Election 2016

Blue State Democrats Charge Ahead On Climate Policy Despite ESPS Stay

Despite continued uncertainty surrounding federal regulations to curb greenhouse gases, several energy-producing states with Democratic governors in recent days are moving forward with state-level emissions targets and wide-ranging plans to address climate change. Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper on Aug. 23 floated a proposed executive order that would set ambitious power sector GHG goals for the state, beyond what would be required by EPA under its existing power plant GHG rule. Pennsylvania's Department of Environmental Protection, under Gov. Tom Wolf, on...

NACWA Asks Presidential Candidates To Highlight Water Policy Priorities

Wastewater utilities are urging presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump to highlight several municipal clean water priorities in their campaigns, including increased federal water infrastructure funding, creating affordable water and sewer rates for low-income communities, and supporting innovation in the water sector. The National Association of Clean Water Agencies (NACWA) wrote to the Democratic and Republican presidential candidates in a pair of Aug. 24 letters , urging them to lend their “leadership” to water issues. The letters acknowledge the...

NACWA Letter To Hillary Clinton

NACWA Letter To Donald Trump


Citing Election, EPA Delays Work On FY18 Budget While Awaiting FY17 Bill

A top EPA budget official says the agency is waiting until after the presidential election to craft a fiscal year 2018 funding request even while facing uncertainty over whether Congress will approve a stand-alone EPA FY17 funding bill, though the official expects lawmakers to approve some FY17 funding measure ahead of a Sept. 30 deadline. Speaking to a July 27 meeting of EPA's Local Government Advisory Committee (LGAC) in Washington, D.C., Kathy Sedlak O'Brien from the agency's Office of the...

Clinton's Major Environmental Policy Might Be Defending Obama EPA Rules

If Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton wins the 2016 election, the biggest environmental policy of her administration might be defending and implementing a slew of air, climate, water and other rules finalized by President Obama's EPA, observers say, as Clinton is not expected to break significantly with the president's energy and environmental platform. “It's a lot easier to set the goals and finalize the rules than it is to actually implement and defend them. That's part of [what] I expect...

Democratic Delegates Pushing Party Leaders On Cleanup Commitments

Democratic National Convention delegates for both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are circulating a draft statement at this week's convention in Philadelphia to build support among Democratic party leaders for several actions to speed cleanups of Superfund sites and abandoned mines, and to regulate perfluorinated chemicals (PFCs), according to an environmental advocate who is also a Sanders delegate. The statement seeks reinstatement of the Superfund tax and the creation of a similar tax to pay for abandoned mining site cleanups;...

Unpredictable 2016 Presidential Campaign Creates Opening For Water Policy

While climate and energy policies have dominated environmental discussions in the 2016 presidential campaign, debates about the scope of Clean Water Act (CWA) protection and how best to protect vulnerable populations from lead exposure may also emerge as campaign issues, sources say, pointing to the unpredictable nature of this election cycle. A source with a conservative environmental group says presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump's “lack of specificity” on water policy issues “provides an opening” for those concerned about these policies...

Trump's Lack Of Climate, Energy Agenda Prompts Early Campaign Concerns

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump's lack of a climate and energy agenda is prompting early concern among industry groups and GOP consultants, who are hoping to urge the campaign to call for reversing much of the Obama administration's climate efforts but do not yet have a strategy for how to reach the candidate. One coal industry backer says groups have long been ready to take their policy positions to the Trump campaign but “a particular challenge . . ...

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