** Biden to restore protections in bedrock environmental law
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Thursday, October 7, 2021
Surface coal mine in the Powder River Basin in Wyoming. Photo by BLM Wyoming, Flickr ([link removed])

The Biden administration announced ([link removed]) it will restore protections to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). The announcement is in response to the Trump administration's efforts to weaken ([link removed]) the law to speed the approval of projects like mines, pipelines, dams, and highways.

Biden's efforts to restore NEPA are timely as Congress is debating a plan to spend trillions of dollars on infrastructure ([link removed]) improvements across the country. Brenda Mallory, chairwoman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality said in a statement ([link removed]) , “Patching these holes in the environmental review process will help reduce conflict and litigation and help clear up some of the uncertainty that the previous administration’s rule caused.”

The proposed changes ([link removed]) to the law would include requiring the federal government to evaluate the climate change impacts of major new projects as part of the environmental review and permitting process. In practice, this means that agencies will have to consider the direct, indirect, and cumulative climate impacts of a decision, including assessing the environmental justice consequences of releasing additional pollution in neighborhoods already disproportionately burdened by bad air quality, for example.

Congressman Raúl Grijalva, Chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, called ([link removed]) the Biden administration's announcement “a necessary first step" in order to "better protect communities from polluted air and water, especially those communities that are already overburdened by the cumulative effects of multiple pollution sources.” The new rule also proposes giving federal agencies the authority to work closely with communities to develop alternative approaches to projects.
Quick hits


** Climate change is ravaging national parks
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Outside ([link removed])


** American Bumblebees have vanished from eight states
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Smithsonian ([link removed])


** New Mexico oil and gas lease sale advances amid calls to cancel
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Carlsbad Current-Argus ([link removed])


** New technology allows foresters to reach dead timber on steep slopes to reduce wildfire and erosion risk
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Colorado Sun ([link removed])


** Biden to restore protections in bedrock environmental law
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New York Times ([link removed]) | E&E News ([link removed])


** How the extreme drought on the Colorado River impacts Indigenous water rights
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Grist ([link removed])


** Opinion: We learned nothing from previous oil spills. Will we learn from this one?
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Los Angeles Times ([link removed])


** Photos: Aspen groves paint a technicolor masterpiece in Colorado's Roaring Fork Valley
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Colorado Sun ([link removed])
Quote of the day
This is an important first step in preventing the extinction of this fuzzy black-and-yellow beauty that was once a familiar sight. To survive unchecked threats of disease, habitat loss, and pesticide poisoning, American bumblebees need the full protection of the Endangered Species Act right now."
—Jess Tyler, Center for Biological Diversity scientist, Smithsonian ([link removed])
Picture this


** @USGS ([link removed])
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Aquifers? What is an aquifer for? Learn more…. [link removed] ([link removed]) #water ([link removed]) #aquifer ([link removed])

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