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Land
In a quiet decision in late May, the Trump Administration said it will open up California’s Carrizo Plain National Monument, which is known for its stunning wildflowers, to oil and gas drilling and a pipeline, the LA Times reported last week.
Why This Matters: This project is inconsistent with the purposes of the monument and will surely cause environmental harm.
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By Monica Medina and Miro Korenha Monuments have been much in the news lately. In Decatur, Georgia on Thursday night, thanks to a Judge’s order, the county finally took down the Confederate Monument in the central square. It is one of a few monuments to the Confederacy remaining in Atlanta. State law protects them, unfortunately, […]
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The Senate voted overwhelmingly to pass the Great American Outdoors Act and put $900m each year in perpetuity into the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), which can be used to create, further protect, and expand federal, state, and local parks. In order to preserve the first fully protected area in the Atlantic Ocean, environmental groups yesterday challenged President Trump’s order opening up the NE Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument to commercial fishing.
Why This Matters: The public overwhelmingly supports conserving our most precious areas of historic importance and natural beauty.
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Yesterday, Bayer AG said it will scrap a nearly $1 billion project to produce the chemical dicamba in its Luling, Louisiana planet. This comes after the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals blocked the sale and use of the herbicide, stating that “the EPA substantially understated the risks related to the use of dicamba, a […]
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With relative humidity as low as 5% (wow), strong winds, temps over 100 degrees in places like Phoenix, and little rain recently, the desert Southwest is facing the “perfect” conditions for wildfires and they are getting them. Against the backdrop of these fires was a courtroom in San Francisco yesterday, where the CEO of PG&E pled guilty to each of the 81 individual counts of criminal manslaughter against the company for the deaths of the Camp Fire in 2018.
Why This Matters: PG&E is to blame for the Camp Fire and its CEO did what he should in standing up in Court — this is what it means to be accountable.
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The Supreme Court by a 7-2 majority handed the Old Appalachian Trail, national parks and trails, and their visitors a major setback, ruling yesterday that the Forest Service has the authority to permit a pipeline to be constructed underneath the trail despite the objection of the agency that manages it as a national park “unit,” the National Park Service.
Why This Matters: Conservatives often make the slippery slope argument opposing parks when they are created — that is exactly what fishers claimed to persuade President Trump to allow fishing inside the NE Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument last week.
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