The ostensibly barren Mojave Desert is in fact teeming with plants and animals, including a rare species known as the threecorner milkvetch. It’s a member of the pea family, splaying across the ground instead of climbing up a garden trestle. Given the harsh desert conditions, it waits until the arrival...
A Nebraska utility says that its coal plant poses no ‘significant’ health threat
On paper, the public power district serving much of eastern Nebraska has been trying to quit coal at its North Omaha plant since 2014. That June, its board voted to retire three of the plant’s five coal units in 2016 and convert the final two to natural gas in 2023....
Can cities make landlords care about energy efficiency?
With the federal government retreating from climate action, cities and states have increasingly stepped in to ease emissions and address the crisis. But new research finds that those efforts often fail to reach renters — one of the largest and most vulnerable segments of the housing market — leaving a...
An ousted energy regulator reflects on Georgia’s new power politics
The Georgia Public Service Commission got a shock in November: After nearly two decades as an all-Republican body, two incumbent commissioners lost their seats. Georgia voters, frustrated by rising power bills, elected two Democrats with about 60 percent of the vote. One of the ousted commissioners, Republican Tim Echols, was...
Trump destroyed offshore wind. The Northeast can’t live without it.
Since his presidency began last year, Donald Trump has embarked on an all-out campaign to destroy the nation’s nascent offshore wind industry. He has halted all wind lease sales in federal waters, issued stop-work orders for nearly-completed wind farms, and told oil industry executives that his “goal is to not...
The winter storm exposed the grid’s real weakness: Lots of old poles
In 1843, Congress gave Samuel Morse $30,000 to try to send a telegram from Washington, D.C., to Baltimore. Rather than bury the transmission wires underground, where technical issues would be hard to identify, the inventor of Morse code strung them along wooden poles and trees. When the system was completed...
The EPA wants to eliminate one of the few ways that tribes can protect their water
Earlier this month, the Environmental Protection Agency announced a proposal to revise the Clean Water Act, specifically a section of the law that regulates water quality and limits states’ and tribes’ authority over federal projects, as well as how tribes can gain the authority to conduct those reviews. Experts say...
Data centers are facing an image problem. The tech industry is spending millions to rebrand them.
With community opposition growing, data center backers are going on a full-scale public relations blitz. Around Christmas in Virginia, which boasts the highest concentration of data centers in the country, one advertisement seemed to air nonstop. “Virginia’s data centers are … investing billions in clean energy,” a voiceover intoned over...
‘A fraudulent scheme’: New Mexico sues Texas oil companies for walking away from leaking wells
The state of New Mexico is accusing three Texas oil executives of orchestrating “a fraudulent scheme” to pocket revenue from hundreds of oil and gas wells in New Mexico and offload the cost of plugging and cleaning up the wells onto the state’s taxpayers. The suit, filed in late December...
This Brooklyn bagel shop is saving money with plug-in batteries
In the back of Black Seed Bagels in northern Brooklyn is a giant catering kitchen filled with industrial-size condiments and freezers full of dough. A tall, silver electric oven, named the Baconator, stands in a far corner, cooking thousands of pounds of meat every week to accompany Black Seed’s hand-rolled,...