This coverage is made possible through a partnership between Grist and WABE, Atlanta’s NPR station. South Korean officials are calling for the return of more than 300 of its citizens who were detained last week during an Immigration and Customs Enforcement raid at an electric vehicle battery factory in Georgia....
Students, schools race to save clean energy projects in face of Trump deadline
Tanish Doshi was in high school when he pushed the Tucson Unified School District to take on an ambitious plan to reduce its climate footprint. In Oct. 2024, the availability of federal tax credits encouraged the district to adopt the $900 million plan, which involves goals of achieving net-zero emissions...
Report: Big businesses are doing carbon dioxide removal all wrong
Achieving net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 will require removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the world’s foremost authority on the topic. But only some types of carbon removal are actually effective — and these are largely not the kind that major companies...
Billions spent, miles to go: The story of California’s failure to build high-speed rail
Seventeen years ago, Californians bet on a grand vision of the future. They narrowly approved a $10 billion bond issue to build a high-speed rail line that would zip between San Francisco and Los Angeles in under three hours. This technological marvel would slash emissions, revitalize the state’s Central Valley,...
A Texas congressman is quietly helping Elon Musk pitch a $760M plan to build tunnels under Houston to ease flooding
The devastating flooding in Houston caused by Hurricane Harvey in 2017 killed dozens of people, inundated hundreds of thousands of homes, and left the community desperate for a solution. Since then, local flood experts have extensively studied the possibility of a multibillion-dollar tunnel system across Harris County, where Houston is...
States fast-track wind, solar permits and contracts to beat Trump’s deadline
Across the country, state leaders are racing to fast-track wind and solar projects before the expiration of federal tax credits to support clean energy. Colorado is directing state agencies to prioritize permits for projects that might qualify for the credits. Maine regulators are moving up timelines to purchase new power,...
Nobody wants this gas plant. Trump is forcing it to stay open.
The Trump administration, citing an ongoing “energy emergency,” has once again saddled a community already overburdened by pollution with a dirty, obsolete power plant it doesn’t want or need. The decision has confounded residents and environmental justice advocates, who called the move an abuse of federal law and a lost...
The words we use to talk about nature are disappearing. Here’s why that matters.
Once upon a time, the English language was full of stories with “blossoms,” “rivers,” and “moss.” But these words are disappearing from our vocabularies — and along with them, our connection to the natural world they describe. A study published in the journal Earth earlier this summer found that the...
Waterlogged and contaminated: In rural Florida, locals suspect a mining company is to blame for their flooding troubles
The storm had passed, but the water kept rising. In September 2017, Hurricane Irma slammed into Florida, causing tides to surge and dumping about a foot of water across much of the state. A few days later, Jane Blais stood on a bridge with her neighbors near her High Springs...
Your home has a 1 in 4 chance of being at severe risk from extreme weather
This story is part of The Disaster Economy, a Grist series exploring the often chaotic, lucrative world of disaster response and recovery. It is published with support from the CO2 Foundation. Extreme weather disasters — made larger, longer, and more intense by climate change — are taking an heavier toll on...