobs, and lowering healthcare drug costs. Here is a look at how the new law impacts U.S. environmental and climate policy.
A Path to Reducing Reducing Wildfires
Brief #147 – Environmental Policy
By Haley Moore
A new law ensures a future for forests with the environment in mind.
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was passed into law on August 16, 2022. $375B will go to aid the climate crisis over the course of the next decade.
The Colorado River is Teaching a Lesson the Archeologists Know All Too Well
Brief #146 – Environmental Policy
By Todd J. Broadman
The Colorado River, a water source that irrigates 5 million acres of farm land and supplies 40 million people with drinking water, has long been severely overallocated. For decades, so much water has been diverted to supply farms and cities that the river’s delta in Mexico has dried up. Those that depend on its bounty are now in crisis as the western U.S. has undergone a 23-year megadrought and the nation’s largest reservoirs have subsequently dropped their water levels by three-quarters.
A Conservative Supreme Court Handicaps the EPA in its Fight Against Climate Change
Brief #145 – Environmental Policy
By Jacob Morton
On June 30th, the US Supreme Court, in a 6-3 vote, issued a ruling to limit the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) ability to regulate greenhouse gas emissions released by power plants that burn fossil fuels. The Court’s conservative majority argues that only Congress has the power to make such grand regulations, even though Congress already granted the EPA this authority. Dissenting liberal justices say the conservative majority is making up rules to protect Big Coal.
SCOTUS Tightens its Noose Around Another Federal Agency: the EPA
Brief #144 – Environment Policy
By Todd J. Broadman
The recent SCOTUS decision in the West Virginia vs. EPA case, though not unexpected, is further support for a clear ideological direction underway at the Court. The case was brought by several Attorney Generals along with mining industry plaintiffs from major coal producing states. The 6-to-3 decision in favor of the plaintiffs applies directly to the EPA’s authority to regulate the carbon emissions of power plants under the (Obama) 2015 Clean Power Plan.
Is Your Drinking Water Safe?
Brief #143 – Environment Policy
By Roarke Cullenbine
Water pollution is a serious epidemic in the US, impacting hundreds of thousands. With the US ranking twenty-third in the world for tap water safety, great progress is necessary to keep citizens out of the hospital from consuming either lead, diesel, or pathogens in their water supplies. With few additions to the dated 1972 Clean Water Act, impurity of America’s drinking water is not improving.
Goodbye Inefficient Light Bulbs, You Are No Longer Needed
Brief #143 – Environmental Policy
By Jacob Morton
The Biden administration replaces corrupt policy and outdated technology to save consumers money and help fight climate change. Reintroducing new energy efficiency standards for light bulbs previously initiated in 2007, but shot down by the Trump administration in 2019, Biden’s Department of Energy says goodbye to the inefficient and outdated incandescent light bulb.