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Activists Eye a Superfund Reboot Under Biden With a Focus on Environmental Justice and Climate Change
The EPA’s program for cleaning up the nation’s hazardous waste dumps has a backlog of sites that lack funding the largest in 15 years.
By David Hasemyer and Lise Olsen
December 28, 2020
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Super Threats: Last in a series with The Texas Observer and NBC News about Superfund sites and climate change.
The uber challenge facing the incoming Biden administration’s Environmental Protection Agency in its oversight of 1,570 hazard waste sites is best summed in a name that’s become synonymous with the daunting task: Superfund.
Biden will inherit hundreds of toxic waste Superfund sites, with climate threats looming nbcnews.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from nbcnews.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Supported the Movement for Black Lives
Put its resources toward efforts to help families in need during the COVID-19 pandemic
Mourned the loss of a groundbreaking Supreme Court justice
Soldiered through the most consequential presidential election in American history.
And through it all, we continued to work side by side with communities of every race, color, and creed to retire dangerous, polluting coal plants, replace them with clean energy, and support a fair economic transition for workers and communities.
Despite fierce opposition from the Trump administration and its allies, 2020 was the biggest year ever for coal plant retirement announcements, and also the biggest year ever for new wind and solar in the US. We crossed two milestones this year – 60 percent of plants are now announced to retire, and 50 percent of total megawatts. We helped retire 36 coal plants in 2020 alone. And during the four years of Donald Trump’s presidency, nearly 100 coal plants were committed
The history of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, from the time it was first proposed to its projected completion, will soon span the terms of three U.S. presidents.
So what impact will the incoming administration of Joe Biden â whose views on climate change and clean energy are the polar opposite of President Donald Trumpâs â have on the deeply divisive natural gas pipeline?
Itâs unlikely that a single action under Bidenâs watch would kill the buried pipeline, much of it already in the ground despite legal action from environmental groups that has delayed construction and inflated its cost to about $6 billion.