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Category: Environment

Biden Signs Executive Orders to Tackle Climate Crisis

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President Biden signed several Executive Orders related to climate resiliency and sustainable infrastructure. The Executive Orders aim to:

  • Center the Climate Crisis in US Foreign Policy and National Security Considerations;
  • Take a “Whole-of-Government” approach to the Climate Crisis and Create an Office of Domestic Climate Policy;
  • Leverage Federal Buying Power;
  • Rebuild Infrastructure to catalyze the creation of jobs in construction, manufacturing, engineering and the skilled-trades;
  • Advance Conservation, Agriculture, and Reforestation;
  • Revitalize Energy Communities;
  • Secure Environmental Justice and Economic Opportunity.

The President also signed a memorandum on scientific integrity and evidence-based policymaking, which will re-establish the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology (PCAST).

A full fact-sheet is available here.

Agencies Begin to Fill Leadership Positions

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A number of agencies have started naming individuals for key positions within their ranks.

The Department of Energy released a slate of individuals for senior positions earlier today, which is available here.  The Department of Interior also publicly released yesterday  a number of names tapped for leadership posts in the agency.

We will continue to post other agency staffing announcements on our site.

 

 

A Number of Environment Provisions Included As Well

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The bill that is still awaiting the President’s signature (will he or won’t he?) includes a section that aims to address some of the current environmental and climate concerns.

It address a number of issue areas, such as emission reduction, carbon capture and utilization, and innovative manufacturing.  This section of the bill is Division S.

White House Reveals FY22 R&D Priorities

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The White House has published a memorandum outlining the FY22 Research and Development priorities for federal agencies. AI and QIS remain a top priority, however due to COVID-19, significant focus has been placed on public health concerns including vaccine development and infectious disease research. Other areas of interest include energy, space, and security.

Read the full memo here.

Meanwhile, the FY2021 Appropriations Bills Move Along

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While most of the public’s attention is focused on the difficult negotiations that may or may not be taking placing on the next COVID relief package, the clock continues to count down to the start of FY2021.

The House is working to adopt a second “minibus” of spending bills before this weekend.  Instead of taking up a seven-bill package as originally planned, the chamber is now considering one made up of six pieces, having removed the almost-always-controversial Homeland Security measure from the minibus.  More than 300 amendments are expected to be debated before a vote to adopt the legislation.

This week’s package is made up of:  Commerce-Justice-Science; Defense; Energy and Water; Labor-HHS-Education; Financial Services-General Government; and Transportation-HUD bills.  Last week, the House cleared the Agriculture, Interior, State-Foreign Operations, and VA-Military Construction measures.  This leaves the Homeland Security and Legislative Branch bills for future consideration.

The Senate still has yet to produce any of the 12 bills.