Latest news with #MakeSunsets
Yahoo
01-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Opinion - 100 days in, Trump's EPA is powering the great American comeback
It has been just over 100 days since President Trump was sworn into office, with a promise to deliver for the American people. In that time, the Environmental Protection Agency has followed the president's lead as he brings common sense and the will of the American people to the forefront of every policy decision made. Not only is the EPA Powering the Great American Comeback, by unleashing American energy, lowering costs for hardworking Americans, bringing back American auto jobs, advancing cooperative federalism, and making the United States the AI capital of the world, the Trump EPA is doing what many thought impossible: ensuring America has the cleanest air, land and water on the planet while also supporting economic growth. Many on the left have propelled their radical agenda using extreme climate alarmism to justify policy actions that favored and subsidized preferred individuals and entities while impeding others and driving costs up for Americans. Under Trump, EPA is rejecting the false choice between environmental stewardship and economic prosperity. These goals reinforce each other when approached with commonsense policies rather than ideological agendas. One of the core elements of EPA's mission is protecting air quality. Since Jan. 20, EPA has approved 25 State Implementation Plans — 16 of which were backlogged from the previous administration — ensuring environmental requirements take effect faster. At our southern border, EPA addressed air quality challenges by providing funding for air filters and hydrogen sulfide monitoring to address sulfur odors from the Tijuana River. In our skies, when unregulated geoengineering startup Make Sunsets began launching toxic sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere for 'cooling credits,' EPA demanded immediate answers to protect U.S. air. The agency has bolstered its commitment to ensuring clean land across the nation. In 100 days, EPA has fully cleared, or cleared portions of, four Superfund sites. In addition, it has supported redevelopment at 21 Superfund sites across 13 states. Through the Brownfields program, the agency boosted property values and created new economic opportunities with 27 sites now ready for anticipated use. At the West Lake Landfill Superfund site in St. Louis, Mo., residents have long endured radioactive waste in their community. After visiting the site with Sen. Josh Hawley and hearing from community members, the importance of an expedited cleanup was clear. I tasked our experts to find a way to do so, and was able to announce that EPA reduced the cleanup timeline for West Lake Landfill and impacted sites by two years. Los Angeles experienced catastrophic wildfires earlier this year. At Trump's direction, EPA completed its largest wildfire response in agency history, clearing more than 13,000 properties of hazardous materials in just 28 days. Water is an extremely valuable resource, and its preservation is critical for human health and our economy. EPA updated water quality standards for 38 miles of the Delaware River to protect critical fish species, approved a comprehensive plan to further restore and protect the Long Island Sound over the next decade, and developed a cutting-edge method to detect 40 different PFAS compounds in surface water, groundwater and wastewater — a critical tool in addressing these emerging contaminants. In addition, I recently traveled to our southern border to announce immediate actions to end decades of raw sewage flowing into our country from Tijuana, Mexico. EPA's expedited review processes for new chemicals and pesticides is supporting American agriculture and industry while ensuring products are safe for human health and the environment. And the agency's enforcement actions have reduced pollution by 15 million pounds while securing $296 million for cleanups to address over 700,000 cubic yards of contamination. EPA is proving environmental protection can drive economic growth. Our rapid approval of backlogged permits is giving businesses the certainty they need while ensuring proper environmental safeguards. Superfund cleanups are returning valuable land to productive use, creating jobs and revitalizing communities that have been left behind. This paradigm represents the cornerstone of EPA's environmental policy in the Trump administration: protection that empowers rather than restricts, regulation that clarifies rather than complicates, and an approach that recognizes the environment and economy as partners rather than adversaries. In just 100 days, Trump's EPA has demonstrated what's possible when environmental policy focuses on results rather than rhetoric. It remains committed to ensuring every American has access to clean air, clean water and clean land while powering the Great American Comeback — and we're just getting started. Lee Zeldin is the 17th administrator of the United States Environmental Protection Agency. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
The Hill
01-05-2025
- Business
- The Hill
100 days in, Trump's EPA is powering the great American comeback
It has been just over 100 days since President Trump was sworn into office, with a promise to deliver for the American people. In that time, the Environmental Protection Agency has followed the president's lead as he brings common sense and the will of the American people to the forefront of every policy decision made. Not only is the EPA Powering the Great American Comeback, by unleashing American energy, lowering costs for hardworking Americans, bringing back American auto jobs, advancing cooperative federalism, and making the United States the AI capital of the world, the Trump EPA is doing what many thought impossible: ensuring America has the cleanest air, land and water on the planet while also supporting economic growth. Many on the left have propelled their radical agenda using extreme climate alarmism to justify policy actions that favored and subsidized preferred individuals and entities while impeding others and driving costs up for Americans. Under Trump, EPA is rejecting the false choice between environmental stewardship and economic prosperity. These goals reinforce each other when approached with commonsense policies rather than ideological agendas. One of the core elements of EPA's mission is protecting air quality. Since Jan. 20, EPA has approved 25 State Implementation Plans — 16 of which were backlogged from the previous administration — ensuring environmental requirements take effect faster. At our southern border, EPA addressed air quality challenges by providing funding for air filters and hydrogen sulfide monitoring to address sulfur odors from the Tijuana River. In our skies, when unregulated geoengineering startup Make Sunsets began launching toxic sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere for 'cooling credits,' EPA demanded immediate answers to protect U.S. air. The agency has bolstered its commitment to ensuring clean land across the nation. In 100 days, EPA has fully cleared, or cleared portions of, four Superfund sites. In addition, it has supported redevelopment at 21 Superfund sites across 13 states. Through the Brownfields program, the agency boosted property values and created new economic opportunities with 27 sites now ready for anticipated use. At the West Lake Landfill Superfund site in St. Louis, Mo., residents have long endured radioactive waste in their community. After visiting the site with Sen. Josh Hawley and hearing from community members, the importance of an expedited cleanup was clear. I tasked our experts to find a way to do so, and was able to announce that EPA reduced the cleanup timeline for West Lake Landfill and impacted sites by two years. Los Angeles experienced catastrophic wildfires earlier this year. At Trump's direction, EPA completed its largest wildfire response in agency history, clearing more than 13,000 properties of hazardous materials in just 28 days. Water is an extremely valuable resource, and its preservation is critical for human health and our economy. EPA updated water quality standards for 38 miles of the Delaware River to protect critical fish species, approved a comprehensive plan to further restore and protect the Long Island Sound over the next decade, and developed a cutting-edge method to detect 40 different PFAS compounds in surface water, groundwater and wastewater — a critical tool in addressing these emerging contaminants. In addition, I recently traveled to our southern border to announce immediate actions to end decades of raw sewage flowing into our country from Tijuana, Mexico. EPA's expedited review processes for new chemicals and pesticides is supporting American agriculture and industry while ensuring products are safe for human health and the environment. And the agency's enforcement actions have reduced pollution by 15 million pounds while securing $296 million for cleanups to address over 700,000 cubic yards of contamination. EPA is proving environmental protection can drive economic growth. Our rapid approval of backlogged permits is giving businesses the certainty they need while ensuring proper environmental safeguards. Superfund cleanups are returning valuable land to productive use, creating jobs and revitalizing communities that have been left behind. This paradigm represents the cornerstone of EPA's environmental policy in the Trump administration: protection that empowers rather than restricts, regulation that clarifies rather than complicates, and an approach that recognizes the environment and economy as partners rather than adversaries. In just 100 days, Trump's EPA has demonstrated what's possible when environmental policy focuses on results rather than rhetoric. It remains committed to ensuring every American has access to clean air, clean water and clean land while powering the Great American Comeback — and we're just getting started.
Mint
24-04-2025
- Science
- Mint
A sunscreen for Earth? Assess the risks first
More than a dozen private companies around the world are looking to profit from extreme measures to combat global warming—filling the sky with sunlight-blocking particles, brightening clouds or changing the chemistry of the oceans. We live in precarious times when it's not hard to find the technology and money to change the Earth's climate. The problem is that nobody knows how to control the unintended consequences. Some scientists who've studied and modelled the complexity of Earth's oceans and atmosphere say any 'geo-engineering' scheme big enough to affect the climate could put people at risk of dramatic changes in the weather, crop failures, damage to the ozone layer, international conflict and other irreversible problems. Environmental lawyer David Bookbinder is more afraid of geo-engineering than he is of climate change. 'The consequences of geo-engineering could happen a lot faster and with much less warning," he said. 'And could provoke a really bad geopolitical crisis." The world got an early warning about this Wild West situation in 2022 when a small startup called Make Sunsets caused a scandal by launching a small balloon-borne experiment over Mexico to spray sulphur dioxide into the atmosphere. Now, it's joined by richer, more serious players, including an Israel-based company called Stardust, which is researching a plan to dim the skies with a particle of undisclosed chemistry. In theory, sulphur dioxide or similar chemicals can cool the planet by forming suspended particles of sulphuric acid that act to scatter sunlight. When I wrote about the Make Sunsets incident, the company's founder said he thought it could profit by selling carbon credits under the belief that its actions would offset emissions. They won't. Such a particle release does nothing but mask the effect of the carbon build-up in the atmosphere. If those releases are abruptly stopped, the temperature could rise suddenly in what's been called 'termination shock." Bookbinder said that presidents, governors or even private individuals might be authorized to make such decisions. 'Right now, anyone can… There are literally no rules." He warned that if a cooling scheme initiated in one country coincided with floods, droughts or crop failures in another, the affected country might retaliate without direct evidence that the geo-engineering caused the problem. One justification for geo-engineering comes from the 2015 Paris Agreement, which included an imperative to keep warming below 1.5° Celsius. We've already surpassed that mark. Preventing us from reaching even more dangerous temperatures will require more than just stopping carbon emissions. We might need to find a way to pull carbon out of the atmosphere on a global scale. That was the stated goal of California businessman Russ George back in 2012 when he released iron into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of British Columbia. The iron, in theory, would fertilize algae, which would absorb carbon. There was never any documented scientific evidence that it helped. Now, several companies, such as Canadian startup Planetary Technologies and US startup Vesta, are beginning to dump chemicals into the oceans in an attempt to increase the pH level of the water. This should, in theory, trigger more carbon uptake from the atmosphere. Planetary Technologies has found a way to make money by selling carbon credits. With for-profit organizations already releasing chemicals into the oceans, it's important for scientists with no financial stake in this industry to collect data, said geo-chemist Adam Subhas of the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute. The American Geophysical Union believes monetary gains should not be prioritized in small-scale research either. There's a catch, according to Stanford's Jacobson. Small-scale experiments won't detect damage that might ensue if the projects were scaled up enough to actually affect global warming. In his view, we aren't coming close to realizing the world's potential to switch our energy needs to renewable resources. He convincingly argues that it makes no sense to resort to exotic and dangerous solutions when we haven't fully exploited what we know is safe and clean. Right now, some of these companies have sunk millions of dollars in investor money, giving them incentives to convince the public and politicians that their particular brand of geo-engineering is necessary to save the world. What we need instead is more scientific data and some rules to protect us all from rash decisions and their unintended consequences. ©Bloomberg The author is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering science.
Yahoo
18-04-2025
- Science
- Yahoo
Trump EPA targets two-man geoengineering startup for ‘polluting the air'
Humans have found it hard to quit fossil fuels, which is why some argue that we'll soon need to start geoengineering — that is, modifying the atmosphere to prevent catastrophic warming of the planet. The practice is controversial. Some argue it's the only solution given that we've waited too long to reduce carbon emissions. Others say we shouldn't be running two uncontrolled experiments on the Earth's climate (the first being the global burning of fossil fuels). That hasn't stopped people from trying. And one approach championed by Make Sunsets has drawn the attention of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The startup is basically two guys from Silicon Valley who have been releasing weather balloons filled with hydrogen gas and sulfur dioxide particles. When the balloon floats somewhere past 66,000 feet in altitude, it bursts and releases the sulfur dioxide, which scatter and reflect sunlight, cooling the Earth a tiny bit. The company sells 'cooling credits' based on how much estimated warming each balloon release negates. Make Sunsets has raised $750,000, according to PitchBook, and the startup says its investors include Boost VC, Draper Associates, and Pioneer Fund. Neither founder is a scientist, but the science behind sulfur dioxide and solar reflectivity is sound. Humans accidentally proved the importance of sulfur dioxide in global albedo — the average reflectivity of the Earth's surface — when they slashed the sulfur content of marine shipping fuels in 2020; one prominent climate scientist has argued in favor of the practice. Still, given the complexity of the global climate, it's not clear what other effects the practice might have. It might seed rainstorms in one region while depriving other areas of rain. Several scientists have urged caution. Plus, if sulfur dioxide particles drift closer to ground, they could aggravate people's asthma and cause other respiratory problems. Here, the EPA takes issue with Make Sunsets' approach to geoengineering. Sulfur dioxide is regulated as an air pollutant. EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said this week that the agency is investigating the company. Make Sunsets argues its actions are legal. In an FAQ on its website, the company says, 'Yes, our method to cool Earth falls under the Weather Modification Act of 1976 and report yearly to NOAA of our deployments as required.' The law is fuzzy here, though. When it was written, the Weather Modification Act was likely intended to cover the practice of cloud seeding, in which particles like silver iodide are shot into clouds to induce rain or snowfall. Most weather modification today is done by entities like ski resorts and irrigation districts in the West. It's not clear how the law applies to climate modification. Still, while the EPA might be justified in its investigation, it isn't exactly consistent with the Zeldin's approach to pollution. The agency's efforts to boost coal are likely to generate far more sulfur dioxide pollution than Make Sunsets will release with its balloons. A Make Sunsets balloon released on November 15, 2024, released 1,715 grams of sulfur dioxide. In 2023, U.S. power plants released 650,000 tons into the atmosphere, the majority of which came from coal. That's approximately the same amount as 343,900,000 of the startup's balloons.
