EPA approves laxer air quality program for West Virginia
'Gone are the days of burying our states in administrative nonsense,' EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said in a Tuesday news release announcing approval of the state's plan under what is formally known as the regional haze program.
The approval marks a reversal of the agency's stance under the Biden administration and sets a precedent for other states seeking to relax their haze control regimens.
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While EPA press aides did not respond Tuesday to requests for a copy of the final rule, the draft version released in April signaled a major policy change that effectively makes it easier for states to meet haze reduction goals for 156 national parks and wilderness areas without imposing new pollution control requirements on power plants and other industries.
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Yahoo
6 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Editorial: Count 'em all — Trump has no authority to muck with 2030 Census Bureau count
Not caring about the U.S. Constitution is a regular refrain for President Donald Trump, who now wants to exclude undocumented people from the 2030 census count — a nonstarter as much else is in this bizarro world we now inhabit, promulgated via a screed on his Truth Social platform — is both a terrible idea and certainly a rehash. Trump attempted something similar during his first term in office as the 2020 census closed in, deciding to suddenly include a citizenship question in the count, a move promptly blocked by the courts. Now Trump's trying to go whole hog and exclude the undocumented altogether, in doing so going against the plain language of the Constitution, which unambiguously mandates the count 'of the whole number of persons' in each state. The chief executive certainly seems to care less about the letter of the law and the orders of judges this time around, though these will still slap him down. It's worth noting, though, that even if and when a judge makes the easiest ruling of a career and strikes down any directive to exclude from the census anyone based on citizenship or immigration status, that's not necessarily mission accomplished. Trump and Stephen Miller's all-out campaign of shock and awe and terror against immigrants around the country is designed at least in part to create an environment of fear and concern that will discourage people from participating in all facets of civic and public life, including the mandated decennial count. The Census Bureau itself found that it probably failed to count up to millions of noncitizens, largely because many declined to participate out of a fear that it would put them on the administration's radar and target list. So Trump was able to accomplish some of his aims, even without the directive technically being in place, and that was in an environment less hostile than now. New York infamously lost a House seat because it came up just 89 people short in the 2020 count, which is almost certainly a partial result of Trump's meddling last time around. That extra seat could have made a real difference in a House of Representatives that is so narrowly controlled by the GOP, which itself seems to understand itself as a mere arm of the Trump administration. Neither Trump, nor his top echelon of grifters and ideologues are going to be personally conducting the census count, though. That is left to a small army of temporary public servants overseen by career officials within the Census Bureau, and these folks will hopefully recall that their responsibility is to this important constitutional mandate and not to Trump. The one-time real estate promoter is fully incapable of seeing anything except in terms of monetary or political gain, and probably sees an attempt to exclude the undocumented from the census as good red meat for the base. However, the census guides everything in the United States — not just apportionment and representation in the Congress and the Electoral College, but disaster planning, disease preparedness, allocation of federal resources, and all manner of private-sector uses like demographic data for business development and so on. Ironically, huge chunks of those that would go uncounted under Trump's illegal decree would be in the red states like Florida and Texas, which Trump claims to want to support. The whole idea is pointless, damaging and unconstitutional. _____
Fast Company
8 minutes ago
- Fast Company
Sustainable aviation fuels were making progress before federal budget cuts
The federal spending law passed in early July 2025, often called the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, significantly reduces federal funding for efforts to create renewable or sustainable types of fuel that can power aircraft over long distances while decreasing the damage aviation does to the global climate. Aviation contributed about 2.5% of global carbon emissions in 2023. It's particularly hard to reduce emissions from planes because there are few alternatives for large, portable quantities of energy-dense fuel. Electric batteries with enough energy to power an international flight, for instance, would be much larger and heavier than airplane fuel tanks. One potential solution, which I work on as an aerospace engineer, is a category of fuel called ' sustainable aviation fuel.' Unlike conventional jet fuel, which is refined from petroleum, sustainable aviation fuels are produced from renewable and waste resources such as used cooking oil, agricultural leftovers, algae, sewage, and trash. But they are similar enough to conventional jet fuels that they work in existing aircraft tanks and engines without any major modifications. Prior to Donald Trump's second term as president, the U.S. government had set some bold targets: by 2030, producing 3 billion gallons of this type of fuel every year, and by 2050, producing enough to fuel every U.S. commercial jet flight. But there's a long journey ahead. A range of source materials The earliest efforts to create sustainable aviation fuels relied on food crops —turning corn into ethanol or soybean oil into biodiesel. The raw materials were readily available, but growing them competed with food production. The next generation of biofuels are using nonfood sources such as algae, or agricultural waste such as manure or stalks from harvested corn. These don't compete with food supplies. If processed efficiently, they also have the potential to emit less carbon: Algae absorb carbon dioxide during their growth, and using agricultural waste avoids its decomposition, which would release greenhouse gases. But these biofuels are harder to produce and more expensive, in part because the technologies are new, and in part because there are not yet logistics systems in place to collect, transport, and process large quantities of source material. Some researchers are working to create biofuels with the help of genetically modified bacteria that convert specific raw materials into biofuel. In one method, algae are grown to produce sugars or oils, which are then fed to engineered bacteria that turn them into usable fuels, such as ethanol, butanol,, or alkanes. In another effort, photosynthetic microbes such as cyanobacteria are modified to directly convert sunlight and carbon dioxide into fuel. All of these approaches—and others being explored as well—aim to create sustainable, carbon-neutral alternatives to fossil fuels. Exciting as it sounds, most of this technology is still locked away in labs, not available in airports. Blends are being tested At present, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration allows airlines to fuel their aircraft with blends of up to 50% sustainable aviation fuel mixed with conventional jet fuel. The exact percentage depends on how the fuel was made, which relates to how chemically and physically similar it is to petroleum-based jet fuel, and therefore how well it will work in existing aircraft tanks, pipes, and engines. There are two major hurdles to wider adoption: cost and supply. Sustainable fuels are much more expensive than traditional jet fuel, with cost differences varying by process and raw material. For instance, the raw price of Jet-A, the most common petroleum-based aviation fuel, had a wholesale price averaging $2.34 per gallon in 2024, but one type of sustainable fuel wholesaled at about $5.20 per gallon that year. The federal budget enacted in July 2025 reduces government subsidies, effectively raising the cost of making these fuels. In part because of cost, sustainable fuel is produced only in small quantities: In 2025, global production is expected to be about 2 million metric tons of the fuel, which is less than 1% of the worldwide demand for aviation fuel. There is international pressure to increase demand: Starting in January 2025, all jet fuel supplied at airports in the European Union must include at least 2% sustainable fuel, with minimum percentages increasing over time. Planes can use these fuels Companies such as General Electric and Rolls-Royce have shown that the jet engines they manufacture can run perfectly on sustainable fuels. However, sustainable aviation fuels can have slightly different density and energy content from standard jet fuel. That means the aircraft's weight distribution and flight range could change. And other parts of the aircraft also have to be compatible, such as those that store, pump, and maintain the balance of the fuel. That includes valves, pipes, and rubber seals. As a visiting professor at Boeing in the summer of 2024, I learned that it and other aircraft manufacturers are working closely with their suppliers to ensure sustainable aviation fuels can be safely and reliably integrated into every part of the aircraft. Those finer details are why headlines you may have seen about flights that burn ' 100% sustainable aviation fuel ' are not quite the full story. Usually, the fuel on those flights contains a small amount of conventional jet fuel or special additives. That's because sustainable fuels lack some of the aromatic chemical compounds found in fossil-based fuels that are required to maintain proper seals throughout the aircraft's fuel system. Good promise, with work ahead While many details remain, sustainable aviation fuels offer a promising way to reduce the carbon footprint of air travel without reinventing or redesigning entire airplanes. These fuels can significantly cut carbon dioxide emissions from aircraft in use today, helping reduce the severity of climate change. The work will take research and investment from governments, manufacturers, and airlines around the world, whether or not the U.S. is involved. But one day, the fuel powering your flight could be much greener than it is now.
CNN
9 minutes ago
- CNN
On social media, the Department of Homeland Security appeals to nostalgia — with motifs of White identity
A recruitment poster recently shared on the Department of Homeland Security's social media pages depicts Uncle Sam at a crossroads. In one direction point the words 'homeland' and 'opportunity.' Toward the other, 'invasion' and 'cultural decline.' In its caption, the agency overseeing the country's immigration system presents these choices as an existential national struggle: 'Which way, American man?' It's a sentiment that the agency is trying to wield to recruit new employees. Many of its posts implore viewers to apply for Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which has been infused with a windfall of cash from President Donald Trump's landmark policy bill and hopes to hire 10,000 additional personnel to help with the administration's crackdown on illegal immigration. But underlining the new strategy are undertones that historians and experts in political communication say are alarmingly nationalist — and fraught with appeals to a specifically White and Christian national identity. 'Persuaders succeed when they connect to emotional archetypes,' said Nicholas J. Cull, a professor of communication at the University of Southern California and historian of the role of mass communication in foreign policy. 'Fear is often the most prominent in propaganda, but nostalgia runs a close second.' 'Often they land like one/two punches in a classic boxing attack,' Cull said. 'That seems to be the intent here.' In the caption of its post featuring Uncle Sam, DHS seems to allude to 'Which Way Western Man?,' a 1978 book by White nationalist William Gayley Simpson that is rife with antisemitic tropes and is a mainstay in modern White supremacist literature. 'Calling everything you dislike 'Nazi propaganda' is tiresome,' DHS spokesperson Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement. 'Uncle Sam, who represents America, is at a crossroads, pondering which way America should go.' Other posts shared by the agency depict its employees as not only performing a public service, but also rendering an edict. Heavily armed men are depicted preparing for an operation while an overlaid Bible verse describes them as deliverers of a divine vengeance. Uncle Sam implores citizens to report 'foreign invaders,' join the ranks of ICE and 'step into the breach.' Pictures of handcuffed migrants flanked by masked agents are interspersed with calls to 'remember your Homeland's Heritage' and 'defend your culture!' 'The siren song of the far right, whether we call them authoritarian or fascist, is to foment a counterrevolution against a revolution that never was,' said Democratic political strategist Anat Shenker-Osorio. ''Do you know why you feel down and out? Do you know why you feel challenged? Do you know why you feel out of place in your own society? It's because of those people.'' McLaughlin said DHS 'honors artwork that celebrates America's heritage and history' and is 'pleased that the media is highlighting our efforts to showcase these patriotic pieces.' Included in the posts are tinges of a Rockwellesque nostalgia for an America that was traditional, religious — and on its surface, racially homogenous. After Trump declared Monday he would take over the Washington, DC, police department and rid the city of 'Crime, Savagery, Filth, and Scum,' DHS posted on Instagram a 1943 image of the US Capitol captioned with: 'We Can Return.' The agency's ambiguity about what it means by words like 'heritage' and 'homeland' leaves their use open to several interpretations. 'This is an active effort to promote lies designed to create fear and hysteria in a population,' said Ian Haney López, a professor of public law at the University of California, Berkeley, and author of a book on the use of dog whistles in politics. 'It's often associated with war-time efforts.' 'The United States has certainly engaged in' previous propaganda campaigns, he said, but DHS' posts are most reminiscent of 'demagogic eras' in other countries. For decades, historians have used John Gast's 1872 painting 'American Progress' to demonstrate the concept of manifest destiny, the idea popular in the 19th century that America's westward expansion was destined by Providence and rooted in an Old Testament concept of a 'chosen' people. The painting depicts a woman, a personification of America, unspooling telegraph wire as she heralds settlers, education and new technology to sparsely populated land. Indigenous people and bison flee before them. As the Anglo settlers overtake Native Americans, the sky turns from dark to light. On July 23, DHS posted a picture of the painting on its social media with the caption: 'A Heritage to be proud of, a Homeland worth Defending.' A Heritage to be proud of, a Homeland worth Progress - John Gast Patrick Fontes, a history professor at Clovis Community College in Fresno, California, who has lectured on 'American Progress,' described the painting as 'laden and saturated with racism.' 'And if you don't know the history, you wouldn't know that,' he added. 'But DHS knows the history behind this — it's a manifesto that's laden with racial connotations and bloody 19th century history against those who were not Anglo American.' The department said in its statement to CNN that the Trump administration 'is unapologetically proud of American history and American heritage.' DHS is not the only government agency trying new tactics to draw attention or solicit engagement. But government agencies typically 'avoid leaning into using those types of posts to explain policy decisions,' said Kristy Dalton, the founder and CEO of Government Social Media, a network of professionals who operate government social accounts. 'I think that that's the unique part of what we're seeing here.' DHS' posts provide the agency with engagement that could bolster its strategic vision. The agency's new posts are heavily geared toward recruitment — images of Uncle Sam pointing toward the viewer with the phrase 'Join ICE Today' and paired with captions like 'Secure the Golden Age' and 'Protect. Serve. Deport.' Other DHS posts include AI-generated artwork aiming to respond to news of the day or troll ICE's detractors. 'On the one hand, you get a lot of engagement with this type of light-hearted content, and that's something that we see with government agencies who are experimenting with it,' Dalton said. 'On the other hand, how do you ensure that you build trust with everyone, with all Americans?' Some owners of artwork shared by the agency are not pleased. DHS has been asked by several artists, or their foundations, whose creations have been shared by the agency to stop using their work. On July 14, DHS posted a painting by the artist Morgan Weistling titled 'A Prayer for a New Life,' which depicts a White pioneer family praying while holding a baby inside a covered wagon. The agency captioned the image: 'Remember your Homeland's Heritage,' and incorrectly titled the painting: 'New Life in a New Land.' Weistling told CNN in an email that he 'was never contacted by DHS and this was done completely without my permission.' 'They even changed the title of the painting to fit whatever they were trying to say,' he added. 'It's a complete misuse of my copyrighted material.' Another post features a painting by the artist Thomas Kinkade titled 'Morning Pledge,' which depicts schoolchildren gathered around an American flag in an idealist suburban setting. It is captioned: 'Protect the Homeland.' The family foundation for Kinkade, who died in 2012, said it strongly condemns 'the sentiment expressed in the post and the deplorable actions that DHS continues to carry out.' 'Like many of you, we were deeply troubled to see this image used to promote division and xenophobia associated with the ideals of DHS, as this is antithetical to our mission,' the foundation said in a statement, adding that it has asked the agency to remove the post and is exploring its legal options. One band whose song is featured in a recruitment video the agency posted to Instagram sent a cease and desist letter, only for it to be rebuffed. The video depicts law enforcement surveying the borderlands from a helicopter, accompanied by dialogue from a movie quoting Isaiah 6:8 — a verse in which the subject declares a willingness to serve God. It's also accompanied by the alternative rock band Black Rebel Motorcycle Club's copyrighted rendition of 'God's Gonna Cut You Down,' a traditional American folk song that talks of divine punishment as the consequence of sin. The band was outraged and demanded DHS stop using its music. In a July 30 response obtained by CNN, a DHS lawyer declined to comply. The audio has since been removed from the video on X and Instagram; a person involved with the band's management told CNN that occurred after it complained to both companies. 'DHS's use promotes the public interest, as its purpose is to advance the work of a government agency — specifically removing dangerous illegal aliens from our communities,' a lawyer for the agency wrote in its response. If attention is what DHS is seeking in its new strategy, there are some indications it is paying off. Among federal agencies on social media, DHS routinely receives a significant amount of engagement — and job applications. The agency announced this week it has received more than 100,000 applications over the past two weeks.
