President Donald Trump’s sweeping tax bill is on its way to his desk for a signature after House Republicans passed the legislation with a vote of 218-214 on Thursday. As the administration celebrates, many Americans are contemplating its effects closer to home. With deep cuts to Medicaid, food stamps, and...
‘A self-inflicted tragedy’: Congress approves reversal of US climate policy
The U.S. House of Representatives voted 218-214 on Thursday to pass President Donald Trump’s sweeping domestic policy bill, greenlighting deep cuts to America’s social safety net and the decimation of the country’s only federal climate strategy. Democrats uniformly opposed the bill, while all but two House Republicans supported it. “This...
As nations lag on climate action, their cities are stepping up. Here’s proof.
Your city is probably fighting climate change in more ways than you realize. Perhaps your mayor is on a mission to plant more trees, or they’ve set efficiency standards for buildings, requiring better windows and insulation. Maybe they’ve even electrified your public transportation, reducing both greenhouse gas emissions and air...
How plants could help us detect, and even destroy, dangerous ‘forever chemicals’
The vision “I think a lot of people now are aware of PFAS, or concerned about it, or want to know whether it’s present in their water, their food. The whole purpose of what we’re trying to do is develop something that’s simple and cost effective to answer that question...
Can weaker environmental rules help fight climate change? California just bet yes.
Earlier this week, California lawmakers passed among the most sweeping reforms to the state’s environmental regulations in more than half a century. The measures were primarily intended to boost housing construction and urban density in the Golden State, which faces among the most severe housing shortages in the U.S. Though...
Senate Republicans just voted to dismantle America’s only climate plan
After three days of nonstop negotiations on Capitol Hill, the Senate voted 51-50 on Tuesday to pass a domestic policy bill that accomplishes much of President Donald Trump’s first-year agenda. Vice President J.D. Vance cast the tie-breaking vote. Three Republicans — Rand Paul from Kentucky, Thom Tillis from North Carolina,...
The Supreme Court just ended its term. Here are the decisions that will affect climate policy.
The Supreme Court often releases one or two big, splashy environmental decisions each term. Last year it was overruling a decades-old legal precedent called the “Chevron deference,” which allowed courts to defer to the expertise of a federal agency when interpreting ambiguous statutes. The year before that, Sackett v. EPA...
Salmon, tribal sovereignty, and energy collide as US abandons Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement
Earlier this month, the Trump administration pulled the federal government out of the Resilient Columbia Basin Agreement — a deal struck in 2023 by the Biden administration between two states and four Indigenous nations aimed at restoring salmon populations and paving a way to remove four hydroelectric dams along the...
In Georgia, sheep on a solar farm is not a baaad idea
On a vast property in Lee County, in the heart of southwest Georgia, Tyler Huber raises sheep. As the flock grazes, the sheep need somewhere to take a break from the Georgia sun. “It is incredibly hot, the sun is just unavoidable, and the fact that they’ve got shade every...
What does climate change mean for agriculture? Less food, and more emissions
New research spotlights the challenge of growing food on a warming planet. Two recent studies — one historical and the other forward-looking — examine how rising temperatures have made and could continue to make agricultural production less efficient, fundamentally reshaping the global food system as producers try to adapt to hotter growing...