NEW YORK — A long-delayed report from the Environmental Protection Agency finds that requiring ethanol made from corn and soybeans to be part of the nation's gas supply is causing serious environmental harm.

Federal law requires the EPA to assess the environmental impact of the fuel standard every three years, but the new report, issued in July, was four years overdue. According to David DeGennaro with the National Wildlife Federation, the report documents millions of acres of wildlife habitat lost to ethanol crop production, increased nutrient pollution in waterways and air emissions and side effects worse than the gasoline the ethanol is replacing.

"In finding that the Renewable Fuel Standard is having negative consequences to a whole suite of environmental indicators,” DeGennaro said, “the report is a red flag warning us that we need to reconsider the mandate's scope and its focus on first-generation fuels made from food crops.”

President Donald Trump and senators from agricultural states are urging the EPA to allow an increase in the mandated ethanol content of gasoline.

The EPA report indicates that biofuels have a negative impact on air quality. Johnathan Lewis, senior counsel for climate policy with the Clean Air Task Force, said ethanol from corn in particular is linked to increased emissions of nitrogen oxides, or nox.

"Nox contributes to ozone formation when it mixes with volatile organic compounds in the presence of sunlight,” Lewis said. “So in most areas of the country, an increase in nox emissions can result in increased ozone formation."

Ground-level ozone, the main ingredient of smog, is a major cause of asthma and other respiratory illness.

Right now, most gas is E-10, containing 10 percent ethanol. But despite the EPA report's findings, DeGenarro pointed out there is political pressure to raise the biofuels mandate of the Renewable Fuel Standard.

"Just last week, President Trump told an audience in Iowa that he was "very close" to having EPA issue a waiver to the Clean Air Act to allow year-round sale of E-15,” DeGenarro said.

In March, a bill called the GREENER Fuels Act was introduced in Congress to reduce the use of corn ethanol and cap the content in gasoline at less than 10 percent.



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HARRISBURG, Pa. - U.S. Sen. Bob Casey, D-Pa., wants to bring back the Civilian Conservation Corps, a public-works program from the 1930s that created 3 million jobs nationally, planting trees and creating trails and cabins in national parks.

The Revive the CCC Act, introduced last week by Casey, would focus on jobs to mitigate climate change and address racial justice. Unlike the original CCC, the proposal also would include farms as job host sites.

Hannah Smith-Brubaker, executive director of Pasa Sustainable Agriculture, said this on-site support could help farmers deal with flooding and erosion.

"Having help to install some of these conservation practices means a lot, because we know that the margin for farmers is really tight," she said, "and so it's sort of a win-win situation; we've got the help on the farms, but then also the ability to pass on this important information."

This isn't the first time a revival of the CCC has been suggested in Congress, and some budget pushback is expected. Under this bill, the jobs would pay at least $15 an hour and could create 57,000 jobs in Pennsylvania, according to a study by the University of Massachusetts-Amherst's Political Economy Research Institute.

A Civilian Conservation Corps also could be helpful in rebuilding an economy hit hard by the pandemic. Pennsylvania's labor market is short more than 400,000 jobs compared with February 2020 employment numbers.

Stephen Herzenberg, executive director of the Keystone Research Center, said he thinks a new CCC could be a national opportunity for life-sustaining and meaningful jobs.

"These are really important jobs; people would be on the front lines of climate response," he said. "If we get a CCC, I can guarantee you that you're going to have members of Congress from both parties that are going to be doing 'show-and-tells' in their districts where the good work of the CCC is going on again."

Casey's legislation also supports pathways to employment in climate, conservation and related trades for formerly incarcerated people. Similar legislation has been introduced in the U.S. House by Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y.

HOUSTON - Cities in the southern United States, especially large urban communities along the coasts, are facing extreme heat attributable to climate change, and a study is under way to find ways to cool them.

Funded by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the two-year project includes the Houston Advanced Research Center and the Desert Research Institute.

According to DRI associate research professor John Mejia, the greater Houston area will serve as a testbed for development of a modeling framework to better project what will occur when heat waves become even more frequent.

"Houston is a very warm, soggy city," he said, "so the summertimes are very hard when combined with heat waves."

Houston is the fourth-largest city in the United States, and extreme heat waves leave its residents susceptible to the dangers of heat stress, heat stroke and higher ozone levels, limiting their overall quality of life. Mejia said more needs to be done if Houston is going to remain pleasant and safe.

Houston adopted a Climate Adaptation Plan in 2020 with a goal to "reduce greenhouse gas emissions, meet the Paris Agreement goal of carbon neutrality by 2050, and lead the global energy transition." Mejia said other cities are implementing new codes, policies and programs to incentivize heat-resilient development. Addressing "urban heat islands" needs to be a priority in Houston," he said.

"They also have cooling scenarios, such as 'greening' of the city by planting trees, rooftop green infrastructure," he said. "Those tend to have a cooling effect."

Researchers hope that what they learn in the greater Houston area can be applied to other cities influenced by large water bodies, both in the nation and worldwide. The data will be compiled in a report, to be released in the summer of 2023.

BOISE, Idaho -- Wildfires are affecting air quality across the West, bringing hidden dangers in smoke that can harm people's health.

The Boise-based National Interagency Fire Center already has moved the country into the highest fire-preparedness status, level five.

Dr. Luke Montrose, environmental toxicologist and assistant professor of Community and Environmental Health at Boise State University, said dangerous particulate matter in wildfire smoke, known as PM 2.5, is small enough to get past the body's normal line of defense and deep into the lungs.

"These particles are really small," Montrose explained. "And you can think of them as vehicles that carry chemicals into our lungs."

Montrose cautioned repeated and chronic exposure to harmful particles reduces the ability of cells known as macrophages to clean up the lungs and activate the immune system's responses. Idaho currently has the highest number of active fires in the U.S. at 23.

Montrose advised the safest place for people facing bad air quality from blazes is in their homes.

"It is a really difficult thing to ask people to stay inside after we've been inside for so long with the COVID-19 pandemic, but unfortunately people are going to have to take an inventory of themselves," Montrose stated. "Who are they? Are they in a susceptible or vulnerable population when it comes to wildfire smoke exposure?"

Montrose noted air-purification units with HEPA filters can strain out harmful particles. But the filters have been hard to come by after last year's devastating wildfire season, so he suggested people can look up do-it-yourself tricks online for creating their own purification units.

Montrose recommended people watch the air quality in their area, and even help monitor it. While there are limitations to low-cost air-monitoring technology, he added the robust network captured on websites such as Purple Air provides insightful data.

"It's pretty fascinating to watch how those monitors change as the air quality or even the weather changes," Montrose remarked.