A manatee is seen in Three Sisters Springs on Crystal River in Citrus County, Florida. Keith Ramos / USFWS
<p>The incident, first reported by the <a href="https://www.chronicleonline.com/news/local/federal-officials-seek-information-on-manatee-harassment/article_c84a3b66-5423-11eb-93b6-1bf69750167f.html" target="_blank">Citrus County Chronicle</a> on Monday, prompted a U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) investigation and outrage from conservationists and <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/animals/" target="_self">animal</a> lovers. The <a href="https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/" target="_blank">Center for Biological Diversity</a> (CBD) is even offering a $5,000 reward for information leading to a conviction.</p><p><span></span>"Manatees aren't billboards, and people shouldn't be messing with these sensitive and imperiled animals for any reason," CBD Florida Director Jaclyn Lopez said in a statement emailed to EcoWatch. "However this political graffiti was put on this manatee, it's a crime to interfere with these creatures, which are protected under multiple federal laws."</p>
<div id="de844" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="ab3a320267dae121ae3e306d5c993559"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1348755040798871553" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Harassment of a manatee is a federal criminal offense punishable by a $50,000 fine and up to one year in prison.… https://t.co/BZzk19XBeu</div> — Center for Bio Div (@Center for Bio Div)<a href="https://twitter.com/CenterForBioDiv/statuses/1348755040798871553">1610403235.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>The Florida manatee is a subspecies of the West Indian manatee, which was classified as an <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/endangered-species" target="_self">endangered species</a> in 1973, according to <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/01/12/manatee-trump-florida/" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a>, although their status has since been lowered to threatened. Currently, manatees are protected federally under the Endangered Species Act and the Marine Mammal Protection Act, and on the state level under the Florida Manatee Sanctuary Act of 1978, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/11/us/florida-manatee-trump.html" target="_blank">The New York Times</a> reported. Harassing a manatee carries a federal penalty of up to $50,000 and a year in jail, and a state penalty of up to $500 and 60 days in jail.</p><p>The affected manatee was first discovered in the Homosassa River in Citrus County by Hailey Warrington, a family boat charter operator, <a href="https://www.heraldtribune.com/story/news/2021/01/11/investigation-manatee-trump-etched-algae-back-florida/6631493002/" target="_blank">the Sarasota Herald-Tribune reported</a>. Warrington said she saw the manatee while on a boat tour and took photos and a video to report the incident.</p><p>"This is just disturbing. One hundred percent disturbing," Warrington told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune. "It's something we don't see very often. When we do see it, it hurts our heart."</p><p>The USFWS said that the letters appear to have been etched in algae and that the animal was not seriously harmed. Warrington claimed that while the etching reached the skin, it did not appear to leave a wound. The animal seemed healthy, but stressed.</p>
<p>Elizabeth Fleming, senior Florida representative for the <a href="https://defenders.org/" target="_blank">Defenders of Wildlife</a>, told The Washington Post that the perpetrator either had to restrain the manatee to write the message, or the manatee was so used to humans that it allowed the action.</p><p>There are more than 6,300 West Indian manatees living in Florida, <a href="https://www.fws.gov/southeast/wildlife/mammals/manatee/#conservation-challenges-section" target="_blank">according to the USFWS</a>. While that number has increased significantly in the last 25 years, the animals still face threats from habitat loss and boat collisions. About 100 manatees die every year from boat strikes, according to The Washington Post, accounting for 20 percent of total manatee deaths.</p><p>For Elizabeth Neville, Defenders of Wildlife senior Gulf Coast representative, the harassment of this particular manatee is a striking example of politics impacting <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/wildlife" target="_self">wildlife</a>.</p><p>"The content of this manatee's mutilation, however, highlights a broader and darker truth: that wildlife, despite having no ability to vote or otherwise participate in our political systems, exist and suffer profoundly at the mercy of human politics," she said in a <a href="https://defenders.org/newsroom/defenders-of-wildlife-politically-motivated-manatee-mutilation-incident-beyond-cruel-and?utm_source=social&utm_medium=twitter&utm_campaign=newsroom-ManateeTrump-01112" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">statement</a>. </p><p>"Based on the choice of the word carved in the manatee's flesh, one can only assume that this act of mutilation was politically motivated. But, this is far from the only scar borne by manatees due to politicians' destructive choices. Other scars include policies that favor unsustainable development and polluting industries, hamper communities' abilities to address plastic trash in our waters and impede progress on fighting climate change."</p><p>Anyone with information about the incident should contact the Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission at 888-404-3922, the Citrus County Chronicle shared. </p>
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President-elect Joe Biden announces members of his climate and energy appointments on December 19, 2020 in Wilmington, DE. Joshua Roberts / Getty Images
By Bill Ritter Jr.
Joe Biden is preparing to deal with climate change in a way no U.S. president has done before – by mobilizing his entire administration to take on the challenge from every angle in a strategic, integrated way.
<p>The strategy is evident in the people Biden has chosen for his <a href="https://buildbackbetter.gov/nominees-and-appointees/" target="_blank">Cabinet and senior leadership roles</a>: Most have track records for incorporating climate change concerns into a wide range of policies, and they have experience partnering across agencies and levels of government.</p><p>Those skills are crucial, because slowing climate change will require a comprehensive and coordinated "all hands on deck" approach.</p><p>We did that with energy when I was governor of Colorado, and I can tell you it isn't simple. Energy policy isn't just about electricity. It's about how homes are built, how they generate power and feed it into the grid and how the transportation, industrial and agriculture sectors evolve. It's about regulations, trade rules, government purchases and funding for research for innovation. Coordination and collaboration among agencies and different levels of government is crucial.</p><p>A coordinated approach also helps ensure that vulnerable populations aren't overlooked. Biden has committed to <a href="https://joebiden.com/environmental-justice-plan/" target="_blank">help disadvantaged communities</a> that have too often borne the brunt of fossil fuel industry pollution, as well as those that have been losing fossil fuel jobs.</p><p>The <a href="https://buildbackbetter.gov/nominees-and-appointees/" target="_blank">Biden-Harris team's</a> depth of experience will be vital as they take over from a Trump administration that has been <a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/science-under-trump" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">stripping government agencies of their expertise</a> and eliminating environmental protections. With Democrats gaining <a href="https://www.politico.com/news/2021/01/11/democrats-biden-executive-orders-456676" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">control of both the House and Senate</a>, the Biden administration may also have a better chance of overhauling laws, funding and tax incentives in ways that could fundamentally transform the U.S. approach to climate change.</p><p>Here are some of the biggest challenges ahead and what "all hands on deck" might mean.</p>
Dealing With All Those Climate Policy Rollbacks
<p>From its first days, the Trump administration began trying to nullify or weaken U.S. environmental regulations. It had <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/climate/trump-environment-rollbacks-list.html" target="_blank">rolled back 84 environmental rules</a> by November 2020, including <a href="https://rhg.com/research/the-rollback-of-us-climate-policy/" target="_blank">major climate policies</a>, and more rollbacks were being pursued, according to a New York Times analysis of research from Harvard and Columbia law schools.</p><p>Many of these rules had been designed to reduce climate-warming pollution from power plants, cars and trucks. Several <a href="https://eelp.law.harvard.edu/2017/09/bam-methane-waste-prevention-rule/" target="_blank">reduced emissions of methane</a>, a potent greenhouse gas, from oil and gas production. The Trump administration <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-mining-resolution-trump/trump-moves-to-loosen-mining-regulations-approve-projects-as-he-exits-idUSKBN29D1AD?ct=t(RSS_EMAIL_CAMPAIGN)" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">also moved</a> to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2020/oct/26/revealed-trump-public-lands-oil-drilling" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">open more land</a> to more drilling, mining and <a href="https://www.npr.org/2019/04/11/712121425/trump-signs-executive-orders-in-push-to-make-it-easier-to-build-oil-and-gas-pipe" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">pipelines</a>.</p><p>Some rollbacks have been challenged in court and the rules then reinstated. Others are still being litigated. Many will require going through government rule-making processes that take years to reverse.</p>Pressuring Other Countries to Take Action
<p>Biden can quickly bring the U.S. back into the international Paris climate agreement, through which countries worldwide agreed to reduce the greenhouse gas emissions driving global warming. But <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-biden-and-kerry-could-rebuild-americas-global-climate-leadership-150120" target="_blank">reestablishing the nation's leadership</a> role with the international climate community is a much longer haul.</p><p>Former Secretary of State John Kerry will lead this effort as special envoy for climate change, a new Cabinet-level position with a seat on the National Security Council. Other parts of the government can also pressure countries to take action. International development funding can encourage climate-friendly actions, and trade agreements and tariffs can establish rules of conduct.</p><h3>Cleaning Up the Power Sector</h3><p>The Biden-Harris <a href="https://joebiden.com/climate-plan/" target="_blank">climate plan</a> aims to cut greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector to net zero by 2035.</p><p>While <a href="https://sepapower.org/utility-transformation-challenge/utility-carbon-reduction-tracker/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">62 major utilities</a> in the U.S. have set their own emission reduction goals, most leaders in that sector would argue that requiring net zero emissions by 2035 is too much too fast.</p><p>One problem is that states are often more involved in regulating the power sector than the federal government. And, when federal regulations are passed, they are <a href="https://policyintegrity.org/trump-court-roundup" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">often challenged in court</a>, meaning they can take years to implement.</p><p>Reducing greenhouse gases also requires modernizing the electricity transmission grid. The federal government can streamline the permitting process to allow more clean energy, like wind and solar power, onto the grid. Without that intervention, it could take a decade or more to permit a single transmission line.</p><h3>The Falling Costs of Renewable Energy</h3><p>A comparison of the average levelized cost of utility-scale power generation, without subsidies, shows how new solar and onshore wind became less expensive than coal generation. Costs are in U.S. dollars per megawatt-hour.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTQ0MzgyMS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2MjAwMjk3MH0.O_CRalTEYNsH_RTav9V7uEzh0GQGhdHCx7hQow8UyDs/img.png?width=980" id="b6d7c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5cc72a966fccbd64c2dcc688dafba2ac" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1222" data-height="640" />
What to Do About Vehicles, Buildings and Ag
<p>The power sector may be the easiest sector to "decarbonize." The transportation sector is another story.</p><p>Transportation is now the nation's <a href="https://www.wri.org/blog/2019/10/everything-you-need-know-about-fastest-growing-source-global-emissions-transport" target="_blank">leading emitter of carbon dioxide</a>. Decarbonizing it will require a transition away from the internal combustion engine in a relatively short amount of time.</p><p>Again, this is a challenge that requires many parts and levels of government working toward the same goal. It will require expanding carbon-free transportation, including more electric vehicles, charging stations, better battery technology and clean energy. That involves regulations and funding for research and development from multiple departments, as well as trade agreements, tax incentives for electric vehicles and a shift in how government agencies buy vehicles. The EPA can facilitate these efforts or hamstring them, as happened when the Trump EPA <a href="https://www.resourcesmag.org/resources-radio/waive-goodbye-history-and-future-california-waiver-emily-wimberger/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">revoked California's ability to set higher emissions standards</a> – something the Biden administration is likely to quickly restore.</p><p>The other "hard to decarbonize" sectors – buildings, industry and agriculture – will require sophistication and collaboration among all federal departments and agencies unlike any previous efforts across government.</p>A New Comprehensive Climate Bill
<p>The best way to tackle these sectors would be a comprehensive climate bill that uses some mechanism, like a <a href="https://www.rff.org/publications/issue-briefs/clean-energy-standards" target="_blank">clean energy standard</a>, that sets a cap, or limit, on emissions and tightens it over time. Here, the problem lies more in the politics of the moment than anything else. Biden and his team will have to convince lawmakers from fossil fuel-producing states to work on these efforts.</p><p>Democratic control of the Senate raises the chances that Congress could pass comprehensive climate legislation, but that isn't a given. Until that happens, Biden will have to rely on agencies issuing new rules, which are vulnerable to being revoked by future administrations. It's a little like playing chess without a queen or rooks.</p><p>Years of delays have allowed global warming to progress so far that many of its impacts may soon become irreversible. To meet its ambitious goals, the administration will need everyone, progressives and conservatives, state and local leaders, and the private sector, to work with them.</p><h3>Biden's Core Climate Team</h3><p>President-elect Joe Biden's senior leadership picks have years of experience with climate policy. He and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris introduced these seven as their core climate team. Gina McCarthy, John Kerry and Ali Zaidi will not require Senate confirmation. The others will.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTQ0Mzg0MS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYzNjgwODY0N30.SJeuFgWBMILHhH72i6yn-2vUnYa3ycmgme7E-Xd0wls/img.png?width=980" id="9a98d" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="6a52b4176bccb6202dfb2b3790d76d88" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1248" data-height="1220" />
<p>
<em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/bill-ritter-jr-352083" target="_blank">Bill Ritter Jr.</a> is </em><em>Director, Center for the New Energy Economy, Colorado State University.</em>
</p><p>
<em>Disclosure statement: </em><em>Bill Ritter, Jr. is a former Governor of Colorado and is the Director of the Center for the New Energy Economy at Colorado State University. The Center is funded by various foundations. </em><span></span>
</p><p>
<em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://theconversation.com/biden-plans-to-fight-climate-change-in-a-way-no-u-s-president-has-done-before-152419" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>.</em>
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Like many other plant-based foods and products, CBD oil is one dietary supplement where "organic" labels are very important to consumers. However, there are little to no regulations within the hemp industry when it comes to deeming a product as organic, which makes it increasingly difficult for shoppers to find the best CBD oil products available on the market.
<p>Here you can learn about the importance of organic hemp oil, why it's better for the environment, and which CBD companies actually make trustworthy products with sustainable farming processes. origins which weigh heavily on many consumers who want to buy a product that's produced in the best way possible for not only themselves to ingest, but for the environment as well through sustainable farming methods. </p><h2>What Is CBD Oil?</h2><p>First things first, CBD stands for cannabidiol, and it's a cannabinoid found within cannabis sativa plants. This plant compound is believed to have many potential benefits, and it is primarily derived from hemp plants via a CO2 extraction process. </p><p>Since CBD is extracted from industrial hemp, which contains only trace amounts of THC (the psychoactive component in cannabis plants), this means that CBD won't make you feel high like marijuana, which has much higher levels of THC that causes psychoactive effects. Instead, the effects of CBD are much more subtle and promote a general sense of calm and relaxation in most users.</p><h2>What Makes a CBD Oil Organic?</h2><p>In terms of organic labels, perhaps the most important (and prominent) certification comes from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). This government organization has been labeling foods as "organic" for many years, but what exactly does this certification entail? Essentially, a label indicating that a product is "USDA Organic" or "Certified Organic" means that at least 95% of the ingredients are obtained from organic sources.</p><p>For a crop to be considered organic by the USDA, it must be grown without the use of industrial solvents, irradiation, genetic engineering (GMOs), synthetic pesticides, or chemical fertilizer. Instead, farmers rely on natural substances and <a href="https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2012/03/22/organic-101-what-usda-organic-label-means" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">mechanical, physical, or biologically based farming</a> techniques to cultivate healthy and organic crops.</p><p>Before the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, no hemp-derived products could be dubbed as "certified organic" since the hemp plant and its extracts were still categorized as a Schedule I Controlled Substance. However, it's still difficult for CBD companies to obtain a USDA certified organic label for their products due to the legal grey area that still surrounds CBD extracts. </p><p>Because of these challenges, and due to the fact that industrial hemp has only recently become an agricultural crop, very few CBD oils are USDA certified organic. Rather, many CBD products contain hemp extracts from plants that were grown in organic conditions but may not be federally certified.</p><h2>What are the Best Organic CBD Oil Brands?</h2><p><em>Each product featured here has been independently selected by the writer. If you make a purchase using the links included, we may earn commission.</em></p><em><br></em>
<h2>Why Organic Hemp Oil Matters</h2><p>Hemp is a unique plant, not only for its rich cannabinoid content, but also for its ability to absorb a wide variety of components in soil. But this trait poses great risks when it comes to the creation of CBD products derived from hemp.</p><p>Because hemp has a high capacity for compound uptake, this means that the plants can retain <a href="https://www.remedyreview.com/industry/lab-test-results/" target="_blank">harmful chemicals like pesticides</a>, heavy metals, and other residual solvents. This is especially true when it comes to synthetic chemicals that are more toxic to humans, and difficult to remove once they have been absorbed by the hemp plant.</p><p>Organic farming practices help reduce the risk of hemp crops absorbing harsh chemicals that may later end up in CBD oil after extraction. When you're taking CBD as a wellness supplement to help alleviate your symptoms or improve your overall well-being, the last thing you want is to ingest compounds that might negatively outweigh the benefits of CBD. This is an important reason to look for third party lab test results when shopping for CBD products since these certificates of analysis can show the full cannabinoid and terpene profile of a hemp extract, as well as test results that search for the presence of any residual solvents.</p><p>In addition to creating a better end product, organic farming practices are also better for the environment. Sustainable and organic farming methods may <a href="https://www.helpguide.org/articles/healthy-eating/organic-foods.htm" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reduce pollution, conserve water, reduce soil erosion, increase soil fertility, and use less energy</a>. The use of natural pest deterrents as opposed to chemical pesticides is also better for nearby animal populations and ecosystems.</p><h3>Organic vs. Natural</h3><p>While there are only a select few companies offering certified organic ingredients in their products, almost every brand in the CBD market creates "natural" products. The term "all-natural" or "plant-based" does not mean that a product is organic, and since hemp oil is a natural derivative of hemp plants, these products are often referred to as all-natural. However, there are some synthetic CBD oils that should be avoided because they are chemically constructed and may produce unwanted side effects that are not caused by naturally derived CBD extracts.</p><h2>What are the Benefits of Organic CBD Oil?</h2><p>There's a long list of potential CBD oil health benefits, and some of the most common wellness advantages include:</p><ul class="ee-ul"><li><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2503660/" target="_blank">Chronic pain relief</a></li><li><a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4604171/" target="_blank">Anti-anxiety effects</a></li><li>Better sleep</li><li><a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/inner-source/201901/cbd-oil-mental-health-should-you-take-it-too" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Improvements in mood</a></li><li>Internal balance and regulation</li></ul><p>When dealing with pain, inflammation, sleep issues, and mental health struggles, it can be hard to find sufficient treatment options. The use of certain prescriptions can cause unwanted side effects, yet they are often the only solution for patients with these medical conditions. In search of other therapies, people have started to flock towards CBD oil as an alternative remedy for a variety of conditions. However, it should be noted that CBD products are not approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and you should seek your doctor's advice before using CBD if you have a serious medical condition.</p><h2>Look at the Labels Before You Buy CBD Oil</h2><p>When you go online to buy CBD oil, you'll quickly realize there is an overwhelming number of brands that are saturating the market. It can be difficult to determine which products are truly as good as they make themselves out to be. Always look for up-to-date third-party lab tests so you know you are getting a great product, and don't hesitate to contact the brand if you have any additional questions. And if you're intent on purchasing 100% organic CBD oil, it's best to look for certified products or brands that are held to strict regulatory standards.</p><p><strong>Melena Gurganus </strong>is the Reviews Editor at EcoWatch. She is passionate health and wellness and her writing aims to help others find products they can trust. Her work has been featured in publications such as Health, Shape, Huffington Post, Cannabis Business Times, and Bustle.<br></p>
Spruce
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDY4NjI3OC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyOTM2NzgzOX0.axY0HjeqRctJsR_KmDLctzDpUBLBN-oNIdqaXDb4caQ/img.jpg?width=980" id="774be" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="8379f35b1ca8a86d0e61b7d4bfc8b46e" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="spruce organic cbd oil" data-width="710" data-height="959" /><p>As one of the best brands in the business, Spruce CBD is well-known for its potent CBD oils that feature many additional beneficial phytocannabinoids. This brand works with two family-owned, sustainably focused farms in the USA (one located in Kentucky and one in North Carolina) to create its organic, small product batches. The max potency Spruce CBD oil contains 2400mg of full-spectrum CBD extract, but the brand also offers a lower strength tincture with 750mg of CBD in total.</p>
$89
CBDistillery
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDcwMjkzNC9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyMTU4OTM4Nn0.ypRdeDSBcE87slYrFfVrRwtJ2qGIK6FD5jBB4pndTMo/img.jpg?width=980" id="b473b" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="9930b53c9d58cb49774640a61c3e3e75" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="cbdistillery cbd oil" data-width="1244" data-height="1244" /><p>All of the products from CBDistillery are <a href="https://ushempauthority.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">U.S. Hemp Authority Certified</a>, and for good reason. The company only uses non-GMO and pesticide-free industrial hemp that's grown organically on Colorado farms. Its hemp oils are some of the most affordable CBD products on the market, yet they still maintain a high standard of quality. CBDistillery has a wide variety of CBD potencies across its product line (ranging from 500mg to 5000mg per bottle) and offers both full-spectrum and broad-spectrum CBD oils to give customers a completely thc-free option.</p>
$35
FAB CBD
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDY4NjIyNS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY2NDIwOTEyMn0.MlTjz096FJ0ev_-soK7_Z-FeQeJczWoeh9Qi9SSkHsY/img.jpg?width=980" id="04b26" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="76aa4862f44603242e318982acea6646" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="fab cbd oil" data-width="800" data-height="800" /><p>For an organic CBD oil that has it all, FAB CBD offers plenty of variety for any type of consumer. All of its products are made with zero pesticides and extracted from organically grown Colorado industrial hemp. FAB CBD oil comes in five all-natural flavors (mint, vanilla, berry, citrus, and natural) and is also available in four strengths (300, 600, 1200, and 2400mg per bottle).</p>
$39
NuLeaf Naturals
<img type="lazy-image" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNDY4NjIxOS9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1NzExNTgyMX0.D6qMGYllKTsVhEkQ-L_GzpDHVu60a-tJKcio7M1Ssmc/img.jpg?width=980" id="94e4a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="3609a52479675730893a45a82a03c71d" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" alt="nuleaf naturals organic cbd oil" data-width="600" data-height="600" /><p>As an industry-leading brand, it comes as no surprise that NuLeaf Naturals sources its CBD extract from organic hemp plants grown on licensed farms in Colorado. The comany's CBD oils only contain two ingredients: USDA certified organic hemp seed oil and full spectrum hemp extract.</p><p>NuLeaf Naturals uses one proprietary CBD oil formula for all of its products, so you will get the same CBD potency in each tincture (60mg per mL), but can purchase different bottle sizes depending on how much you intend to use.</p>
$38.50
Charlotte's Web
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No major oil company offered a valid bid on the land leases. Pat Gaines / Getty Images
The oil industry responded to the controversial and last-minute sale of oil leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge with a collective 'meh' on Wednesday.
<p>The federal government received bids on just 11 of the 22 leasing tracts on offer, and nine of those were purchased at the legal minimum price of $25 per acre by an Alaska state-owned corporation with hopes to sublet the tracts to other oil companies in the future. </p><p>No major or even mid-size oil companies entered valid bids. </p><p>The ANWR lease sales are mandated as part of the GOP plan to pay for its 2017 tax cuts based on expectations that the sales and oil extraction would net the Treasury $1.8 billion over 10 years; Wednesday's lease sale raised $14.4 million. </p>
<p>Under mounting pressure from climate advocates, the six biggest American banks and five biggest Canadian banks have all pledged not to finance drilling in the refuge. President-elect Joe Biden has pledged to prevent oil drilling in the refuge.</p><p>"This lease sale was an epic failure for the Trump administration and the Alaska congressional delegation," Adam Kolton, executive director of the Alaska Wilderness League, said in a statement. </p><p>"After years of promising a revenue and jobs bonanza they ended up throwing a party for themselves."</p>
<p><strong>For a deeper dive:</strong></p><p><a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/01/06/trump-arctic-national-wildlife-refuge-polar-bears/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=105782603&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9x1f4J1F0OtFhjdqNfsM2OEEcFSdUoNhoWYrJbpyKNVR97yaHYe4KgINerb1LzK1eFwrb5vCQHKFl0eDg92Mn4PGn8XLv0RxeG-jtuI75fVsTTMrs&utm_content=105782603&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">Washington Post</a>, <a href="https://www.adn.com/business-economy/energy/2021/01/06/anwr-lease-sale-brings-in-144-million-in-bids-mostly-from-alaska-state-owned-corporation/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=105782603&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--N4DdlAZeRNAUQwAXojgzeHRhAOStf444y0Jx4Cf7tEuhTVEOgJGRee604N1cCDfxS9Ygtj0PxR3TZwUDSnjdYaj5hk-tz5xuePEwZxBlRlRkVFy0&utm_content=105782603&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">Anchorage Daily News</a>, <a href="https://www.highnorthnews.com/en/auction-oil-gas-leases-alaska-arctic-refuge-draws-little-interest?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=105782603&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9by8khE_zPABF80OtouybI--xzLxvUvrc8iGiX3Z51eM30D-TqRQRAbBm3V7IU38bZsVAmzYnPaXf6sESSGKnxboWstbolIiIUc7nevqqHeVJMqZY&utm_content=105782603&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">High North News</a>, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/alaska-agency-is-biggest-bidder-for-arctic-oil-leases-11609963845?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=105782603&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_fph9IODwKLyBJHA9Jd0cmuXggeUELlXRkRuG9_uowE0Ppw2k3AGux_UT3ab16QgjNDyyqw8hJzQXhsSQkb-CY3Kjd3xTTMR7CyTNDosANFIghzBw&utm_content=105782603&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">Wall Street Journal,</a> <a href="https://www.eenews.net/eenewspm/stories/1063721947?t=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.eenews.net%2Fstories%2F1063721947%3F_hsenc%3Dp2ANqtz-8JRd6gnk4_7ZlC1lEPJzm0OYQKJ47OdWPjR_gHMZZ6mX5HBHkaB2Am_qA1qoECGxhaBdThR59hZ6-bbDBZELxR1j53uV88yXKYPxjzCllbdfcB-pE%26_hsmi%3D105782603%26utm_campaign%3DHot%2520News%26utm_content%3D105782603%26utm_medium%3Demail%26utm_source%3Dhs_email" target="_blank">E&E</a>,<a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/07012021/trump-arctic-national-wildlife-refuge-oil-leases/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=105782603&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8oTdWGwuuRsu4-kcaPe0tE1xFJzpGotKkd91gPFKNd9xdzKQ26xEsdjvnqlX9H9l-wcGxS_opzwwxSl6vF05NRWZ7KEp2SA8kESqUh1fSfreL3FNs&utm_content=105782603&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank"> InsideClimate News</a>, <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-06/secret-bids-opened-in-rare-auction-of-arctic-oil-drilling-rights?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=105782603&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_BSs2y7tI3cVM-TC6vLZrluv3RL5ttNDRIlTYsRNrZm4R0Syzs2E7QQ1oOPcHrgxfOMpsRINrydj4fz63TRng-K1DvqCWF7ql666nnoK314pSa1H8&utm_content=105782603&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">Bloomberg</a>, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/01/06/953718234/major-oil-companies-take-a-pass-on-controversial-lease-sale-in-arctic-refuge?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=105782603&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--zCLhVAWMBy1Sji6yxkGlLNBvPqNktX8YSCVqNKZPah-v2-cPRYfMg7bCbtOGqTXaBDj3eCyPsuQkQva9vwDuGY7YglfjqrJzMKfBISZPy7GvK7Ds&utm_content=105782603&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">NPR</a>, <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/bf1c671e-a032-43a0-8471-5cfc133c8fee?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=105782603&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9bi3DrfICr5ifkIL-P_B3zOyjP_Y9ngzHr71OoAafNiEUyG8pkoW-Fkz70r_uuG9IflKVyGxLe-2J1CXBqB5QFsS5x5uwOdC_mz-JzD2hIgoy__Xo&utm_content=105782603&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">FT,</a> <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-alaska-oil/oil-drillers-shrug-off-trumps-u-s-arctic-wildlife-refuge-auction-idUSKBN29B0KR?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=105782603&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8s5zTGuBgVohzUrN6PG6pKIWl4XrUkeCar7I81uSrxV6O1KM4JspHsi1_y9pIrnrIpYNI5MrRn-wdYH3vrSaUBxtR7YJu9bx0ntQngdlT3e4wqlak&utm_content=105782603&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">Reuters</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/06/climate/arctic-refuge-drilling-lease-sales.html?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=105782603&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_cRMugNyj4Zvxbn2OcpCtJYZWmxmq0qQLcF8VugBQJVHTIxLzQyc1MxEbf0twRxjvx5SkExXvwaPMU9_HvobOY-Zl2hKMsjPRQ12Y-ySrKqh8IfzI&utm_content=105782603&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">New York Times,</a> <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/business-55564483?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=105782603&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--GbPWL-EuxEvl0XsV7yquDsdDPNDirfoyv1NTj_H3nVXIPc6-unLWep9IdJLucGMsgwVwIHxPM3Rj0_m17HOJ_CbKHUOqeU5c3vhK7jtmnyfNNehE&utm_content=105782603&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">BBC</a>, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/06/trump-arctic-refuge-auction-oil-leases?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=105782603&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8NPyx9aOiHkL_lltqY5z42w-sez42AqcZnhTJoVIu1yU4DUdxOENKk9wno1q437aFZp6XIbsShjEfRAGHymuxULnnHK0VNtCDvfpiDsX5mAmOf4QM&utm_content=105782603&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">The Guardian,</a> <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/532983-trumps-sale-of-arctic-refuge-drilling-rights-earns-just-a-fraction?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=105782603&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9m81SWu1WXTj_iOVpcjbk0EV3FnoR8KyBLJ5aBV7NyqpPPH42G8J5PKb2R35_bqqd719_MjgENcv_71qL3zPoQsEYhJpnLlCsJ7EBf4EwzJ-q2X2E&utm_content=105782603&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">The Hill,</a> <a href="https://apnews.com/article/alaska-wildlife-arctic-513daddc87565b22cd5ba71f2b267a32?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=105782603&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8j09WFX9NfwlGeZoqWWTrR092rD3Ia8nZuwx5SATkSXCiPSmDs6noHSCBGiPUm3JZe3VhdqZ0Pm5O2ECI4-2Aiz6D84LxUTyCb2FSzgVRW2H8pwuM&utm_content=105782603&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">AP,</a> <a href="https://www.eenews.net/energywire/2021/01/07/stories/1063721993?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=105782603&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_rS_50mb4LbYCZTJq5HHcsRFRmexZGHWVXKMCaaY4iXwQX8yet0hk_PXS6HoPjWv6MU5fObU9Xm2hqzR2gStb7Z6tcpfHJU24foFBYv-WK9dVmlf8&utm_content=105782603&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">E&E </a><br/></p><p><em>For more </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/climate-change-news/" target="_blank"><em>climate change</em></a><em> and </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/business/renewables/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>clean energy</em></a><em> news, you can follow Climate Nexus on </em><a href="https://twitter.com/ClimateNexus" target="_blank"><em>Twitter</em></a><em> and </em><a href="https://www.facebook.com/ClimateNexus/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Facebook</em></a><em>, sign up for daily </em><a href="https://www.linktrack.live/hot-news-sign-up" target="_blank"><em>Hot News</em></a><em>, and visit their news site, </em><a href="https://nexusmedianews.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Nexus Media News</em></a><em>. </em></p>From Your Site Articles
- How Drilling in ANWR Would Threaten the Gwich'in People's Way of ... ›
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- Biden Urged to Ban ANWR Drilling After Court Approves Leases ... ›
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Trending
Biden Is Urged to Ban ANWR Drilling After Court Approves Auction of Fossil Fuel Leases
07 January
Climate
Polar bears are seen in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge near Kaktovik, Alaska. Sylvain Cordier / Getty Images
By Jessica Corbett
President-elect Joe Biden is facing renewed pressure to deliver on his promise of a bold climate agenda after a federal judge ruled that the Trump administration could move forward with a Wednesday auction of fossil fuel drilling leases for federally protected lands in Alaska.
<p>After decades of national debate over oil and gas development in the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), Republicans in Congress opened up the region to drilling with a <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/12/08/gop-tax-scam-attacks-renewables-while-nurturing-nuclear-and-fossil-fuel-industries" target="_blank">provision</a> in the so-called "<a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2017/12/22/corporations-are-literally-going-wild-says-trump-he-signs-tax-bill-most-americans" target="_blank">tax scam</a>" that President Donald Trump signed in 2017.</p><p>Late Tuesday, U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason in Anchorage <a href="https://beta.documentcloud.org/documents/20441489-arctic-national-wildlife-refuge-order-on-preliminary-injunction" target="_blank">declined</a> to issue a preliminary injunction to block the auction. The request came from environmental groups and Indigenous people who are opposed to drilling in ANWR, which is home to <a href="https://www.fws.gov/refuge/arctic/wildlife_habitat.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">over 280 species</a>.</p><p>In a statement Wednesday, Mitch Jones, policy director at the advocacy group Food & Water Watch, urged Biden to prevent fossil fuel development in the refuge—and beyond—when he takes office in two weeks. The president-elect has previously <a href="https://www.adn.com/politics/2020/12/05/with-oil-drilling-in-anwr-advancing-and-a-possible-end-to-pebble-mine-what-could-change-for-alaska-under-biden/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">said</a> he "totally" opposes drilling in the ecologically sensitive region.</p><p>"Trump rushing through these lease sales as a final handout to his cronies in the oil and gas industry is outrageous, if not surprising," Jones declared. "Trump's consistent, willful ignorance of the realities of climate change has pushed our planet towards decades of increasing climate chaos."</p>
<p>"President-elect Biden can reverse these disastrous oil and gas industry plans by keeping his promise to ban fossil fuel extraction—including fracking—on our public lands and waters," he added. "This is a step he can, and must, take upon taking office."</p><p>Jones' call for Biden to intervene to protect ANWR's coastal plain came after environmental and Indigenous leaders expressed disappointment with Gleason's decision not to block the auction while also emphasizing that her ruling doesn't mark the end of their fight against drilling rights in the refuge.</p><p>Four lawsuits have been filed since August challenging the lease plans, <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-alaska-lawsuit/u-s-judge-denies-effort-to-stop-drilling-auction-in-arctic-refuge-idUSKBN29B071" target="_blank">according to</a> <em>Reuters</em>. The National Audubon Society and other groups had argued that the auction shouldn't go forward until the broader challenge to the drilling is resolved.</p><p>The <em>Anchorage Daily News</em> <a href="https://www.adn.com/politics/2020/12/05/with-oil-drilling-in-anwr-advancing-and-a-possible-end-to-pebble-mine-what-could-change-for-alaska-under-biden/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reports</a> that Erik Grafe, an Earthjustice attorney representing the Audubon Society, said the case "is by no means over."</p><p>"The court concluded only that for now there is no harm that justifies an injunction. It also recognized that such an action could come very soon with issuance of seismic permits," he said. "We will continue to press our case that the agency approved the program unlawfully and that its decision should be overturned."</p>
<div id="4b52a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a2fc64a53f75e68a880e2293893243cb"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1346838449593212928" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">We #StandWiththeGwichin in our collective fight to #ProtectTheArctic.
Trump's last-ditch effort to extract fossil… https://t.co/uhaPPWiL6T</div> — 350 dot org (@350 dot org)<a href="https://twitter.com/350/statuses/1346838449593212928">1609946284.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Bernadette Demientieff, executive director of the Gwich'in Steering Committee, which represents some of the area's Indigenous people, similarly <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-alaska-lawsuit/u-s-judge-denies-effort-to-stop-drilling-auction-in-arctic-refuge-idUSKBN29B071" target="_blank">said</a> Tuesday that "today's ruling is disappointing but does nothing to change the strength of our lawsuit or our resolve."</p><p>Demientieff's people have <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/08/24/coalition-files-suit-stop-trumps-slapdash-and-tragic-plan-drill-arctic-national" target="_blank">relied </a>on the region's Porcupine Caribou Herd for thousands of years. The Gwich'in <a href="https://ourarcticrefuge.org/about-the-refuge/the-coastal-plain-the-sacred-place-where-life-begins/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">call</a> the coastal plain, which the caribou use as their calving grounds, "Iizhik Gwats'an Gwandaii Goodlit" or "The Sacred Place Where Life Begins."</p><p>As <em>The Guardian</em> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jan/05/trump-arctic-national-wildlife-refuge-lease-sales?utm_campaign=Carbon%20Brief%20Daily%20Briefing&utm_content=20210106&utm_medium=email&utm_source=Revue%20Daily" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reported</a> ahead of the ruling Tuesday:</p><blockquote>Oil from drilling west of the refuge, at Prudhoe Bay, has fueled the economic development the state has depended on to fill its coffers and write annual revenue checks to residents. That extraction also led to the most damaging oil spill in history, when the Exxon Valdez tanker spewed millions of barrels off Alaska's southern coast in 1989.<br><br>Prudhoe Bay "was the largest oil field ever discovered in North America. Since then we have had more than 1,500 square miles of oil and gas development in the Alaskan Arctic… but [ANWR] has been off limits," said Adam Kolton, executive director of the <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/alaska" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Alaska</a> Wilderness League.<br><br>"For us, it symbolizes just what's at stake here. If you can't draw a line at the tundra and keep this one area of the Arctic off limits, then the question is, where can you draw the line and what protected part or wildlife refuge in the United States will remain off limits?"<br></blockquote><p>For the <a href="https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/2021/01/05/heres-what-to-know-ahead-of-the-anwr-oil-lease-sale/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">first-ever ANWR auction</a>, the Bureau of Land Management "plans open bids from companies seeking 10-year leases," according to the <em>Daily News.</em> "Up for grabs to the highest bidder are 22 tracts on the refuge's coastal plain, most of them about 50,000 acres. Together, the tracts represent about 5% of the 19-million-acre refuge."</p>
<div id="ef02c" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="21eddea470b1f924a3e56108665ca656"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1346821784440606720" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">With the denial of the injunction lease sales in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge will go forward today. The ind… https://t.co/B07NKdKD9w</div> — Ctr4BioDiv Ocean (@Ctr4BioDiv Ocean)<a href="https://twitter.com/EndangeredOcean/statuses/1346821784440606720">1609942310.0</a></blockquote></div><p>It remains unclear if any fossil fuel companies will even bid on the leases—especially given that major U.S. banks, under pressure from environmental and Indigenous groups, <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/12/01/lame-duck-trump-pushes-arctic-pillage-bank-america-latest-bank-rule-out-drilling" target="_blank">have adopted policies</a> of refusing to finance drilling in the Arctic, including ANWR, which was designated by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1960.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/01/06/after-court-oks-trump-arctic-refuge-auction-biden-urged-immediately-ban-drilling" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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EPA’s ‘Secret Science’ Rule Will Make It Harder for the Agency to Protect Public Health
06 January
Science
Children's health in particular will be negatively impacted by this new rule. Rawpixel / Getty Images
By Gabriel Filippelli
The Trump administration has worked to weaken U.S. environmental regulations in many areas, from water and air pollution to energy development and land conservation. One of its most controversial actions is known as the "secret science" rule because it would require scientists to disclose all of their raw data, including confidential medical records, for their findings to be considered in shaping regulations. This measure has just been finalized.
<p>This proposal drastically limits what kinds of scientific and medical research the Environmental Protection Agency can draw on as it makes policy. According to press reports, an EPA advisory panel with <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/energy-environment/wp/2017/11/04/pruitts-new-science-advisers-add-more-industry-experts-conservatives-to-the-mix/" target="_blank">many members appointed by President Trump</a> <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2019/12/31/climate/epa-science-panel-trump.html" target="_blank">criticized the proposal</a>, saying it would do little to increase transparency and could limit what kinds of research get done.</p><p>As director of a <a href="http://www.urbanhealth.iupui.edu/" target="_blank">center on urban health</a>, I study issues including <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=MEp4948AAAAJ&hl=en" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">human exposure to toxic substances</a> such as lead and mercury. Confidential patient information is a key resource for my work, and I believe that children's health will suffer as a direct result of this rule.</p>
<img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTI2MDQzMy9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYyNzY1NzI4Nn0.lAHt3SCNKPOECkAp4PnSb4Rq4xxztBDa43lLRyQDCJI/img.jpg?width=980" id="62873" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="d197090b9b00a5ed2deab9aec9a71df5" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1200" data-height="904" />
Despite steps such as phasing out leaded gasoline, lead poisoning is still a serious public health problem across the U.S. AZDHS
Using Child Health Records to Map Lead Exposure
<p>My work is made possible because researchers can obtain confidential patient records, under strict regulations and oversight to ensure their confidentiality throughout analysis. These controls are mandated under <a href="https://www.hhs.gov/hipaa/for-individuals/guidance-materials-for-consumers/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">federal regulations</a> that were rightly instituted to protect people's identities and health data pursuant to the 1996 Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, or HIPAA.</p><p>I started researching lead exposure hot spots in U.S. cities almost 15 years ago, well before thousands of kids were poisoned by lead in Flint. Pediatric exposure to lead results in permanent neurological effects – namely, reduced IQ and deficits in attention, learning and memory compared with nonintoxicated peers. These impacts <a href="https://www.who.int/news-room/fact-sheets/detail/lead-poisoning-and-health" target="_blank">are permanent</a>, so it is critical to identify and eliminate lead exposure sources before children are poisoned.</p><p>Because I did not have the resources to obtain and analyze millions of samples of soil, dust and water for lead, I turned to medical records. Children around the country have routine blood tests, and many of them include an assay for blood lead levels. I realized that if I could obtain those records, as well as each child's age, test date and home address, I could map out the distribution of lead poisoning.</p><p>In an ideal world public health experts wouldn't use maps based on kids who have already been permanently poisoned to find exposure sources. Nevertheless, 16,000 medical records later, I was able to produce a detailed block-by-block map of <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-012-9474-y" target="_blank">blood levels in children</a> in Indianapolis.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" data-runner-src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yNTI2MDQ0Ni9vcmlnaW4uanBnIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NTkxMDc5OH0.zxcJv5s3Lvr2TziQ4bX0hD-BQ3PpzyGASxEvfLzVqss/img.jpg?width=980" id="28c4f" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f1fc8c49bfef2a4f9350d34525f40777" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" data-width="1200" data-height="824" />
Blood lead levels of children in Indianapolis, Indiana, for the period February 2002 to December 2008 (n = 12,431) for children between ages 0 and 5.99 years (area = 1,044 km2). Filippelli et al, 2012., CC BY
Pinpointing Exposure Sources and Timing
<p>This approach led me and my colleagues to two major discoveries that have improved communities and shaped policy at the local and national levels. Neither of these insights could be used to implement solutions under the proposed secret science rule.</p><p>First, we found that the pediatric lead poisoning distribution patterns we identified from medical records <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10653-012-9474-y" target="_blank">matched a rudimentary map</a> of patterns of legacy lead contamination – lead emitted over decades by sources such as leaded gasoline, lead-based paint and industrial emissions – that we constructed from separate research work on <a href="https://www.mapmyenvironment.com/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">urban soil and dust</a>. This indicated that at least in Indianapolis, soil and contaminated dust generated from it was likely the major exposure mechanism for lead in children.</p><p>We were able to leverage that finding in some particularly contaminated neighborhoods where the EPA had previously carried out cleanups. Indeed, our work spurred the agency to reanalyze one of these poorly mitigated neighborhoods and reopen the cleanup over a <a href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-completes-cleanup-100-properties-american-lead-site-indianapolis-soil-sampling" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">much broader target area</a>.</p><span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a37a039636226eb137004af7c191fdbc"><iframe lazy-loadable="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ATNvg9RXzFE?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>
<p>Second, we were able to verify the source of seasonal variations in children's blood lead levels. Through some basic atmospheric modeling, we identified seasonal dust generation as the main driver of this pattern. For example, when soil becomes drier for an extended period of time, it generates more dust that can be tracked into homes or blown into the air. If that soil happens to be contaminated with lead, the dust is also contaminated and becomes a <a href="https://doi.org/10.1289/ehp.7759" target="_blank">regional exposure source</a>.</p><p>After expanding this analysis to 10 different U.S. cities, we were confident enough to begin recommending to clinical networks that they take blood test dates into account. An August blood lead value could be double the level from a February test, so we believed it was important to consider timing in evaluating whether a child might be at risk of unsafe exposure. This led to the first such screening policy to be implemented around the timing of lead test results.</p><h2>Putting Blinders on Regulators</h2><p>Neither of these findings would have been possible without access to original, confidential patient medical records. For each patient we needed a specific home address and exact individual results from blood lead tests. These both are protected classes of personal information that must be kept confidential under federal regulations.</p>
<div id="bda5a" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="deb1d11bb13f686c873a5bf1747f433e"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1201607312244387840" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Researchers must unite against US environment agency’s attack on scientific evidence; @NatureNews editorial… https://t.co/vIrJacdJ45</div> — ASA Science Policy (@ASA Science Policy)<a href="https://twitter.com/ASA_SciPol/statuses/1201607312244387840">1575320482.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>I participated in 2011 in the EPA's <a href="https://yosemite.epa.gov/sab/sabproduct.nsf/264cb1227d55e02c85257402007446a4/B1B17FB48ACEFE8D8525776D006C55CE/%24File/ISA_FOR_LEAD.PDF" target="_blank">Integrated Science Assessment for Lead</a> review process, in which the agency reviewed papers and consulted experts to determine whether provisions in the Clean Air Act regulating airborne lead exposure were adequately protecting Americans. Regulators were particularly interested in the small-scale links between blood lead levels and known sources of lead from dust that our research was finding. Eventually, the agency <a href="https://www.epa.gov/newsreleases/epa-and-hud-announce-new-lead-dust-standards-protect-childrens-health" target="_blank">lowered acceptable standards for lead in dust</a> in 2019.</p><p>Childhood lead exposure is still a <a href="https://www.reuters.com/investigates/graphics/lead-water/en/" target="_blank">public health hazard of epidemic proportions</a> in some parts of the U.S., particularly cities. The potential sources are relatively well known: soil, dust and water. The challenge is that researchers don't have adequate environmental measurements for these sources. Until we do, fine-scaled results revealed by human health data remain our best way to identify sources, and thus inform policies to protect children.</p><p>Now, under the secret science rule, EPA officials will have to pretend that this kind of research doesn't exist, since the patient records that it draws on can't be made public. There are ways to reverse this measure: Congress could repeal it under the <a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1063712743" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Congressional Review Act</a>, or the Biden administration could refuse to defend it in the face of legal challenges. The slowest path would be conducting a new rule-making to rewrite it.</p><p>Until one of these things happens, I believe the Trump administration's action will leave hundreds of thousands of children across the U.S. at risk of a lifetime of avoidable harm from lead poisoning and other types of pollution that researchers analyze using private medical data.</p>
<p>
<em><a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/gabriel-filippelli-314915" target="_blank">Gabriel Filippelli</a> is a </em><em>Professor of Earth Sciences and Director of the Center for Urban Health, IUPUI.</em>
</p><p>
<em>Disclosure statement: </em><em><em>Gabriel Filippelli receives funding from the Environmental Protection Agency (Environmental Justice Small Grants Program) and from the Indianapolis Foundation.</em></em>
</p><p>
<em><em></em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://theconversation.com/epas-secret-science-rule-will-make-it-harder-for-the-agency-to-protect-public-health-128769" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>.</em>
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The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will no longer penalize or prosecute companies when their actions cause the inadvertent death of birds. Jeff R Clow / Getty Images
By Julia Conley
Just over two weeks before President Donald Trump is set to leave the White House, his U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service on Tuesday finalized a rollback of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act—a law that's been in place since 1918 and which conservation groups credit with holding corporate polluters accountable for harming bird species.
<p>In what the Western Values Project called a "parting gift to Big Oil by corrupt former oil lobbyist Interior Secretary David Bernhardt," the USFWS <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/05/climate/trump-migratory-bird-protections.html?action=click&module=Latest&pgtype=Homepage" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">announced </a>a new rule under which the federal government will no longer penalize or prosecute companies when their actions cause the inadvertent death of birds. </p><p>In the case of oil spills like the Deepwater Horizon disaster, which killed more than one million birds in 2010; electrocutions by power lines; ducks and other species<a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2009/03/31/syncrude-triples-number-dead-ducks-oil-sands" target="_blank"> stuck in fossil fuel tailings ponds;</a> and illegal actions like the spraying of banned pesticides, companies will no longer be held to account as long as they don't intentionally kill birds.</p>
<div id="f0f81" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="e84637ab4594c5bbe67da8bb21bc0c57"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1346517062726930433" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Antithetical to its purpose, US Fish and Wildlife Service finalized a rule rolling back protections for migratory b… https://t.co/sC7gB0SX7R</div> — Aric Caplan (@Aric Caplan)<a href="https://twitter.com/CaplanComms/statuses/1346517062726930433">1609869659.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>When it was passed into law more than 100 years ago, the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (MBTA) made it illegal to hunt, take, capture, or kill birds from endangered species "by any means or in any manner."</p><p>Bernhardt said Tuesday the new rule "reaffirms the original meaning and intent of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act," while the Center for Western Priorities called it a "radical interpretation of the law."</p><p>"The Trump administration wants to make sure extractive industries can continue to kill birds after they leave office," said Jennifer Rokala, executive director of the group. "Secretary Bernhardt's former oil industry clients have explicitly asked for this policy change, and now he is delivering, just days before returning to the private sector. By finalizing this proposal, the Trump administration is signing the death warrants of millions of birds across the country."</p><p>Conservation groups pointed to data showing that three billion birds have been lost in North America since 1970, while six million fewer birds were counted by the Audubon Society in 2019 than previous tallies showed.</p><p>As <em>Common Dreams</em> <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/09/16/ecological-disaster-massive-scale-hundreds-thousands-dead-migratory-birds-southwest" target="_blank">reported</a> in September, the wildfires that overwhelmed the West Coast last year were thought to be behind the deaths of thousands of migratory birds in the southwest.</p>
<p>"This brutal blow hits America's birds when many populations are already plummeting, so it's really the last thing they need," said Noah Greenwald, endangered species director at the Center for Biological Diversity. "Trump officials are giving oil companies and other polluters a license to kill birds. Vast numbers of birds will be electrocuted by power lines, drowned in oil waste pits and killed in other easily preventable ways."<br></p><p>Advocates say the MBTA has worked in recent years to show the oil and gas industry that it will be held accountable if its activities kills birds. The federal government <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/05/climate/trump-migratory-bird-protections.html?action=click&module=Latest&pgtype=Homepage" target="_blank">reached </a>a $100 million settlement with BP after the Deepwater Horizon disaster.</p><p>Rep. Deb Haaland (D-N.M.), who was named as President-elect Biden's nominee for Interior Secretary last month, is expected to repeal the USFWS's rule, but that process could take time. Meanwhile, Rep. Alan Lowenthal (D-Calif.) introduced the Migratory Bird Protection Act last year as the administration was considering the rollback, with the aim of reaffirming the original law's intent of protecting vulnerable birds—not corporations.</p><p>Advocates also expressed hope that the federal courts will strike down what Greenwald called the Trump administration's "reckless attack on one of America's oldest and most important conservation laws," as Judge Valerie Caproni of the Southern District of New York <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/08/12/major-victory-court-tosses-out-trump-interiors-gutting-century-old-protections" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">did in August.</a></p><p>"There is nothing in the text of the MBTA that suggests that in order to fall within its prohibition, activity must be directed specifically at birds," Caproni <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/08/12/major-victory-court-tosses-out-trump-interiors-gutting-century-old-protections" target="_blank">said</a> in her ruling at the time. "Nor does the statute prohibit only intentionally killing migratory birds." </p>
<div id="b6b56" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="95790fd24d47e8369de4bd6a06d03868"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1346503503238205442" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">The Trump administration is kicking off the new year and its remaining weeks—and, to add insult to injury,… https://t.co/uydTahSeao</div> — Audubon Society (@Audubon Society)<a href="https://twitter.com/audubonsociety/statuses/1346503503238205442">1609866426.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>Jamie Rappoport Clark, president and CEO of Defenders of Wildlife said the group would call on the Biden administration "to restore protections for birds immediately and affirm that the Migratory Bird Treaty Act prohibits incidental take."</p><p>"Even though a federal court already ruled that the Trump administration cannot eliminate protections for migratory birds, the administration continues its relentless campaign to undermine environmental protections and harm wildlife," said Clark. </p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/01/05/brutal-blow-wildlife-and-gift-big-oil-trump-finalizes-rollback-migratory-bird-treaty" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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A polar bar in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska. Sylvain CORDIER / Gamma-Rapho / Getty Images
By Andrea Germanos
"The Arctic National Wildlife Refuge faces its biggest threat yet."
That's the warning issued by the National Audubon Society on Tuesday — a day before the Trump administration is set to sell oil and gas leasing rights in the refuge's coastal plain, a biodiversity hotspot of critical importance to the Gwich'in people and dubbed America's Serengeti.
<p>Bids were submitted by the end of 2020. It's not clear, however, which oil or gas companies, <a href="https://qz.com/1951224/trumps-final-push-for-arctic-oil-drilling-might-have-no-takers/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">if any</a>, sought leases.</p><p>The Bureau of Land Management has "received interest" in leases, the Anchorage Daily News <a href="https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/2021/01/04/bids-have-been-placed-in-anwr-oil-lease-sale-federal-agency-confirms-as-a-judge-hears-case-to-prevent-drilling/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">reported</a>. That interest may have come solely from the state-owned Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority, which <a href="https://www.alaskapublic.org/2020/12/24/alaskas-state-development-corporation-can-now-spend-up-to-20m-on-anwr-lease-sale/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">voted</a> unanimously last month to spend as much as $20 million on the leases. "It's a way for the state to make sure the land is set aside for oil development in case no one else bids on the leases," as Alaska Public <a href="https://www.alaskapublic.org/2020/12/24/alaskas-state-development-corporation-can-now-spend-up-to-20m-on-anwr-lease-sale/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">put it</a>. </p>
<p>Wednesday's virtual lease sale, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2021/01/01/951090723/after-decades-long-push-its-not-clear-who-will-bid-in-arctic-refuge-oil-lease-sa" target="_blank">according to</a> NPR, represents:</p><blockquote>a major moment in a 40-year fight over whether to develop the northernmost slice of the refuge's coastal plain, home to migrating caribou, birds, and polar bears.<br><br>[President-elect Joe] Biden, as well as his pick for Interior Secretary—Rep. Deb Haaland—oppose drilling in the refuge. The hand-off of drilling rights to the highest bidders could make it more difficult to reverse course.</blockquote><p>That makes a pending decision from a federal judge in Alaska, which could come Tuesday, even more crucial to foil the lease sales and seismic activity related to fossil fuel plans.</p>
<div id="26aa8" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="f43b0301a6523c95374d668cccd33811"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1346234457091694592" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">A lease sale on Wednesday will mark the culmination of pro-development politicians' decades-long campaign for oil d… https://t.co/RSBNZ3ioWC</div> — Audubon Society (@Audubon Society)<a href="https://twitter.com/audubonsociety/statuses/1346234457091694592">1609802281.0</a></blockquote></div><p>U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason in Anchorage on Monday heard oral arguments in the <a href="https://earthjustice.org/sites/default/files/files/audubon_et_al_complaint.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">case</a>, brought forth by Audubon and other conservation groups, as ADN <a href="https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/2021/01/04/bids-have-been-placed-in-anwr-oil-lease-sale-federal-agency-confirms-as-a-judge-hears-case-to-prevent-drilling/%20" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reported</a>. According to the outlet, "Gleason said she'd try to issue a decision by 'close of business' on Tuesday, on the eve of the live-streamed lease sale, set for 10 a.m. Wednesday."</p><p>Andy McGlashen, associate editor of Audubon Magazine, put this week's events in the broader context of the <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/tag/climate-crisis">climate crisis</a>. In a Monday post, he <a href="https://www.audubon.org/news/the-arctic-national-wildlife-refuge-faces-its-biggest-threat-yet-week" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">wrote</a>: </p><blockquote>While the Arctic Refuge has faced development pressure throughout its 40-year existence, it hasn't confronted a more intensely perilous week than this one. "It's like the second-to-last episode of a miniseries, where all the action has built up and there are multiple things happening, and yet there's no resolution at this point," says Natalie Dawson, executive director of Audubon Alaska. "We're waiting on a court decision. We're watching to see if anyone bids on the leases. We're waiting to see what the new administration will do. And all three of those things are kind of rotating around each other at this point." [...]<br><br>The coastal plain between the Brooks Range and the Beaufort Sea is a wild expanse of tundra that each year hosts millions of migratory birds from six continents. It's where the Porcupine caribou herd, one of the continent's largest, migrates each spring to birth calves. Polar bears den in the snow and ice along the coast and river edges, while muskoxen, wolves, and other wildlife roam the rolling plain.<br><br>It's also, like the rest of the Arctic, a region changing fast as the planet warms due to fossil-fuel combustion. "We shouldn't be exploring drilling anywhere," says Martha Raynolds, an arctic plant ecologist at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF). "And the last place on Earth that the U.S. should be exploring drilling is the coastal plain of the Arctic Refuge."</blockquote><p>In a statement last when the groups asked the court to put the lease sales on hold, Erik Grafe, an attorney with Earthjustice which is representing the conservation groups in the case, sounded a similar alarm.</p><p>"Climate change is the greatest threat of our time," he <a href="https://earthjustice.org/news/press/2020/conservation-groups-ask-court-to-stop-imminent-oil-activities-in-arctic-national-wildlife-refuge" target="_blank">said</a>, "and the consequences will be severe and irreversible if we allow oil drilling to proceed in the cherished Arctic Refuge."</p><p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/01/05/biggest-threat-yet-arctic-refuge-trump-readies-last-minute-lease-sale" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em> </p>
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Former coal lobbyist and current EPA administrator Andrew Wheeler looks at a pamphlet about Superfund sites at EPA's New York City office on March 4, 2019. Drew Angerer / Getty Images
Former coal lobbyist and current U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) administrator Andrew Wheeler is expected to announce on Tuesday a rule tobacco consultants devised as an "explicit procedural hurdle" to protecting public health.
<p><br/></p>
<p>The rule — sometimes called the 'Secret Science' rule — will require EPA to give less credence to scientific studies that take into account individuals' medical histories and other data that cannot be made public. Such studies have served as the foundation for a half-century of clean air and clean water protections. </p>
<p>"It's as absurd as it sounds," Sen. Tom Carper (D-Del.) said in a statement. Had the rule been in place, the EPA would have been unable to require mercury pollution cuts from coal-fired power plants because it would have been unable to show how mercury impairs brain development. It could also effectively bar EPA from relying on foundational research — including findings that lead paint dust harms children and that <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/tag/air-pollution">air pollution</a> causes premature deaths — when existing public health protections come up for renewal. </p>
<p>"The people pushing it are claiming it's in the interest of <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/science/">science</a>, but the entire independent science world says it's not," Chris Zarba, a former director of the EPA's Science Advisory Board, told The Washington Post. </p>
<p>As reported by <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/04/climate/trump-epa-science.html?searchResultPosition=1&utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=105370693&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8qJY58DWP-Gm8kwHc3MMIG57TY-2oSKqhlW6DmWJBvdGWumU4AJcwSlquFCcnZKbIthK9SGP5hEvDIUGcS6X9idFP5Mg&utm_content=105370693&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>:</p><blockquote>"Right now we're in the grips of a serious public health crisis due to a deadly respiratory virus, and there's evidence showing that air pollution exposure increases the risk of worse outcomes," said Dr. Mary Rice, a pulmonary and critical care physician who is chairwoman of the environmental health policy committee at the American Thoracic Society.</blockquote><blockquote>"We would want E.P.A. going forward to make decisions about air quality using all available evidence, not just putting arbitrary limits on what it will consider," she said.</blockquote>
<p><strong>For a deeper dive:</strong></p><p><a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/04/climate/trump-epa-science.html?searchResultPosition=1&utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=105370693&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8qJY58DWP-Gm8kwHc3MMIG57TY-2oSKqhlW6DmWJBvdGWumU4AJcwSlquFCcnZKbIthK9SGP5hEvDIUGcS6X9idFP5Mg&utm_content=105370693&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">The New York Times</a>, <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2021/01/04/epa-scientific-transparency/?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=105370693&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_hW0l4f96fpnvwIwQbGwvHMl0UX4egRCajABI8Wi7lfRIF7QzOnRds0fv5vManQ8locqm9Z-Nt_HuysTdXRKMatPRG7g&utm_content=105370693&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">The Washington Post</a>, <a href="https://apnews.com/article/politics-science-environment-e0c89b49e3ed2408731d49c6f0c88bcb?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=105370693&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8GTGbmC7w4yd6daKHOyK0Epnrj3NMFphHhGK99ZSeOyVV58996wTkEN_8vfYeroAZloXenCIarUTZUvTOHN3Yn6lxj7A&utm_content=105370693&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">AP</a>, <a href="https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2021/01/04/stories/1063721703?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=105370693&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9Dmv8dCHnlINNver_qluMydevL4PV3sPYmn8vPEXkhg4xBqzPbHsg-AgAAIf-eFKud76nNGP2fhH8_-Uw51Posswb8Sg&utm_content=105370693&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">E&E</a>, <a href="https://login.politicopro.com/?redirect=https%3A%2F%2Fsubscriber.politicopro.com%2Farticle%2F2021%2F01%2Fepa-set-to-release-scientific-transparency-rule-2026812%3Futm_campaign%3DHot%2520News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=105370693&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9QZyI4nCYCCvkP314KHb6Bs_FiWu0JA-WDAXtVs_NceBazW6-rz9CXFcaD7pVvQfylNconVfxHaZ0YJcjAhQmWXns_0Q&utm_content=105370693&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">POLITICO Pro</a></p><p><a href="https://login.politicopro.com/?redirect=https%3A%2F%2Fsubscriber.politicopro.com%2Farticle%2F2021%2F01%2Fepa-set-to-release-scientific-transparency-rule-2026812%3Futm_campaign%3DHot%2520News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=105370693&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9QZyI4nCYCCvkP314KHb6Bs_FiWu0JA-WDAXtVs_NceBazW6-rz9CXFcaD7pVvQfylNconVfxHaZ0YJcjAhQmWXns_0Q&utm_content=105370693&utm_source=hs_email" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"></a><em>For more </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/climate-change-news/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>climate change</em></a><em> and </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/business/renewables/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>clean energy</em></a><em> news, you can follow Climate Nexus on </em><a href="https://twitter.com/ClimateNexus" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Twitter</em></a><em> and </em><a href="https://www.facebook.com/ClimateNexus/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Facebook</em></a><em>, sign up for daily </em><a href="https://www.linktrack.live/hot-news-sign-up" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Hot News</em></a><em>, and visit their news site, </em><a href="https://nexusmedianews.com/" rel="noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"><em>Nexus Media News</em></a><em>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Trump Admin Removes Gray Wolves From Endangered Species List Despite 'Meager Numbers'
05 January
Politics
A family of gray wolves tends to their pups. After 45 years, gray wolves were delisted from the Endangered Species Act by the Trump administration on Jan. 4, 2021. Chad Horwedel / Flickr
By Brett Wilkins
Wildlife advocates on Monday accused the Trump administration of "willful ignorance" after the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service delisted gray wolves from the Endangered Species Act after 45 years of protection, even though experts say the animals are far from out of the proverbial woods.
<p>USFWS <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/10/29/we-will-see-them-court-howls-protest-and-lawsuit-promised-trump-takes-wolves" target="_blank">announced</a> the rule change — one of <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/12/29/report-urges-biden-reverse-trump-environmental-rollbacks-and-set-us-path-cleaner" target="_blank">over 100 regulatory rollbacks</a> recently pushed through by the Trump administration — in October. The move will allow state authorities to treat the canines as predators and kill or protect them according to their laws.</p><p>In South Dakota, for example, hunters, trappers, landowners, and livestock producers are <a href="https://kfgo.com/2021/01/04/south-dakota-news-gray-wolf-removed-from-federal-endangered-species-list/" target="_blank">now permitted</a> to kill gray wolves after obtaining the necessary paperwork, which includes a predator/varmint, furbearer, or hunting license. Landowners on their own property and minors under the age of 16 are exempt from licensing requirements.</p>
<p>In neighboring Minnesota, gray wolves will <a href="https://www.wdio.com/outdoors/mn-dnr-wolf-plan-endangered-species-status-expires/5968378/?cat=10335" target="_blank">retain</a> a higher level of protection in the northern part of the state — owners of livestock and other animals can kill wolves that pose an "immediate threat" — while in the southern two-thirds of the state people can shoot wolves that they believe pose any threat to livestock, as long as they surrender the carcass.</p><p>In Oregon, on the other hand, "wolves remain protected throughout the state," <a href="https://kval.com/news/local/with-federal-delisting-management-of-all-wolves-in-oregon-are-know-states-responsibility" target="_blank">according to</a> the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife. "Hunting and trapping of wolves remains prohibited statewide."</p>
<p>Last September, Common Dreams <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/09/11/reckless-violent-massacre-570-wolves-and-wolf-pups-idaho-bolsters-alarm-over-trump" target="_blank">reported</a> that an analysis of deregulation in some Western states revealed that a record-breaking 570 wolves, including dozens of pups, were brutally killed in Idaho over a recent one-year period.</p><p>"Tragically, we know how this will play out when states 'manage' wolves, as we have seen in the northern Rocky Mountain region in which they were previously delisted," Samantha Bruegger, wildlife coexistence campaigner for WildEarth Guardians, <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2021/01/04/gray-wolves-lose-federal-endangered-species-act-protections?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=twitter" target="_blank">said</a> in reaction to Monday's delisting.</p>
<p>Bruegger cited the Idaho killings, as well as the situation in Washington, where last year "the state <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/animals/2020/08/washington-state-wolf-killing-controversy/" target="_blank">slaughtered</a> an entire pack of wolves due to supposed conflicts with ranching interests," as proof that "without federal protections, wolves are vulnerable to the whims and politics of state management."</p><p>Monday's delisting comes despite the enduring precarity of wolf populations throughout much of the country. <a href="https://www.opb.org/article/2020/10/29/gray-wolves-endangered-species-act-trump-administration/" target="_blank">According to</a> the most recent USFWS data, there are only 108 wolves in Washington state, 158 in Oregon, and 15 in California, while wolves are "functionally extinct" in Nevada, Utah, and Colorado.</p>
<p>"These meager numbers lay the groundwork for a <a href="https://wildearthguardians.org/press-releases/guardians-launches-challenge-to-federal-wolf-delisting/" target="_blank">legal challenge </a>planned by WildEarth Guardians with a coalition of conservation groups to be filed later this month," said Bruegger.</p><p>Lindsay Larris, wildlife program director at WildEarth Guardians, <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2021/01/04/gray-wolves-lose-federal-endangered-species-act-protections?utm_campaign=shareaholic&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=twitter" target="_blank">said</a> in a statement that "the delisting of gray wolves is the latest causality of the Trump administration's willful ignorance of the biodiversity crisis and scientific facts."</p><p>"Even with [President Donald] Trump's days in office dwindling, the long-term impact of illegitimate decisions like the wolf delisting will take years to correct," Larris added. "Guardians is committed to challenging this decision in court, while working across political channels to ensure wolves receive as much protection as possible at the state level in the interim."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/01/04/despite-meager-numbers-trump-administration-removes-gray-wolves-endangered-species?cd-origin=rss" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em><br/></p>From Your Site Articles
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The administration went after the Endangered Species Act by finalizing a rule that narrows the definition of habitat to only areas that currently support a species. Chase Dekker Wild-Life Images / Getty Images
By Tara Lohan
This holiday season just about everything was different. Vacations were postponed. Parties and family get-togethers were canceled or moved online as folks hunkered down at the request of public-health officials. But one thing continued as usual: President Trump's attacks on the environment.
<p>In the weeks following the Nov. 3 election, Trump's team continued its unprecedented onslaught on environmental regulations, with <a href="https://therevelator.org/trump-attacks-election/" target="_blank">nearly a dozen new rollbacks</a> or threats to public health, wildlife, clean air, public lands and the climate.</p><p>As the New Year approached, the assaults didn't let up. Here are some of the most recent:</p><h2>1. Cutting Disaster Funding</h2><p>Despite a record-tying 16 weather and climate disasters topping $1 billion each this year in the United States, the Federal Emergency Management Agency proposed a plan to curtail federal disaster aid.</p><p>It would affect wealthier states the most, requiring that they have higher levels of damage than less wealthy states to get federal assistance.</p><p>The proposal, announced on Dec. 14, "would be one of the most significant revisions of federal disaster policy in nearly a half-century and comes as states grapple with massive fiscal shortfalls due to the pandemic," <a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1063720573" target="_blank">E&E News reported</a>.</p><p>The new rule is now open for public comments until Feb. 12 and would fall under the incoming Biden administration to move it forward — if it wishes.</p>
<h2>2. Efficiency Rollbacks</h2><p>The Department of Energy took two steps back on Dec. 15., <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-energy-efficiency/u-s-finalizes-shower-head-rule-after-trump-complaints-about-hair-rinsing-idUSKBN28P2XZ" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">finalizing new rules</a> that ease efficiency requirements for some fixtures and appliances.</p><p>The move comes a year after Trump complained that showerheads don't have enough flow for him to wash his hair and toilets need to be flushed 10 or 15 times, which earned him a hearty amount of <a href="https://mashable.com/article/trump-flush-toilets-twitter/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">ridicule on social media</a>.</p><p>But his new rules are no laughing matter when it comes to conservation and efficiency.</p><p>One of the rules would roll back a water-efficiency requirement for showerheads put in place by Congress in 1992 during the George H.W. Bush administration. The other would allow for some new washers and dryers to use more water and energy.</p><p>Both would amount to more needlessly wasted energy, water and money.</p>
<h2>3. No Help for Monarchs</h2><p>Monarch butterflies on both the east and west coasts are in perilous decline, with populations falling 80% or more. So it made sense that on Dec. 15 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service ruled that the butterflies were in need of protection under the Endangered Species Act. But the agency unfortunately decided those protections wouldn't be immediately forthcoming.</p><p>Monarchs were essentially told to get in line behind other species awaiting protection — and there are a lot of those these days. "The Trump administration has listed only 25 species — fewer than any since the [Endangered Species] act took effect in 1973," the <a href="https://www.pressherald.com/2020/12/15/feds-delay-seeking-legal-protection-for-monarch-butterfly/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">AP reported</a>. "The Obama administration added 360."</p><p>The current plan proposes delaying action to list monarchs until 2024, which would then be followed by another year of public comment and development of the final rule: time the species may not have.</p>
<h2>4. Pardons</h2><p>In late December Trump issued dozens of pardons and commutations in what <em>The Guardian</em> <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2020/dec/23/donald-trumps-latest-wave-of-pardons-includes-paul-manafort-and-charles-kunsher" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">called</a> "another audacious application of presidential power to reward loyalists." The list included predictable names of political allies like Paul Manafort and Roger Stone, but among them was a <a href="https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2020/12/23/stories/1063721441" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">pardon for Utah state Rep. Phil Lyman</a>.</p><p>Lyman has railed against the federal management of public lands and in 2015, when he was serving as a San Juan County commissioner, he led 50 all-terrain vehicles on a ride through Utah's Recapture Canyon. The area had been closed to motorized vehicle traffic to protect archeological sites. The illegal stunt earned him 5 days in jail and a $96,000 fine.</p>
<h2>5. Airplane Emissions</h2><p>On Dec. 28 the EPA finalized the first rule regulating greenhouse gas emissions from commercial airplanes. But hold your applause: The historic step isn't likely to amount to much.</p><p>The agency said that all the planes likely to be affected by the rule would be compliant by the date required, and therefore, EPA doesn't think there'll be any <a href="https://www.cnbc.com/2020/12/28/us-epa-finalizing-first-ever-airplane-emissions-rules-.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">emission reductions</a> associated with the greenhouse gas regulations or that they'll help spur technical improvements that wouldn't already have happened.</p><p>This "<a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/12/28/950863508/u-s-implementing-1st-ever-airplane-emission-rules-critics-say-theyre-ineffective" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">do-nothing rule</a>," as environmental groups have dubbed it, may be hard for the Biden administration to quickly undo as the EPA has decided to forgo the usual 30-day waiting period between the publication of the final rule and its implementation.</p><p>"The agency has used the procedural tactic — which is legally allowed with 'good cause' — in recent weeks in an apparent effort to obstruct the incoming Biden administration," E&E News <a href="https://www.eenews.net/greenwire/2020/12/28/stories/1063721505" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reported</a>.</p>
<h2>6. Endangered Species Act</h2><p>The outgoing Trump administration took two more swings at the Endangered Species Act, which it has worked to undo in the last four years.</p><p>On Dec. 15 the administration <a href="https://www.federalregister.gov/documents/2020/12/16/2020-27693/endangered-and-threatened-wildlife-and-plants-regulations-for-listing-endangered-and-threatened" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">finalized a rule</a> that <a href="https://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/530267-trump-administration-limits-protection-of-habitat-for-endangered" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">narrowed the definition of habitat</a> to only areas that <em>currently </em>support a species. This would eliminate the government's ability to protect areas that could help support species in the future and areas previously occupied by the species. The move limits the tools available to protect endangered species, many of which have seen their historic range greatly diminished by development, agriculture and now climate change.</p><p>Two days later the Fish and Wildlife Service undermined the law again with a <a href="https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2020-28033.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">rule</a> that lets money trump science. The change would allow the agency to omit areas from critical habitat designation if a review of the economic costs to industry outweigh the ecological benefits.</p>
<p><a href="https://therevelator.org/author/taralohan/" target="_blank"><em>Tara Lohan </em></a><em>is deputy editor of The Revelator and has worked for more than a decade as a digital editor and environmental journalist focused on the intersections of energy, water and climate. Her work has been published by The Nation, American Prospect, High Country News, Grist, Pacific Standard and others. She is the editor of two books on the global water crisis.</em></p><p><em>Reposted with permission from </em><em><a href="https://therevelator.org/midnight-regulations-trump/" target="_blank">The Revelator</a>.</em><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/r/entryeditor/2649729800#/" target="_self"></a></p>From Your Site Articles
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New U.S. dietary guidelines are a strong win for alcohol and soda industries. Kanawa_Studio / iStock / Getty Images Plus
By Sarah Reinhardt
The federal government released new U.S. dietary guidelines Tuesday after three years of preparation, and it served a strong win to both alcohol and soda industries.
<p>Rather than adopting a new recommendation for men to limit alcohol intake to one drink per day, the <a href="http://www.ecowatch.com/trump-watch/" target="_self">Trump</a> administration instead passed on science and <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/taranurin/2020/08/28/lawmakers-accuse-federal-agencies-of-pursuing-an-anti-alcohol-agenda-in-considering-new-drinking-recommendations/?sh=212e0e616f46" target="_blank">yielded to industry lobbying</a>, leaving the prior limit of two drinks in place. New guidance for adults and children two and older to reduce added sugar from a maximum of 10 percent to 6 percent of daily calories was also rejected.</p><p>If you can look beyond its gratuitous gifts to industry, the new guidelines provide some wins for public health, too. The <em>2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines for Americans</em> retains evidence-based guidance on fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and saturated fats, and for the first time includes dietary recommendations for infants, toddlers, and pregnant and lactating women.</p><p>Now, with the <em>Dietary Guidelines</em> on paper, another question looms large: How can federal agencies use it to make meaningful advancements in public health — particularly during a global pandemic?</p>
<h3>What's the big deal about new <em>Dietary Guidelines</em>?</h3><p>You may know the <em>Dietary Guidelines for Americans</em> from the <a href="https://www.choosemyplate.gov/eathealthy/brief-history-usda-food-guides" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">food pyramid of the early 1990s</a> — which, despite having been <a href="https://www.choosemyplate.gov/eathealthy/brief-history-usda-food-guides" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">replaced by MyPlate</a> nearly a decade ago, seems to have a stronghold on the popular imagination when it comes to our ideas about healthy eating. But the impact and reach of U.S. dietary guidelines is far greater than many people realize. In addition to being the nation's leading nutrition recommendations, the <a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/attach/2019/06/delivering-on-the-dietary-guidelines-report.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"><em>Dietary Guidelines</em></a> provide the scientific basis for federal nutrition programs, including school lunch and breakfast programs, that reach millions of kids, parents, seniors, veterans, and other members of the public every day.</p><p>As <a href="https://www.congress.gov/bill/101st-congress/house-bill/1608/text" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">required by law</a>, the guidelines are updated by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) and Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) every five years to reflect the best available scientific research. This process typically starts with the selection of an <a href="https://www.dietaryguidelines.gov/work-under-way/review-science/about-advisory-committee" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">expert committee</a> that spends two years developing a rigorous scientific report on current nutrition science, and ends with agency staff and political leaders writing and publishing final guidelines. And the decisions made by agriculture secretary Sonny Perdue and HHS secretary Alex Azar about what to include — or omit — in the new guidelines will affect the health of our children and communities for years to come.</p>
<h3>How industry gets inside access to the <em>Dietary Guidelines</em></h3><p>The <em>Dietary Guidelines</em> aren't developed in a vacuum; the process is intentionally designed to be both transparent and accessible to the public, and provides opportunities to <a href="https://www.dietaryguidelines.gov/work-under-way/review-science/public-meetings" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">attend meetings</a> of the scientific committee and to <a href="https://www.dietaryguidelines.gov/work-under-way/get-involved/submit-comment" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">submit comments</a>. These opportunities are open to all individuals, academic institutions, advocacy organizations, and industry groups and associations whose input can inform and strengthen the scientific committee's work. But problems can arise when industry groups bypass this process and attempt to directly influence federal agencies or members of Congress, either through lobbying or unofficial meetings that may not be documented. During the three years preceding the release of the <em>2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines</em>, dozens of industry groups representing the interests of beer, wine, and liquor companies spent an <a href="https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/industries/summary?cycle=2017&id=N02" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">average of $27 million per year</a> ($30.7 million in 2018, $29.3 million in 2019, and $22.2 million in 2020) lobbying members of Congress. Once formed, these cozy relationships can prompt Congress to act on behalf of companies by petitioning USDA and HHS secretaries to change or omit recommendations that industry finds unfavorable. In August 2020, 28 members of <a href="https://www.distilledspirits.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/08/DGA-House-letter-August-12.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Congress addressed such a letter</a> to UDSA and HHS secretaries, challenging the scientific committee's findings on alcohol and mortality.</p>
<p>Meanwhile, industry groups such as the <a href="https://www.ameribev.org/about-us/" target="_blank">American Beverage Association</a>, which includes soda giants Coca-Cola, Dr Pepper, and Pepsi, pushed back against the added sugar recommendations in the scientific report, asking USDA and HHS secretaries to <a href="https://beta.regulations.gov/comment/FNS-2020-0015-24770" target="_blank">maintain current targets</a> instead. <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/sarah-reinhardt/new-dietary-guidelines-report-is-a-science-success-story" target="_blank">But as we wrote this summer</a>, the current limit of 10 percent prevents the average individual from meeting all requirements for a healthy diet within their target calorie range — a rationale spelled out clearly in the <a href="https://www.dietaryguidelines.gov/sites/default/files/2020-07/ScientificReport_of_the_2020DietaryGuidelinesAdvisoryCommittee_first-print.pdf" target="_blank">scientific report</a>. The science is also clear that reducing added sugar intake across the U.S. population would yield significant public health rewards. Our 2019 report, <a href="https://www.ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/attach/2019/06/delivering-on-the-dietary-guidelines-report.pdf" target="_blank"><em>Delivering on the Dietary Guidelines</em></a>, found that drinking just one fewer sugar-sweetened beverage per day could avert nearly 19,000 deaths from type 2 diabetes and decrease medical costs by $16 billion annually among U.S. adults.</p><p>Though industry influence is the exception, not the rule, this isn't the first time that Congress has interfered with the <em>Dietary Guidelines</em>. For example, when the scientific committee behind the <em>2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines </em>was charged with reviewing evidence on <a href="https://ucsusa.org/sites/default/files/2020-02/in-support-of-sustainable-eating_0.pdf" target="_blank">diets, sustainability, and food security,</a> its findings were met with <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2016/01/2015-dietary-guidelines-217438" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">strong opposition from meat industry groups</a>, including the <a href="https://www.meatinstitute.org/index.php?ht=display/ReleaseDetails/i/111303" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">North American Meat Institute</a> (NAMI). As <a href="https://www.politico.com/story/2016/01/2015-dietary-guidelines-217438" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reported by POLITICO</a>, NAMI spent more than $220,000 lobbying members of Congress in the first three quarters of 2015 on issues including the <em>Dietary Guidelines</em>, while the National Cattlemen's Beef Association spent $112,000 and the National Pork Producers Council spent $780,000. Under political pressure from Congress, USDA and HHS secretaries ultimately omitted the committee's findings on this topic and <a href="https://www.usda.gov/media/blog/2015/10/06/2015-dietary-guidelines-giving-you-tools-you-need-make-healthy-choices" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">declared sustainability outside the scope</a> of U.S. dietary guidance.</p>
<h3>For core dietary advice, it's much of the same</h3><p>The biggest update to the <em>2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines</em> is the all-new dietary recommendations for infants, toddlers under two, and pregnant and lactating women. Key recommendations for infants include exclusive human milk for the first six months, with iron-fortified formula as an acceptable substitute when milk is unavailable, and the introduction of complementary foods thereafter.</p><p>But core dietary recommendations for the general population have largely remained the same. Despite sensational headlines and nutrition trends du jour, most of what we know about a healthy diet has actually remained fairly consistent over time: we're healthiest when we eat a diversity of plant-based foods, including fruits, vegetables, and whole grains; consume lean sources of protein, including poultry, seafood, and <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/sarah-reinhardt/on-valentines-day-a-love-letter-to-legumes" target="_blank">legumes</a> (think beans, peas, and lentils); and limit solid fats and sodium, in addition to added sugars. And though the new edition does not drastically depart from a longstanding tendency to skirt the health risks of red and processed meat, the new edition does newly (if subtly) suggest replacing some "processed or high-fat meats" with beans, peas, lentils, or seafood. Meanwhile, neither the scientific report nor the final guidelines addressed the potential health consequences of <a href="http://www.fao.org/3/ca5644en/ca5644en.pdf" target="_blank">ultra-processed foods</a>, which are increasingly the focus of diet and health research and have been acknowledged in <a href="https://www.paho.org/hq/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=11564:dietary-guidelines-brazilian-population&Itemid=4256&lang=en#:~:text=Brazil's%20latest%20food%2Dbased%20dietary,and%20avoiding%20ultra%2Dprocessed%20foods" target="_blank">international dietary guidance</a>.</p>
<h3>New <em>Dietary Guidelines</em> must provide a pathway to sustainability and health equity</h3><p>Five years ago, the <em>2015-2020 Dietary Guidelines for Americans</em> described the myriad social, cultural, and economic factors that can influence dietary choices, and offered evidence-based strategies for health professionals and policymakers. Much of this information was notably absent from the <em>2020-2025 Dietary Guidelines</em> released today, which named key federal nutrition programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), but otherwise seemed to place a much greater focus on individual choices than the external factors that constrain those choices.</p><p>Of course, even when these factors are explicitly addressed, they are only useful if the federal government has the will and the means to act on them.</p><p>Historically, there has been very little investment in implementing dietary guidance. Following the release of each new edition of the <em>Dietary Guidelines</em>, the USDA works to develop evidence-based educational tools and resources (like MyPlate and its predecessor, the food pyramid) to reflect current recommendations, but the buck often stops there. Because while the guidelines are supposed to serve as the backbone for federal nutrition programs, the government lacks a mechanism — and perhaps more importantly, funding — to make sure this happens and to ensure that <a href="https://civileats.com/2020/07/28/should-the-dietary-guidelines-help-fight-systemic-racism/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">dietary guidance is reaching communities</a> who need it most. Furthermore, USDA educational materials and resources are largely limited to dietary patterns that do not reflect the broad cultural and culinary diversity in the United States. All of this means that the <em>Dietary Guidelines</em> remain inaccessible to many populations, including many immigrant communities and people of color impacted by systemic racism and other forms of oppression.</p>
<p>Thousands of <a href="https://beta.regulations.gov/docket/FNS-2020-0015" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">individuals who weighed in</a> on the <em>Dietary Guidelines</em> process are also watching to see how the USDA and HHS will handle the issue of sustainability. Although sustainability was excluded from the initial <a href="https://www.dietaryguidelines.gov/work-under-way/review-science/topics-and-questions-under-review" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">list of research questions</a> provided to the scientific committee — effectively barring a review of current <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/sarah-reinhardt/is-the-us-ready-for-sustainable-dietary-guidelines-new-research-makes-a-compelling-case" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">evidence on sustainable diets</a> — sustainability was highlighted in the scientific report anyway. The committee encouraged federal agencies to "support efforts to consider the <em>Dietary Guidelines</em> in relation to sustainability of the food system," and further noted that "the achievability and maintenance of healthy food and beverage intakes is dependent on a complex number of factors that influence food access, availability, and cost. Long-term maintenance of healthy intakes requires long-term support of associated food systems." Though the word itself doesn't receive a mention in the 164-page document, sustainability will continue to be a key issue the USDA will be expected to confront in its implementation of dietary guidance.</p><p>These considerations are particularly important against the backdrop of the public health crisis caused by COVID-19, which has produced <a href="https://ajph.aphapublications.org/doi/10.2105/AJPH.2020.305953" target="_blank">sharp increases in food insecurity</a> for families nationwide and underscored the <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/need-extra-precautions/people-with-medical-conditions.html" target="_blank">threats posed by widespread chronic disease</a>. But they will continue to provide critical context for dietary guidance after this pandemic passes, and have the potential to leave us <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/sarah-reinhardt/investing-in-dietary-guidelines-will-leave-us-better-prepared-for-the-next-pandemic" target="_blank">better prepared in the face of the next crisis</a>, be it a viral outbreak or a climate-related natural disaster. Though Biden's USDA will have plenty on its plate (so to speak), putting our national nutrition guidance to good use — and restoring public faith in the process — should be a top priority to protect public health for generations to come.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://blog.ucsusa.org/sarah-reinhardt/new-dietary-guidelines-cater-to-alcohol-and-soda-industries" target="_blank">Union of Concerned Scientists</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Joe Biden and Donald Trump at the final presidential debate at Belmont University on Oct. 22, 2020 in Nashville, Tennessee. Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
By Brett Wilkins
A report published Tuesday by the eco-advocacy group Environment America urges President-elect Joe Biden to immediately restore critical environmental protections gutted by Trump administration regulatory rollbacks.
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<p>The report, <a href="https://uspirgedfund.org/sites/pirg/files/reports/First%20Things%20to%20Fix%20Design%20Final_0.pdf" target="_blank"><em>First Things to Fix</em></a>, notes that President Donald Trump has overseen the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/climate/trump-environment-rollbacks-list.html" target="_blank">reversal or weakening </a>of around 100 environmental regulations during his nearly four years in office.</p><p>"His administration has steadily loosened oversight of polluting industries, eroded protections for endangered wildlife, and stymied efforts to address our most daunting environmental threat: climate change," the report states. "These rollbacks have and will continue to significantly increase greenhouse gas emissions and lead to thousands of premature deaths due to poor air quality every year."</p><p>"By undoing the Trump administration's rollbacks of environmental protections, the Biden administration will be able to protect our natural landscapes and give Americans cleaner air, cleaner water, and a more livable climate," the report continues.</p>
<div id="e7035" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="5da1fd4251ba813b9a67acbfbb8f32f0"><blockquote class="twitter-tweet twitter-custom-tweet" data-twitter-tweet-id="1343951158826725376" data-partner="rebelmouse"><div style="margin:1em 0">Here’s our recommendations for the first actions President-elect Biden can take to protect the environment. 5 thing… https://t.co/yRSojPMrJh</div> — Environment America (@Environment America)<a href="https://twitter.com/EnvAm/statuses/1343951158826725376">1609257900.0</a></blockquote></div>
<p>"Many of the rollbacks have been carried out by the Environmental Protection Agency," the report notes. "Others by the departments of Transportation, Energy, and Interior. A lot of them can be undone through swift administrative action in the early days of a Biden administration."</p><p>The report says that Biden's actions could and should include:</p><ul><li>Rejoining the <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/04/28/epas-dirty-water-new-rule-discards-science-ignores-importance-wetlands-and" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Paris climate agreement</a>;</li><li>Repealing the so-called "<a href="https://www.commondreams.org/views/2020/04/28/epas-dirty-water-new-rule-discards-science-ignores-importance-wetlands-and" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Dirty Water Rule</a>";</li><li>Raising <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/03/30/trump-kneecap-obama-era-fuel-efficiency-standards-hurtling-nation-toward-more" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">federal fuel economy and emissions standards</a> for vehicles and reaffirming <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/09/24/days-after-attacking-californias-efforts-reduce-emissions-trump-epa-threatens-states" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">California's authority</a> to set stronger vehicle emissions standards;</li><li>Withdrawing the Trump <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/views/2018/01/06/trumps-offshore-drilling-plan-flouts-law-ignoring-governors-wishes" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">draft five-year plan</a> on offshore drilling; and</li><li>Restoring smart <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/newswire/2020/08/10/groups-will-sue-unless-doe-updates-26-overdue-energy-efficiency-standards" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">energy efficiency</a> policies.</li></ul>
<p>Additionally, the report recommends 15 policies and actions the incoming administration should consider during its first 100 days, including ending oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, protecting endangered species, and reducing methane emissions.</p><p>Earlier this year, nine other environmental groups <a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/trump-worst-president-environment-2645034831.html?rebelltitem=4#rebelltitem4" target="_self">declared</a> Trump "the worst president for our environment in history," citing his administration's "unprecedented assault on our environment and the health of our communities" and policies that "threaten our climate, air, water, public lands, wildlife, and oceans."</p><p>Matt Casale, lead author of the new report and environmental campaigns director for the U.S. Public Interest Resource Group Education Fund, said that "air pollution has been on the rise and many of our bodies of water are at risk of pollution."</p>
<p>"As greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise, so have the impacts of global warming — from increased wildfires and hurricanes to heat-related illness," he noted.</p><p>"There's a lot to do," added Casale, "but so much of the policy damage from the past four years can quickly be fixed through swift administrative action in the early days of the Biden administration."</p><p>"Biden has the opportunity to use the first 100 days to put us on a path toward a cleaner, healthier future for ourselves, our children, and grandchildren," said Casale. "He cannot pass up that opportunity. We don't have any time to waste."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/12/29/report-urges-biden-reverse-trump-environmental-rollbacks-and-set-us-path-cleaner" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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