skip to main content
skip to newscasts

Friday, March 29, 2024

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

The latest on the Key Bridge collapse, New York puts forth legislation to get clean energy projects on the grid and Wisconsin and other states join a federal summer food program to help feed kids across the country.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Republicans float conspiracy theories on the collapse of Baltimore's Key Bridge, South Carolina's congressional elections will use a map ruled unconstitutional, and the Senate schedules an impeachment trial for Homeland Secretary Mayorkas.

view newscast page
play newscast audioPlay

Historic wildfires could create housing and health issues for rural Texans, a Kentucky program helps prison parolees start a new life, and descendants of Nicodemus, Kansas celebrate the Black settlers who journeyed across the 1870s plains seeking self-governance.

Report: EPA Cuts Would Compromise MT Air, Water

play audio
Play

Tuesday, September 5, 2017   

HELENA, Mont. – Montana's air and water quality would diminish if President Donald Trump's proposed 30 percent cut to the Environmental Protection Agency’s budget were approved, according to a new report from the Environmental Defense Fund.

The report says over the past five years, Montana has received more than $194 million in grants from the EPA to protect the state's environment.

Melissa Nootz, a field consultant with the group Moms Clean Air Force, says she used to live in a Montana Superfund site with pollution in need of long-term cleanup, and knows what industrial waste does to communities.

"I don't think we need to be weakening standards that will result in more pollution, because I know what that looks like and I've seen how difficult and complicated the process is to clean things up,” she states. “And I just think that's moving in the wrong direction. It's not the legacy that I want to leave behind."

There are 17 Superfund sites in Montana. Trump's budget proposes to zero out funding for a program to address leaking underground chemical storage tanks, one that reduces poisonous radon gas in homes and schools, and another to prevent polluted runoff from parking lots, roads and fertilizer use.

EPA chief Scott Pruitt argues that many environmental regulations are too onerous for the business community.

Bill Becker, an environmental consultant and former head of the National Association of Clean Air Agencies, says any cuts to the EPA budget will reverse years of progress made in public health, quality of life and the tourism-based outdoor economy.

"It is an extraordinarily small price to pay to equip state and local officials with the necessary financial and regulatory tools to clean up the environment, when you fully understand the impacts that could occur if you don't provide these resources," he states.

Outdoor recreation in Montana generates $1.5 billion in wages and salaries and 64,000 jobs, according to the Outdoor Industry Association.

Congress is set to take up a series of 12 appropriations bills in the next few weeks.



get more stories like this via email

more stories
The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week about the popular abortion pill Mifepristone and will weigh in on whether the U.S. Food and Drug Administration was correct in how it can be dosed and prescribed. (Ascannio/Adobe Stock)

Health and Wellness

play sound

Missouri residents are worried about future access to birth control. The latest survey from The Right Time, an initiative based in Missouri…


Social Issues

play sound

Wisconsin children from low-income families are now on track to get nutritious foods over the summer. Federal officials have approved the Badger …

Social Issues

play sound

Almost 2,900 people are unsheltered on any given night in the Beehive State. Gov. Spencer Cox is celebrating signing nine bills he says are geared …


The U.S. teaching workforce remains primarily white while the percentage of Black teachers has declined. However, the percentage of Asian and Latinx teachers is rising.(WavebreakMediaMicro/Adobestock)

Social Issues

play sound

Education advocates are calling on lawmakers to increase funding for programs to combat the teacher shortage. Around 37% of schools nationwide …

Environment

play sound

New York's Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It's called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable …

Social Issues

play sound

Earlier this month, a new Arizona Public Service rate hike went into effect and one senior advocacy group said those on a fixed income may struggle …

Social Issues

play sound

Michigan recently implemented a significant juvenile justice reform package following recommendations from a task force made up of prosecutors…

 

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