Page 15 - Climate First News Today

SPRINGFIELD – Illinois budget officials said Thursday that revenues are flowing into state coffers at a faster pace than previously estimated, meaning lawmakers will have more money to work with as they try to finalize a new budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. The Governor’s Office of Management and Budget officially raised its revenue estimate for the current fiscal year by more than $1.4 billion and by $842 million for the upcoming fiscal year. Those figures are similar t...

By Capitol News Illinois SPRINGFIELD – Illinois budget officials said Thursday that revenues are flowing into state coffers at a faster pace than previously estimated, meaning lawmakers will have more money to work with as they try to finalize a new budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1. The Governor’s Office of Management and Budget officially raised its revenue estimate for the current fiscal year by more than $1.4 billion and by $842 million for the upcoming fiscal year. Those fi...

SPRINGFIELD – As Illinois lawmakers continue to push for the passage of an energy overhaul this spring, the Illinois House Energy and Environment Committee discussed the latest proposal to enter the discussion – Gov. J.B. Pritzker’s Consumers and Climate First Act. House Bill 4074, sponsored by Rep. Kam Buckner, D-Chicago, was brought before committee for discussion only. Pritzker’s 900-page proposal was released at the end of April with the goal of transitioning Illinois to...

Throughout 2020 and early 2021, California issued more than 300 permits to oil and gas companies for new underground injection wells — an intensive form of oil production and wastewater disposal. But the actual number of new injection wells is likely higher, owing to the state’s opaque approval process that has drawn scrutiny from auditors and environmentalists. Some of these undercounted wells may be polluting groundwater used for public drinking and agricultural purposes, according to reg...

Ken LaRoe, whose First Green Bancorp was sold a few years ago, is seeking approval for a de novo called Climate First Bank that would cater to low-income communities hurt by climate change and favor ecology-minded tech vendors.

After Ventura County supervisors passed several new measures meant to mitigate harms caused by oil and gas operations, an overlapping network of fossil fuel interests sued to stop them from going into effect, Capital & Main has learned. At least one of the suits, filed by a nonprofit trade association representing local business interests, may present conflicts of interest among its board members, who are also tied to other lawsuits. Additionally, the largest oil company operating in the county...

Group submits 45,000 signatures to stop Ventura Countys oil rules Kathleen Wilson, Ventura County Star Tens of thousands of signatures were submitted this week to Ventura County elections officials to repeal new environmental standards for oil drilling, suspending the implementation of the rules for now. It is unclear how long it will take elections workers to certify whether roughly 30,900 valid signatures of registered voters in Ventura County were submitted for each of two�...