Resilience
States and localities are having to adjust to a changing climate, establishing new policies, rules and guidelines relating to energy, land use and water rights, as well as responding to emergencies triggered by more intense storms, floods and wildfires.
To help ensure the passage of nearly 2 billion birds from around 400 different species, the National Audubon Society is asking state residents to dim their nighttime lights as a part of the biannual “Lights Out, Texas!” campaign.
“Severe repetitive loss properties” are homes that have flooded twice, with damage totaling the property, or flooded four times with at least $5,000 in damages each time. But residents aren’t allowed to know where those properties are exactly.
Both industries want to utilize the state’s offshore property for multimillion-dollar projects. It’s unlikely the two can coexist.
The Inflation Reduction Act includes $1 billion to help states implement modern building codes. The CEO of the International Code Council outlines both obvious and underappreciated reasons they are essential.
Lawmakers should make charging convenient for everyone and minimize the environmental impact of electric vehicle batteries.
After the U.S. Supreme Court stripped federal oversight of millions of acres of wetlands, the financial maintenance of those lands now falls to the states. It could take years for them to address the loss of federal standards, if they do it at all.
The state’s Individual Disaster Assistance Grant Program has paid $227,675 in response to storm damage. FEMA estimated the state’s spring flood damage at $6.3 million. As of Dec. 4, crop insurers had paid out more than $248 million due to drought.
Between 2000 and 2020, millions of Americans have moved away from high-flood-risk areas. When between 5 to 10 percent of properties in a census block are at risk of flooding, people start to move out of the area, even despite attractive amenities.
Seattle neighborhoods within two miles of Amazon’s “last mile” facilities were exposed to twice as much traffic from trucks and other delivery vehicles than other communities, with a disproportionate impact on communities of color.
The city’s new law will apply to approximately 4,100 buildings that are 20,000 square feet or larger. These account for only 3 percent of all buildings in the city but produce over one-third of total building emissions.
A new report found that the state’s methane output last year continued its decadelong downward trend, confirming that Permian Basin oil and natural gas producers are successfully lowering emissions.
The California governor and his administration are moving forward with a plan to build a 45-mile water tunnel between the Sacramento-San Joaquin River Delta, even as the project has received heavy pushback from environmental groups.
The summer of 2023 was the hottest on record globally as was the 12-month period ending Oct. 31. Nationally, 1,784 people have died from heat-related causes so far this year, almost double the amount in 2018.
The fifth National Climate Assessment found that the Midwest region faces threats caused by rising temperatures, drought and extreme precipitation. Since 1980, the region has incurred over $49 billion in economic damage due to flooding.
Transportation emissions accounted for 35 percent of greenhouse gas emissions in the state, the most of any sector. The Advanced Clean Cars II mandate will require 51 percent of new car sales to be electric in 2027.
The comprehensive report found that the state has taken among the fewest climate adaptation and mitigation actions of all the states and is just one of three states whose carbon intensity of their economies increased from 2010 to 2021.
Swinging between drought and flooding, the river needs coordinated oversight. But nobody is setting priorities or getting scores of federal agencies, states, towns, tribal nations and NGOs to sing from the same hymnal.
The Peterbilt 520 EV emerged onto the streets of outer Northeast Portland recently, becoming the city’s second-largest EV, behind the Fire Bureau’s electric fire engine. The truck cost $675,000, nearly double a diesel-powered one.
The massive, 2,000-page report is only issued every four to five years and outlines the major climate issues impacting regions and communities across the nation. Here are five main points of the assessment.
On Oct. 20, Navigator CO2 announced that it would abandon its plan to send a $3.4 billion carbon dioxide pipeline through five states. But the company is still pursuing carbon storage projects in central Illinois.
Insurers have begun pulling out of high-risk states, like Florida and California, due to increased climate risks; some are also beginning to depart from Texas, leaving homeowners and buyers with coverage challenges.
In 2020, lawn equipment across the county emitted approximately 245 tons of fine particulates, which is equivalent to 2.6 million cars on the road for one year and is the fifth-highest in the nation.
The North Carolina governor issued an executive order on Tuesday that will expand the state’s Environmental Justice and Equity Advisory Board to 20 members, establish new actions for the cabinet agencies and set up a new website.
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration officials predict that the El Nino conditions will extend the state’s current drought well into next year. Some are concerned about increased fire risk.
The new map analyzes more than 70,000 tracts across the nation and illustrates what conditions shape a person’s level of vulnerability, including factors such as health, socioeconomic impact, environment, weather events, infrastructure and more.
The U.S. EPA disapproved the state’s ozone reduction plan for ignoring the primary focus of reducing future emissions. Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston-Galveston-Brazoria have long failed to attain federal air regulation standards.
Water providers say rebates for residential areas are costly and many people refuse to remove their lawns. The rules aim to save enough water for more than a million households a year.
Echo Heights, one of the city’s predominantly Black and Hispanic neighborhoods, is worse than 91 percent of the country for proximity to hazardous waste. The ZIP code’s average life expectancy in 2019 was just 73.4 years, well below the average for the county.
When a wildfire or storm strikes, the elderly die at twice or three times the rate of other age groups. There’s much that could be done to make them less vulnerable.
The people of Fort Myers Beach mostly survived. How many can afford to stay remains an open question.
By investing in solar arrays, building efficiency and other clean energy infrastructure, schools could save billions annually while significantly cutting carbon pollution. And federal money is available to help with the upfront costs.
