Trying to figure out the air quality in your coverage area? The EPA may not be much help. But this week's TipSheet suggests some effective work-arounds for your reporting. Get the backstory on ozone standards, tips on how to track ozone "nonattainment" for your area and learn why smog matters so much to public health.
"The food lobby is splintering as companies disagree about how to respond to changing consumer tastes."
"A leaked draft of the US Department of Interior’s four-year strategic plan calls for massive fossil fuel extraction from public lands, with no mention of climate change impacts."
"The European Union voted on Monday to extend its authorization for the world’s best-selling herbicide for an abbreviated period of five years, with France and Germany splitting over the move."
"Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder and Canadian oil transport company Enbridge Inc. announced a timeline Monday for determining the future of twin pipelines beneath the channel where Lakes Huron and Michigan converge."
"Federal officials might be grounded from pursuing companies whose operations incidentally kill migratory birds, under a two-pronged maneuver now advancing publicly on Capitol Hill and quietly inside the Interior Department."
"Wyoming-based property rights attorney Karen Budd-Falen recently vowed that if she is confirmed to lead the Bureau of Land Management, she will 'advocate for local government involvement,' criticizing an inside-the-Beltway mindset that she said currently pervades land-use planning."
"Mexico’s government has created a marine park the size of Illinois in the Pacific, the largest ocean reserve in North America for the conservation of giant rays, whales and turtles, including dozens of species endemic to the area."
"Barbara Aldridge knew it was time to leave U.S. EPA. Now 64, she had worked at the agency for 26 years, restoring wetlands along the Gulf Coast and policing Superfund compliance. But Aldridge's husband died last year, and then the election ushered in the Trump administration — and a reckoning for EPA."
"Lobbyists in key positions with the U.S. Department of the Interior now number 13, making the nation’s public lands agency a leading example of President Donald Trump’s policy of filling government posts with former advocates for special interests."
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