In the News
Threatened salmon face another hot summer in the Trinity River
by SONIA WARAICH
Drought conditions don't look like they're going to let up this summer and that could leave the Trinity River's already threatened fish species in hot water. On Tuesday, North Coast Rep. Jared Huffman sent a letter to U.S. Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Camille Touton requesting that less water from Trinity Lake be sent to Central Valley farmers. The lake is currently storing 775,000 acre feet of water, which is just 25,000 acre feet above the amount of water needed to maintain cool … Continue Reading
February 23, 2022
Biden Urged to Declare ‘Climate Emergency’
by Ari Natter
Biden's signature environmental legislation indefinitely stalled, progressive Democrats and activists are lobbying the White House to declare a "climate emergency" to unlock executive powers. The tactic could allow Biden to shut down crude oil exports, suspend offshore drilling, and redirect funding for clean energy projects. Former President Donald Trump used a similar step to divert billions of dollars to build a wall along the southern border after Congress refused to appropriate the … Continue Reading
February 23, 2022
Climate hawks scorn Postal Service plan to stick with gas-powered delivery trucks
by GUY KOVNER
Spurning President Joe Biden's clean air goals and the auto industry's pivot to electric vehicles, Postmaster General Louis DeJoy on Wednesday announced a plan to buy up to 165,000 new mail delivery trucks, most of them running on gasoline rather than batteries. Described by the Postal Service as a "fiscally and environmentally responsible" plan to modernize its vehicle fleet - one of the largest in the world - the announcement culminated a yearslong debate and prompted outrage from … Continue Reading
February 17, 2022
Interior IG: Zinke misused position as Interior secretary
by Benjamin J. Hulac
Former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke "misused his official position" in supporting a project that could benefit a foundation he founded with his wife, federal investigators said. After his confirmation, Zinke, the first Interior secretary of the Trump administration, said he resigned his position at the Great Northern Veterans Peace Park Foundation, which he started in his hometown of Whitefish, Mont., and would not participate in the organization. In a report published Wednesday, the … Continue Reading
February 17, 2022
House committee OKs conservation bills over GOP grumbling
by Scott Streater
The House Natural Resources Committee yesterday approved a slew of public lands and wildlife bills to address issues ranging from online wildlife trafficking to restoring fish habitat in the Great Lakes, improving water quality in Chesapeake Bay and saving dwindling kelp forests off the California coastline. The majority of the 14 bills on the agenda passed with no debate. But the markup got bogged down at times when Republicans questioned the need to consider wildlife and conservation … Continue Reading
February 15, 2022
With Build Back Better on back burner, Dems fire up environmental justice
by Rose Wagner
WASHINGTON (CN) - Facing the all-but-certain death of the $1.85 trillion Build Back Better Act, Democrats are pushing to get parts of their climate agenda formalized into law. The House Natural Resources Committee met Tuesday to consider the Environmental Justice for All Act, legislation first introduced in 2020 and revived now in the wake of the failure by Democrats to unite behind the Build Back Better Act, which would have invested massively in the fight against climate change and … Continue Reading
February 14, 2022
House committee sets vote on public land, wildlife bills
by Manuel Quiñones
The House Natural Resources Committee will vote on several bills this week, including proposals to address wildlife trafficking, promote biking on public lands and address a mistake in the bipartisan infrastructure law. H.R. 1546, from Rep. Buddy Carter (R-Ga.), would direct the Presidential Task Force on Wildlife Trafficking to recommend ways of addressing wildlife trafficking on the internet and on social media. The legislation would also task the State Department and U.S. Agency for … Continue Reading
February 12, 2022
Klamath Basin water stakeholders come to the table
by Alex Schwartz
On Thursday, for the first time since President Biden took office, the Interior Department gathered a diverse group of irrigators, tribes and conservation groups scrambling over the Klamath Basin's dwindling water supply - all under one (virtual) roof. Though the feds couldn't make it rain, they're about to release a river of cash to help fix the watershed in the long term. "Finally, after a long period of time, there are significant resources coming to this place that's in the … Continue Reading
February 10, 2022
California to receive $56 million to build out EV infrastructure
by Isabella Vanderheiden
The Biden administration on Thursday announced the availability of $5 billion in federal funds from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, also known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, to build out a national network of electric vehicle charging and alternative vehicle fueling stations over the next five years along designated highways. Under Transportation Department requirements, states must submit plans to the federal government and can begin construction by this fall if they focus … Continue Reading
February 09, 2022
Democrats press postmaster to go with electric vehicles
by Zack Budryk
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and climate hawk Democrats in Congress are pressing Postmaster General Louis DeJoy to backtrack on the purchase of thousands of gasoline-powered U.S. Postal Service vehicles, setting up a confrontation with one of the few federal officials President Biden can't replace at will. Biden in 2021 issued an executive order calling for the federal government to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 - an ambitious goal that would necessarily … Continue Reading
February 09, 2022
Panel mulls lack of diversity in environmental movement
by Jennifer Yachnin
House Natural Resources Chair Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) warned yesterday that the environmental movement could see its impacts lessened without a dedicated effort to improve diversity among its ranks, including both advocates and the foundations that fund their work. During a more than three-hour hearing yesterday, the panel heard ideas on how to increase participation in environmental activism. Witnesses talked about dispensing with "jargon" and paring down the federal grant application … Continue Reading
February 08, 2022
USPS electrification supporters face bumpy road ahead
by Maxine Joselow and Jacob Bogage
Proponents of Postal Service electrification face bumpy road ahead Democrats and environmentalists are gearing up to fight the U.S. Postal Service's plan to spend billions of dollars on a new fleet of gasoline-powered delivery trucks. But none of their options are particularly promising, and the clock is ticking before tens of thousands of gas delivery trucks start rumbling down America's roads, undermining President Biden's goal of converting the federal fleet to … Continue Reading
February 07, 2022
Lawmakers join fight against USPS gas-powered vehicles
by Arianna Skibell
A group of Democratic lawmakers has joined the increasingly loud chorus urging the U.S. Postal Service to reconsider its plan to spend billions of dollars on a new fleet of gasoline-powered vehicles. In a letter released Friday to Postmaster General Louis DeJoy and board of governors Chair Roman Martinez, the lawmakers said USPS's fleet procurement plan subverted both the National Environmental Policy Act and the country's climate and public health commitments. In response, the Postal … Continue Reading
February 07, 2022
$7 million from feds to cover wildfire repairs at Lake Mendocino, infrastructure projects in Sonoma County
by Guy Kovner
A combined package of roughly $7 million in federal infrastructure and disaster relief funding is set to enable a host of badly needed repair and upgrade projects at recreation sites and reservoirs serving Mendocino and Sonoma counties. Visitor shelters and foot bridges torched by the 2021 Hopkins fire at Lake Mendocino will be rebuilt with a $2.5 million award from a federal disaster relief bill. The funding accompanies nearly $4.5 million from the $1.2 trillion congressional … Continue Reading
February 04, 2022
US House passes COMPETES Act with SIMP expansion, Graves does not vote
by Steve Bittenbender
The U.S. House of Representatives passed the American COMPETES Act on Friday, 4 February on a near party-line vote. The USD 350 billion (EUR 305.6 billion) spending bill tackles supply chain and trade issues included several fishing provisions from other bills - including the expansion of the Seafood Import Monitoring Program (SIMP) to cover all species that enter American ports. H.R. 4521 passed by a 222-210 vote. One Republican member joined Democrats in support, and one Democratic member … Continue Reading
February 03, 2022
PG&E to bring Potter Valley Project back online as license takeover unravels
by Isabella Vanderheiden
In a shocking turn of events, Pacific Gas and Electric Co. announced Wednesday that it will move forward with bringing the Potter Valley Project - a water diversion system in the Eel River basin - back to fully operational status. The Potter Valley powerhouse has been offline since July 2021 when PG&E discovered a blown transformer during a routine inspection. "PG&E has completed its evaluation of whether to replace the transformer and concluded it is beneficial to PG&E's electric … Continue Reading
February 03, 2022
House Democrats warn delay will sink agenda
by Mike Lillis
House Democrats of all stripes are pressing for quick action on the climate, health and education package at the heart of President Biden's domestic agenda, warning that a long delay in revisiting the Build Back Better Act is the surest way to kill it. The lawmakers are citing a host of reasons for their pleas of urgency, including the fast-approaching midterm elections, the desperate desire to give an unpopular president a big boost and the party's fragile Senate majority that's just one … Continue Reading
February 02, 2022
Study blasts loopholes in NOAA's seafood inspection program
by Rob Hotokainen
Roughly 60 percent of all seafood coming into the United States is not covered by a federal inspection program operated by NOAA, according to a new report by the environmental group Oceana. As a result, Americans are eating tons of food that's likely the result of illegal fishing, the study said, noting that 85 percent of all seafood consumed by Americans now comes from foreign sources. "When Americans order calamari at a restaurant, they do not want a side of criminal activity to come with … Continue Reading
February 01, 2022
‘Everybody’s at risk’: Plan to acquire Mendocino County power plant unravels
by Mary Callahan
Plans to acquire an aging power plant in Mendocino County to ensure continued flows of Eel River water into Lake Mendocino and Sonoma County have unraveled. A coalition of organizations from Sonoma, Humboldt and Mendocino counties abandoned their quest to acquire the century-old Potter Valley hydroelectric plant, saying it could not meet an April 14 deadline for submitting a federal license application. The plant, about 80 miles north of Santa Rosa, is owned by Pacific Gas & Electric, … Continue Reading
January 31, 2022
Biden's Russia problem reveals political landmines in energy policy
by Josh Siegel, Ben Lefebvre
President Joe Biden's messaging on the clean energy transition is showing some cracks amid the threat of armed conflict in Eastern Europe. Biden's plans to move away from fossil fuel and put the U.S. on a path to cut greenhouse gas emissions by half by 2030 have been undercut by Russia's buildup of troops on the Ukrainian border. That fear of invasion has contributed to a surge in oil and natural gas prices, and the White House has moved to marshal energy supplies for its allies there. For … Continue Reading