The sale of gasoline-powered passenger vehicles will be prohibited by 2035. Learn more here.

PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Policymakers for the Oregon Department of Environmental Quality on Monday approved a rule that prohibits the sale of new gasoline-powered passenger vehicles in Oregon by 2035.

The effort comes as Oregon plans to cut climate-warming emissions by 50% by 2035 and by 90% by 2050, The Oregonian/OregonLive reported. The transportation sector accounts for nearly 40% of greenhouse gas emissions in Oregon.

The rule is based on vehicle emission standards California adopted in August. The standards require car manufacturers to sell a certain percentage of zero-emission vehicles — electric cars, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and hydrogen fuel cell vehicles — as part…

Microplastics contaminate the whole planet, from Arctic ice to Mount Everest. The tiny particles, less than 5 millimeters in diameter, are in the air we breathe, and have been found in human placenta, blood and lungs.

Scientists estimate that there are at least 14 million metric tons of microplastics on the ocean floor, and while all kinds of plastic debris are considered bad for the environment, these…

OSU Cascades received more than $5.7 million for research and other grant funding this past fiscal year. Find out more here!

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) — Research and other grant funding at Oregon State University – Cascades reached more than $5.7 million during the past fiscal year ended June 30, a record for the Bend campus.

“OSU-Cascades researchers and experts increasingly fulfill our commitment to Central Oregon, the state and nation, advancing regional economic development priorities and contributing to a growing and innovative branch campus of OSU,” said Andrew Ketsdever, interim vice president of OSU-Cascades.

Research at OSU-Cascades contributes to Oregon State’s leadership as the state’s top comprehensive public research university. This past fiscal year research funding…

A historic climate bill just passed in the Senate. Learn more here.

CLIMATEWIRE | Three decades after ratifying the world’s first climate treaty, the Senate passed a sweeping budget bill Sunday that pours hundreds of billions of dollars into the clean energy projects needed to decarbonize the economy.

The vote represents a breakthrough for U.S. climate policy. In clearing the Senate, Democrats overcame a hurdle that has tripped up past climate bills. And with $369 billion in climate and energy spending, the legislation has the potential to turbocharge U.S. decarbonization efforts.

Even so, the so-called Inflation Reduction Act doesn’t look like the climate bill that many lawmakers and advocates had long imagined. It is not Waxman-Markey, the doomed cap-and-trade bill…

A lithium mining project in the Alvord Desert has been called quits. Learn more here.

An Australian company is calling it quits on a lithium project in southeast Oregon’s Alvord Desert.

The Reedy Lagoon Corporation, a mineral explorer based outside Melbourne, announced Friday that it would stop work on its project near the town of Fields, Oregon, after finding out the land was off limits to new mining.

It’s the second lithium project to flop in Harney County this summer as companies look to cash in on the United States’ hunger for the mineral known as “white gold.” Lithium is the main ingredient in batteries for…

The region is technically still in drought, even with this rare April snow. Learn more here.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Climatologists say rare April snow, along with rain sweeping across the Pacific Northwest this week could increase water supplies, slow snowmelt and lengthen the irrigation season.

Impacts, however, will vary by region, and experts predict drought conditions will persist, the Capital Press reported.

Washington state climatologist Nick Bond said irrigators will benefit from April storms, but it won’t be enough to end the eastern Washington drought.

According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, in eastern Washington it would take 159% to 368% of normal precipitation levels over the next two months to end the…

Late-season snow fall will affect the openings of some campgrounds. Learn more here.

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) — Recent late-season storms have brought much-needed snow to the Deschutes National Forest’s upper elevations. However, Forest Service officials said Tuesday the heavy snowfall has also affected the ability to conduct annual preseason safety inspections, maintenance and repairs and hazard tree removal in some campgrounds.

Traditionally, a number of campgrounds in the Crane Prairie and Wickiup Reservoir areas open in time to coincide with the start of the annual fishing season.

“While fishing season opens Friday, April 22, snow impacts have prevented our campground concessionaire from completing critical hazard tree removal work and maintenance at these facilities,” the statement said.

Campgrounds in those…

Engineers at Stanford have discovered how to generate electricity from solar at night. Learn more here.

A team of engineers at Stanford University have developed a solar cell that can generate some electricity at night.

The research comes at a moment when the number of solar jobs and residential installations are rising.

While standard solar panels can provide electricity during the day, this device can serve as a “continuous renewable power source for both day- and nighttime,” according to the study published this week in the journal Applied Physics Letters.

The device incorporates a thermoelectric generator, which can pull electricity from the small difference in temperature between the ambient air and the solar cell itself.

“Our approach can…

India’s forests are growing. Learn more here.

A recent report from the Forest Survey of India (FSI) found that recent spurious tree planting activities have taken root in terms of the overall forest coverage in the nation.

The country’s forests have grown by 870 square square miles of forest cover—over half a million acres (2,261 square kilometers), over the last three years, and while that isn’t as big as a medium-sized American national park, the sum is part of an equation that includes deforestation.

A full quarter of the world’s second-most populous nation is covered in forest, which the FSI is focused on making qualitatively rich, not just quantitively.

The three Indian states showing the highest increases…