Updates

At 54.5 mpg, a big step forward.

On July 29, President Obama announced the outline of new clean car standards covering cars and light trucks through 2025, which will amount to the single biggest step this country has ever taken to end our addiction to oil and tackle global warming.

News Release | Environment Rhode Island Research & Policy Center

Nuclear Power Plants Threaten Drinking Water for Tens of Thousands of Rhode Islanders

The drinking water for tens, perhaps hundreds of thousands of people in Rhode Island could be at risk of radioactive contamination from a leak or accident at a local nuclear power plant, says a new study released today by Environment Rhode Island Research & Policy Center and Rhode Island PIRG Education Fund.

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Report | Environment Rhode Island Research & Policy Center, RIPIRG Education Fund

Too Close to Home

The 2011 Fukushima Daiichi nuclear disaster delivered a reminder to the world that nuclear power comes with inherent risks. Among the risks demonstrated by the Fukushima crisis is the threat of water contamination, including contamination of drinking water supplies by radioactive material. In the United States, 49 million Americans receive their drinking water from surface sources located within 50 miles of an active nuclear power plant—inside the boundary the Nuclear Regulatory Commission uses to assess risk to food and water supplies.

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News Release | Environment Rhode Island

President Obama Expected to Stand Up to Big Oil on Keystone XL Pipeline

With President Obama and the State Department poised to reject an effort to force administration approval of the Keystone XL pipeline, Environment Rhode Island's Channing Jones issues a statement of thanks and support.

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News Release | Environment Rhode Island Research & Policy Center

One Million Acres Around the Grand Canyon Protected from Toxic Mining

After more than 2 years of environmental analysis and receiving nearly 300,000 public comments from the American people, environmental and conservation groups, the outdoor recreation industry, mayors, and tribal leaders, Secretary Salazar withdrew more than 1 million acres of land around the canyon from new mining claims for the next twenty years.

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Headline

Cutting Mercury, Protecting Children

The United States Environmental Protection Agency recently took an important step to safeguard the air we breathe and protect our kids from harm by finalizing the nation's first-ever Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) for power plant emissions. Before MATS, there were no national standards to limit the amounts of mercury, arsenic, chromium, nickel and acid gases power plants across the country could release into the air we breathe.
 

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