Louisiana’s offshore wind industry has a date circled on the calendar: January 21, 2029 — the first day after President Donald Trump is scheduled to leave office. Trump’s policies have brought offshore wind development to a near standstill around the country, with his administration paying developers roughly $4 billion to...
From the farm to your door: How our global food system exploits workers
Like many big cities, New York teems with delivery workers who bring takeout, groceries, and any number of other things to anyone with a cellphone. They work at all hours and in all conditions, often without job security, health insurance, or even access to safe restrooms. They are often hit...
Trump is gutting the Endangered Species Act. These 10 species show what’s at stake.
The Supreme Court once billed the Endangered Species Act as “the most comprehensive legislation for the preservation of endangered species ever enacted by any nation.” Federal protections have been key to saving nearly 300 U.S. species — including the bald eagle, American alligator, and grizzly bear — from permanent extinction. ...
Hurricane Isaias is a typical storm — but it’s also ‘astounding’
Something strange just popped up in the Gulf of Mexico: a hurricane. Well, not so much Hurricane Isaias, which storm-watchers expect to make landfall as a Category 2 somewhere between the coast of Mississippi and the Florida Panhandle late Friday, causing widespread destruction. It’s more the timing of it: This...
‘Digger’ has a lot of haters. Here’s why they’re wrong.
Last week, this magazine published a review of Digger, the new climate change allegory from Mexican provocateur Alejandro Iñárritu. In it, my colleague Jake Bittle explains in detail why he “hated it.” I was skeptical of the bad reviews that Digger has been getting; after all, I like more of...
The bipartisan energy bill tearing the climate movement apart
In order to solve climate change, you have to do two things — stop burning fossil fuels, and build clean energy to replace them. The last few decades in the United States have witnessed a long back-and-forth over which of the two goals is more important, and over how to...
The Northeast’s reliance on heating oil is turning into a crisis
There are many markers of fall: vibrant foliage, apple picking, and pumpkin-spiced everything, to name a few. Cranking up the heat is another. With record-setting energy prices, everyone is bracing for higher bills. For the more than 4 million households that rely on heating oil, this winter could be particularly...
Powering data centers on nuclear? That’s a tough sell in Utah’s coal country.
Cindy O’Neil understands the boom-and-bust cycles of industry. Her husband spent years working in Carbon County’s namesake coal mines. In this pocket of central Utah, energy and the economy have long been intrinsically linked, at great sacrifice to county residents. “We’ve had the coal. We’ve dealt, the whole community, with...
The Great Plains face a surprising threat: Too many trees
To really understand what’s going on in the Nebraska Sandhills, Shelly Kelly told me, it’s helpful to see it from the air. From the window of her father’s Bonanza A36, we looked out over the heart of one of the most rural landscapes in the United States. The Sandhills are...
The future of commuter rail could be taking shape in Boston
Marvin Martin was in the Four Corners area of Dorchester one day when a train sped by on the Fairmount Line into downtown Boston. It was filled with white people, sitting comfortably and reading newspapers. It made him wonder why the commuter line seemed to pass through communities of color...