"Congressional negotiators inserted a bipartisan measure to curtail planet-warming chemicals used in air-conditioners and refrigerators in the huge government spending and coronavirus relief package that is expected to head to President Trump’s desk on Monday."
"Rep. Deb Haaland's selection to lead the Interior Department has energized the progressive base, mobilized tribal communities and thrilled politicos who want to see President-elect Joe Biden make history with his first round of Cabinet picks. In Congress, however, the New Mexico Democrat is about to run the gantlet of a confirmation process in a Republican-led Senate."
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"Environmental justice advocates now have an empowered voice with the incoming administration and a potential new ally in Michael Regan, President-elect Joe Biden's pick for EPA administrator."
"President-elect Joe Biden announced a racially diverse slate of environmental advisers on Saturday, to help his administration confront what he called “the existential threat of our time, climate change”.
"New research shows that more than 90 per cent of sunflower sea stars off the West Coast have died over the past decade, and the species is close to extinction."
""We're now talking about two pandemics. We have a pollution pandemic, and we have the COVID pandemic.""
Watch the recording of the Society of Environmental Journalists' 9th annual look ahead at the year's key energy and environmental issues. Hosted by National Geographic Society and co-sponsored by the Wilson Center, the event kicked off with a prerecorded interview with new White House National Climate Advisor Gina McCarthy, followed by a live interview with Senator Sheldon Whitehouse, D-RI, and SEJ's annual panel of leading journalists offering their predictions for the year ahead.
"The federal government granted Florida’s request for wider authority over wetland development, a move announced Thursday that came under immediate fire by environmentalist who worry that the country’s largest network of wetlands could be at risk of being further degraded."
"Officials in multiple states said they were alerted late Wednesday that their second shipments of Pfizer-BioNTech’s vaccine had been drastically cut for next week, sparking widespread confusion and conflicting statements from Pfizer and federal officials about who was at fault."
"Climate change raises the risk from failing sewage systems. So Catherine Coleman Flowers is working for a new way to deal with waste."
