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"President Biden will unveil a $2 trillion, eight-year plan today that features efforts to speed up a transition to clean energy, including $100 billion to upgrade the U.S. electric grid and to give the Energy Department more clout in disputes over siting power lines."
"President Biden wants more than $170 billion to turn the nation from a laggard in the electric vehicle market into a leader. He’s challenging Congress to OK billions more in spending to persuade Americans to part with their gas-powered cars and take public transit, and even to electrify a chunk of the nation’s yellow school bus fleets."
"California’s hopes for a wet “March miracle” did not materialize and a dousing of April showers may as well be a mirage at this point. The state appears in the midst of another drought only a few years after a punishing 5-year dry spell dried up rural wells, killed endangered salmon, idled farm fields and helped fuel the most deadly and destructive wildfires in modern state history."
"An unlikely alliance of ranchers, Indigenous communities and environmentalists is trying to save the Owyhee Canyonlands."
"Purple sea urchins have exploded in recent years off California, covering the ocean floor in what divers describe as a "purple carpet." And they devour kelp: the once-lush forests of seaweed that hugged the coastline are disappearing."
"A Netflix documentary about the impact of commercial fishing has attracted celebrity endorsements and plaudits from fans with its damning picture of the harm the industry does to ocean life. But NGOs, sustainability labels and experts quoted in Seaspiracy have accused the film-makers of making “misleading claims”, using out-of-context interviews and erroneous statistics."
"President Biden will unveil an infrastructure plan on Wednesday whose $2 trillion price tag would translate into 20,000 miles of rebuilt roads, repairs to the 10 most economically important bridges in the country, the elimination of lead pipes and service lines from the nation’s water supplies and a long list of other projects intended to create millions of jobs in the short run and strengthen American competitiveness in the long run."
"Phasing out the internal-combustion engine is critical to President Biden’s vow to retool the American economy for a low-carbon future. In a massive infrastructure plan set to be unveiled Wednesday, Biden is expected to signal just how far he is willing to go to achieve his climate goals."
"President Biden's scheduled appearance in Pittsburgh tomorrow to unveil a multitrillion-dollar infrastructure plan could have a direct bearing on the city's ongoing efforts to combat contaminated drinking water."
"Tropical forest losses hit their third-highest level in almost two decades last year, despite improved conservation in parts of Southeast Asia, researchers said on Wednesday, warning of rising deforestation risks as nations restart pandemic-hit economies."
"Attorneys for conservation organizations and an electric utility clashed Tuesday before a federal appeals court over the adequacy of environmental reviews of a key portion of a power transmission project in western Maine."
"President Joe Biden’s push to elevate racial justice and the needs of disadvantaged communities is starting to overshadow a key player at the forefront of environmental justice for more than two decades: the Environmental Protection Agency."
"Hotly debated legislation would open the state to renewable energy projects, trumping local restrictions."
"A debate over renewable energy in Indiana is scrambling some of the usual politics of energy and the environment.
The wind industry is working with leaders in the Republican-run state government to pass statewide rules for where wind and solar systems can be built, which would allow for more development by replacing the often-restrictive rules now set at the county level.
Understandably, county leaders don’t like that.
"The scavengers wait patiently for a dump truck to tip the trash on the summit of the landfill outside New Delhi. Armed with plastic bags, they plunge their bare hands into the garbage and start sorting it."
"Many of us will have felt the grip of claustrophobic isolation over the past year, but the lawyer Steven Donziger has experienced an extreme, very personal confinement as a pandemic arrived and then raged around him in New York City."
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