• Politics

Lawmakers Attach Environmental Provisions to “Must-Pass” DoD Bill

• #ForeverChemicals
• Department of Defense
• DOD
• drilling
• Florida
• leasing
• offshore oil and gas
• PFAS
• PFOA

The annual bill authorizing all activities and purchases by the Defense Department is a popular “vehicle” to advance environmental provisions on banning and cleaning up “PFAS” and “PFOA” toxic “forever chemicals” that have contaminated water all across the country, particularly on military bases.

Why This Matters:  These issues are not new, nor is using this DoD legislation to advance important DoD-related environmental objectives.

• Climate Change

America’s Military is Guzzling Gas and Emitting Massive Amounts of CO2

• climate change
• DOD
• military

A recent report published by a political scientist at Boston University, found that the Department of Defense is the worlds “single largest producer of greenhouse gases”. America’s military alone emits around 153 million metric tons of carbon pollution annually. In terms of emissions, this would make the U.S. military equal to the Netherlands, and larger […]

• Climate Change

DoD Provides New List of Climate Vulnerable Installations, Requests Billions for Repairs

• air force
• border wall
• climate change
• damage
• DOD
• hurricane
• Hurricane Michael
• installation
• Offutt
• Pentagon
• severe storm
• Tyndall

In response to a demand from Congressional Democrats, the Pentagon developed a new list of climate vulnerable installations in addition to the installations they identified in January.  The list of 20 installations, The Hill reported, are those most at risk from climate change threats in the next 20 years and includes places like Naval Air Station Key West, Florida and the Army’s Fort Hood in Texas. Democrats in Congress were dissatisfied with the Pentagon’s initial assessment, believing that it was incomplete, and they demanded more information, including the specific mitigation measures to alleviate climate risks at installations, and cost estimates for such efforts.

• Water

Flood Waters in Midwest Drowning Farms and an AF Base

• climate change
• DOD
• farmers
• floods
• Green New Deal
• livestock
• military installations
• Mississippi River
• Missouri River
• Nebraska
• Offutt Air Force Base

The floods pummeling the Midwest this week could be the last straw for many small farmers and ranchers who were already struggling to make ends meet and then had to deal with the impacts of the President’s trade wars.  The New York Times explained that bankruptcy filings by farmers were up 19 percent last year across the Midwest to their highest level in a decade, and now for many of those farmers, their livestock and land have been washed away.