The Environmental Forum

OPENING ARGUMENT As the United States moves to a renewable energy economy, the speed of the transition will be critical to avoiding dangerous climate change. Enter into the policy argument the fable of the “NEPA delay,” which our detailed examination finds to be based mostly on cherry-picked data.

FIELD REPORT The 1987 Clean Water Act reauthorization required states and localities to design programs curtailing the impact of rainwater runoff on water quality. Here’s how we learned to get it done where I live and work.

COVER STORY “Net zero” emissions depends on a dangerous myth. Proposals now center on three prominent strategies for CO2 removal—tree planting, bioenergy with carbon capture and storage, and direct air capture—but they are not scalable, and could make things worse.

TESTIMONY Absent greater efforts by public lands advocacy groups or greater agency accountability, it seems likely that wealthy interests will only increase their demands—and their holdings—by using land swaps to privatize our public lands at the public’s expense.

Minerals lying on the ocean floor could be critical for advanced technologies, including renewable energy. But scientists warn that industrial-scale seabed mining could seriously damage both marine life and the ocean’s ability to absorb carbon dioxide. More than 20 members of the International Seabed Authority are supporting a moratorium on exploitation licenses—but not the United States, which is not an ISA member. Meanwhile, commercial exploitation is scheduled to commence in coming months.