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Last legislative session, Oregon’s lawmakers had the opportunity to update Oregon’s statutory climate targets. This would have been the first time that Oregon updated its outdated climate targets in 15 years and would have brought Oregon’s climate goals in line with the level of ambition of President Biden’s national climate targets and from other climate …

EDF Statement from Katelyn Roedner Sutter, California State Director

What’s New? Recently, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) embarked on a critical Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) supplemental risk evaluation of 1,4-dioxane [PDF, 8.7MB]– a highly carcinogenic chemical that contaminates drinking water supplies across the country and is present in products, such as cleaning supplies and personal care products. This draft supplemental risk evaluation represents …

Environmental Defense Fund thanks leaders, as well as businesses, conservation groups and community members, for working to build a more flood-resilient North Carolina. Let’s look at how far we’ve come in the last five years.   The post Five years after Hurricane Florence, EDF looks back at efforts to build resilience in North Carolina first appeared on Growing Returns.

What’s New? The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) recently released and solicited public comments on its draft Cumulative Risk Assessment (CRA) Guidelines for Planning and Problem Formulation. The purpose of a CRA is to determine the combined health and/or environmental risks from multiple stressors and chemicals that can cause the same harms. These guidelines, intended to …

New Mexico communities know the stakes for climate change are high — hotter and drier conditions threaten public health, livelihoods, and cultural and recreational resources, as they lead to increased drought, extended and more extreme wildfire seasons, and extreme heat. Those impacts are projected to get much worse in the coming decades, without serious and …

Statement from Mary Barber, State Director, New York and New Jersey, Environmental Defense Fund

EDF analysis finds that New Mexico will achieve less than one-third of the 45% reduction in climate pollution by 2030 that was committed to by the governor via 2019 executive order.

Today during a special session, Virginia lawmakers voted to finalize amendments to the state’s upcoming fiscal year budget and have made resilience-building programs a greater priority. Once signed by Governor Youngkin, this budget allocates $100 million to the Resilient Virginia Revolving Fund and will allow local governments to help property owners finance flood resilience projects and programs across the state.

Environmental Defense Fund is working with partners to drive climate action at Regional Climate Weeks ahead of COP28, the U.N. Climate Change Conference.

The appointment of James "Jim" Jones as FDA's first Deputy Commissioner of Human Foods comes as a welcome development.

One of the Inflation Reduction Act’s key provisions is a powerful tax credit to spark the development and adoption of clean, low-carbon aviation fuels. Climate pollution from aircraft is often overlooked, but if aviation were a country, it would be among the top 10 greenhouse gas emitters. The Biden administration is about to make a …

Delay Will Leave Millions of Americans Exposed to Harmful Levels of Smog Pollution

Six Focus Areas Will Help Protect Communities, Ensure Compliance with Bedrock Environmental Laws

Today a broad group of environmental, civic and environmental justice organizations announced their shared demands for a major overhaul of the $52.6 billion storm surge protection plan proposed by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (Corps), calling for a comprehensive approach that addresses multiple flood hazards and prioritizes historically disadvantaged communities in the New York-New Jersey metropolitan region.

A year since the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was signed into law, this historic climate legislation has already led to $278 billion in private investment that will support more than 170,000 clean energy jobs across the country. And the work is just getting started. Manufacturing incentives in the law, which encourage companies to build the …

What’s New? For the first time, FDA has provided guidance on how to evaluate whether metal cookware is prohibited due to lead leaching into food. As part of an investigation to find the source of elevated blood lead levels in some refugee children, the Hazardous Waste Management Program in King County, Washington [1] encountered high …

What’s New? EPA recently asked its Board of Scientific Counselors (BOSC), comprised of experts in the fields of toxicology and environmental chemistry, to make recommendations on implementing new approach methods (NAMs) for testing the safety of new chemicals. NAMs encompass a wide array of new evaluation strategies, including testing cell lines or invertebrates (rather than …

    What Happened? EDF and other environmental groups recently asked the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to withdraw the approval it issued for a group of new chemicals. This approval, also known as a consent order, allows Chevron to create fuels at its refinery in Pascagoula, Mississippi, by using oils produced through a process of …

EDF’s comments outline reasons why strong standards are needed and are anchored in law, examine how the Inflation Reduction Act reinforces EPA’s action, and call on the agency to work closely with frontline communities.

By Adam Peltz and Meg Coleman Across the country, a million or more orphaned oil and gas wells threaten the climate, public health, groundwater and surface waters and hamper local economic development. Help is on the way thanks to a major federal effort to invest $4.7 billion in closing orphan wells under the Revive Economic …

By Jose Luis Chicoma and Karly Kelso Last week, global leaders gathered in Rome for the UN Food Systems Summit (UNFSS) +2 Stocktaking Moment, a follow-up event to evaluate commitments to transforming their food systems and progress in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) made in 2021. In short, it was a time to gather …

Report from EDF and La Isla Network details what is needed to protect farm labor from dangerous heat.

Farmworkers are on the frontlines of heat waves. A federal heat standard will protect them and make food production more climate resilient. The post The growing threat of heat for farmworkers first appeared on Growing Returns.

By Adam Peltz and Elizabeth Lieberknecht  Recently, Louisiana, under the leadership of Gov. John Bel Edwards, became the latest state taking action to curb pollution and waste from oil and gas production. In a new proposal, the state says it will limit natural gas venting and flaring and attempt to reduce the risk of thousands …