| ConservAmerica Signs Letter to the GOP Supporting the Growing Climate Solutions Act The carbon credit market can help to reduce carbon emissions. However, many farm and forest owners face technical and information barriers, and as a result, the agricultural and forestry sectors are often left out of this approach to addressing climate change. As such, we wrote to our representatives in Congress to express our support of the Growing Climate Solutions Act, which will remove these barriers. We believe this legislation is an “effective, meaningful, and fiscally responsible” solution to climate change. You can read the letter wrote with our friends at R Street, CRES, ACC, and NTU here. Richard Epstein: Trump Helps the Environment by Enraging Environmentalists Professor Richard Epstein wrote and submitted comments on the case for updating the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) on behalf of ConservAmerica to the White House Council of Environmental Quality on March 10, 2020. On July 30, he authored a compelling op-ed in the Wall Street Journal. “Environmentalist critics work on the flawed assumption that the longer the review period, the greater the environmental protection. But thatʼs untrue for the large majority of important projects. As I detail in a report for ConservAmerica, these new projects typically replace older, more dangerous projects and use superior technologies unavailable generations ago,” Epstein wrote. Read the full article in the Wall Street Journal here. ConservAmerica Webinar Series Continues with Natural Solutions Discussion On Wednesday, July 22, ConservAmerica hosted the latest in our series of webinars, this time focusing on the growing popularity of natural solutions to climate change as commonsense policy options for emissions mitigation, adaptation, and resilience. We were fortunate to have both Senator Mike Braun and Congressman Bruce Westerman join to discuss their legislation. David Tenny, President and CEO of the National Alliance of Forest Owners discussed the benefits of the legislative proposals and how his organization has planted more than one billion trees a year. If you missed the webinar, you can read our recap or watch the full video here. ConservAmerica Opposes the Pebble Mine The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers released a final Environmental Impact Statement (EIS), which outlined the potential impacts of the Pebble gold and copper mine in Southwest Alaska. ConservAmerica believes that this assessment is sufficient reason for the mine not to move forward. We expressed concerns about the compatibility of the proposed project with the Bristol Bay region of Alaska and urged the Trump administration to deny federal permits. You can read our reaction to the EIS and opposition to the project here. ConservAmerica Continues to Support NEPA Reforms ConservAmerica welcomed the Trump administration’s update this month to the rules governing how federal agencies implement the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA). The new rules will ensure environmental reviews and authorization decisions involving multiple federal agencies are done in a manner that reduces unnecessary burdens and delays, and improves coordination between agencies to simplify and accelerate the review process. ConservAmerica President Jeff Kupfer was quoted in a story in Bloomberg Law, explaining that the reforms were necessary to support infrastructure investments, especially in light of the recent economic crisis. Op-Ed: Why We Need the Great American Outdoors Act ConservAmerica Vice President of Public Policy Todd Johnston co-authored an op-ed with Aaron Clark, a Perkasie Borough councilman, supporting passage of the Great American Outdoors Act. The act will stimulate the economy now and for generations to come, especially considering the outdoor economy supports over 7.6 million jobs. You can read the full opinion in The Bucks County Herald. |
