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This post was co-authored by Steve Capanna, Director for U.S. Climate Policy and Analysis In a new policy blueprint, EDF offers recommendations for how the Department of Energy can align its innovation budget with the climate challenge across its technology programs. President Biden has pledged to deliver the largest ever federal investment in clean energy …

Editor’s note: This post was last updated April 21st, 2021. Washington has an opportunity in the Climate Commitment Act to adopt transformative climate policy. It would enable the state to slash greenhouse gas emissions at the pace and scale necessary to fight the climate crisis, help address the disproportionate and historic pollution burden in many …

A recent Wall Street Journal article answers definitively YES to the question of whether electric vehicles are really better for the environment. But even this strong endorsement of electric vehicles underestimates just how good these cars, trucks and buses will be for our climate and air. The article reports findings from researchers at the University of Toronto. The researchers compared vehicle emissions for a 2021 Toyota RAV4 and a Tesla Model 3. The study is clear that operations are cleaner for electric vehicles.  …

This blog was co-authored with Danielle Arostegui, Senior Analyst, U.S. Climate. This week, President Biden unveiled a far-reaching infrastructure package to build back the economy in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis, while protecting existing and future generations from the most severe consequences of climate change and addressing historic inequities in access to clean air …

North Carolina is up against a climate deadline: In 10 years, the state needs to slash carbon pollution from the power sector 70% below 2005 levels by 2030. This goal, set by an executive order from Gov. Roy Cooper in 2018, will help communities avert the worst climate damages, while moving the state toward a …

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Lead Senior Scientist. Part 2 of a 2-part series (see Part 1 here) Last week’s announcement by EPA about improvements it is making to EPA’s reviews of new chemicals under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) indicated it will begin by reversing two of the most damaging policy changes the Trump …

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Lead Senior Scientist. Part 1 of a 2-part series (see Part 2 here) With last week’s announcement by EPA that it intends to reverse two of the most damaging policy changes the Trump EPA made to EPA’s reviews of new chemicals under the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA), there is hope …

Lindsay McCormick, Program Manager and Richard Denison, Ph.D., Lead Senior Scientist When Congress reformed the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) in 2016, it authorized EPA to require companies to pay fees to help defray the agency’s costs of administering this extensive new law.  EPA finalized the first “fee rule” in 2018 to establish the payment …

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Lead Senior Scientist. Part 4 of a 4-part series – see Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3 here This series of blog posts is looking ahead toward opportunities to advance a more robust and holistic vision for implementing the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) as reformed in 2016. We discussed …

Dr. Tamarra James-Todd’s interest in human health dates back to her childhood, when she would go into work with her mom, who was a microbiologist, on the odd weekend at the Kansas City VA Hospital. Now an epidemiologist at the Harvard Chan School of Public Health, Dr. James-Todd has focused her career on understanding the …

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Lead Senior Scientist. Part 3 of a 4-part series – see Part 1, Part 2, and Part 4 here This series of blog posts is looking ahead toward opportunities to advance a more robust and holistic vision for implementing the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA) as reformed in 2016. In the …

This post originally appeared on the EDF Global Clean Air Blog. Ananya Roy, Senior Health Scientist, and Maria Harris, Environmental Epidemiologist  The last several months have seen a wave of momentum in policies seeking toward advance environmental justice and equity through better data collection and mapping. In his first week in office, President Biden signed …

Policymakers around the world increasingly recognize that along with carbon dioxide, cutting emissions of methane is critical for reaching the temperature goal of the Paris Agreement. Methane is a key element in the reinvigorated U.S. climate strategy and — for the first time — discussed in China’s latest five-year plan. Now the EU has a …

There are nearly a million active oil and gas wells in the United States, and if not correctly designed and maintained, they can leak harmful substances that will irreversibly pollute our land, air and water. A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences looked at data from over 100,000 wells …

President Biden’s sweeping infrastructure package includes $174 billion for electric vehicles, an investment that will speed the transition away from polluting gas and diesel vehicles and toward cleaner forms of road transportation. The upfront cost of infrastructure is a key barrier to rapid deployment of zero-emission vehicles and the health and climate benefits that an …

The Partnership for Carbon Accounting Financials recently welcomed its 100th member, a milestone that reflects banks’ growing focus on measuring financed emissions. But while robust carbon accounting is necessary for the long term, it is no substitute for action now. To pick up the pace of Paris alignment, banks must begin targeting financed emissions in …

A study commissioned by EDF and conducted by Gladstein, Neandross and Associates provides a pathway to ensuring heavy duty trucks can electrify.

Recharge basins are becoming increasingly popular in overdrafted regions in California, where water managers are seeking solutions to balance groundwater supply and demand to comply with the state’s Sustainable Groundwater Management Act (SGMA).

The President’s American Jobs Plan is the kind of strong leadership we need to rebuild America, create jobs and leave a cleaner and healthier world for our kids.

This post draws from a chapter for a book I wrote in 2020: “Overcoming the tragedy of distance – cooperating with our friends’ friends” in Living with the Climate Crisis ed. Tom Doig. Bridget Williams Books, Wellington, New Zealand  I believe that finding ways to work more intensively and effectively with people with very different …

SoCalGas – the nation’s largest gas utility recently pledged to go net-zero on their greenhouse gas emissions. At face value, this is a great move, but what does this really mean for a gas-only company that has had some major climate missteps in the past? And what are the implications for current and future SoCalGas …

By Rosalie Winn and Raisa Orleans EDF Legal Fellow Edwin LaMair contributed to this post. Lawmakers last week introduced joint resolutions under the Congressional Review Act to restore widely-supported methane pollution protections and allow the Environmental Protection Agency to move forward swiftly with ambitious next-generation standards for new and existing oil and gas facilities. The …

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Lead Senior Scientist. Part 2 of a 4-part series – see Part 1, Part 3, and Part 4 here After our look back in Part 1 of this series at the damage done over the past four years, the remainder of the series will look ahead and explore opportunities to advance …

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Lead Senior Scientist. Part 1 of a 4-part series – see Part 2, Part 3, and Part 4 here It wasn’t that long ago, June 2016, when there was hope that our nation was at last embarking on the enormous task of reinvigorating and greatly strengthening our chemical safety system, 40 years …

Richard Denison, Ph.D., is a Lead Senior Scientist. Today the Environmental Protection Agency announced it is conducting a thorough review of its policies and procedures for assessing the safety of new chemicals prior to allowing their entry into commerce. EPA’s announcement flags two immediate changes it is making to restore and realign the program’s practices with …