EPA Funding For Two Environmental Justice Projects
The Environmental Protection Agency has awarded millions in funding toward prioritizing environmental justice in Oklahoma.
The EPA announced Thursday nearly $880 million will fund two projects in the state as part of the Biden Administration’s Investing In America campaign.
Organizations receiving the funding include Open Design Collective, Inc. and the Chickasaw Nation.
Open Design will use the funding to address air quality in the historically Black John F. Kennedy neighborhood in Oklahoma City.
The Chickasaw Nation will enact a Citizen Science Watershed-Based Stream Monitoring Program. It will establish water quality baselines and an early warning system for quality impacts.
National Climate Assessment Reveals Solutions For Climate Change In Oklahoma
The fifth National Climate Assessment came out earlier this week.
The report paints a realistic picture of climate change and its impacts on American lives. For Oklahoma, extreme heat, drought, and the encroachment of invasive species are of concern.
But the report also highlights practical solutions. Rene McPherson spearheaded the report’s chapter on the southern plains and is a climatologist for the University of Oklahoma.
She says there are great opportunities for Oklahoma energy and oil companies to get involved in capturing and storing carbon emissions.
“We need to capture carbon. And when you capture carbon, you have to store it somewhere. You could create a commercial scale carbon capture and storage that then would take that captured carbon and put it back into the ground down the oil well holes that have already been dug," said McPherson.
McPherson says rehabilitating forests, grasslands, and wetlands at large scales would also help with carbon capture.
Funding For Programs To Help Ardmore Recover Following Michelin Plant Closure
The Oklahoma Development Finance Authority has approved $5 million for two programs to minimize the impact of Michelin's exit from Ardmore.
One program aims to support the expansion of local businesses and aid for Michelin employees who want to start their own businesses.
The other program will offer financial assistance for businesses relocating to Ardmore.
The money for the "Rapid Community Response Program" will be sourced from Michelin's state withholding tax.
Michelin plans to close the Ardmore plant by 2025, affecting nearly 1,400 workers.
Oklahoma Sees Third-Highest Increase In Kindergarten Vaccine Exemptions
CDC data shows Oklahoma has the third-highest increase in vaccine exemption rates among kindergartners in the nation.
Exemption rates during the past school year rose to a little under 5% of Oklahoma kindergartners, which is 1.2% more than the prior year.
Dr. Steven Crawford is with the Oklahoma Alliance for Healthy Families. He says these numbers are likely related to things like hesitancy influenced by the COVID-19 pandemic or parents not having enough time to get their kids updated. But he says the vaccines some kids are missing out on are important.
“When we get them all together, we want to make sure they're all protected from transmitting the infection to others," said Crawford.
Required vaccines in Oklahoma schools combat diseases like chickenpox, measles and mumps. While medical exemptions must be approved by doctors, parents only have to fill out a form for religious and philosophical exemptions.
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