Debt ceiling deal would greenlight gas pipeline across Appalachian Trail

A deal between President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, if approved by Congress, would clear the way for the Mountain Valley Pipeline between West Virginia and Virginia that has been held up by environmental challenges.

While pipeline champion Sen. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, applauded the legislative workaround, Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Arizona, was highly critical. Sen. Tim Kaine, a Virginia Democrat, signaled he would try to have the provision removed from the debt ceiling agreement.

https://www.nationalparkstraveler.org/2023/05/update-debt-ceiling-deal-would-clear-way-mountain-valley-pipeline

Supreme Court restricts USEPA's ability to protect wetlands

The Supreme Court on Thursday curtailed the Environmental Protection Agency’s authority to police water pollution, ruling that the Clean Water Act does not allow the agency to regulate discharges into some wetlands near bodies of water.

The court held that law covers only wetlands “with a continuous surface connection” to those waters, Justice Samuel A. Alito Jr. wrote for five justices.

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/25/us/supreme-court-epa-water-pollution.html

Buyout of vulnerable houses at Cape Hatteras NS would cost less than trying to save the beach: study

As coastal erosion, sea-level rise, and more potent storms continue to risk the loss of beach houses at Cape Hatteras National Seashore in North Carolina, a new report suggests it would be much less costly to buy out the homeowners rather than investing in beach nourishment work.

The report, by Rob Young, director of the Program for the Study of Developed Shorelines at Western Carolina University, places the cost of buying 80 houses — one dating to 1965 — at risk of being pulled into the Atlantic at Rodanthe at nearly $43 million. The cost of dredging up tons of sand to place on the beachfront at Rodanthe to protect the houses is estimated at about $120 million over 15 years, according to Rodanthe Sand Needs Assessment Dare County, North Carolina, which was prepared by Coastal Science and Engineering.

https://www.nationalparkstraveler.org/2023/05/report-buyout-rodanthe-homeowners-less-costly-beach-nourishment-cape-hatteras