Senate Agriculture Committee Chair Stabenow and House Agriculture Committee Republicans introduced their competing frameworks for the latest Farm Bill, the comprehensive legislative package that will set agricultural, food, and nutrition policy for the next five years.
Detroit, MI – Yesterday, the Southeast Michigan Council of Governments (SEMCOG), a planning agency increasingly tasked with implementing many sustainability and climate change efforts, alleged that additional pollution reductions are not needed to address the Detroit ozone problem in an amicus brief filed with the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit.
Introduced today in the US House of Representatives, Rep. Paul Tonko (D-NY) and Rep. Garret Graves’ (R-LA) bipartisan bill aims to improve the transparency and reporting mechanisms within the advanced energy technology sector, developing a cleaner and more accountable critical mineral supply chain.
Today, the US Department of Energy finalized a strong energy efficiency standard for water heaters that will benefit consumers and our climate. Phasing out energy-wasting water heaters will lead to lower residential energy bills and help shift the market away from inefficient technologies -- reducing water and energy bills by $7.6 billion per year and easing the strain on the grid, according to the DOE.
PORTLAND, ME. – Today, the Department of Interior (DOI) proposed a pair of wind energy auctions in the Gulf of Maine and Oregon. Accounting for 15 GW of the potential 18 GW generated from the two sales, the proposed Gulf of Maine auction includes eight lease areas off the shore of Maine, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire. The nearly 1 million acres up for auction could generate enough clean wind energy to power more than 5 million local homes.
Today, two major U.S. banks, Citigroup and Wells Fargo, held their annual general meetings (AGMs), where shareholders voted on investor proposals calling for greater transparency on human rights policies and climate-related political lobbying.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. — The Southern Environmental Law Center, on behalf of the Sierra Club and Appalachian Voices, has filed a lawsuit challenging the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s decision to approve the 32-mile Cumberland Pipeline — a dangerous and unnecessary methane gas pipeline that will do long-lasting damage to the climate, Tennessee Valley Authority customers, local waterways, and nearby communities.
WASHINGTON, D.C. – A suite of Republican-led bills seeking to gut conservation standards and wildlife protections are scheduled to be voted on in the House of Representatives this week.
HARTFORD, CT. – A new Sierra Club study has found that all 3.6 million Connecticut residents live in areas with unsafe smog levels. Local smog levels have exceeded the minimum federal air quality standard by over 40% in recent years, according to the report. As summer ushers in warmer weather and increased sunlight, poor air quality is particularly concerning.
Today, the Biden administration’s White House Council on Environmental Quality released a final rule guiding federal decision making under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA).