News from around the nation.

FL advocates worry about the EPA delaying an important decision on emissions; WV is a leading state in criminal justice reform thanks to national backing; CA groups are celebrating a judge rejecting a federal moratorium on offshore wind; U of MI child care workers are fighting for a livable wage; gray whales might not be bouncing back as fast as previously thought; and NY advocates are celebrating a federal ruling saying the Trump Administration's wind energy ban was illegal.

Transcript

Public News Service, Friday, December 12th, 2025.

Afternoon Update, I'm Edwin J. Viera.

Groups that work in Florida for environmental justice are voicing concerns about the Environmental Protection Agency putting off a big decision.

Farrah Siddiqui reports.

The agency's 2024 methane rule would require major reductions in methane emissions and other air pollution from oil and gas industry.

The move to delay implementing it for another 18 months has drawn strong criticism from groups, including WE ACT for Environmental Justice, which says local communities bear the health and economic burdens of this pollution.

Yosef Robele with WE ACT says the delay directly puts public health protections at risk.

This delay is unfortunately more likely than not going to result in unnecessary deaths or a continuation of high rates of ER visits, public health burdens being placed on communities near it.

The EPA's own analysis shows the methane rule could prevent 1,500 premature deaths and 100,000 asthma attacks each year.

Environmental groups say delaying enforcement undermines protections for communities living closest to industrial emissions.West Virginia is among a group of states leading criminal justice reform with the help of the Just Trust, a national philanthropy group.

Nadia Ramlagon has more.Anna Zamora, the Just Trust founder and CEO, says work is also being done to improve conditions for people in prisons.

She notes the current lack of prison guards impacts incarcerated people's ability to eat meals, seek medical or dental care or perform duties.

We have a shortage of prison guards and it's a real problem.

So improving the middle of the funnel, as we say, is a critical part of the work of justice reform nationwide.

There are more than thirty-one thousand vacant guard positions each year.

Census data show state prisons lost 12 percent of their full-time workforce between 2013 and 2023, with nearly all of the decline occurring during the pandemic years.

At the same time, West Virginia has struggled to address jail overcrowding.

Groups promoting offshore wind power are hopeful that a big win in court will convince the federal government to consider permitting new projects.

Suzanne Potter has the story.

This week, a federal judge struck down President Donald Trump's day one executive order, which halted all offshore wind approvals and argued that the Biden administration unfairly favored renewable energy over oil and gas.

Benjamin Collings is offshore wind advisor for the group Elected Officials to Protect America.

Individual projects, they're going to have to continue the route it's on.

For example, projects like in the port of Humboldt, they can continue without being permanently stopped, which the White House was trying to do.

California has five offshore wind projects in development, two off of Humboldt Bay and three off the coast of Morro Bay.

Democratic Texas Representative Al Green introduced articles of impeachment against Trump for abuses of power inciting violence and death threats against lawmakers and federal judges.

Green's first impeachment resolution against Trump in June accused the administration of bypassing Congress to possibly declare war on Iran after a series of airstrikes on Iranian nuclear facilities.

The latest articles of impeachment were rejected by a bipartisan majority.

This is Public News Service.

Childcare workers at the University of Michigan say low and stagnant wages are pushing them out of the jobs their families depend on.

As Crystal Blair reports, their union is fighting back.

The labor union university staff united has handed out flyers to parents this week at all three U of M childcare centers urging support as contract negotiations continue.

The union says many early childhood educators earn wages so low they're working multiple jobs just to get by.

USU vice president Therese Theopoulos says the financial strain is pushing some staff to take desperate measures.

And we're there almost 10 hours and then some of the teachers go home and some of them have to actually go to soup kitchens to eat.

And last week another teacher had to move from her apartment because it went up $300.

The University of Michigan says it has been negotiating in good faith and notes that its childcare centers operate within broader university budget constraints.

U of M points to its recent order of a one-time payment and adjustments to workload policies, saying those proposals reflect "meaningful progress" while larger compensation decisions must go through the school's regents and central administration.

New research says birth rates for gray whales are still low, likely due to climate change affecting their food sources.

However, melting sea ice has created new feeding opportunities and as Isabel Charlet reports, scientists are hopeful the whales can adapt, allowing populations to rebound.

Gray whales are known to have what are known as unusual mortality events when many whales die at once, followed by an uptick in their populations.

But researcher Sue Moore at the University of Washington says the whales don't seem to be recovering from their latest mortality event that started in 2019.

Why we're concerned now is we are having an unusual, unusual mortality event because after a brief looking recovery, bang, the numbers of stranded whales went up, the estimate went down.

Maybe this UME is not over.

This is something different.

Moore adds that with the loss of sea ice in Alaska, more warm water is now passing through the Bering Strait, bringing with it nutrients and new prey for the whales who feed by filtering tiny shrimp and other animals from the ocean floor.

She says the whales are known to be highly adaptable feeders and it is possible this trait will help them survive a rapidly changing climate.

A Boston judge ruled the Trump administration's nearly year-long ban on permitting for wind farms was illegal.

This allows New York and other states to develop clean energy projects proponents say will benefit energy independence.

Marguerite Wells with the Alliance for Clean Energy New York says wind energy can do a lot to help the state.

Wind energy is often the most powerful at night and in the winter when solar is the weakest. and actually work together to provide a balanced renewable energy portfolio to the grid.

Then there's the economic benefits.

There's a lot of jobs in developing, building and operating these projects.

And they also generate a lot of tax revenues for the host communities.

This comes as New York's power authority approved a plan to double its goal for solar, wind and energy storage projects.

The hope is that new investments will kickstart clean power in the state as private markets continue to rely on fossil fuels.

I'm Edwin J. Viera for Public News Service member and listener supported.

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