Environment

The Most Popular Posts of 2017
All the planning news that's fit to print.

Details of the Massive Exodus at the U.S. EPA
The Trump Administration is working toward cutting 3,200 positions from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Already 700 employees, including 200 scientists, have left.

Drilling in Arctic National Wildlife Refuge Allowed with Passage of GOP Tax Bill
When President Trump signs the tax-cutting bill, Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) will have achieved a family dream of opening up the pristine refuge, created 37 years ago, to drilling.

Debating the Future of Development in California's Fire Prone Areas
With the state of California in the grips of its most destructive year of wildfires ever, policy makers are pondering questions about whether it is appropriate to rebuild in places at high risk of burning again.

Moody’s: Climate Change Will Affect Your Credit Rating
The agency has created an economic incentive for cities, states and counties to deal with environmental threats.

Three Policy Fixes Could Dramatically Reduce Transportation Emissions and Provide Other Benefits
A new paper makes a compelling case for three simple transportation policy changes that could significantly reducing emissions, congestion and accidents: distance-based vehicle insurance and sales taxes, and parking cash out.

In Phoenix, Sustainability Will Be Built by Node
If the desert metropolis wants to survive, it will need a strategy built on something other than a denser, more urban downtown.

Another Environmental Regulation Rollback Finalized by Trump Administration
A one-year suspension of an Obama-era rule to reduce methane emissions from oil and gas drilling on Federal and Indian lands will increase global warming and reduce federal revenue. Trump took action after Congress failed to repeal the rule.

Hurricane Harvey and the Failure of the National Flood Insurance Program
Houston's most recent natural disaster is only the latest example of how a program created to help homeowners has been a greater benefit to the industries that profit from them.

Santa Monica Wants to Stop Importing Water by 2020
This is a story about green building practices, conservation, and rainwater capture—not desalinization.

3M Co. and Others Sued in Tennessee River Pollution Case
Another large corporation is accused of misleading the public about its impacts on the environment. This time, drinking water is at stake.

A Detroit Neighborhood 'Sentenced to Die'
A handful of Delray residents refuse to be displaced by industry, but the plan for a new bridge may mean they don't have a choice.

Can We Know Which Homes in California Will Burn?
As the state's worst wildfire season ever refuses to end, an analyst from UCLA considers how land use and building codes determine the location and extent of the damage.

A River Runs Through Raleigh (Again)
The Neuse River is returning to its natural state.

U.S. EPA Misses Deadline for Air Quality Maps; 14 States Sue
The legal battles over the Trump Administration's handling of environmental regulations at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency fired up again this week.
PlanIt Podcast: Environmental Justice
The latest episode of the 2017 PlanIt Training Program on Comprehensive Plan Updates by the Metropolitan Council, a regional planning agency in the Twin Cities area.

View the Smoke from the California Fires From Satellite
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has been making the most of its celestial perch to illustrate the scale of the fires currently burning in Southern California.
Blow-Up Bulwark
Climate change is real, and happening now — but exactly what that means for coastal cities is surprisingly uncertain. Engineers at Princeton’s Form Finding Lab choose flexibility over fortification to protect coastal cities from flooding.

The Final Days of 'Level of Service' in California's Environmental Review Process
A long-awaited draft update of the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA) has finally been released, and Level of Service will finally be a thing of the past in the next two to four years.

'Infinite Suburbia' Upends Everything We Know About Suburbia
Joel Kotkin and Alan M. Berger discuss their new book, which analyses what the suburbs are and will become, in both the United States and around the world.
Pagination
Urban Design for Planners 1: Software Tools
This six-course series explores essential urban design concepts using open source software and equips planners with the tools they need to participate fully in the urban design process.
Planning for Universal Design
Learn the tools for implementing Universal Design in planning regulations.
EMC Planning Group, Inc.
Planetizen
Planetizen
Mpact (formerly Rail~Volution)
Great Falls Development Authority, Inc.
HUDs Office of Policy Development and Research
NYU Wagner Graduate School of Public Service