The National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Program, or NEVI, is the Biden administration’s attempt to solve one of the biggest roadblocks to broader electric vehicle adoption: the limited availability of public charging stations. While at present there are just about 140,000 public charging ports available to EV drivers across the nation, President Biden has promised to use NEVI to build out a network of 500,000 public chargers on U.S. roads.

NEVI was created by Congress’ 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, and over the last year the federal government has used it to disburse millions of dollars to states to build out the charging-station network. But the program is intended to achieve other goals as well: It’s one of the first attempts to implement the Biden administration’s commitment to ensuring that at least 40 percent of the benefits of climate and energy funding reach disadvantaged communities. That effort, called Justice40, is one of Biden’s most high-profile environmental justice promises and one that has been plagued by delays and controversies. 

Both NEVI and Justice40 are complex and challenging initiatives to implement on their own, let alone simultaneously. The former requires states to build charging stations as quickly as possible to spur faster EV uptake, all while meeting a range of technical and complicated minimum standards. The latter requires that the distribution of those resources benefits communities that are classified as disadvantaged according to a range of demographic and environmental criteria. It’s now up to states to balance the sometimes-competing goals of the two programs.

A new report by a group of environmental and public policy nonprofits and think tanks examines the challenges that have emerged in this effort. Crucially, NEVI requires that states first build charging stations every 50 miles on so-called alternative fuel corridors — highways designated by the federal government for investment in electric, hydrogen, and other fueling stations — and within one travel mile off an exit from the corridors. Since disadvantaged communities are not always in areas that meet these geographic strictures, NEVI’s “strict siting requirements limit how benefits can be delivered to [disadvantaged] communities,” the report noted.

The report also found that since states had less than six months to submit their NEVI plans to the federal government, there were varying and often limited efforts to engage with community groups. Of the 20 states that the report examined, two — South Carolina and West Virginia — did not consult with community groups or hold public meetings at all before submitting their plans for NEVI funding. An additional four states only conducted private meetings with community groups and government agencies, but didn’t solicit feedback from the general public. 

“A few months for a completely new program that they have to educate people about and a new bill they have to educate people about — that was a legitimate hurdle,” said Rachel Patterson, the lead author of the report and deputy policy director at the environmental group Evergreen Action. 

NEVI funding is being distributed in phases over five years. States are first required to build fast-charging stations every 50 miles along the alternative fuel corridors and within a mile off an exit from an alternative fuel corridor. Once this requirement is met, states will have much more flexibility to use NEVI funding to place charging stations in communities of their choosing. 

Patterson said that almost every state official her group spoke with identified the 50-mile requirement as a problem — not just in terms of getting chargers to disadvantaged communities, but in getting them to where they’ll be put to the most use, period. The requirement “practically doesn’t serve where the majority of the population is most of the time, and more so serves this American road trip fantasy that I’m not sure people are really doing with EVs right now,” said Patterson. 

Rural states like Wyoming have voiced their objections to the 50-mile requirement. Since NEVI only supports 80 percent of the cost of building charging stations, states have to come up with the remainder. Wyoming officials have said that traffic on the state’s highways and demand for electric charging are unlikely to be robust enough for private companies to want to foot the cost of building even heavily-subsidized stations.

“There’s not going to be enough EVs to break even in five years,” said Loren McDonald, an electric-vehicle consultant based in California’s Bay Area. “There probably should be some flexibility for some of those states.”

Many of the state plans also failed to consider users’ personal safety while charging — a concern that is likely more prevalent for disadvantaged communities. Of the 20 state plans considered in the report, four states did not make any considerations for safety. Other states like Pennsylvania, however, listed lighting, visibility, and regular staffing onsite as key issues. 

The states also had different approaches to identifying disadvantaged communities in the first place. While the White House has built a tool to identify communities with high environmental burdens for prioritization under Justice40, the Department of Transportation and the Department of Energy have also built their own tool for identifying Justice40 communities. Although the Federal Highway Administration, which is in charge of distributing NEVI funding, asked states to use the transportation and energy departments’ tool, some states chose to use state-level and federal tools. 

“If multiple tools are used simultaneously, more of the population will likely be identified as disadvantaged and so benefits may be less targeted,” the report noted. It also makes it difficult to compare the NEVI program’s outcomes across states. 

But Patterson stressed that these challenges are not insurmountable, and NEVI offers community groups, states, and the federal government a chance to find solutions. 

“The NEVI program is such a great case study because very rarely are programs going to be written perfectly to comply with Justice40,” said Patterson. “Governments are going to need to do things like reach out to advocates and folks who have been thinking about this for a long time to figure out creative ways to get benefits to people.”

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Biden’s EV charger rollout has begun. Will it deliver on environmental justice? on Jul 11, 2023.

New York City’s congestion pricing plan could curtail pollution and pay for lower-carbon modes of transportation.

Companies won’t get far if internal stakeholders aren’t engaged in their ESG strategy. GreenFin 23 panelists offered guidance on improving employee knowledge and encouraging action.

A new report from McKinsey sets out how businesses and government can work together to preempt potential shortfalls in supplies of nickel and rare earth minerals.

There are two great reasons to collect your used cooking oil instead of washing it…

The post We Earthlings: Collect Your Used Cooking Oil appeared first on Earth911.

With a little help from the Environmental Working Group’s SkinDeep database, Earth911 rounded up eight safe, nontoxic and eco-friendly sunscreens that are as easy on your skin as they are on the environment.

The post Safer Sunscreens for Summer appeared first on Earth911.

Bees need flowers for food, and flowers need bees to pollinate them, so it is of vital importance that bees emerge from their nests at the same time as plants are flowering each year.

A new study led by researchers from the UK’s University of Reading has found that human-induced climate change is causing warmer springs that are rousing British bees from their nests earlier with each degree of global heating.

This could mean fewer flowering plants available when the bees wake up, meaning less food and lower reproduction rates, a press release from the university said. The result could be that crops like pears and apples end up not getting pollinated.

“Rising temperatures are making life tougher for bees. Warmer conditions mean bees emerge from hibernation earlier, but there may not be enough food to provide energy for them when they start buzzing about,” said Chris Wyver, a Ph.D. researcher with the University of Reading’s School of Agriculture, Policy and Development and lead author of the study, in the press release. “Matching wake-up dates with plant flowering is vital for newly emerged bees because they need to find pollen and nectar to increase their chances of survival and produce offspring. A mismatch means bees cannot pollinate effectively.”

The study, “Climate-driven phenological shifts in emergence dates of British bees,” was published in the journal Ecology and Evolution.

The research team found that for every degree Celsius temperature increase caused by climate change, bumblebees and other wild bees came out of their nests an average of 6.5 days earlier.

The rhythm between bees and flowers is so important that its disruption could mean bees not having enough food or energy to effectively pollinate, or may mean they miss the blossoming of crops entirely.

“Less natural pollination could lead to farmers needing to use managed honeybees, meaning greater costs, which may be passed on to consumers. We could see even more expensive apples, pears and vegetables in supermarkets as a result,” Wyver said in the press release.

The researchers looked at 88 wild bee species over four decades, recording changes in dates of emergence related to time and temperature. The 350,000 recordings showed that some bees came out of their nests earlier than others, since different species respond differently to temperature fluctuations. The data showed that the species were emerging an average of four days earlier every 10 years.

According to the UK’s Met Office, by 2070 winters are predicted to be from one to 4.5 degrees Celsius warmer and as much as 30 percent wetter, which means spring will likely keep starting earlier and bees will emerge sooner.

FruitWatch is a project that encourages individuals to report the flowering dates of their fruit trees. It was set up by scientists from the University of Reading and the Oracle for Research Blog and will assist them in better understanding how climate change affects flowering and pollination. In two years, more than 6,500 submissions have been received for the project.

“Without insect pollination, we risk a severe reduction in the quality and quantity of fruit crops. Thanks to Oracle for Research, we can now engage citizens to help us understand the relationships between fruit trees and pollinators to safeguard production into the future,” Wyver said, according to the Oracle for Research Blog.

The post Wild Bees Emerge From Nests Earlier as Temperatures Rise, Causing ‘Mismatch’ With Flowering Plants, Study Finds appeared first on EcoWatch.

This week, U.S. States as far south as Kansas will have the opportunity to catch sight of the brilliant aurora borealis — known as the “Northern Lights” — when a solar storm dips far south enough to be seen in cities like Seattle and Boise.

The vibrant, multi-colored light show, created when solar wind collides with Earth’s atmosphere, is part of a solar cycle that started in 2019 and is expected to climax next year, reported The Associated Press.

The Northern Lights are often visible in the polar regions of Canada, Scandinavia, Iceland and Alaska, but are rarely seen so far south.

According to the University of Fairbanks’ Geophysical Institute, Thursday’s aurora display could be seen in parts of states including Washington, Idaho, Montana, Wyoming, Nebraska, North and South Dakota, Michigan, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Kansas, Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Massachusetts, Maryland, Vermont, New Hampshire and Maine.

Any reading of the Kp or planetary index above a five — the scale ranges from zero to nine — qualifies as a geomagnetic storm. The Geophysical Institute has predicted Thursday’s display to register as a six.

The term “aurora borealis” comes from the Latin “aurora,” which means “dawn” and “borealis,” which means “north,” Earth.com reported.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Space Weather Prediction Center, ideal viewing times for this week’s Northern Lights display are from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. local time.

“The aurora does not need to be directly overhead but can be observed from as much as a 1000 km away when the aurora is bright and if conditions are right,” according to the Space Weather Prediction Center. “It is the only way for most people to actually experience space weather.”

In late April of this year, a major geomagnetic storm brought spectacular lights displays as far south as Arizona, Iowa and North Dakota.

The turbulent activity of the sun can sometimes be strong enough to tug at our planet’s magnetic field, but then it recoils, creating what are called Alfvén waves about 80,000 miles up, reported NPR. When electrons get attached to a wave, they rush down toward Earth at speeds of up to 45 million miles per hour.

“Think about surfing,” said Jim Schroeder, an assistant professor of physics at Wheaton College, as NPR reported. “In order to surf, you need to paddle up to the right speed for an ocean wave to pick you up and accelerate you, and we found that electrons were surfing.”

You will not need binoculars to see this week’s auroras, but a spot with less light pollution at a higher elevation is best. Though they are called the Northern Lights, these dazzling lights are visible from all directions.

The post Northern Lights to Be Visible in U.S. States as Far South as Kansas appeared first on EcoWatch.

A new study has found that 176 bird species around the world are building their nests with trash from humans, such as cigarette butts, candy wrappers and plastic string. Birds on all continents except Antarctica were found to make nests with this waste, which could harm the birds and the chicks.

Researchers analyzed nearly 35,000 nests and found human-generated trash in the nests of many types of birds as this waste becomes more ubiquitous on land and in marine environments. The study was published online in a special issue of the journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society B.

“A wide variety of bird species included anthropogenic materials into their nests,” Zuzanna Jagiełło, an ornithologist at the University of Warsaw and lead author of the study, said in a statement. “This is worrying because it is becoming increasingly apparent that such materials can harm nestlings and even adult birds.”

The study found that some species used particular types of waste. Blackbirds used plastic string or plastic bags to build up their nests, and storks had nests built in part with plastic string as well as cardboard and foil, The Guardian reported. Seabirds were found to add fishing nets, and birds in cities in South America added cigarette butts.

Although some of these materials may offer benefits, such as plastics that help better insulate the nests or cigarette butts that contain compounds to repel parasites, these waste pieces are also dangerous to the birds and their chicks. Chicks can choke on the trash when they mistake it for food, plastic strings can entangle the birds, and some trash can introduce toxins to the nest, exposing the birds to harmful chemicals. Brightly colored trash may also attract predators to the nest.

The scientists have theorized that birds may be using certain types of trash to attract mates, but they haven’t found links between bird age or nest placement with specific waste items.

The study authors said more research is needed to find how many more bird species are using trash to build nests. The researchers are also calling on citizen scientists for help furthering the research.

“Birds are wonderful bio-monitoring tools,” Jim Reynolds, study co-author and an ornithologist at the University of Birmingham, told The Guardian. “We’re asking people to show an interest in this and go and take a photograph of a nest in their garden, wherever they might live.”

The post Birds Around the World Are Building Their Nests With Trash appeared first on EcoWatch.