skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Public News Service Logo
facebook instagram linkedin reddit youtube twitter
view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

SD public defense duties shift from counties to state; SCOTUS appears skeptical of restricting government communications with social media companies; Trump lawyers say he can't make bond; new scholarships aim to connect class of 2024 to high-demand jobs.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

The SCOTUS weighs government influence on social media, and who groups like the NRA can do business with. Biden signs an executive order to advance women's health research and the White House tells Israel it's responsible for the Gaza humanitarian crisis.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Midwest regenerative farmers are rethinking chicken production, Medicare Advantage is squeezing the finances of rural hospitals and California's extreme swing from floods to drought has some thinking it's time to turn rural farm parcels into floodplains.

Ambitious New Plan: Net-Zero Emissions by 2050

play audio
Play

Wednesday, July 1, 2020   

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. -- Some congressional Democrats have released a blueprint for how the country can hit net-zero emissions by 2050.

The House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis presented a 500-page action plan on Tuesday to reduce carbon pollution "as quickly and aggressively as possible."

U.S. Rep. Sean Casten, D-Ill., a member of the committee, said the plan calls for the rapid deployment of wind, solar and energy efficiency, along with incentives for clean-vehicle technology manufacturing.

"There's of course a role for new technology as well," he said, "but we have a massive opportunity to deploy existing technologies and at least double the efficiency with which we turn a dollar of fuel into a lot of dollars of economic activity."

Casten said some of his key priorities in the report include promoting grid storage technologies, creating a program to reduce industrial emissions and strengthening efficiency metrics for federal public housing.

GOP leaders have criticized the plan, arguing it would kill jobs and benefit China.

The committee chair, U.S. Rep. Kathy Castor, D-Fla., said the report comes at a critical moment as the nation grapples with a health pandemic and civil unrest.

"The air that we breathe is more important than ever, and America has to strengthen its supply chains," she said, "and this comes at a time where there's an awakening to the need to tackle systemic racism, and making sure pollution isn't accumulating in certain areas of the country."

Castor said the plan calls for the United States to restore its global leadership in confronting climate risks, and to ensure that leaders use the best possible data to make health and environmental decisions.

"The Trump administration hasn't listened to scientists, and they have rolled back our bedrock environmental protections on clean air and clean water," she said. "That's completely the wrong direction. Instead, the future is in clean energy."

According to an independent analysis, the plan could save more than 60,000 American lives each year and $8 trillion in climate and health benefits by 2050.

The report is online at climatecrisis.house.gov/report.


get more stories like this via email

more stories
Iowa families can apply for up to $7,600 a year for private school costs. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

An ethics committee in the Republican-led Iowa House has dismissed a complaint filed by a group of community activists against a state lawmaker for hi…


play sound

Each spring, hundreds of thousands of California high school seniors have to figure out if they can afford to go to college in the fall - and two new …

Health and Wellness

play sound

A health care workforce shortage in New Hampshire is leaving Alzheimer's patients and their families with few options for treatment. Patients facing …


South Dakota ranks 49th in the country for its contribution to indigent legal defense costs, according to a 2023 report from the Indigent Legal Services Task Force. (Adobe Stock)

Social Issues

play sound

South Dakota is creating an Office of Indigent Legal Services after House Bill 1057 passed the Legislature with nearly unanimous support this month…

Environment

play sound

A Knoxville-based environmental group is voicing concerns over what it sees as an increasing financial strain imposed on taxpayers by nuclear weapons …

Environment

play sound

A bipartisan law set to take effect this summer prohibits foreign adversaries from buying Hoosier farmland. The signature of Gov. Eric Holcomb was …

Social Issues

play sound

Today, people across Arizona are voting in the Presidential Preference Election, a chance for registered Democrats and Republicans to choose their …

 

Phone: 303.448.9105 Toll Free: 888.891.9416 Fax: 208.247.1830 Your trusted member- and audience-supported news source since 1996 Copyright © 2021