In this edition of Eco Report, part four of an interview with David Van Gilder, Senior Policy and Legal Director for the Hoosier Environmental Council, about legislation being proposed in the State Capitol.
IDS reports Bloomington may dissolve its Climate Action and Resilience committee, committee members and City Council members Matt Flaherty and Hopi Stosberg said. Flaherty, the committee chair, said the council will take up a single resolution regarding changes related to committees in the coming weeks. “That resolution will include the proposed sunsetting of the Climate Action and Resilience Committee in favor of directing climate-related policy work into other channels and activity streams (both existing and new)” he said in an email to the Indiana Daily Student.
In a time when lawmakers are walking back climate action initiatives on a national scale, the city of Bloomington is planning to potentially “sunset” its climate action committee, which the city founded in 2020. Stosberg said the proposal to sunset the program is not motivated by the changed political climate. “It might be strange, the city council (getting) rid of their climate action committee,” she said. “What’s going on with that? But the real reason is really that it’s not needed.”
Artist and climate awareness activist Carol Rhodes takes the proposed plans as “cautionary.” Rhodes is the founder of Bloomington based nonprofit Artists for Climate Awareness. “Re-delegating the responsibilities of the Climate Action and Resilience Committee to other departments who will operate under the directive of the existing Climate Action Plan can be fiscally and operationally sensible,” Rhodes said.
The committee was formed in 2020 to focus on the city’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase community resilience. Connecting dots between the city’s climate action to economic, so, or just not necessary anymore.” In April 2021, the city adopted its climate action plan with a goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 25% by 2030, which is below 2018 emissions levels, and achieve carbon neutrality by 2050.
Formaldehyde, the chemical of choice for undertakers and embalmers, is also used in products like furniture and clothes. But it can also cause cancer and severe respiratory problems. So, in 2021, the Environmental Protection Agency began a new effort to regulate it. The chemicals industry fought back with an intensity that astonished even seasoned agency officials. Its campaign was led by Lynn Dekleva, then a lobbyist at the American Chemistry Council, an industry group that spends millions of dollars on government lobbying.
According to the New York Times, Dr. Dekleva is now at the E.P.A. in a crucial job: She runs an office that has the authority to approve new chemicals for use. Earlier she spent 32 years at Dupont, the chemical maker, before joining the E.P.A. in the first Trump administration.
Her most recent employer, the chemicals lobbying group, has made reversing the Environmental Protection Agency’s course on formaldehyde a priority and is pushing to abolish a program under which the agency assess the risks of chemicals to human health. In recent weeks it has urged the agency to discard its work on formaldehyde entirely and start from scratch in assessing the risks.
The American Chemistry Council is also seeking to change the agency’s approval process for new chemicals and speed up E.P.A.’s safety reviews. That review process is a key part of Dr. Dekelva’s purview at the agency.
The New York Times reports the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress are preparing an unusual legislative maneuver in an effort to eliminate one of the country’s most ambitious climate policies, an order that was designed to shift the auto industry toward electric cars. They plan to vote to overturn a California ban on the sale of new gasoline-powered cars in that state by 2035. To do it, they intend to use the Congressional Review Act, a 1996 law that permits lawmakers to reverse recently-adopted regulations with a simple majority vote.
But the California ban is not a federal regulation, it’s a different animal. It’s the result of a waiver that was granted by the Biden administration under the 1970 Clean Air Act, something that has been done more than a hundred times over the years by administrations of both parties. And it is not subject to congressional review, according to a 2023 decision by the Government Accountability Office. Environmental groups and California officials say the Republican plan to try to kill the waiver with a congressional vote would be illegal.
Inside Climate Change reports federal funding to Pennsylvania for climate-related and other programs will be restored, Gov. Josh Shapiro said, reversing a Trump administration freeze after lawsuits by Pennsylvania and almost two dozen other states. Shapiro sued the Trump administration Feb. 13 in federal court over the funding freeze, arguing that it had illegally halted or subjected to an unspecified review $2.1 billion in federal funds that had been committed to Pennsylvania after being approved by Congress.
The frozen funds included money for remediating Pennsylvania’s many abandoned mines, for helping the state reduce greenhouse-gas emissions and for reducing energy costs for homeowners. The freeze also prompted separate legal action by 22 other states and the District of Columbia, leading a federal judge in Rhode Island to order the administration to lift its spending ban.
Indiana is one of the states funded for cleanup of a Superfund site. The Keystone Corridor Ground Water Contamination site is in Indianapolis, Indiana. The groundwater has been affected by an approximately 4,500 foot long by 1,500-foot wide plume contaminated with chlorinated solvents. The location is near the intersection of East Fall Creek Parkway North Drive and Keystone Avenue.
In this week’s feature report, Zero Roze in part four of his interview with David Van Gilder on bills being considered by the state legislature in the 2025 legislative session. The full interview is available online as an Eco Report EXTRA at wfhb.org.
Credits:
On Air………………………………….Julianna Dailey
On Air……………………………………..Kade Young
Headlines…………………………………..Norm Holy
Feature Report……………………………..Zero Roze
Script…………………………………..Julianna Dailey
Events Calendar………………………Julianna Dailey
Engineer……………………………..Branden Blewett
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