"Environmental activist Erin Brockovich has a new mission: bringing more transparency to data center construction and the impact those data centers have on nearby communities. Brockovich — who was famously played by Julia Roberts in a film dramatizing her legal case against Pacific Gas & Electric — recently launched a website with a map of data centers across the United States."
"A pair of House Democrats is asking a congressional watchdog to probe the Trump administration’s disaster declarations after high-profile denials of disaster aid requests."
"The Interior Department unveiled Thursday the first iteration of a new public tool for mapping federal lands and waters, rolling out a unified “national map” with boundaries used by five agencies."
"Funding for wildlife crossings has been included in a bipartisan transportation bill that the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee plans to introduce to the House in the coming weeks. The BUILD America 250 Act would invest in roads, bridges and transit infrastructure across the country, as well as fund wildlife crossings through the reauthorization of the Wildlife Crossings Pilot Program."
"President Donald Trump said Friday that he plans to build a statue garden of “American heroes” at a park location along the Potomac River near the Tidal Basin in Washington."
"Tourism-oriented messaging in the media is likely a main driver of increased national park visitation, according to one study"
"FEMA slowed grants intended to help states such as California and Colorado prepare for and prevent wildfires, a Washington Post analysis shows."
"In a little-noticed memo early last year, Illinois scientists made a dire prediction." "Blamed in part on climate change, the threat of water ponding in your yard or your basement is growing, a Sun-Times/WBEZ investigation has found, putting health, homes at risk."
"North America’s grid watchdog is slated to issue its highest level of warning Monday about threats to the power system from large data centers, underscoring the challenges facing utilities and grid operators grappling with a surge in electricity demand."
"Legislators in at least 28 states this year introduced bills that would roll back tax incentives for the energy-hungry facilities."
