Budget bill would task EPA to scrutinize companies’ climate goals
WASHINGTON — U.S. companies would face additional scrutiny on their promises to slash emissions under a section on corporate transparency in a Senate-passed budget deal.
Among the billions of dollars of clean energy tax credits and private investments for decarbonization in the legislation is a provision that would provide $5 million for the Environmental Protection Agency to verify corporations’ commitments to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions and other climate pledges.
The funds would be used to support “enhanced standardization and transparency of corporate climate action commitments and plans to reduce greenhouse gas emissions,” according to the bill text. The EPA would also oversee corporations’ progress toward its emissions targets and climate goals, emphasizing “enhanced transparency” on whether companies are on track to meet such objectives.
EPA Administrator Michael S. Regan and his successors would have until the end of fiscal 2031 to utilize the $5 million and future appropriated funds to examine corporate climate goals, shielding the funds from cuts in future appropriations, especially if Republicans take back control of either chamber of Congress.
—CQ-Roll Call
Beto O’Rourke drops F-bomb on gun control heckler while discussing Uvalde shooting
DALLAS — Beto O’Rourke is defending the F-bomb he dropped Wednesday night while confronting a heckler who he said was laughing during his remarks about the Uvalde mass shooting that killed 19 elementary school students and two teachers.
The incident occurred during a rally in Mineral Wells as O’Rourke began talking about the need to curb mass shootings like the one that happened May 24 at Robb Elementary School. A man in the crowd could be seen and heard laughing as O’Rourke talked about Uvalde, prompting the Democratic nominee for governor to respond with an expletive.
“It may be funny to you, motherf-----, but it’s not funny to me,” O’Rourke said to the heckler. The moment caused a stir on social media, and the Democrat’s campaign addressed it.
“There’s nothing funny about 19 kids being shot to death in their classrooms, and there’s nothing okay about refusing to act so it doesn’t happen again,” said Chris Evans, O’Rourke’s chief spokesman. In a tweet after the Mineral Wells rally, O’Rourke defended his stance.
—The Dallas Morning News
Getty to return illegally excavated Orpheus sculptures, some of museum's greatest antiquities, to Italy
LOS ANGELES — The J. Paul Getty Museum is returning its Orpheus group of sculptures — a culturally significant group of nearly life-size terracotta figures known as "Orpheus and the Sirens," some of the museum's greatest antiquities — back to Italy.
The objects, which have been determined to have been illegally excavated and exported, will be sent to Rome in September. The institution is coordinating with Italy's Ministry of Culture to send four other objects back as well at a future date.
"Thanks to information provided by Matthew Bogdanos and the Antiquities Trafficking Unit of the Manhattan District Attorney's Office indicating the illegal excavation of Orpheus and the Sirens," Getty Museum Director Timothy Potts said in a statement, "we determined that these objects should be returned."
"Orpheus and the Sirens" is extremely fragile, and the museum is working on "specially tailored equipment and procedures" regarding its transfer.
—Los Angeles Times
Crimea base blast deals blow to Russia’s war machine in Ukraine
Explosions at a Russian airbase in Crimea that Ukraine says destroyed nine fighter aircraft may indicate new Ukrainian offensive capabilities that complicate the Kremlin's efforts to support its invading forces, according to European intelligence officials and defense analysts.
“In just one day, the occupiers lost 10 combat aircraft, nine in Crimea and one more in the direction of Zaporizhzhia,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly video address to the nation. More Russian armored vehicles, ammunition warehouses and logistics routes were also destroyed, and “the more losses the occupiers suffer, the sooner we will be able to liberate our land,” he said.
The exact nature of Tuesday’s blasts remains unclear, as Russian officials blame safety lapses involving munitions and deny any Ukrainian role while officials in Kyiv hint at the involvement of their forces.
Rumors have swirled online that Ukrainian special forces, partisans, drones or long-range rockets were responsible, which would represent a serious security failure at an important Russian air base some 200 kilometers (124 miles) behind the front lines, according to defense analysts.
—Bloomberg News
