Environment

COMMENTARY
A view of the Black Hills from Black Elk Peak. (Makenzie Huber/South Dakota Searchlight)

Eight supervisors, seven years: The ‘challenging’ Black Hills National Forest

BY: - May 25, 2023

The Black Hills National Forest has its eighth supervisor in the past seven years, and if recent history is any indication, he probably doesn’t fully recognize what he’s up against. Carl Petrick, most recently the supervisor of the Idaho Panhandle National Forests, won’t stay long in his new Black Hills post. He’s an acting supervisor, […]

Firefighting foam, used at airports and military bases, has been identified as a source of toxic PFAS chemicals. (Photo courtesy of the U.S. Fire Administration)

Proposed EPA ‘forever chemicals’ regulation could cost SD millions for testing, cleanup

BY: - April 21, 2023

Nearly 100 families living in Box Elder have been drinking bottled water provided by the military for the past five years. That’s because their water system was contaminated with chemicals used in firefighting foam at nearby Ellsworth Air Force Base. And Sioux Falls has had 21 wells — a significant amount of its water production […]

COMMENTARY
(Getty Images)

New clean energy incentives are an opportunity South Dakotans can’t afford to miss

BY: - February 2, 2023

South Dakota households could save thousands of dollars on energy costs and tax payments, thanks to new programs from last year’s federal climate law. The first of those incentives — tax credits on residential clean energy, energy efficiency upgrades and electric vehicles — launched last month. With programs from the climate law that passed last […]

In an aerial view, the Strategic Petroleum Reserve storage at the Bryan Mound site is seen on Oct. 19, 2022, in Freeport, Texas. (Photo by Brandon Bell/Getty Images)

GOP U.S. House passes bill opening more public land to development if reserve oil is tapped

BY: - January 27, 2023

U.S. House Republicans passed a bill Friday to force the White House to make more federal land and waters available for oil and gas development if the president orders the withdrawal of more oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve. The bill, passed 221-205, mostly along party lines, would strip the president’s power to remove oil […]

A portion of the Black Hills National Forest near Mystic. (Seth Tupper/South Dakota Searchlight)

U.S. House GOP would make it easier for feds to give public lands away to states

BY: - January 13, 2023

U.S. House Republicans included in the new rules for the chamber they passed this month a provision meant to make it easier for Congress to give away public lands. The provision is a fairly technical piece of the 55-page rules package. It affects internal House accounting and requires that anytime Congress were to give any […]

An oil pumpjack casts a shadow on a wall as it pulls oil from the Permian Basin oil field on March 14, 2022, in Odessa, Texas. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)

States that limit business with banks that ‘boycott’ fossil fuels could pay high cost, study says

BY: - January 12, 2023

Republican state policymakers’ efforts to boost fossil fuels by prohibiting their governments from doing business with companies that take sustainability into consideration has the potential to cost states millions, according to a study released Thursday. Researchers looked specifically at the possible effects on Florida, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma and West Virginia if they passed Texas-like […]

Executives at the Shell Chemical petroleum refinery in Norco, Louisiana, agreed to install $10 million in pollution monitoring and control equipment in 2018 to settle allegations it was violating the Clean Air Act. The Biden administration was expected to increase EPA enforcement, but that hasn’t happened, says a national environmental group. (Photo by Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Environmental enforcement has fallen off under Biden, report says

BY: - December 22, 2022

Federal environmental enforcement, as measured by Environmental Protection Agency civil cases closed against polluters, hit a two-decade low in 2022, per a report released last week by a national environmental group that blames budget cuts, staff shortages and the U.S. Senate’s failure to confirm key leaders. The Environmental Integrity Project said the 72 civil enforcement […]

Sioux Falls as seen from Falls Park, on the Big Sioux River. (Seth Tupper/South Dakota Searchlight)

Drought causing more minerals to enter Sioux Falls drinking water source

BY: - December 4, 2022

A state water quality report says the part of the Big Sioux River that Sioux Falls uses for drinking water contains dissolved solids beyond the standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency. A city water official says the drought is causing the uptick in minerals, like salt. The state Department of Agriculture and Natural Resources […]