Originally Passed in 1968 (EPA) — NEPA was one of the first laws ever written that establishes the broad national framework for protecting our environment. NEPA's basic policy is to assure that all branches of government give proper consideration to the environment prior to undertaking any major federal action that significantly affects the environment.

NEPA requirements are invoked when airports, buildings, military complexes, highways, parkland purchases, and other federal activities are proposed. Environmental Assessments (EAs) and Environmental Impact Statements (EISs), which are assessments of the likelihood of impacts from alternative courses of action, are required from all Federal agencies and are the most visible NEPA requirements.

June 12, 2021 (CleanTechnica)-This week, EPA announced that it will reconsider the previous administration’s decision to retain the particulate matter (PM) National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS), which were last strengthened in 2012.

The EPA is reconsidering the December 2020 decision because available scientific evidence and technical information indicate that the current standards may not be adequate to protect public health and welfare, as required by the Clean Air Act.

(Renewable Energy World), June 1, 2021 -Last week, the Biden-Harris administration submitted to congress the budget for fiscal year 2022. The Department of the Interior’s (DOI’s) 2022 budget proposal totals $17.6 billion — an increase of $2.5 billion, or 17%, from the 2021 enacted level. The significant investment will help DOI address the climate crisis while creating good-paying union jobs and investing in healthy lands, waters, and economies in communities across the country, said the Whitehouse in a press release.

The 2022 budget proposal includes more than $1.9 billion in new climate-related investments to conserve and manage natural resources, increase understanding of how natural resources are changing and what that means, build resilience to protect communities and lands from significant impacts, and contribute to the reduction of greenhouse gases.

(Charlestown Patriot Bridge), May 26, 2021 -The Boston City Council unanimously voted on May 12, to pass a Resolution Urging Congress to Enact the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend ActM/em>, H.R. 2307.

Boston joins 136 other local governments who endorse the legislation, including Los Angeles County, San Francisco, Salt Lake City, Miami, Pittsburgh, and New Haven, CT. The resolution was introduced by Lydia Edwards of East Boston and Matt O’Malley of West Roxbury.

Mar. 15, 2021 (NY Times Climate Forward) - Michael S. Regan, the new administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, confirmed on Monday that the agency is preparing new regulations on the electricity sector in an effort to meet President Biden’s aggressive climate change goals.

Mar. 14, 2021 (CleanTechnica) - U.S. Representative Frank Pallone, chair of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, together with subcommittee chairs Bobby Rush and Paul Tonko, introduced the CLEAN Future Act on March 2, 2021.

While numerous climate bills are introduced in each Congress, this proposal deserves special attention: It is the first major piece of climate legislation to be introduced since President Biden assumed office, and it is authored by leadership of the committee with primary jurisdiction over climate policy in the House. It is an updated version of a discussion draft circulated last year, reflecting dozens of hearings, input from experts and activists, and the changing political and physical climate.

Mar. 5, 2021 (THE CONVERSATION) -The oil industry’s lobbying arm, the American Petroleum Institute, suggested in a new draft statement that it might support Congress putting a price on carbon emissions to combat climate change, even though oil and gas are major sources of those greenhouse gas emissions.

An industry calling for a tax on the use of its products sounds as bizarre as “man bites dog.” Yet, there’s a reason for the oil industry to consider that shift.

Feb. 25, 2021 (wtopnews) - The ban will be phased in over four years. Larger businesses, with more than 20 locations, will have to stop using foam food containers by July 2023.

Smaller businesses will need to comply by July 2025.

Feb. 25, 2021 (NY Times Climate Forward) -The Senate confirmed Jennifer M. Granholm to be energy secretary on Thursday, positioning the former governor of Michigan to play a key role in President Biden’s plans to confront climate change.

Feb. 19, 2021 (The Nation) -The US formally reentered the Paris Agreement. Signed in December of 2015 by the Obama administration and abandoned in 2017 by then-President Trump, the accord was and remains a landmark achievement in global climate diplomacy. Heads of government, business leaders, and climate activists the world over have welcomed the US return.

President Biden will host world leaders at a virtual climate summit at the White House on Earth Day, April 22, to prepare for the next big UN climate meeting, in November in Glasgow, Scotland. And there’s a lot to be done before then if the Paris goal of preserving a livable climate is to be achieved.

Jan. 19, 2021(Renewable Energy World)-In what many might consider one more defeat for Ex-President Trump, today on his last full day in office, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit vacated and remanded back to the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the Trump administration’s “Affordable Clean Energy” (ACE) rule.

Jan. 5, 2021(NY Times Climate Forward)-Linda Zall played a starring role in American science that led to decades of major advances. But she never described her breakthroughs on television, or had books written about her, or received high scientific honors. One database of scientific publications lists her contributions as consisting of just three papers, with a conspicuous gap running from 1980 to 2020.

The reason is that Dr. Zall’s decades of service to science were done in the secretive warrens of the Central Intelligence Agency.

Now, at 70, she’s telling her story — at least the parts she’s allowed to talk about — and admirers are praising her highly classified struggle to put the nation’s spy satellites onto a radical new job: environmental sleuthing.

Jan. 4, 2021(Renewable Energy World),-Just before the group broke for the Christmas holiday, US Congress struck a last minute bipartisan deal on a major energy bill as part of the omnibus package to fund the federal government. The energy bill includes increased funding for renewable and energy efficiency programs.

The legislation provides a two-year extension of the solar Investment Tax Credit (ITC) and additional funding for research and development, including on soft costs critical to distributed energy deployment and support for more sensible access to federal lands for renewable energy projects.

Under the legislation, the solar ITC will remain at 26% for projects that begin construction in 2021 and 2022, step down to 22% in 2023, and down to 10% in 2024 for commercial projects while the residential credit ends completely. Companies beginning construction on projects in 2021 would still have a four-year period to place their projects in service to take advantage of the ITC, with the statutory deadline for projects placed in service reset to before Jan. 1, 2026.

( NY Times Climate Forward), Dec. 30, 2020, -After a three-year push by the Trump administration to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska to oil drilling — an effort that culminated in a rush to sell leases before the White House changes hands — in the end the only taker may be the state of Alaska itself.

With a Thursday deadline for submitting bids for 10-year leases on tracts covering more than one million acres of the refuge, there is little indication that oil companies are interested in buying the rights to drill under difficult conditions, to extract more costly fossil fuels for a world that increasingly is seeking to wean itself off them.

Amid the uncertainty, a state-owned economic development corporation voted last week to authorize bidding up to $20 million for some of the leases.

Dec. 16, 2021(U.S. Govt. Accountability Office)-The law requires the Department of Housing and Urban Development to reduce the risk of lead paint hazards in HUD-assisted housing. Exposure to lead paint can cause brain damage and slow development in children under 6 years.

HUD monitors lead paint-related risks in its Project-Based Rental Assistance program that provides subsidies to make privately owned multifamily properties affordable to low-income households. Although HUD periodically does physical inspections, it hasn't done a comprehensive risk assessment to identify the properties posing the greatest risk to young children. We recommended it assess and manage such risks.

(National Resources Defense Council(NRDC)), Nov. 25, 2020 -In a sweeping about-face, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers today rejected the Pebble Mine—the widely condemned gold and copper mine proposed at the headwaters of Bristol Bay, Alaska. The mine would have threatened the world’s greatest wild salmon fishery that generates $1.5 billion in annual revenue and 14,000 jobs. Salmon have sustained the subsistence culture of Alaska Natives for millennia.

In a statement, the Army Corps “determined that the applicant’s plan for the discharge of fill material does not comply with Clean Water Act guidelines and concluded that the proposed project is contrary to the public interest.”

In denying Pebble’s permit, the Army Corps is finally acknowledging the very real risks to Bristol Bay—and the economies, people, wildlife and fish that depend upon it.

(CleanTechnica), Oct. 27, 2020 -If you thought “clean diesel” was a scam long left in our automotive past, you haven’t met the Donald Trump “Environmental Protection Agency” being run by former fossil fuel lobbyist Andrew Wheeler.

The EPA is awarding over $2.23 million for supposed “clean diesel” projects in Iowa, Kansas, and Missouri. Nine organizations in EPA Region 7 were chosen to receive the funding from the Diesel Emissions Reduction Act (DERA) National Grants Program funding.

EPA Administrator and former fossil fuel lobbyist Andrew Wheeler announced over $73 million in grants and funding were expected to be awarded to support numerous “clean diesel” programs and projects across the country at both the state and local level.

(Center for Biological Diversity), Oct. 22, 2020 -The Environmental Protection Agency reapproved dozens of toxic pesticides today that are known to cause serious harm to people, wildlife and the environment.

The pesticide reapprovals, known as interim decisions, finalize the EPA’s own assessments of human and environmental impacts, which have found far-ranging harms from these chemicals.

The hasty reapprovals include paraquat, which is extremely toxic to people and has been shown to double the risk of Parkinson’s disease in farmworkers. They also include most of the extremely dangerous pyrethroid insecticides that are linked to autism, Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s diseases and are highly toxic to pollinators and fish.

Lisa Friedman,(Tampa Bay Times), Oct. 14, 2020 -Reversing a strict, decades-old policy, the Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday announced it will allow limited use of a radioactive byproduct of phosphate mining to build roads.

Supported by the fertilizer industry, the change holds major ramifications for Florida, at the core of America’s phosphate production. A billion tons of the solid substance, phosphogypsum, sits piled in high mounds called stacks, including several around greater Tampa Bay.

“The approval of this request means that phosphogypsum, which already requires significant engineering and regulatory controls to be disposed of in stacks, can now be put to productive use rebuilding our nation’s infrastructure,” said the agency’s administrator, Andrew Wheeler, citing a “commitment to working with industry in a way that both reduces environmental waste and protects public health."

(Environment New Jersey), Oct. 8, 2020 -The New Jersey Assembly Environment and Solid Waste Committee just passed legislation (A2070) by a 4-1-1 vote to classify neonicotinoids, AKA neonics, as restricted use pesticides and establish a list of chemicals belonging to this class of pesticides.

New Jersey is on its way to joining other states, including Maryland, Connecticut and Vermont, that have implemented similar restrictions on neonics.The restriction would limit application of the pesticide to certified and licensed applicators, removing use in non-agricultural settings such as gardens, lawns and golf courses.

National Resources Defense Council(NRDC), Aug. 10, 2020 -One of the most powerful actions our volunteers are taking, even during the pandemic, is generating local government resolutions in support of the Energy Innovation and Carbon Dividend Act. We can think of local government resolutions as “endorsements on steroids,” since they are made on behalf of the entire population of a village, town, city, county or tribal entity and send a strong signal of support to our members of Congress.

As of last week, with the addition of the Town Council of Chapel Hill, NC, CCL volunteers have been successful in passing 100 municipal, county and tribal resolutions in support of the Energy Innovation Act in 25 states across the country. These local governments represent a total population of 21,567,912. From small towns to large cities and counties, it’s clear that local governments are ready to push forward on climate action, even under difficult conditions, and that they are asking Congress to join them by enacting legislation which puts a national price on carbon and returns the net revenue to citizens.

(SKYTRUTH), Aug. 6, 2020 - Reminders of an ancient civilization dominate the desert landscape in northwestern New Mexico. Ruins of massive stone “Great Houses,” once several stories high with hundreds of rooms, remain at Chaco Culture National Historical Park.

Their complexity and numbers reveal that a sophisticated culture thrived in this place a thousand years ago. Descendants of those native peoples — today’s Pueblo tribes and several Navajo clans — say that Chaco was a central gathering place where people shared ceremonies, traditions, and knowledge. Yet much about Chaco remains a mystery. During the late 1200s, construction of buildings and monuments slowed and the Chacoan people moved from the area. However, Chaco is still considered to be a spiritual and sacred place by many Native Americans.

Parts of Chaco were first designated as a national monument by President Theodore Roosevelt in 1907. Eighty years later the United Nations recognized the monument as a World Heritage Site because of its unique cultural significance.

July 27, 2020,(NY Times Climate Forward)-The Environmental Protection Agency’s internal watchdog said Monday it had opened an investigation into the agency’s weakening of Obama-era regulations that would have limited automobile emissions by significantly raising fuel economy standards.

The inspector general demanded that top E.P.A. officials turn over briefing materials and other documents pertaining to the regulation, which was finalized in late March as the Trump administration’s single largest rollback of federal climate change rules.

July 21, 2020,( REUTERS )-California, New York and Washington on Tuesday filed a lawsuit with 17 other states against the Trump administration for undercutting their ability to deny permits for projects that could harm their waterways.

California Attorney General Xavier Becerra, New York Attorney General Letitia James and Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a lawsuit in the Northern District court of California against the Environmental Protection Agency, which last month finalized a rule limiting state powers to block energy infrastructure projects by curtailing their authority under the Clean Water Act.

July 16, 2020,(Environment America) -The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) dismissed a petition Thursday from the New England Ratepayers Association (NERA) that threatened crucial state net metering policies and states’ long-held jurisdiction over solar rights.

This decision comes after more than 57,000 comments from utility commissions, advocacy organizations, state officials, members of Congress and the public were submitted in opposition to the petition. In contrast, there were only 22 public comments in support of the NERA petition.

June 26, 2020,(The Guardian) -Wildlife Services kills thousands of animals at ranchers and farmers’ behest. But it operates with little oversight – and critics describe it as out of control

The call came over Tony Manu’s police radio one March day in 2017: some sort of pipe had exploded in the hills outside Pocatello, Idaho and the son of a well-known local doctor was hurt, or worse.

Manu, a long-time detective with the county sheriff’s office, was shocked. A pipe bomb in Pocatello?

June 15, 2020,(National Resources Defense Council(NRDC)) -In a 7–2 decision, the U.S. Supreme Court sided with developers of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline today, ruling that the proposed project can legally cross underneath a federally owned portion of the Appalachian Trail. Despite the setback for environmental groups and the roughly three million people who hike parts of the treasured trail each year, the court’s ruling only impacts one of the project’s multiple required permits—many of which have not yet been granted.

“This decision doesn’t green-light or advance the dangerous Atlantic Coast Pipeline,” says Gillian Gianetti, an attorney in NRDC’s Climate & Clean Energy Program who helped prepare an amicus brief against the pipeline developers. “The fact remains that the developers cannot move ahead without securing eight crucial federal and state permits required for construction—concerning air pollution, endangered species, rights of way, and clean water.”