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The Washington Post recently noted the complicating role played by the Jones Act in the development of offshore wind energy, using the example of two wind turbines constructed off the coast of Virginia Beach last year. Because the vessel used for the installation of the turbines was not Jones Act-compliant—no such vessels that meet the law’s restrictions currently exist—it was forced to operate out of Halifax, Canada rather than a closer U.S. port. From the article:

A century‐​old law made the situation even tougher. The Jones Act says only U.S.-built-and-operated ships can move goods between U.S. ports. To install the Virginia turbines, supplies shipped from Europe were first staged in Canada before being ferried on repeated trips to the construction site. The snags prompted Dominion to invest in the ship now being built in Brownsville, Tex. A jack‐​up vessel, it will be able to put down legs on the seafloor and then use hydraulic power to lift itself above the waves and create a secure working platform. It is expected to be ready in 2024 for Dominion’s wind farm expansion.

Offshore wind energy refers to the process of generating electricity from wind turbines located in bodies of water, usually in the ocean or sea. Offshore wind turbines are typically larger and more powerful than their onshore counterparts, and they can take advantage of stronger and more consistent winds that are available over the water.

Offshore wind energy is becoming increasingly popular because it has the potential to generate large amounts of electricity while also minimizing the visual impact on the land. Offshore wind farms can be located far from the shore, and their turbines can be placed in deeper water, which makes them less visible from the coast. Offshore wind energy is a clean and renewable source of energy that does not produce greenhouse gas emissions or other pollutants, making it an important part of the global effort to address climate change. However, the construction and maintenance of offshore wind farms can be expensive, and there are also concerns about the impact of these structures on marine life and ecosystems. Offshore wind energy is a rapidly growing sector of the renewable energy market. In recent years, advances in technology and increasing demand for clean energy have made offshore wind a competitive and viable source of energy generation. In this blog, we will explore the current state of the offshore wind energy market, its potential for growth, and the benefits it offers. The global offshore wind energy market size was valued at USD 27.33 billion in 2021 and is expected to hit USD 129 billion by 2030, poised to grow at a CAGR of 18.82% during the forecast period 2022 to 2030. Europe currently dominates the market, with the UK, Germany, and Denmark leading the way in terms of installed capacity. However, other regions are catching up, with the US, China, and Taiwan investing heavily in offshore wind development. Surging investment by the government to develop clean energy is expected to propel the growth of the market. The rising need to reduce carbon emissions also triggers potential growth in the market. The growing demand for renewable energy and the declining costs of offshore wind technology are key drivers behind this growth. Offshore wind energy has enormous potential for growth, as it provides several benefits over traditional forms of energy generation. For one, offshore wind farms can generate much larger amounts of energy than onshore wind farms, due to the stronger and more consistent winds at sea. Additionally, offshore wind turbines are less visible and less noisy than onshore turbines, which can help to reduce opposition to wind farm development. The growing investment by the government of various economies to deploy wind energy will likely propel the industry demand. Offshore wind energy can also help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and combat climate change. According to the International Energy Agency, offshore wind could provide 18 times the global electricity demand by 2040, which would help to significantly reduce carbon emissions.

The Washington Post recently noted the complicating role played by the Jones Act in the development of offshore wind energy, using the example of two wind turbines constructed off the coast of Virginia Beach last year. Because the vessel used for the installation of the turbines was not Jones Act-compliant—no such vessels that meet the law’s restrictions currently exist—it was forced to operate out of Halifax, Canada rather than a closer U.S. port. From the article:

A century‐​old law made the situation even tougher. The Jones Act says only U.S.-built-and-operated ships can move goods between U.S. ports. To install the Virginia turbines, supplies shipped from Europe were first staged in Canada before being ferried on repeated trips to the construction site. The snags prompted Dominion to invest in the ship now being built in Brownsville, Tex. A jack‐​up vessel, it will be able to put down legs on the seafloor and then use hydraulic power to lift itself above the waves and create a secure working platform. It is expected to be ready in 2024 for Dominion’s wind farm expansion.

The second analysis, meanwhile, took a more comprehensive look at the Jones Act’s impact on Puerto Rico. Produced by John Dunham and Associates, it used a model of international shipping costs for 260 different commodities and compared it against six different estimates of Jones Act shipping cost differentials. After controlling for distance and terminal handling charges the analysis estimated these differentials to range from 89 percent to roughly 30 percent. Using the firm’s recommended model, the analysis finds the Jones Act raises the price of shipping cargo to Puerto Rico by $568.9 million and that prices are $1.1 billion higher than would be the case without the Jones Act. This, in turn, is estimated to mean 13,250 fewer jobs. Were they to exist, such jobs would mean $337.3 million more in wages and over $1.5 billion in increased economic activity. Tax revenue would be $106.4 million higher without the Jones Act. Such costs are significant in almost any context. For a territory with a lower per capita GDP than every U.S. state, high unemployment, and still reeling from the impact of Hurricane Maria, they are even more so.

The Merchant Marine Act of 1920 is special-interest politics at its worst—a destructive law that Congress can’t seem to repeal. The protectionist statute, commonly known as the Jones Act, prohibits foreign vessels from transporting goods between U.S. ports. As a consequence, domestic waterborne transportation is restricted to U.S. vessels, which are more expensive to operate and tend to be considerably older and less safe than their foreign counterparts. Studies estimate that the Jones Act costs the U.S. economy more than a billion dollars annually, with noncontiguous areas such as Alaska, Hawaii and Puerto Rico bearing the brunt of its effects. Despite the cost of the law, powerful shipping and shipbuilding interests have successfully lobbied to keep it afloat.

But there may be a solution in one of the most neglected provisions of the Constitution: the Port Preference Clause.

But the ARP went beyond just the short-term crisis. Most notably, the ARP permanently increased both the CTC and the EITC for people on the island. Puerto Rican families were made permanently eligible for normal CTC benefits (though not advanced monthly payments), a change that will significantly boost the incomes of all families with children. And while residents of Puerto Rico are not yet eligible for federal EITC benefits, the ARP set aside $600 million per year to subsidize the island’s local EITC. Those changes marked a positive, humane break from how the federal government traditionally treated Puerto Rico. But it turns out that was just the beginning of change: The pending Build Back Better (BBB) Act sews up the two most gaping holes in the island’s federal safety net, thereby tremendously improving the lives of impoverished residents. First, starting in 2024, the BBB Act would extend SSI benefits to residents of Puerto Rico, Guam, American Samoa, and the Virgin Islands. This change will single-handedly restore more than 40 percent of Puerto Rican residents’ foregone federal safety net benefits, thereby reducing both the frequency and depth of poverty on the island. Second, the BBB Act would boost Medicaid funding for Puerto Rico and the other territories. Medicaid is a joint federal-state program, with the federal government providing a higher share of funding in low-income states than in high-income states. Puerto Rico, which has lower per-capita income than any state in the country, should therefore receive an exceptionally high rate of funding. Instead, Medicaid’s previous funding scheme set the federal share for Puerto Rico and other territories at 55 percent—a lower rate than in 30 mainland states—while also capping the maximum amount of funds through a fixed block grant. As a result, the federal government provided just 15 percent of the island’s Medicaid funding between 2012 and 2019. The BBB Act would raise the funding caps and increase the federal government’s statutory share of Medicaid funding to 76 percent in 2022 and 83 percent starting in 2023. The new rates would provide fairer funding and better reflect Puerto Rico’s status as a low-income area.

But the ARP went beyond just the short-term crisis. Most notably, the ARP permanently increased both the CTC and the EITC for people on the island. Puerto Rican families were made permanently eligible for normal CTC benefits (though not advanced monthly payments), a change that will significantly boost the incomes of all families with children. And while residents of Puerto Rico are not yet eligible for federal EITC benefits, the ARP set aside $600 million per year to subsidize the island’s local EITC. Those changes marked a positive, humane break from how the federal government traditionally treated Puerto Rico. But it turns out that was just the beginning of change: The pending Build Back Better (BBB) Act sews up the two most gaping holes in the island’s federal safety net, thereby tremendously improving the lives of impoverished residents.

Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding has already provided $1.1 billion for dozens of infrastructure projects across Puerto Rico. That includes approximately $596.1 million for transportation – roads, bridges, public transit, ports, and airports – and $185 million for clean water. The Puerto Rico government also invested its ARP State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds in important projects, including $223 million for water infrastructure, $100 million for road repairs, and $279 million to repair school buildings damaged by the 2020 earthquakes. And as of May 13, 2023, more than 600, 097 households are receiving affordable high-speed internet. Finally, under the Inflation Reduction Act, new possibilities for offshore wind are opening up along the coasts of Puerto Rico, allowing the Department of the Interior to explore wind lease sales in prime areas. Hosted the Puerto Rico Economic Dialogue to Advance Whole-of-Government Commitments to Puerto Rico In April 2022, President Biden named Deputy Secretary of Commerce Don Graves to serve as the Administration’s Puerto Rico Economic Growth Coordinator. As part of that commitment, White House Domestic Policy Advisor Susan Rice, White House Senior Advisor Julie Rodriguez, and Deputy Secretary Graves hosted Governor Pedro Pierluisi and members of his cabinet at the White House for the inaugural Puerto Rico Economic Dialogue in December 2022. This historic meeting brought together Puerto Rico’s leadership and the White House Working Group on Puerto Rico to endorse a slate of actions that the federal and territorial governments will jointly implement over the course of 2023, centered on: 1) workforce development, 2) infrastructure, energy and resilience, 3) building a diversified economy, and 4) improving governance and data. To advance these actions, Deputy Secretary Graves traveled to Puerto Rico in February 2023 to meet with government, civic, academic, community, and private sector leaders. During this visit, Deputy Secretary Graves, White House American Rescue Plan Coordinator Gene Sperling, and Department of the Treasury officials jointly announced Puerto Rico’s approval for up to $109 million in State Small Business Credit Initiative funds, allowing the Puerto Rico Economic Development Bank to make loans and provide collateral for small and medium sized enterprises. Deputy Secretary Graves also announced a nearly $3 million award from the National Telecommunications and Information Administration’s Connecting Minority Communities program to Universidad del Sagrado Corazón to bridge the digital divide at institutions of higher education. Delivered Unprecedented Relief and Made Lasting Investments for Puerto Rico’s Families, Workers, Municipalities, and Businesses Puerto Rico’s territorial and 78 municipal governments received $4 billion in American Rescue Plan (ARP) State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds to respond to the public health and economic impacts of the pandemic. These historic investments included over $600 million to reward workers with bonus pay and $143 million to help local governments maintain essential services and keep police and firefighters on the job. In addition, beginning in July 2022, public school teachers on the island started receiving a $1,000 monthly salary increase that was partly made possible through ARP. The ARP Emergency Rental Assistance Program delivered $250 million in rent and utility assistance through December 2022, providing 244,000 payments to households in Puerto Rico facing the threat of eviction. Additionally, thousands of homeowners are getting help through ARP’s Homeowner Assistance Fund, and ARP funds have also helped 750 childcare programs stay open. To boost workers and small businesses across the island, ARP significantly expanded Puerto Rico’s version of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), quadrupling benefits for workers through the first-ever federal investment in Puerto Rico’s EITC since the credit was established nearly 50 years ago. In addition, ARP invested in job training and economic development through an Economic Development Administration Good Jobs Challenge grant, awarded to UnidosUS to train Puerto Ricans for quality jobs in the growing construction and aerospace industries. Lastly, the Biden-Harris Administration delivered over $30 million in ARP funds to protect the earned pension benefits of 2,600 workers and retirees covered by the Gastronomical Workers Union Local 610 and Metropolitan Hotel Association Pension Fund based out of San Juan. To stimulate economic activity, the Small Business Administration (SBA) expanded their network of business assistance programs by funding two Women’s Business Centers serving female founders, investing $1 million in a Community Navigator pilot program for economic recovery, and licensing two Small Business Investment Companies to promote startup investment capital in Puerto Rico. SBA also provided over $6 billion in low-interest loans, economic relief, and grants to small businesses in Puerto Rico during the COVID-19 pandemic. And in April 2023, the Department of the Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund awarded $226 million to 69 credit unions and one loan fund in Puerto Rico through the Equitable Recovery Program. To support Puerto Rico’s families, President Biden’s ARP broadened tax benefits at an unprecedented scale by expanding the Child Tax Credit (CTC) in Puerto Rico to all families with at least one child, permanently bringing CTC benefits into parity with the mainland. In 2022, the Department of the Treasury and White House ARP Coordinator Gene Sperling engaged in extensive outreach to ensure as many families as possible in Puerto Rico received the CTC. As a result, over 250,000 families in Puerto Rico received the credit, a more than six-fold increase since before the passage of ARP, dramatically cutting child poverty. The average annual benefit was $4,700 per family, with more than $1.2 billion disbursed to families in Puerto Rico.

But the ARP went beyond just the short-term crisis. Most notably, the ARP permanently increased both the CTC and the EITC for people on the island. Puerto Rican families were made permanently eligible for normal CTC benefits (though not advanced monthly payments), a change that will significantly boost the incomes of all families with children. And while residents of Puerto Rico are not yet eligible for federal EITC benefits, the ARP set aside $600 million per year to subsidize the island’s local EITC. Those changes marked a positive, humane break from how the federal government traditionally treated Puerto Rico. But it turns out that was just the beginning of change: The pending Build Back Better (BBB) Act sews up the two most gaping holes in the island’s federal safety net, thereby tremendously improving the lives of impoverished residents.

San Juan, May 27 (Prensa Latina) Governor Pedro R. Pierluisi on Wednesday announced the issuance of a decree to establish the Advisory Commission on Poverty in Puerto Rico, which affects 44% of its population.

According to the latest US Census, 58% of Puerto Rican children live in poverty.

The American Rescue Plan’s expansions of the Child Tax Credit and Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) are expected to significantly reduce poverty in Puerto Rico, according to two studies published by organizations based in Puerto Rico. The two credits combined could provide more than $2 billion to Puerto Rico families in 2022 as they file their 2021 taxes.

The expansions are critically important for Puerto Rico, which has among the highest poverty rates in the country: 44 percent for its general population and an even higher 57 percent for children. Moreover, the measures are welcome relief following years of economic decline, an ongoing bankruptcy process, devastating natural disasters, and the pandemic.

From the first day in office and every day since, the Biden-Harris Administration has been fully committed to supporting Puerto Rico’s recovery and renewal. President Biden has long believed that Puerto Rico, and the more than 3 million American citizens who call it home, deserves to be treated with dignity, equality, and respect, with good jobs and a bright future for all of its residents. One year in, the Administration has delivered real and concrete change for Puerto Rico: Unlocking Unprecedented Disaster Recovery Funds The Biden Administration has taken historic action to address Puerto Rico’s ongoing recovery and resilience needs. This includes obligating long-awaited disaster recovery funds and removing unfair and unnecessary restrictions that were uniquely applied to Puerto Rico, such as incremental grant obligations, Federal Financial Monitor review, and more. In 2021, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) approved nearly $3 billion in funds for 3,542 projects for Hurricane Maria and earthquake recovery – an unprecedented level of support touching every sector of the island. This builds on ongoing work to restore over 1,000 school campuses, 300,000 streetlights, and essential water, sewer, and electrical lines serving 1.4 million Puerto Ricans. Just this month, FEMA canceled more than $371 million in community disaster loans to Puerto Rico, so that local leaders can focus on recovery and not on paying back federal debt. The Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) obligated ninety percent of promised funds to Puerto Rico, an increase of $16 billion since the start of the Administration, and freed up $1.97 billion to strengthen Puerto Rico’s electrical grid against future disasters. HUD Deputy Secretary Todman’s visit to the island, along with continued collaboration and technical assistance from FEMA and the Department of Energy, reinforced the Administration’s commitment to partnering with the Puerto Rican government, local leaders, and people to achieve a full, equitable, and resilient recovery. Additionally, the Economic Development Administration (EDA) announced a $16 million dollar grant to construct a disaster preparedness, recovery, education, and training center, and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) launched a free lead remediation training initiative to support the extensive repair and renovation work happening in Puerto Rico’s schools, homes, and communities. Providing Historic Relief through the American Rescue Plan The American Rescue Plan delivered immediate relief for Puerto Rican families and small businesses hard hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, building a bridge toward economic recovery. Specifically, it provided working families with a $1,400 per-person direct payment, extended unemployment benefits, and enhanced supplemental nutrition assistance for children and school students. It also provided $4 billion in Fiscal Recovery Funds to Puerto Rico’s commonwealth and local governments, and nearly $3 billion in funds to help Puerto Rico’s schools stay open, address learning loss, and support students. To prevent a wave of evictions and foreclosures, Puerto Rican families received $50 million in rent relief – with more funding on the way – and the Department of the Treasury approved Puerto Rico’s plan to distribute millions in mortgage assistance for distressed homeowners. Tax and Benefit Parity for Puerto Rican Families and Workers Additionally, the American Rescue Plan made two important permanent changes to federal tax benefits in Puerto Rico First, it permanently extended the Child Tax Credit (CTC) to families of all sizes in Puerto Rico, from families with three or more children to families with one or more children living in their household, so that the credit is the same as on the mainland. Second, it provided substantial funding to expand Puerto Rico’s version of the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC). This investment will quadruple the EITC for Puerto Rican workers. Together, these measures are estimated to provide over $1 billion in tax relief per year. They stand to benefit hundreds of thousands of families – with the families of over 500,000 children eligible for the 2021 expanded CTC. And with many struggling to make ends meet, the American Rescue Plan provided nearly $1 billion in emergency food assistance for Puerto Rico, and the island will see a permanent, annual increase of over $463 million for its food assistance block grant going forward. Establishing a White House Working Group on Puerto Rico In July, the White House hosted the inaugural meeting of the White House Working Group on Puerto Rico, a cabinet-level task force chaired by Domestic Policy Advisor Susan E. Rice, National Economic Advisor Brian Deese, and Director of Intergovernmental Affairs Julie Rodriguez that reports directly to the President and is focused on providing Puerto Rico with the resources and technical assistance it needs to recover and prosper. Since the inaugural meeting, agencies have been consulting with stakeholders and devising strategies to support the island’s economic development and recovery efforts, promote workforce and educational opportunities, and invest in greater transparency and governance efforts. Making Additional Medicaid Funds Available The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to addressing the chronic underfunding of Puerto Rico’s Medicaid program and making affordable, quality health care available to its residents. In September, the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) determined that Puerto Rico will permanently receive nearly $3 billion per year in additional federal Medicaid funding, indexed to inflation. This additional funding will allow Puerto Rico to continue to invest in its Medicaid program, ensuring access to critical health care services for 1.5 million residents. The Biden-Harris Administration’s funding determination is yet another example of the President’s commitment toward parity for the island. Repairing Puerto Rico’s Aging Infrastructure For decades, infrastructure in Puerto Rico has suffered from a systemic lack of investment. The historic Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) will make life better for millions of Puerto Rico residents, create a new generation of good-paying union jobs, and spur economic growth that will grow the island’s economy. In Puerto Rico, the legislation will provide $900 million to rebuild roads and highways; $225 million for bridge replacement and repairs; more than $470 million to improve public transportation; $13.6 million to support the expansion of an EV charging network on the island; a minimum of $100 million to provide broadband coverage across the island; at least $78 million in 2022 alone to improve water infrastructure and ensure that clean, safe drinking water is a right in all communities; and $102 million for airport infrastructure development on the island. Just this month, the Administration announced it will provide $163 million to restore the Cano Martin Pena urban tidal channel and surrounding areas of the San Juan Bay National Estuary – a project that will significantly improve the health and welfare of the surrounding communities in San Juan by reducing exposure to contaminated waters and sediments, improving water quality, and restoring fish and mangrove habitat.

At least 90% of people in 67 low income countries stand little chance of getting vaccinated against covid-19 in 2021 because wealthy nations have reserved more than they need and developers will not share their intellectual property, says the People’s Vaccine Alliance, which includes Amnesty International, Frontline AIDS, Global Justice Now, and Oxfam.1 “Unless something changes dramatically, billions of people around the world will not receive a safe and effective vaccine for covid-19 for years to come,” said Anna Marriott, Oxfam’s health policy manager. Rich countries with only 14% of the world’s population have bought up 53% of the eight most promising vaccines, the alliance said, including all of the Moderna vaccine doses expected to be produced over the next year and 96% of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine doses. Oxford University and AstraZeneca have pledged to distribute 64% of their vaccine in developing nations, but at best this will reach only 18% of the world’s population next year, the alliance said. Mohga Kamal Yanni, a physician speaking for the People’s Vaccine Alliance, said, “Rich countries have enough doses to vaccinate everyone nearly three times over, whilst poor countries don’t even have enough to reach health workers and people at risk. “The current system—where pharmaceutical corporations use government funding for research, retain exclusive rights, and keep their technology secret to boost profits—could cost many lives.” The alliance is asking vaccine makers to share their intellectual property with the World Health Organization’s covid-19 technology access pool. It said that AstraZeneca-Oxford, Moderna, and Pfizer-BioNTech had received more than $5bn (£3.79bn; €4.13bn) of public funding in developing their vaccines.

Paul Blake: And is it a question of problems with production or with making the vaccines? Or is this an issue with doses being sort of held in surplus and not being made available to people who need them in other locations? And I guess if it's about that second point, like excess doses, where are they and why aren't they being released? Raka Banerjee: So a big part of the problem is that many wealthy countries actually pre-ordered far more vaccine doses than they even needed to vaccinate their populations. Looking at data coming from Duke University, just for example, the US paid for enough vaccines for twice its population, the UK paid for enough for four times its population, and Canada for five times its population. So even though the world will have created 11 billion total doses by the end of this year, almost 9.9 billion of those doses have already been promised to higher and upper middle-income countries. Paul Blake: And so what's happening now in countries where the vaccine supply exceeds the demand for the vaccine? Raka Banerjee: Well, some countries have started to donate some of their excess supply, but it's hard to find data on exactly what's happening. Last month, the G7 agreed to donate 1 billion COVID-19 doses to poorer countries, so that's a start. But given that the World Health Organization has stated that vaccinating most of the world's population will take 11 billion doses, a lot of people have felt that this contribution was not nearly as substantial enough to make the difference that we need to actually stop the pandemic.

The US accounts for about 45% of the global pharmaceutical market and 22% of global production. US pharmaceuticals output and sales remain robust in 2022, driven by the ongoing global vaccination rollout and pent-up demand for essential and non-essential medical treatments. Margins of brand name drug producers have soared in 2021, resulting in strong cash flow. However, wholesalers/ distributors still trade on thin margins, despite growing sales. Some of them still have payments to make in connection with opioid-related lawsuits and litigations. While sector growth in 2022 and 2023 will be mainly driven by vaccinations, the ageing population will spur drug demand in the mid- and long-term. The decision of the Supreme Court to uphold the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) also supports future growth prospects of the industry. However, pressure from legislature to reduce healthcare costs could rise again once the pandemic ends. This could affect investments, given the high R&D costs for producers. Several pharmaceutical producers and distributors have taken advantage of historically low lending rates in order to pursue debt-financed acquisitions. Most of them used their strong cash flow to deleverage after larger takeovers, thereby maintaining their credit ratings. Payment duration in the industry can vary between 30 and 150 days. Major drug producers often use their leverage against suppliers to achieve longer payment terms and build cash flow. While non-payments are generally low in the industry, non-payment notifications have increased in the segment of small community-based pharmacies. Those businesses often compete against larger chains and face reimbursement pressures from public payers (e.g. Medicaid and Medicare).

Puerto Rico led U.S. exports of pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing in 2020, accounting for 19.3 percent of total U.S. exports. Medical equipment and supplies manufacturing was Puerto Rico’s second largest export in 2020, representing 6.9 percent of total exports for the island.

Rosemary DiCarlo, Under-Secretary-General for Political and Peacebuilding Affairs, said that the pandemic’s impact on peace and security has intensified — exacerbating inequality and corruption; breeding misinformation, stigmatization and hate speech; and creating new flashpoints for tension and increased risks of instability. It is hindering diplomatic action and complicated peacemaking efforts, without for the most part affecting the underlying dynamics of armed conflicts. The impact on women, youth and other marginalized groups is particularly alarming, she said.

Global change driven by human population growth (131), agricultural expansion (132), and climate change (133, 134) is steadily increasing the demand for freshwater, compounding the severe water scarcity already faced by an estimated 4 billion people (135). Groundwater is critically important for human health and ecosystem functioning in many semiarid regions because of low rainfall, frequent droughts, and little permanent surface water. The conservation of groundwater biodiversity should be a low-cost by-product of water conservation programs (29), but groundwater depletion increasingly threatens biodiversity as well as the stability of aquatic, terrestrial, and subsurface ecosystems. Because most groundwater species are difficult to monitor, abundance declines are likely to go unnoticed until after populations have already been lost. Regional climate models that predict increased air temperature (136, 137), together with hydrologic models that project decreased springflow (119, 138, 139), predict that Edwards–Trinity Eurycea salamander populations and other codistributed groundwater-dependent species are highly vulnerable to extinction within the next century.

The manufacturing industry in Puerto Rico is putting the island's finite water supply at risk, experts told ABC News.

In the 1960s and 1970s, industries ventured to Puerto Rico as the result of a now-expired federal tax incentive known Section 936, which exempted businesses from federal income tax profits earned by U.S. companies in Puerto Rico and other U.S. territories.

Newswise — Environmental chemical pollution threatens biodiversity. However, the complexity of this pollution remains insufficiently recognised by decision-makers - this is what international researchers led by Gabriel Sigmund from the University of Vienna and Ksenia Groh from the Swiss Federal Institute of Aquatic Science and Technology (Eawag) argue in the most recent issue of “Science”. Their letter appears shortly before the international negotiations on the “post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework”. These will take place from 21st of June in Nairobi (Kenya).

“Although the draft agreement mentions chemical pollution, it only takes into account nutrients, pesticides and plastic waste and thus falls too short,” explains environmental scientist Gabriel Sigmund. “Many highly problematic chemicals that pollute the environment and thus threaten the diversity of animal and plant species are simply overlooked,” adds ecotoxicologist Ksenia Groh. This means that the agreement does not do justice to the immense diversity of man-made chemicals. Toxic metals, industrial chemicals, chemicals from consumer goods, pharmaceuticals and the often unknown transformation products of these chemicals have not yet been taken into account in the draft agreement of the post-2020 Global Biodiversity Framework.