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The Tucson Million Trees initiative, led by Mayor Regina Romero, intends to plant one million trees by 2030 to increase the city’s tree canopy and help mitigate the effects of climate change.

As communities prepare for a massive influx of federal funding to support urban forestry, their leaders say the tree canopy that grows to maturity 50 years from now will need to be painted with a different palette than the one that exists today. Read more»

Jason Salfi, the co-founder and CEO of Dimensional Energy, speaks during a ceremony and tour as part of the company's announcement it will begin creating jet fuel from CO2 as part of a deal with United Airlines.

A few cargo containers and a modest tower bristling with equipment on the campus of the University of Arizona's Tech Park might be the key to solving a major problem in modern life: the overwhelming production of carbon dioxide for transportation, plastics, and thousands of consumer products. Read more»

Medicare recipients who take insulin will be the first to benefit from the drug pricing provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act. Additional drug costs will start to decrease in 2026.

Starting next month, a $35 cap on insulin prices will go into effect for millions of Medicare recipients - one of the first of several policy measures Americans will see in the coming months and years under the Inflation Reduction Act signed into law in August. Read more»

The permitting bill was part of a deal Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer made with Manchin to secure his support for Democrats’ major climate, health care and taxes bill, which provided $370 billion in clean energy spending.

Among the items on Congress’ lengthy to-do list by the end of the year is Sen. Joe Manchin’s proposal to speed up the federal government’s permitting process that certifies energy projects do not harm the environment - but the bill may still not have the support it needs to pass. Read more»

It’s extremely difficult for consumers to evaluate policy options without the plan finder, and drug plans do not have to cover all injectable insulins.

Though Congress approved a cap on what seniors will pay for insulin as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, along with free vaccines and other improvements, the change came too late to add to the Medicare plan finder, the online tool that helps beneficiaries find the best bargain. Read more»

The bipartisan infrastructure law passed by Congress last year included $7.5 billion to build out a nationwide network of more than half a million vehicle charging stations.

Between 2015 and 2021, public charging stations for plug-in electric cars more than tripled - and with the federal government sending billions in funding for charging infrastructure, it will be up to state and local governments to help make ubiquitous electric vehicle charging a reality. Read more»

Officials from Arizona, Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado convened at the White House for a forum on the impact Biden administration programs are having on Western states. Tucson Mayor Regina Romero said that infusions of federal funding under recently passed bills have allowed her city to do projects it would not have been able to afford otherwise.

Arizona local, tribal and labor leaders were at the White House Friday to hear administration officials highlight the billions in recent federal funding - Arizona is set to get $1.9 billion in 2022 - that is coming to states for everything from roads to water to broadband. Read more»

Democratic senators voting against an amendment that said none of the IRS funding in the bill 'may be used to audit taxpayers with taxable incomes below $400,000,' stating the phrase 'taxable incomes' would have shielded 'billionaires' from paying their fair share of taxes.

Republican PACs are using an outdated Congressional Budget Office estimate to falsely claim in ads that Democrats voted to raise taxes by $20 billion on “lower- and middle-income families,” and further misleads voters by claiming the IRS will now go after servers and Uber drivers. Read more»

Brenda Dickason of Tucson needs to keep expensive EpiPens on hand because of a bee allergy, but rising prices have made it hard for  her to afford medications. The Inflation Reduction Act includes several provisions that should help, including an annual $2,000 cap on out-of-pocket spending for prescriptions.

Under the Inflation Reduction Act, millions of Americans no longer will have to shell out thousands of dollars to pay for prescription medications through Medicare - one of the provisions of the new law intended to improve health care. Read more»

President Joe Biden signed the Inflation Reduction Act on Aug. 16, 2022. He was flanked (from L to R) by Sens. Joe Manchin and Chuck Schumer and Reps. Jim Clyburn, Frank Pallone and Kathy Castor.

The Inflation Reduction Act - signed into law this month - authorizes more than $700 billion in funding and addresses policies related to climate change, energy, taxes and health care costs - providing funding to help tribal communities plan for and adapt to climate change. Read more»

From pipelines and dams to power plants and critical mineral mining, there are few industries or environments that NEPA doesn’t touch.

The tax reform and spending bill signed by President Joe Biden is also the country’s largest climate change investment, with what could be sweeping changes to the National Environmental Policy Act - the bedrock of environmental law - and the law’s critics cover the political spectrum. Read more»

Energy efficiency can save homeowners and renters hundreds of dollars a year, and the new Inflation Reduction Act includes a wealth of home improvement rebates and tax incentives to help Americans secure those saving. Read more»

Climate advocates have long argued that the movement has been overly focused on individual responsibility when large-scale societal shifts can make a much bigger dent in carbon emissions.

For years, environmental campaigns have espoused actions like biking, taking shorter showers, and turning off the lights - but increasingly, Americans’ concern about climate change appears to be directed more toward the actions of politicians and corporations. Read more»

State Sen. Raquel Terán, D-Phoenix, speaks with Dora Vasquez, the Executive Director of the Arizona Alliance for Retired Americans at a roundtable with community members about the Inflation Reduction Act in downtown Phoenix on Aug. 29, 2022. Deanna Mireau, 72, (left) and Joanne Romero, 74, (right) are listening in the foreground.

Retirees in Arizona struggle to divide monthly social security payments of $1,667 between rent, food and healthcare bills. Provisions in the recently passed Inflation Reduction Act seek to ease some of that budget strain by introducing caps on rapidly rising Medicare costs. Read more»

The Tucson Million Trees initiative, led by Mayor Regina Romero, intends to plant one million trees by 2030 to increase the city’s tree canopy and help mitigate the effects of climate change.

The Inflation Reduction Act includes $1.5 billion for the Forest Service’s Urban and Community Forestry Program - funding that could potentially help Tucson purchase saplings, hire labor and expand its youth program as part of the city's Million Trees initiative. Read more»

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