ELI In the News

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Scott Pruitt recently proposed eliminating federal tax credits for wind and solar power, arguing that they should “stand on their own and compete against coal and natural gas and other sources” as opposed to “being propped up by tax incentives and other types of credits....”  Stand on their own?  Pruitt surely must be aware that fossil fuels have been feasting at the government trough for at least 100 years. Renewables, by comparison, have received support only since the mid-1990s and, until recently, have had to subsist on scraps. .

POCOSIN LAKES NATIONAL WILDLIFE REFUGE, N.C. — Tea-colored water seeps from bogs here in eastern North Carolina's soggy, shrubby "blacklands," as local farmers call them. The Algonquin Indians called them pocosins. "They're not the most charismatic wetland," said Eric Soderholm, a wetland-restoration specialist for the Nature Conservancy. "But their impact on the ecosystem is invaluable." Pocosins serve as ecological sentries regulating freshwater quantity and quality in estuaries. But they are also coveted by farmers for their rich soil.

The Water Environment & Reuse Foundation (WE&RF) recently awarded a contract to the Environmental Law Institute to begin Food Waste Co-Digestion at Wastewater Resource Recovery Facilities: Business Case Analysis (ENER19C17). The project goal is to develop alternative sustainable business cases for wastewater resource recovery facilities to co-digest food waste, including fats, oil, and grease (FOG), food manufacturing residuals, and source separated organics.

Once tasked with regulating industry and protecting the well-being of America’s natural world, the EPA has become a haven for anti-science and anti-environmentalism attitudes[...] Pruitt has repeatedly said that the states should decide the level of regulations applied to their waterways– but not all states can. 36 states, according to a study conducted by the Environmental Law Institute “have laws that could restrict the authority of state agencies or localities to regulate waters left unprotected by the federal Clean Water Act.”