Positive Government Actions
-- U.S. Attorney General, Merrick Garland, recently announced a new department of Environmental Justice which will focus on identifying and prosecuting polluters in low- income communities, those of color and of indigenous origin. This action is based on recent studies showing statistically higher pollution exposure to people in those areas. Source: Grist, 5/6/22
-- The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is formulating mandatory rules that would require corporations to disclose their operational climate impacts and the risks to their industry from climate impacts. This is in response to investors' demands to understand the investment risk, and the corporation's mitigation plan. Source: Forbes, 3/31/22
-- The European Union is planning to increase regulation on as many as 12,000 toxic chemicals in commerce, including bans on very toxic "forever chemicals" like PFAS. An important part of this plan is to ban entire classes of toxic chemicals, to avoid the common industry practice of substituting one for another when regulation is focused on a single chemical within a class. Source: Mother Jones, 4/26/22

Steve Spigarelli
EcoFaith Network NE MN Team
First Lutheran Church, Aitkin, MN
Northeastern Minnesota Synod