(AL AR FL GA KY LA MS NC PR SC TN)
"The Biden administration’s oil and gas lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico last week doesn’t just lock in decades of future drilling and greenhouse gas emissions, it also opens up more extraction in an area where chemical companies dumped tons of hazardous industrial waste."
"ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST PARISH, La. — As white smoke wafted from a massive oil and gas refinery that sits near his backyard, Michael Coleman reminisced about the sweet days of his childhood, before sugar cane fields that stretched for miles were sold and replaced by chemical companies that wiped out the “nice little community we had here.”
"A $9 billion highway widening project being proposed in the Houston area could become an important test of the Biden administration’s commitment to addressing what it has said is a history of racial inequity with infrastructure projects in the U.S."
"The Tennessee Valley Authority received the final regulatory approval it needs to remove tons of coal ash from ponds in Southwest Memphis and transport them along Shelby Drive to a landfill in Southeast Memphis."
The history of environmental racism is a long one in the United States, far longer than the efforts to address the problem. But reporting on environmental justice continues to tick upwards, and an analysis in the latest Backgrounder points to promising progress, explaining why for journalists the year ahead may yield important stories, whether about future footholds or new missteps.
"A Midwest energy company on Friday canceled controversial plans for a $2.5 billion oil export terminal and pipeline in Plaquemines Parish after facing numerous obstacles to development. Instead, Tallgrass Energy Partners said it will consider other uses for the site."
"The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency said Wednesday it has overturned the approval of a massive flood-control project in the south Mississippi Delta that officials said was erroneously greenlit in the final days of the Trump administration."
"Activist Justin J. Pearson had barely finished one environmental fight before he realized he needed to get involved in another. ...The Tennessee Valley Authority is preparing to store coal ash, a by-product of coal burning, in Southeast Memphis."
"Despite its burly stature, spiked back and bone-crushing bite, the alligator snapping turtle needs protection." "They were almost wiped out in 1960s and ‘70s because so many were harvested for soup".
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