Infrastructure

"Climate change and the energy transition are driving a wave of state laws overriding local governments, with both parties driving their preferred policies."

"Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee’s committee consulted with the Trump administration the day before Lee introduced his wildly unpopular bill to force a sell-off of up to 3.2 million acres of federal public lands across the West, Public Domain has learned."

"Winter's disastrously low snowfall could further complicate an already audacious plan to refill the dying Great Salt Lake in time for the 2034 Winter Olympics in Utah."

"The woman was furious. Standing in the muddy lane sloping up the hill in one of the Afghan capital’s poorer neighborhoods, she pulled her headscarf aside to reveal thick grey-white hair. “You see this hair? Even I with my white hair, I have to carry water,” said Marofa, 52, a resident of Kabul’s Deh Mazang neighborhood who, like many Afghans, goes by one name."

"Climate change is making the risk of disastrous chemical accidents more likely. But the EPA wants to gut recently enhanced safety requirements for hazardous facilities."

"Over the course of March, the nation got more electricity from renewables than it did from natural gas, which is typically the single-largest source of energy on the U.S. grid."

"Placerville, Calif., bears all the markers of a community at risk of a wildfire. The city's rolling hillsides are dense with brush, which dries out during the hot summers. Older homes made of wood, which are more prone to igniting, are dotted throughout."

"The Institute of Nuclear Power Operations is struggling to bring a new wave of nuclear startups into their system." "Several nuclear power startups are balking at joining the industry’s voluntary regulatory body in what could become a major shakeup to plant safety oversight."

"María Pérez lost power for about three months after Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico in September 2017. Her home in Salinas, on the island’s southern coast, sits near a river. As the hurricane knocked out the island’s grid and sent rainwaters surging down from the mountains, Perez’s house flooded with a swirling mix of muddy water and animal feces, rising 3 feet high and warping the hallways. For the next three months, she went without power as she cleaned out the home and began the long process of rebuilding."

"The Interior Department is offering its staff another round of buyouts and early retirements in an effort to slim down the federal department that’s in charge of the nation’s natural resources."