In recent months, the Trump administration has opened a deregulatory floodgate in the name of building more data centers. Among other things, this has involved ordering rollbacks of clean water regulations and opening up public lands to coal mining. Now, it’s turning its eye to chemical regulation with a new...
The wealthy profit from public lands, and taxpayers pick up the tab
Stan Kroenke doesn’t need federal help to make a business flourish. He is worth an estimated $20 billion, a fortune that has allowed him to become one of America’s largest property owners and afforded him stakes in storied sports franchises, including the Denver Nuggets and England’s Arsenal soccer club. Yet...
After COP30, Indigenous advocates celebrate gains while warning of unfinished work
If there is one image that encapsulates COP30, this year’s global climate change conference in Belém, Brazil, it might be this: Indigenous activists, in traditional clothing and regalia, storming past security into a secure zone made for international negotiators and preapproved delegates. The action occurred on the second day of...
Zillow deletes climate risk data from listings after complaints it harms sales
Zillow, the largest real estate listing site in the U.S., has removed a feature that allowed people to view a property’s exposure to the climate crisis, following complaints from the industry and some homeowners that it was hurting sales. In September last year, the online real estate marketplace introduced a tool showing...
EV sales are way down. Here’s why that might not be a big deal.
Electric vehicle sales have cratered. Across the country, dealers sold about 20 percent fewer used electric cars in October than in September and saw a staggering 50 percent drop for new ones, according to the latest data. No one was surprised. Congress voted in July to end the federal tax...
How one Seattle organization is turning food waste into plant food
Lea esta nota en español. For Maria Perez, joining a project to reduce food waste in Washington wasn’t just a job. Her journey with the Duwamish Valley Sustainability Association (DVSA) began when she was 14 and enrolled in a youth program that sparked her interest in fighting climate change. Six...
Pennsylvania bailed on a carbon market to appease Republicans
Last month, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro withdrew from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI (pronounced “Reggie”), a cap-and-trade program that establishes a regional limit on carbon emissions from power plants located in the Northeast. Here’s how RGGI works: Each year, credits allowing the power plants to emit a certain...
A drying Great Salt Lake is spewing toxic dust. It could cost Utah billions.
The dust blowing from the dry bed of the Great Salt Lake is creating a serious public health threat that policymakers and the scientific community are not taking seriously enough, two environmental nonprofits warn in a recent report. The Great Salt Lake hit a record-low elevation in 2022 and teetered...
Hurricane season is over. Here’s why the US never got hit.
Back in April, scientists read the tea leaves — or, more accurately, heaps of data — and predicted an above-average hurricane season over the summer and autumn, with nine or 10 named storms, four of which could grow to major strength. Yet hurricane season ended Sunday without even one of...
Hawaiʻi’s green fee is the latest climate effort challenged by Trump
Hawaiʻi’s new green fee aimed at offsetting tourism’s impact on the environment has caught the eye of the Trump administration, which has grown increasingly hostile to efforts to fight climate change. A U.S. Department of Justice motion to intervene in Cruise Lines International’s lawsuit against the state and county landed earlier this...