Environment

WASHINGTON – U.S. Rep. Greg Walden, R-Ore., and U.S. Senators Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and Ron Wyden, D-Ore., announced in a release that the U.S. House of Representatives passed a critically needed fix to the 2018 Water Resources Development Act that would... Read More

OLYMPIA, Wash. -- The Washington State Department of Commerce has announced $300,000 is available for grants to shellfish growers impacted by declining exports and restaurant sales due to COVID-19.  Local and global market demand for Washington’s world-renowned shellfish has dropped... Read More

WASHINGTON - This week, the America’s Conservation Enhancement Act achieved final passage in the U.S. House of Representatives with support from a wide swath of bipartisan lawmakers.  The ACE Act helps conserve wildlife and wildlife habitat, including by reauthorizing the... Read More

WASHINGTON - Rep. Tom O’Halleran, D- Ariz., criticized the U.S. Department of Agriculture during a recent House hearing on the western wildfires, saying “forest management has long been on the backburner at the federal level.” Halleran made his observation during... Read More

When the first fire of the season broke out on the Hoopa Valley Reservation in Northern California in July, Greg Moon faced a dilemma. As Hoopa’s fire chief and its pandemic team leader, Moon feared the impact of the blaze... Read More

WASHINGTON – In its second report ranking members of the U.S. House of Representatives for their votes on legislation related to toxic chemicals, the Environmental Working Group Action Fund presented Rep. Antonio Delgado, D-N.Y., with a perfect score. Much of... Read More

SODUS POINT, N.Y. — On Mother’s Day three years ago, Tom Frank was at his bayside restaurant, Captain Jack’s Good Time Tavern, when a brimming Lake Ontario surged onto the back patio. Water spilled across the wooden deck, a sun-soaked... Read More

Disaster relief efforts following Hurricane Hanna’s arrival on the coast of Texas last week are going well despite the challenges posed by COVID-19, according to the Red Cross and the Federal Emergency Management Administration.  Hurricane Hanna hit Texas with winds... Read More

WASHINGTON - The amount of plastic entering the world’s oceans could nearly triple within the next two decades, according to a report by the Pew Research Center, a nonpartisan American think tank based in Washington, D.C., called “Breaking the Plastic... Read More

WASHINGTON — It has been an eventful summer for Philip Morris International, the company perhaps best known for its Marlboro and Chesterfield cigarette brands. First, Chief Executive Officer André Calantzopoulos declared in the company’s recently released integrated report that he... Read More

WASHINGTON - Bipartisanship ruled the day Monday when several amendments were added to the National Defense Authorization Act for FY 2021 to better regulate a class of cancer-linked chemicals on military bases and surrounding communities. Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also... Read More

A federal court has ruled that California’s coordination with the Canadian province of Quebec to reduce greenhouse gas emission does not violate the U.S. Constitution, shooting down the last surviving element of a challenge by the Trump administration. In 2006,... Read More

The National Atmospheric and Oceanic Administration has proclaimed 2020 is on track to be the hottest year on record. This past June was the 44th in a row that saw hotter than average temperatures, the agency said last week. It... Read More

The Interior Department is dropping plans to reintroduce grizzly bears to the North Cascades in Washington State, citing the concerns of people who live and work in the area. The move has alarmed environmentalists who say the decision threatens the... Read More

President Donald Trump announced he is loosening the National Environmental Policy Act in a bid to speed up permitting of federal infrastructure projects ranging from highway upgrades to the construction of oil and natural gas pipelines. The president announced the... Read More

WASHINGTON - Reps. Charlie Crist, D-Fla., and Bill Posey, R-Fla., have introduced legislation that would create Centers of Excellence on Harmful Algal Bloom research, prevention, response, and mitigation to aid in the fight against harmful outbreaks of red tide and... Read More

The Environmental Protection Agency is on track to complete a review of air quality standards against a backdrop of ozone concentrations dropping nationwide. The EPA, by rule, endeavors to complete regular air quality standard reviews within a five-year time frame,... Read More

Fifteen states and the District of Columbia agreed to work collaboratively on hastening the switch to all-electric fleet vehicles in an effort to suppress toxic air pollution Tuesday. Their goal, according to a joint memorandum signed by the states’ governors,... Read More

WASHINGTON - Rep. Debbie Dingell, D-Mich., is leading a bipartisan coalition that wants to add a comprehensive solution to PFAS contamination to the Fiscal 2021 National Defense Authorization Act. The amendment -- originally proposed by Dingell and passed with bipartisan... Read More

CHICAGO — After missing out on cleaner air during the coronavirus lockdown, the Chicago area just suffered its longest streak of high-pollution days in more than a decade. Nine consecutive days of bad air swept through the region amid an... Read More

The Chesapeake Bay’s blue crab population is going strong despite shrinking significantly this year, according to a report issued last week by the Chesapeake Bay Foundation. The environmental watchdog found no signs of overfishing in the bay in 2020, though... Read More

WASHINGTON - The White House proposed Thursday to open more than two-thirds of the nation’s largest piece of public land to oil and gas drilling, striking down wildlife protections in the area that have been in place for more than... Read More

WASHINGTON — The $1.5 trillion infrastructure bill the House passed 233-188 Wednesday has little chance of advancing in the Republican-controlled Senate. But it fired a political warning shot: Democrats view climate change as a top issue for an already turbulent... Read More

WASHINGTON - A Coalition of Democratic and Republican House members have sent a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., to request Congressional funding to plug "orphan" oil and gas wells across the... Read More

American honeybee colonies have bounced back after a bad year, the annual beekeeping survey finds. Beekeepers only lost 22.2% of their colonies this past winter, from Oct. 1 to March 31, which is lower than the average of 28.6%, according... Read More

WASHINGTON - The Senate passed a major bipartisan public lands bill Wednesday authorizing the spending of nearly $3 billion a year on conservation projects, outdoor recreation and maintenance of national parks and other public lands. The Great American Outdoors Act,... Read More

Global demand for fish has reached an all-time high despite the economic and supply challenges posed by COVID-19.  This year, the world consumed enough fish for every man, woman, and child on the planet to have about 45 pounds each.... Read More

WASHINGTON - A panel of scientists on Tuesday slammed the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s proposal to overhaul accounting methods used to evaluate the various economic and social costs of clean air regulations. Last week, the agency proposed a new set... Read More

Three Mid-Atlantic attorneys general are threatening to sue the Environmental Protection Agency for failing to enforce water quality standards to protect the Chesapeake Bay. They accuse the EPA of ignoring its court-ordered duty to prevent polluters in New York and... Read More

WASHINGTON - Advocates called on the Environmental Protection Agency to raise its standards on particle pollution -- also known as soot or PM2.5 -- at a public hearing on Thursday held by phone due to the coronavirus crisis. In April,... Read More