For 21 years, Mike Wintz and his wife, Kayla, have worked to maintain their nearly 11,000-acre ranch near Bingham, Nebraska. The couple took over the cow-calf operations from Kayla’s parents, who had been in the business for over 25 years. In less than six hours, nearly all of that land...
How EVs could solve a problem with America’s rickety grid
There’s a technology sitting idle in garages and driveways across America that provides a solution to its own potential problem. As more and more electric vehicles tap the grid, their giant batteries add to the system’s load. Timing is also a challenge: When people get home from work and plug...
Why this NASA climate scientist wants you to stay angry
Last month, climate scientist and author Kate Marvel resigned from her position at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, where she had spent more than a decade studying a warming world. In her resignation letter, she cited the Trump administration’s attacks on the field. “I anticipated that our work would...
The Iran war is changing how millions of people cook — and what they eat
About a decade ago, India’s government began subsidizing the purchase of liquid petroleum gas, or LPG, to promote greater adoption among its lower-income citizens. Switching to the gas was considered a safer and more reliable alternative to burning wood and coal for cooking at home, which families in resource-strapped rural...
Data centers are straining the grid. Can they be forced to pay for it?
Last month, President Trump sat alongside executives of the largest tech companies in the country as they pledged to pay a fair share of the energy costs of their data center buildout. “Data centers … they need some PR help,” Trump said at the gathering. “People think that if the...
Forest Service overhaul sows confusion and concern
On March 31, the U.S. Forest Service announced plans to move its headquarters from Washington, D.C., to Salt Lake City, Utah. It will also close or repurpose all nine of its regional offices, create 15 state offices, and shutter research and development facilities in more than 30 states. According to a...
Climate experts say spring is coming earlier. How will that affect agriculture and ecosystems?
As a row crop farmer in St. Joseph, Missouri, Joe Lau said he’s noticing more extreme weather these days. Warmer seasons throughout the year. Quarter-inch predictions of rain stamped out by storms that bring 3 inches. Increased pressure from pests on his corn. He’s also noticed that spring is coming...
One acre, one vote: The bizarre election that could decide Arizona’s energy future
In a country characterized by antiquated systems for regulating how electricity is produced and transported to homes and businesses, one utility in Arizona may be the most outdated. In 1903, almost a decade before Arizona became a state, a group of landowners around Phoenix secured a federal loan for a...
What does $164M buy Big Oil? Inupiat land and a broken promise.
In 2023, when Rosemary Ahtuangaruak, Iñupiaq, was mayor of Nuiqsut, a federally recognized village of 500 residents on Alaska’s North Slope Borough, a gas leak from a nearby oil operation left her community waiting for answers. “It was only 8 miles from our village. We watched industry evacuate their personnel...
Solar was poised to help Puerto Ricans survive blackouts — until Trump axed nearly $1B in funding
María Pérez lost power for about three months after Hurricane Maria struck Puerto Rico in September 2017. Her home in Salinas, on the island’s southern coast, sits near a river. As the hurricane knocked out the island’s grid and sent rainwaters surging down from the mountains, Perez’s house flooded with...