EnviroPolitics Blog

EPA Awards $387M for Water Infrastructure Upgrades in Pa.

PHILADELPHIA (November 29, 2023) – The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has awarded Pennsylvania $386,932,000 to support clean water efforts and to better deliver safe drinking water across the state. Most of this funding, $340,612,000, came from President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) which is the largest federal investment in water infrastructure in our nation’s history. This BIL funding will supplement the $46,320,000 in FY 2023 funding appropriated to Pennsylvania’s Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds (SRFs). 

“These awards show that EPA is not just a regulator – but is a funder and partner,” said EPA’s Mid-Atlantic Regional Administrator Adam Ortiz. “The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law ensures communities most in need and those grappling with emerging contaminants such as PFAS have access to funding that will deliver cleaner and safer water for generations to come.”

EPA awards grants to states annually to capitalize the State Revolving Funds (SRFs) which provide low or no-interest loans for water infrastructure projects. Pennsylvania will use this money to help communities across the state fund necessary water projects that some borrowers may not have been able to afford otherwise.

“Pennsylvania’s water will always be a top priority for the PA Department of Environmental Protection,” said DEP Interim Acting Secretary Jessica Shirley. “This funding will support infrastructure projects that enhance clean water efforts across the state, further providing recreation opportunities and protecting drinking water.”

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law delivers more than $50 billion to EPA to improve our nation’s drinking water, wastewater, and stormwater infrastructure – the single largest investment in water that the federal government has ever made. Learn more about the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

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Six numbers show why COP28 could be a heavy lift for world leaders

By Kristoffer Tigue, Inside Climate News

More than 70,000 diplomats, politicians, business leaders and environmental advocates from all around the world are expected in Dubai on Thursday for COP28, the United Nations’ flagship climate change summit.

Each year, delegates from nearly 200 nations gather at the conference to discuss how they can limit rising global temperatures through the end of the century in hopes of avoiding the most dire consequences of climate change, including upwards of three-quarters of Earth’s species disappearing for good.

But this year’s conference could be an especially important one as carbon emissions continue to reach historic highs and the planet approaches potential tipping points that scientists fear could send global warming spiraling out of control. With climate and energy experts stressing the need to immediately reduce the use of fossil fuels if nations hope to keep the Paris Agreement targets alive, and with wars raging in Europe and the Middle East, world leaders face significant challenges at the talks.

Read the full story here

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BILLYPENNGRAM for Nov. 26, 2023

#BILLYPENNGRAM OF THE DAY
Ginko carpet on Quince Street in Philadelphia
(Photo by @tvpromoter)

Want to see your photo here? Tag #billypenngram on Instagram

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Proposed NYC budget cuts ‘devastating’ for community composters

Cuts to the New York City Sanitation Department could lead to dozens of layoffs, the closure of several mid-sized community composting facilities, and the delayed rollout of curbside organics service.

Two brown DSNY organics collection bins on the side of a street — New York City compost bins distributed by DSNY in Windsor Terrace, Brooklyn. *The image by Tdorante10 is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0*

By Jacob Wallace, Waste Dive

Mayor Eric Adams is proposing eliminating the New York City community composting program and delaying rollout of curbside residential organics collection in certain boroughs by seven months as part of sweeping budget cuts.

The proposal, published Thursday, is part of across-the-board 5% budget cuts Adams has directed all city agencies to make as the city faces a projected budget shortfall beginning this fiscal year and extending into future years. The mayor has indicated an additional 5% cut may be necessary again in January.

The cuts would have ripple effects throughout the city’s management of organics and waste: reducing litter cleanup, shuttering farmer’s market food waste drop-off sites, and ending funding for several mid-sized community composting sites, those familiar with the funding said.

“It’s a tremendous loss,” Beth Slepian, vice chair of the Brooklyn Solid Waste Advisory Board, said. “This creates a huge access issue for people to composting.”

Read the full story here

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Embattled electric utility breathing easier after court ruling

BY KEVIN RECTORSTAFF WRITER, LA Times

Pacific Gas & Electric customers cannot sue the power giant for losses incurred during power shutoffs designed to protect the public from wildfires, the California Supreme Court ruled Monday.

Such litigation would interfere with the California Public Utilities Commission’s “comprehensive regulatory and supervisory authority” over such safety shutoffs and is therefore barred under state law, Justice Goodwin Liu wrote in a unanimous decision for the state’s high court.

The ruling is a significant win for embattled PG&E, which crawled out of bankruptcy in 2020 after collapsing under $30 billion in liabilities from wildfires sparked by its equipment. Litigation over safety cutoffs, if allowed, would have potentially exposed the company to billions of dollars of additional liabilities.

Read the full story here

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Michigan governor expected to sign clean energy bill that includes incineration

A suite of clean energy bills would transition the state to clean energy by 2040. It counts an existing facility in Kent County as clean while also supporting the use of landfill and AD systems.

A politician stands in front of a podium with the seal of Michigan projected behind her. — Gov. Gretchen Whitmer at an announcement for an electric vehicle battery plant in February. The clean energy bills passed in November also include battery storage provisions. *Bill Pugliano via Getty Images*

By Jacob Wallace, Waste Dive

A suite of clean energy bills that passed the Michigan legislature last week aims to move the state to 100% clean energy by 2040. It includes provisions allowing “incinerator” facilities to count toward local clean energy goals until 2040, setting the waste management strategy up as an interim measure.

SB271, part of a package of five bills approved by the legislature, also counts landfill-gas-to-energy and “methane digester” facilities as clean energy, but it excludes fuels made from post-use polymers, tires, tire-derived fuel, and plastic, among other fossil fuels.

Gov. Gretchen Whitmer is expected to sign the bill. Her office did not provide a date for the signing.

Many states have debated the inclusion of combustion facilities in their renewable energy portfolio standards over the years, with operators touting the technology’s potential greenhouse gas benefits over landfilling and environmental advocates raising alarms about pollution concerns.

Debates continue in states such as Maryland, where Gov. Wes Moore floated the idea of removing incineration from renewable portfolio standards in his transition documents, but the state failed to pass a bill doing so this year.

Michigan’s SB271 instructs electric utilities to transition to renewable or clean energy programs while pursuing energy savings initiatives. Incineration is included in the definition of a renewable energy system, but the bill only includes facilities that were generating power before the start of this year

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