The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and AmeriCorps this week announced the Environmental Justice Climate Corps , a new partnership launched to open doors for people to serve in careers that benefit disadvantaged and other low-income communities. This partnership will support more than 250 AmeriCorps VISTA members nationwide over three years , with each new participating member completing a one-year term of service. This historic initiative is the largest environmental partnership in AmeriCorps' history and EPA's first nationwide service effort. Environmental Justice Climate Corps members will be paid a living allowance and reimbursed for selected living expenses. In total, this allowance is equivalent to receiving more than $25 per hour throughout their year of service. Members will obtain the benefits of AmeriCorps VISTA service—including the Segal AmeriCorps Education Award, which is valued at $7,395 in FY24, and streamlined pathways into certain federal jobs—as well as gain mentorship and professional development opportunities. This program aims to recruit participants from communities disproportionately impacted by environmental justice challenges and seeks to recruit individuals with an interest in environmental justice careers. The Environmental Justice Climate Corps is part of the American Climate Corps—a workforce training and service initiative that will ensure more young people have access to the skills-based training necessary for good-paying careers in the clean energy and climate resilience economy. The American Climate Corps will mobilize a new, diverse generation of more than 20,000 Americans in the initiative's first year, putting them to work conserving and restoring our lands and waters, bolstering community resilience, deploying clean energy, implementing energy efficient technologies, and advancing environmental justice—all while creating pathways to high-quality, good-paying clean energy and climate resilience jobs in the public and private sectors after they complete their paid training program. Applications for the Environmental Justice Climate Corps will open in early 2025, with a goal for its first cohort to start later that year. To sign up for updates on the program, visit EPA's website .

Hey parents, grandparents, teachers and caregivers, did you hear? The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is releasing a new tool called the " Kids and Climate Health Zone ." This Zone is a collection of stories and information about how the hazards of climate stressors are impacting different childhood life stages and regions in the United States and what people can do to protect their children and families. The tool uses the best available scientific information from the U.S. Global Change Research Program's  Fifth National Climate Assessment and other published resources.  "Climate change is the challenge of our generation, and we owe it to the next generation – our nation's children – to take action now in the fight to protect our health and our planet," said EPA Deputy Administrator Janet McCabe. "Raising awareness of the impacts of climate and environmental stressors on children and highlighting actions that we can all implement to mitigate the effects are critical for the protection of children's health." Children are uniquely vulnerable to climate change due to a variety of physical, cognitive, behavioral and social factors. Climate change-related impacts in childhood can have lifelong consequences due to its effects on learning, physical health, chronic disease and other conditions. Changing climate conditions, public health emergencies, and disasters can compound and affect children's environmental health and safety.   It's important for kids, their parents and caregivers and the adults around them to be aware of these consequential impacts and get ideas on how to mitigate them before children's environmental health gets negatively impacted.  Check out the Zone to find information on how climate change can affect different climate stressors and life stages, and read stories about:  A toddler who is struggling with stress after his home is flooded and the steps that can be taken to mitigate the risks associated with flooding.  A teenager who is dealing with extreme heat during practice and what the teenager can do to stay healthy.  A pregnant woman who is exposed to wildfire smoke in her area and what resources she can use to keep herself and her baby safe.  View all these stories and more at the Kids and Climate Zone .

GASP, residents, and fellow advocates spoke out at a public hearing last week to provide input on the formulation of an Allegheny County Climate Action Plan. If you missed it, we highly recommend this write up from our friends at Public Source.  Our Executive Director Patrick Campbell was among those who testified at the hearing. Here’s what he said: Good evening, I’m Patrick Campbell, the executive director of the Group Against Smog & Pollution located here in Pittsburgh since 1969. Allegheny County urgently needs to adopt a Climate Action Plan to safeguard public health, economic stability, and environmental resilience.  As the impacts of climate change intensify, our region is increasingly vulnerable to extreme weather events like flooding, landslides, heatwaves, and poor air quality —issues that already strain our infrastructure and affect the health and well-being of our residents, particularly vulnerable populations like children, the elderly, and those with pre-existing health conditions.  A comprehensive Climate Action Plan would provide a roadmap to mitigate these risks while positioning the county for long-term sustainability. Adopting such a plan is not only about reducing emissions but also about fostering economic growth and resilience. Investments in clean energy, energy efficiency, and green infrastructure create jobs, attract businesses, and reduce long-term operational costs.  By engaging with the community and supporting local innovation in renewable energy and sustainable practices, Allegheny County can become a leader in the green economy, benefiting both urban and rural communities. Additionally, a Plan will ensure that public funds are used more efficiently by prioritizing sustainability in public works and transportation projects, reducing energy consumption, and promoting climate-smart building codes. Public health will also benefit significantly from the adoption of this plan. Climate change exacerbates air pollution, particularly in Allegheny County, which already  struggles with some of the worst air quality in the nation. An effective Climate Action Plan would target reductions in greenhouse gas emissions and co-pollutants,  improving air quality and reducing the incidence of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. A Climate Action Plan is an environmental necessity and a critical strategy for enhancing public health, economic growth, and social equity. Allegheny County must take proactive steps now to build a future that is sustainable, healthy, and prosperous for all residents.  Thank you.  While the hearing may be over, the public comment period is not. Those wishing to weigh in have until Wednesday to do so. Here’s what you need to know to do just that.

Good news! It’s not too late to apply for Allegheny County Clean Air Fund project money. But beware: The deadline to get your paperwork in is this Friday, Sept. 27. Don’t miss out - there’s $5 million available for initiatives like fleet electrification, tree canopy expansion, equipment electrification, and climate resiliency projects. “This is a great opportunity for municipalities, Councils of Governments, and community organizations to reduce pollution and build climate resilience. Don’t miss out on this chance to contribute to a cleaner, greener Allegheny County,” Allegheny County Executive Sara Innamorato posted to LinkedIn. GASP concurs. Here’s what you need to know to apply.

Good news for those working to be as sustainable as possible! The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released a proposed update to the agency's Recommendations of Specifications, Standards and Ecolabels for Federal Purchasing (Recommendations), which help federal government purchasers and others utilize private sector standards and ecolabels to buy products that are more sustainable and climate-friendly and contain safer chemical ingredients. This is the first time in nearly 10 years that EPA has comprehensively evaluated standards and ecolabels to determine whether to add them to the Recommendations. The Recommendations help to identify thousands of products and services across 35 categories that conserve energy or water, include more recycled content, or reduce the use of PFAS and single-use plastics. By helping federal purchasers identify and procure environmentally preferable products and services, the Recommendations can save taxpayers money, reduce climate impacts, and prevent pollution. The update proposes adding 14 standards and ecolabels to the Recommendations across three new product categories, covering healthcare, laboratories, and clothing and uniforms, and expanding the existing food service ware sub-category. If finalized, the updates to the Recommendations would give federal purchasers and other buyers new guidance and options for purchasing sustainable products and services in four categories, which EPA proposes to divide into nine sub-categories, including by expanding the existing sub-category for food service ware. The Recommendations currently include only one recommended ecolabel in the food service ware sub-category, which covers compostable products. If finalized, the updated Recommendations would include three additional standards and ecolabels for food service ware, covering products that are reusable, certified compostable, and certified recyclable. EPA is also providing a new resource that outlines current best practices for the procurement of food service ware sub-categories, which is available on EPA's website. EPA assessed the environmental sustainability of the third-party standards and ecolabels under the Framework for the Assessment of Environmental Performance Standards and Ecolabels , and also assessed for a third-party certification program to verify product conformance. In April 2022 , EPA announced stronger eligibility criteria for including standards and ecolabels in the Recommendations, which require each standard and ecolabel to have a competent third-party verification program and a current directory of qualifying products and services. EPA is proposing to remove seven standards or ecolabels because they do not meet these new requirements, are discontinued, or are no longer required by regulation. EPA will accept public comments on the proposed updates to the Recommendations for 30 days after publication via docket EPA-HQ-OPPT-2022-0835 at Regulations.gov . EPA will use feedback it receives from public comments to inform the final updates to the Recommendations.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) this week announced the launch of a new website, the Climate Resilience and Adaptation Funding Toolbox . Known as CRAFT for short, it is a user-friendly resource for technical assistance providers working with federal funding applicants and recipients to develop, apply for and implement climate-resilient investments. The website provides simple, easy-to-understand resources that can help users consider climate adaptation and resilience before, during and after applying for EPA funding opportunities. EPA is taking important steps to help its programs and funding applicants invest in projects that can withstand the impacts of climate change. CRAFT is a resource for technical assistance providers helping to guide investments of federal funding – including the historic funding from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act – to local solutions, while also supporting investments that deliver results in the face of climate change. The information in CRAFT can help federal funding applicants and recipients consider climate-related challenges to their projects at the outset, so taxpayer dollars can be invested wisely. CRAFT also supports the development of projects that advance multiple policy goals, such as achieving local flood resilience, adopting nature-based infrastructure solutions, and protecting the people and places most vulnerable to climate change. With CRAFT, interested parties can more easily navigate EPA's funding opportunities, consider climate resilience and adaptation as part of their investments, and meaningfully engage community members and other partners over the life of their projects.

Editor's Note: An Allegheny County Health Department hearing officer on Sept. 4 issued an order to dismiss U.S. Steel's appeal. You can read that document here. U.S. Steel has appealed the Nov. 21 Title V Operating Permit issued by the Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD), alleging it imposes numerous unlawful enforceable conditions and that regulators exceeded their authority when creating myriad emissions limits at the plant. The appeal was filed Dec. 21 but just uploaded to the ACHD legal docket Thursday afternoon. GASP staff is reviewing the appeal, which you can read for yourself here . “Why ACHD waited more than a month to make the appeal public is beyond us,” GASP Executive Director Patrick Campbell said. “It’s another example of how transparency is an afterthought for the department.“ This is the second legal challenge mounted by the company in recent weeks related to air quality regulation at the Clairton Coke Works. U.S. Steel on Jan. 17 filed a petition regarding ACHD's air quality enforcement procedures that led to a portion of the stipulated penalties it was assessed last year. GASP is currently reviewing the order and has submitted a public records request to ACHD seeking voluminous documents, videos, and photographs referenced in the order that were not published with the appeal document itself.

In these divided times, we can all agree that whether we live in suburban towns or city neighborhoods, everyone in Allegheny County deserves safe, reliable, dignified access to the places they need to go.  Consider this: Across the county, 30 percent of our friends and neighbors don’t drive a car.  Enter The Week Without Driving. It’s a nationwide movement to link the needs of disabled individuals and people of all ages with environmental movements and accessible community planning.  That’s why GASP is joining our friends at Bike Pittsburgh  and Pittsburghers for Public Transit to take the pledge and spread the word about the initiative. Yinz in? Because together, we can illustrate challenges and opportunities for non-drivers and call for change that improves mobility for all. You can participate as an individual, organization, or elected official. Here’s how.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Forest Service this week released an updated version of the popular AirNow Fire and Smoke Map to provide millions of people in the U.S. with more information they can use to protect themselves from wildfire smoke. The updated Fire and Smoke Map has a new look and feel, is designed to load more quickly, and includes information not available in the previous versions, such as: Air quality monitoring information on coarse particle pollution and ozone, both of which can increase because of wildfire smoke. More information on individual wildland fires, including the type of fire and level of fire activity, when available. Information from low-cost fine particle sensors in Canada, in cooperation with Environment and Climate Change Canada. The new version of the map allows users to see activity recommendations at a glance – or to expand the information to see more, including more information on actions to take to protect your health, charts showing how air quality has changed over the past week, and whether there are other fires within 30 miles of their locations. The map makes Smoke Outlook alerts more prominent and links to these forecasts, where available, to help the public better understand the possible impacts of smoke over the next several days. The Forest Service-led Interagency Wildland Fire Air Quality Response Program issues Smoke Outlooks for certain large fires. EPA and the Forest Service made a beta version of the map available for public review in July; the new version reflects changes the agencies have made to date in response to public feedback. EPA and the Forest Service developed the Fire and Smoke Map to provide the public information on fire locations, smoke plumes, near real-time air quality, Smoke Outlooks for large U.S. wildfires, and protective actions to take -- all in one place. To give users the most localized air quality information possible, the map pulls data from monitors that regularly report to AirNow, temporary monitors such as those the Forest Service and air agencies have deployed near fires, and crowd-sourced data from nearly 15,000 low-cost sensors that measure fine particle pollution, the major harmful pollutant in smoke. The map shows this data in the familiar color-coding of the U.S. Air Quality Index. You can view the Fire and Smoke Map  on the AirNow website or select the smoke icon on the bottom right of the AirNow smartphone app. To view the map in Spanish or to select a modified AQI color scale for users with certain color vision deficiencies, click the settings icon at the top right corner of the map. Download the AirNow app: Apple App Store:  https://apps.apple.com/us/app/epa-airnow/id467653238   Google Play Store:  https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.saic.airnow

The Allegheny County Health Department (ACHD) is seeking public comment on the revised Title V operating permit for U.S. Steel’s Edgar Thomson facility in Braddock, and if you’re thinking to yourself, “Didn’t we JUST go through this process?” you are correct.   Here’s what’s going on:   Many of you joined GASP in June 2022 to implore ACHD to issue the facility a Title V operating permit that was as protective of public health as possible.  You can read more about all that here.  On Aug. 1, 2023, ACHD issued that permit, which you can read here .   But it wasn’t a done deal yet. That’s because both U.S. Steel AND the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) successfully made appeals that required substantive enough changes to necessitate a second public comment period.   So, what are those changes?   For the most part, the permit amendments required by the U.S. Steel appeal dealt with language revisions and corrections to various SO2 limits for Blast Furnaces 1 and 3.   The changes necessitated by the EPA appeals are a bit more substantive – and ones GASP supports. They: increased testing frequency of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and carbon monoxide (CO) testing from once every four years to once every two years required the facility to calculate the daily emissions of particulate matter (PM), sulfur dioxides (SOX), nitrogen oxides (NOX), CO, and VOCs as part of its compliance demonstration require the facility to calculate the monthly emissions of PM, SOX, NOX, CO, and VOCs Require that U.S. Steel to monitor the oxygen content of Edgar Thomson’s Riley Boilers’ exhaust. Proper oxygen levels typically improve combustion efficiency, which in turn reduce CO and VOC emissions removed the short-term limits on PM emissions from Edgar Thomson’s cooling tower after ACHD re-evaluated the limits and determined that they were back-calculated from annual limits and not representative of actual limits. Because of the nature of the cooling towers, they are not enforceable limits. ACHD added a requirement to calculate monthly emissions.   Comments on these amendments will be accepted at a public hearing at 6 p.m. Sept. 23 at:   Greater Valley Community Services 300 Holland Avenue Braddock, PA 15104   Those who wish to address ACHD at the hearing need to sign up to speak by 6 p.m. Sept. 22. You can do that here.   Written comments will be accepted through 11:59 p.m. Sept. 23. They can be sent by email to: aqpermits@alleghenycounty.us .