** EPA green-lights coal pollution
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TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 1, 2020
Jim Bridger Power Plant in Wyoming, Photo: WildEarth Guardians, CC-BY-ND 2.0 ([link removed])

In a last-ditch attempt to prop up the dying coal sector, the Trump administration on Tuesday finalized a rule that relaxes limits on heavy metal pollution from coal-fired power plants ([link removed]) . The new EPA rule relaxes an Obama-era standard that would have required coal plants to treat wastewater to remove high levels of toxic chemicals, including selenium, mercury, lead, and arsenic.

Compared to the 2015 rule, the new limits will allow more than three times more selenium in wastewater, and E&E News reports that the rule includes loopholes ([link removed]) that allows power plants to be exempted from even those higher limits. Power plants with "high flows" of wastewater that are only used during peak power demand can release ten times more mercury than other plants.

The new rule also pushes the deadline ([link removed]) for implementing even the lower standards to 2025, and several dozen plants that are scheduled to be retired by 2028 will be exempt from the pollution limits entirely.
Quick hits


** Scientists: Overzealous fire suppression, climate change creates megafires—why won't anybody listen?
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ProPublica ([link removed])


** Leaked Interior memo: Drone ban makes fighting wildfires harder, more dangerous
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The Verge ([link removed]) | Financial Times ([link removed])


** Ranchers face uncertain future after Colorado megafire
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Denver Post ([link removed])


** EPA finalizes higher coal pollution limits
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E&E News ([link removed]) | Washington Post ([link removed]) | New York Times ([link removed]) | Wall Street Journal ([link removed])


** Dismal oil lease sale in New Mexico turns into “massive giveaway” of public lands
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Carlsbad Current Argus ([link removed])


** Opinion: Non-competitive gas leasing is ripping off taxpayers
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Missoulian ([link removed])


** Opinion: Uranium mining near the Grand Canyon a dangerous idea
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Arizona Daily Star ([link removed])


** Park Service looking for solutions to overcrowding at Mount Rainier
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KING 5 ([link removed])
Quote of the day
Such dismal results are predictable, given the Trump administration’s baffling inability to read and respond to market conditions. This sale ended up being nothing but a massive give away to oil companies—one that comes at the expense of every other American and our national public lands.”
—David Jenkins, Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship ([link removed])
Picture this


** @nationalparkservice ([link removed])
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Five more minutes. Better come back on Tuesday. In Alaska’s Katmai National Park and Preserve, the red fox is mainly nocturnal, but daytime sightings are not uncommon. Sometimes they’re just waiting to take a nap. Aren’t we all? NPS/M.Saxton

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