A year ago, Donald Trump assumed the presidency for a second time and immediately got to work dismantling the climate progress that Joe Biden’s administration had made. Among other sweeping efforts, the White House boosted fossil fuels over renewables, tried to stop states from reducing emissions and adapting to climate...
Daria Egereva fought for Indigenous voices at the UN. Now she’s in a Russian jail.
Russian authorities have detained an Indigenous climate advocate, accusing her of participating in a terrorist organization in what international observers are calling “retribution” for her United Nations advocacy on behalf of Indigenous peoples. Daria Egereva, an Indigenous Selkup woman from the city of Tomsk in western Siberia, has been involved...
Trump’s EPA is taking itself out of the regulation game
In the 55 years since its founding under President Richard Nixon, the Environmental Protection Agency has been a regulatory pendulum, swinging between stringent and lax control of air pollution. Under Democratic presidents, the agency tends to clamp down on emissions from cars and smokestacks. Under Republicans, it tends to give...
This tech could keep EVs from stressing the grid — and save everyone money
If you’re a typical American, you get home from work and start flipping switches and turning knobs — doing laundry, cooking dinner, watching TV. With so many other folks doing the same, the strain on the electrical grid in residential areas is highest at this time. That demand will only...
Why almost none of the homes burned in LA have been rebuilt since last year’s fires
The Associated Press this week reported a stunning fact: Of the 13,000 homes destroyed a year ago in the extraordinary wildfires in and around Los Angeles, fewer than a dozen have been rebuilt. The massive, fast-moving wildfires that tore through Los Angeles County last January directly killed at least 31...
These Finnish homes are being heated by a surprising source: Bitcoin
For someone who cares about climate change, Matt Carlsson had what seemed like a dream job: teaching clients how to decarbonize buildings. But he was frustrated. He could give customers the tools to improve energy efficiency and phase out fossil fuels, but if they couldn’t easily turn his guidance into...
States say they need more help replacing lead pipes. Congress may cut the funding instead.
The Senate is taking up a spending package passed by the House of Representatives that would cut $125 million in funding promised this year to replace toxic lead pipes. Including three of 12 appropriations bills, this package will fund parts of the federal government, including the Environmental Protection Agency. The...
After one year of Trump, is anything left of the American Climate Corps?
Two long years ago, it appeared that the much-anticipated American Climate Corps was finally happening. President Joe Biden had promised to build a green jobs workforce inspired by the Civilian Conservation Corps, one of Franklin D. Roosevelt’s most popular New Deal programs, ever since he was on the campaign trail....
A major agreement to protect the Amazon is falling apart after 20 years
Nearly 20 years ago, a Brazilian lobbying group for soy trading and processing companies signed onto a historic conservation deal known as the Amazon soy moratorium. The voluntary agreement prohibits members from buying soybeans grown on lands deforested after July 2008. Proponents of the deal say that it has been...
Trump’s EPA could limit its own ability to use new science to strengthen air pollution rules
Ethylene oxide was once considered an unremarkable pollutant. The colorless gas seeped from relatively few industrial facilities and commanded little public attention. All that changed in 2016, when the Environmental Protection Agency completed a study that found the chemical is 30 times more carcinogenic than previously thought. The agency then spent years...