Industries such as food packaging are nervously trying to get rid of PSAS or “forever chemicals,” as the EPA takes its first step in regulating them. April Reese writes in Waste Dive: “PFAS—a group of thousands of synthetic chemicals once prized for their resistance to oil, grease, water and heat—have been used in hundreds of…
Trade-Offs: Biden’s Push for Bio-energy from Agriculture Worries Environmentalists
The “Inflation Reduction Act” will provide $140 billion in agricultural “tax incentives, loans and grants” to promote energy. Environmentalists are not happy. Keith Schneider of the New York Times: “Despite pushback from environmental groups concerned about increased pollution from farm waste, developers across the country see opportunities to build ambitious renewable energy projects to convert…
Here’s How Hard It Will Be for Consumers to Get EV Subsidies
First, if you’re married and earn more than $300,000, you’re not eligible. But that’s just the beginning. Other criteria reported by John Rosevear at CNBC: Vehicle price caps. Cars priced above $55,000, and trucks, vans and SUVs priced over $80,000, aren’t eligible for the tax credit. Made in North America. Only EVs that “undergo final assembly”…
Are Wetlands Navigable Water? The Conflict Continues
A Texas district court has rejected, for the time being, the EPA’s definition of the waters of the United States (“WOTUS”). The EPA’s latest definition went into force nationally on March 20 but the announcement explicitly excluded Texas and Idaho. Idaho was omitted because the Supreme Court is considering the case of Michael and Chantelle…
Is Recycling Worth It? Let’s At Least Address the Question
The Raleigh News & Observer has done an outstanding public service with its article titled “Is Recycling Worth It? We Dove into Recycling in Raleigh and This Is What We Learned.” It explains in detail what happens to goods that are put into the curbside recycling bin and suggests ways the public can recycle difficult…
Monday Highlights
- The last New England coal-fired power plant may bite the dust.
- What “Biden’s war on mining” is doing to this country.
- “Green subsidies” in the Inflation Reduction Act “will cost $1.2 trillion—more than three times what the law’s supporters claimed.”
- Oil production from shale is on the decline and the nation may have reached “peak shale”—that is, a level that cannot be sustained. (Hard to believe, actually, since production varies with the price of oil.)