Environmental Glance
A key government agency is proposing to lessen the scope of environmental reviews for nuclear reactors, limiting public input and exempting some reactors altogether.
The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) on Wednesday announced that it is narrowing review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), a bedrock environmental law.
This includes exempting reviews of some activities altogether, including the reapproval of existing reactors, as well as some new reactors.
For other projects, the agency will still review radiological impacts — but it is proposing to no longer consider factors such as dust, noise and air pollution that it says are beyond its scope.
Lake Powell, the US’s second-largest reservoir, threatens to plunge to unprecedentedly low levels this year after a historically bleak snowpack failed to raise its water level, scientists and water experts have said, adding renewed urgency to stalled talks over how to conserve a water source depended on by tens of millions of people in the US south-west.
Super Typhoon Bavi is bringing intense winds to the remote U.S. territories of Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands, as forecasters warn of the potential for severe damage.
A “prolonged, dangerous heatwave” was sweeping across parts of the central and eastern United States on Thursday, with forecasters warning that extreme record-breaking temperatures are expected to continue into the holiday weekend for millions of Americans.
Floodwaters tore through Kentucky neighborhoods, damaging homes and streets as photos capture the aftermath.
Hundreds of firefighters in Utah have struggled to suppress a wildfire that scorched an additional 20,000 acres (8,000 hectares) as of Saturday, as low humidity and strong winds accelerated the fire spread, according to state officials.
