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Category Archives: Energy

Metals in Wildfire Suppressants

Metals in Wildfire Suppressants. Marella H. Schammel, Samantha J. Gold, and Daniel L. McCurry. Environ. Sci. Technol. Lett. 2024, 11, 11, 1247-1253. Open Access Publication Date (Web): October 30, 2024. Pages 1136-1259.
ABSTRACT: Frequent and severe wildfires have led to increased application of fire suppression products (long-term fire retardants, water enhancers, and Class A foams) in the American West. While fire suppressing products used on wildfires must be approved by the U.S. Forest Service, portions of their formulations are trade secrets. Increased metals content in soils and surface waters at the wildland- urban interface has been observed after wildfires but has primarily been attributed to ash deposition or anthropogenic impact from nearby urban areas. In this study, metal concentrations in several fire suppression products (some approved by the U.S. Forest Service, and some marketed for consumer use) were quantified to evaluate whether these products could contribute to increased metal concentrations observed in the environment postfire. Long-term  fire retardants contained concentrations of toxic metals (V, Cr, Mn, Cu, As, Cd, Sb, Ba, Tl, and Pb) 4−2,880 times greater than drinking water regulatory limits, and potentially greater than some aquatic toxicity thresholds when released into the environment. Water enhancers and Class A foams contained some metals, but at lower concentrations than fire retardants. Based on these concentrations and retardant application records, we estimate fire retardant application in the U.S. contributed approximately 380,000 kg of toxic metals to the environment between 2009 and 2021.

How Trump Could Remake the Supreme Court for a Generation

The Nation: Donald Trump is poised to become the first president since FDR to have appointed the majority of high-court justices. His potential picks are terrifying.This article appears in the March 2025 issue, with the headline “The Supreme Trump Court.” Donald Trump’s first term as president gave the republicans control over the most dangerous body… Continue Reading

Policy Map – Where to Find Trump’s Disappeared Data

“The administration removed hundreds of federal web pages containing critical information about Americans. Fortunately, it still lives at Philly-based PolicyMap, whose director walks us through what just happened — and why it’s too soon to Last week, President Donald Trump came for our data. Executive orders to eliminate any DEI and climate change-related language from… Continue Reading

The Open Energy Data Initiative

As energy, climate and weather datasets and resources  are removed from government websites, there are open source initiatives that remain available and to which organizations may submit data. “The Open Energy Data Initiative (OEDI). Enabling research, collaboration, and transparency by providing open access to energy data and information. Provides free access to data generated from… Continue Reading

Homeland Infrastructure Foundation-Level Data

“Managed by the Geospatial Management Office, HIFLD curates and provides access to geospatial data on U.S. critical infrastructure. Users can view data and download CSV, KML, and Shapefiles for visualization and application development.” HIFLD houses 400+ data layers. Many have robust summaries and metadata that document the source, update cadence, most recent update, and field… Continue Reading

Environmental & Energy Law Program at Harvard Law School

The Environmental & Energy Law Program (EELP) provides innovative, rigorous legal analysis to: Administrative Law Clean Air Clean Cars Clean Water Corporate Climate Risk Environmental Justice Methane Emissions Power Sector Trackers – Regulatory Tracker – Tracking the regulatory steps to advance clean energy deployment and environmental protection, and provides an up-to-date and concise summary of… Continue Reading

Mapped: The Top Import Partner of Every U.S. State

Visual Capitalist: “The Trump administration is imposing a 25% tariff on imports from Mexico [this is on hold for one month – maybe] and Canada, along with a 10% tariff on imports from China. The U.S. President says he wants strong action to halt the flow of the opioid fentanyl and its precursor chemicals into… Continue Reading

Archivists Work to Identify and Save the Thousands of Datasets Disappearing From Data.gov

404 Media – “Datasets aggregated on data.gov, the largest repository of U.S. government open data on the internet, are being deleted, according to the website’s own information. Since Donald Trump was inaugurated as president, more than 2,000 datasets have disappeared from the database. As people in the Data Hoarding and archiving communities have pointed out,… Continue Reading

Trump Executive Order Tracker

“The Trump Administration’s executive orders cut across dozens of industries. This searchable tool breaks down the orders and their impact. Akin will update the Tracker as orders are published and provide in-depth analysis of specific orders. Visit Akin’s Trump Executive Order Overview to view a summary. Use the menu below to filter by topic. Subscribe… Continue Reading

Climate Deregulation Tracker

“The Climate Deregulation Tracker identified steps taken by the Trump administration and Congress to scale back or wholly eliminate federal climate mitigation and adaptation measures. The tracker is linked to our database of climate change regulations and our two other climate regulation trackers: the Climate Reregulation Tracker covering the Biden administration and the Climate Backtracker covering the second Trump administration. Read more about… Continue Reading

Donald Trump’s No. 2 Pick for the EPA Represented Companies Accused of Pollution Harm

ProPublica: “The man tapped by President Donald Trump to be second-in-command of the federal agency that protects the public from environmental dangers is a lawyer who has represented companies accused of harming people and the environment through pollution. David Fotouhi, a partner in the global law firm Gibson Dunn, played a key part in rolling… Continue Reading