For four years, the Trump administration took steps to boost uranium mining for what it called national security reasons, a move environmentalists saw as an attempt to open the door to mining near the Grand Canyon. President-elect Joe Biden may be ready to shut that door for good.
Dec. 24, 2020
Because it was approved in 1986, the Canyon Mine was not affected in 2012 when the federal government imposed a 20-year uranium mining ban on 1 million acres surrounding the Grand Canyon. Low prices for uranium have kept the mine from operating, but that could change and it could begin production – a move critics fear could threaten the canyon. (File photo by Jake Eldridge/Cronkite News)
One of five stories in the series, “Hello, Joe: How Biden policies may be felt in Arizona.”
WASHINGTON – For four years, the Trump administration took steps to boost uranium mining for what it called national security reasons, a move environmentalists saw as an attempt to open the door to mining near the Grand Canyon.
Congress passed an act that launches the path toward a national park being named for Julius Rosenwald, the Jewish philanthropist who established thousands of schools for African-Americans neglected by their public school systems.
The Senate approved the legislation on Monday. It passed last week in the U.S. House of Representatives.
The text of the legislation calls Rosenwald, the president of the Sears, Roebuck department store chain who died in 1932, “the embodiment of the Jewish concept of ‘tzedakah,’ righteousness and charity, Rosenwald used his fortune for numerous philanthropic activities, particularly to enhance the lives of African Americans.”
Among his many philanthropic endeavors, Rosenwald along with Booker T. Washington helped establish 5,300 of what became known as Rosenwald Schools in 15 states in the American South. The schools sought to redress the neglect that segregated schools suffered under Jim Crow.
Reid Frazier / StateImpact Pennsylvania
Environmental groups are suing the EPA in federal court over what they call an inadequate plan to reduce air pollution in Western Pennsylvania.
The lawsuit centers on the EPA’s approval of a Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection plan to lower sulfur dioxide emissions at four coal-fired power plants in Indiana County. Sulfur dioxide is a byproduct of burning coal, and can cause health impacts over periods of just a few minutes, according to the EPA.
Charlie McPhedran, an attorney with EarthJustice, one of the plaintiffs, said the plan the EPA approved allows two of the plants to exceed recommended pollution limits over short periods of time, as long as their average pollution levels over a period of days or weeks stay below their recommended threshold. The Seward Power Plant, in New Florence, Pa., can average its emissions over 30 days.
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