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U.S. NEWS Thursday 9 June 2022
Interior phasing out plastic water bottles at national parks

By MATTHEW DALY Park, said he looks forward
Associated Press to learning how the park
WASHINGTON (AP) — The will implement the new rule.
Interior Department said Oceana said a national
Wednesday it will phase poll conducted by Ipsos in
out sales of plastic water November 2021 found that
bottles and other single-use more than 80% of Ameri-
products at national parks can voters would support
and on other public lands a decision by the National
over the next decade, tar- Park Service to stop selling
geting a major source of and distributing single-use
U.S. pollution. plastics at national parks
An order issued by Interior Haaland said the plastics
Secretary Deb Haaland order was especially impor-
calls for the department to tant because less than 10%
reduce the purchase, sale of plastics ever produced
and distribution of single- have been recycled, and
use plastic products and U.S. recycling rates are
packaging on 480 million falling as China and other
acres of federally man- countries have stopped
aged lands, with a goal of accepting U.S. waste.
phasing out the products Interior-managed lands
by 2032. The order directs generated nearly 80,000
the department to iden- A trash can overflows as people sit outside of the Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial by the Tidal Basin, tons of municipal solid
tify alternatives to single- Dec. 27, 2018, in Washington, during a partial government shutdown. Associated Press waste in fiscal year 2020,
use plastics, such as com- the department said, much
postable or biodegradable the more than 400 nation- for the conservation group this done before the de- of it plastics.
materials or 100% recycled al parks, but some of the Oceana. cade has passed!” Merkley Of the more than 300 million
materials. most popular ones like the Haaland’s order “will curb said in a statement. tons of plastic produced
“As the steward of the na- Grand Canyon, had imple- millions of pounds of un- Merkley, who chairs a Sen- every year for use in a wide
tion’s public lands, includ- mented such a ban. necessary disposable plas- ate Appropriations sub- variety of applications, at
ing national parks and Environmental groups tic in our national parks and committee that oversees least 14 million tons of plas-
national wildlife refuges, hailed the Biden adminis- other public lands, where it the Interior Department, tic end up in the ocean ev-
and as the agency respon- tration’s announcement, can end up polluting these is co-sponsor of a bill that ery year, and plastic makes
sible for the conservation which advocates and special areas,’’ Leavitt would ban the sale of sin- up 80% of all marine debris
and management of fish, some Democratic lawmak- said. The group urged the gle-use plastic water bot- found from surface waters
wildlife, plants and their ers have been urging for National Park Service and tles in national parks. to deep-sea sediments, the
habitats,’’ the Interior De- years. other agencies to move Rep. Mike Quigley, D-Ill., department said.
partment is “uniquely posi- “Our national parks, by def- swiftly to carry out changes who co-sponsored the bill Many marine species ingest
tioned to do better for our inition, are protected ar- in reducing single-use plas- in the House, hailed the In- or are entangled by plastic
Earth,” Haaland said in a eas — ones that Americans tics well before 2032. terior announcement as “a debris, causing severe in-
statement. have loved for their natu- Sen. Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., huge step forward in the ef- juries or death, and plastic
The order essentially revers- ral beauty and history for also urged quicker action fort to protect our environ- pollution threatens food
es a 2017 Trump administra- over a century — and yet to address what he called ment and its creatures from safety and quality, human
tion policy that prevented we have failed to protect the plastic pollution crisis. the damage of single-use health, coastal tourism
national parks from ban- them from plastic for far too “With everyone – from park plastics.’’ and contributes to climate
ning plastic water bottle long,’’ said Christy Leavitt, rangers to park visitors – do- Quigley, who is planning a change, the department
sales. Only a fraction of plastics campaign director ing their part we can get visit to Yosemite National said.q

Armed man arrested for threat to kill

Justice Kavanaugh

By MARK SHERMAN and MI- a.m. outside Kavanaugh’s upset by a leaked draft
CHAEL BALSAMO home in a Washington sub- opinion suggesting the Su-
Associated Press urb. preme Court is about to
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Roske, 26, had a Glock 17 overrule Roe v. Wade, the
man carrying a gun, a knife pistol, ammunition, a knife, landmark abortion case.
and zip ties was arrested zip ties, pepper spray, duct He also said he was upset
Wednesday near Justice tape and other items that over the school massacre
Brett Kavanaugh’s house in he told police he would use in Uvalde, Texas, and be-
Maryland after threatening to break into Kavanaugh’s lieved Kavanaugh would
to kill the justice. house and kill him, accord- vote to loosen gun control
Nicholas John Roske of Simi ing to a criminal complaint laws, the affidavit said.
Valley, California, who was and affidavit filed in federal The court currently is weigh- Associate Justice Brett Kavanaugh stands during a group photo
at the Supreme Court in Washington, on April 23, 2021.
identified in a criminal com- court in Maryland. Roske ing a challenge to New Associated Press
plaint charging him with said he purchased the gun York’s requirements for get-
the attempted murder of a to kill Kavanaugh and that ting a permit to carry a gun and other large cities. of round-the-clock security
Supreme Court justice, was he also would kill himself, in public, a case that could When he got out of the taxi, provided to the justices fol-
dressed in black when he the affidavit said. make it easier to be armed Roske was spotted by two lowing the leak of the draft
arrived by taxi just after 1 Roske told police he was on the streets of New York U.S. Marshals who are part opinion last month.q