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...
Inside Utah’s PR campaign to seize public lands
Last year, as Utah prepared to file a federal lawsuit aiming to take control of millions of acres of federal public land within its borders, state officials sought help swaying public opinion in their favor. So they turned to a group of public relations professionals at Penna Powers, a media...
It’s not just the cities. Extreme heat is a growing threat to rural America.
Summer has officially begun with a blast of scorching temperatures across much of the United States. The National Weather Service is warning of “extremely dangerous heat” baking 160 million people under a heat dome stretching from the Midwest to the East Coast the rest of this week. It’s already proven...
This year’s UN climate talks are already behind — 5 months before COP30 kicks off in Brazil
The United Nations’ Conference of the Parties, or COP, which hosts annual negotiations that draw tens of thousands of top government officials, activists, and journalists every year, is understood to be the world’s primary conduit for international climate action. But a related UN conference held in Bonn, Germany, every summer...
A year after Helene, river guides in Appalachia are navigating a new world
On a clear, sunny day in May, just a few weeks into the Smoky Mountain rafting season, Heather Ellis took a dozen people through the Pigeon River Gorge to celebrate its grand reopening. She led them over and through roaring rapids with a practiced ease. “Forward!” she called. When the...