The fifth edition of Climate Change Indicators in the United States documents how climate change is impacting the United States today, the significance of these changes, and their possible consequences for people, the environment, and society.

Historic funding to plug orphaned oil and gas wells will address environmental and safety hazards, create good-paying jobs.

The Department of the Interior today awarded $126.7 million through President Biden’s Investing in America agenda for Alaska, Arizona, Indiana, New York and Ohio to address legacy pollution.

Orphaned oil and gas wells are polluting backyards, recreation areas, and community spaces across the country. Many of these wells pose serious health and safety threats to the air we breathe and water we drink by contaminating surface and groundwater, releasing toxic air pollutants, and leaking methane – a “super pollutant” that is a significant cause of climate change and many times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere. Plugging orphaned wells supports broader Biden-Harris administration efforts under the U.S. Methane Emissions Reduction Action Plan.

Projects Funded by President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act Strengthen American Farms and Rural Small Businesses

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Tom Vilsack today announced that USDA is partnering with rural Americans on hundreds of clean energy projects to lower energy bills, expand access to clean energy and create jobs for U.S. farmers, ranchers and agricultural producers. Many of the projects are funded by President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act, the nation’s largest-ever investment in combating the climate crisis.

Inflation Reduction Act final rules build on Administration actions to develop a skilled, well-paid workforce to build the clean energy economy and combat the climate crisis

Since day one, President Biden has committed to building a clean energy economy that creates good-paying and union jobs for American workers. Spurred by President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, which includes the most significant investment in climate and clean energy in history, America has unleashed a clean energy manufacturing and deployment boom that has attracted hundreds of billions of dollars in private sector investment and created more than 270,000 new good-paying and union clean energy jobs.

Mesa City Council approved an agreement last week with Tucson-based Solon Corporation to install almost 3,000 kW of solar panels over parking lots at four city-owned buildings in downtown Mesa.

The panels will generate enough energy to power 500 homes annually.

Besides boosting the Mesa electric utility’s renewable energy portfolio, the solar arrays will also provide shade for about 660 parking spaces. Most visible of these will be the 142 in front of the Main Library.

Phoenix residents don’t need to be reminded it’s hot in June. But it can be helpful to have a refresher on how to keep yourself, your loved ones and your community safe when summer temperatures arrive. And data-driven insights into how much a warming climate has influenced modern heat extremes and their impacts don’t hurt, either.

That’s the purpose of the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies’ “Heat Action Day,” scheduled for Sunday. The IFRC is the world’s largest humanitarian network and, as such, has put resources into tracking how climate change has exacerbated the human toll of rising temperatures.

In a significant move, the Biden-Harris Administration today announced the recipients of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) 2023 Clean School Bus Program rebate competition, a key initiative under President Biden’s Investing in America agenda. The rebates, totaling $8,345,000 for Arizona, will enable selectees to purchase 30 clean school buses in 10 school districts across the state. This program is a crucial step in Arizona’s journey towards improving children’s health and tackling harmful air pollution, replacing older, diesel-fueled school buses linked to student and community health issues.

A new federal initiative will rely on University of Arizona research and scholarship to help communities across the U.S. create policies and take action to mitigate and manage extreme heat. The university’s involvement in a new Center for Heat Resilient Communities, which the U.S. Department of Commerce and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Monday, will help translate climate research into policies and guidelines.

UArizona and Arizona State University are partner institutions with the center, which is led by faculty and staff at the University of California, Los Angeles.

My husband and I were both teachers when we bought our dream family home in 1988, where we raised our two children. Then, in 2016, we both retired and realized two things.

First, we had always been Earth-conscious and as an important part of that commitment, we wanted to install solar panels and save money on our utility bill during our retirement, but the installation costs and the financial benefits were neither affordable nor available.

Second, Donald Trump was elected president and funneled all tax priorities to the oil and gas giants through his Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, not us.