AgClips
Recent AgClips
Residents Seek Answers About Health Risks Near Frac Sand Mines
Investigate Midwest | Posted onMarch 26, 2019 in Energy NewsPublic health researchers disagree on the impact the dust has on the long-term health of residents living in an near silica sand mining communities like the tiny Mississippi River town of Clayton, which is in the Iowa county by the same name, and in southwest Wisconsin.Researchers and citizens have become concerned in recent years about the health effects because fracking, and the frac sand mining that helps drive it, only appeared on the national stage in the last 30 years.
Analysis: New wind, solar cheaper than operating most existing coal plants
Energy News Network | Posted onMarch 26, 2019 in Energy NewsLocally generated solar and wind energy could already replace almost three-fourths of electricity made by U.S. coal plants for less than the cost of continuing to operate those plants. By 2025, the share of “at risk” coal generation will jump from 74 percent to 86 percent, adds the report by Energy Innovation Policy & Technology in San Francisco and Boulder-based Vibrant Clean Energy.
New Mexico governor signs landmark clean energy bill
AP News | Posted onMarch 26, 2019 in Energy, SARL Members and Alumni NewsNew Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signed landmark legislation that will mandate more solar panels and wind turbines as the state sets ambitious new renewable energy goals. The measure requires that investor-owned utilities and rural electric cooperatives get at least half of their electricity from renewable sources by 2030. That would jump to 80 percent by 2040.A 100 percent carbon-free mandate would kick in five years later for utilities. Electric co-ops would have until 2050 to meet that goal.
After Paris agreement, big oil and gas companies invested $110 billion in fossil fuels
CBS News | Posted onMarch 26, 2019 in Energy NewsIn the three years since most of the world's nations signed on to the Paris climate agreement, major oil and gas companies have poured more than $100 billion into their fossil-fuel infrastructure. That's more than 10 times the amount the same companies have spent on low-carbon investments, despite lip service toward that area, according to a new report.The five biggest—ExxonMobil, Royal Dutch Shell, Chevron, BP and Total—will collectively spend $115 billion on capital investments this year, according to the report.
Recording reveals oil industry execs laughing at Trump access
Reveal News | Posted onMarch 26, 2019 in Energy NewsGathered for a private meeting at a beachside Ritz–Carlton in Southern California, the oil executives were celebrating a colleague’s sudden rise. David Bernhardt, their former lawyer, had been appointed by President Donald Trump to the powerful No. 2 spot at the Department of the Interior.
Spring Outlook: Historic, widespread flooding to continue through May
NOAA | Posted onMarch 26, 2019 in Agriculture NewsNearly two-thirds of the Lower 48 states face an elevated risk for flooding through May, with the potential for major or moderate flooding in 25 states, according to NOAA’s U.S. Spring Outlook issued today. The majority of the country is favored to experience above-average precipitation this spring, increasing the flood risk. Portions of the United States – especially in the upper Mississippi and Missouri River basins including Nebraska, Minnesota and Iowa – have already experienced record flooding this year.
Maine says sludge must be tested for ‘forever chemicals’ before
Portland Press Herald | Posted onMarch 26, 2019 in Agriculture, SARL Members and Alumni NewsState environmental regulators announced Friday that all sludge will have to be tested for the presence of an industrial chemical before being used as fertilizer or applied to land. The Maine Department of Environmental Protection announced the new testing requirement in response to growing concerns about contamination from PFAS, a group of chemicals widely used to create non-stick coatings on cookware, food packaging and fabrics, as well as in firefighting foam.
What's possible in rural America? Plenty
Daily Yonder | Posted onMarch 26, 2019 in Rural NewsWhen commercial providers failed to bring broadband infrastructure to their community, the people of Wilson, North Carolina, built it themselves. Soon they’ll open a rural innovation hub where entrepreneurs, remote workers, and people learning tech skills will leverage that fiber connectivity as part of Wilson’s growing presence in the digital economy. Independence, Oregon, population 9,250, uses its municipal fiber and farming expertise to pilot cutting-edge agricultural solutions in partnership with tech companies, including Intel.
Montana estimates GOP Medicaid expansion bill will halve number of people covered; add 84 state jobs
Missoulian | Posted onMarch 26, 2019 in SARL Members and Alumni NewsLegislators got a glimpse Friday of a state estimate showing the Republican version of a bill to continue Medicaid expansion with added work requirements would result in about half the 96,000 people on the program losing coverage.A Medicaid expansion bill must move to the state Senate by April 1 to meet transmittal deadlines.Montana expanded Medicaid to those earning up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level four years ago and put in a sunset of this summer so lawmakers would come back and review the program. In April, the 2019 federal poverty level will be $17,236 for an individual a
Rural America Faces a Housing Cost Crunch
Pew Trust | Posted onMarch 26, 2019 in Rural NewsThe problem of housing affordability, long a concern in popular big cities, has moved to rural America.