Inside Climate News

Senate candidate Graham Platner’s key energy goal is to reduce costs for Mainers. He’d also like to tax the “ever-living hell out of the companies that made a lot of money on fossil fuels while they destroyed the planet.”By Nathaniel EisenGraham Platner, the presumptive Democratic nominee for U.S. Senate from Maine, is known for a few things: his “more Bernie than Bernie” message of wresting back control from the rich and powerful; his biography as a Marine Corps veteran and oyster farmer with l

The Democratic Senate candidate from Maine voted to pursue a moratorium on all but rooftop solar projects while the town developed permitting rules. He says that’s compatible with his calls for energy-permitting reform.By Nathaniel EisenGraham Platner’s recently released energy plan navigates several tensions, including how to build clean energy projects and transmission lines quickly while also incorporating community input. Such projects are not only needed to fight climate change but to help

Go behind the scenes with senior editor Corey Mitchell and reporter Bob Berwyn as they break down what to expect from the looming El Niño.By Bob BerwynScientists said this week that a developing El Niño is likely to amplify heatwaves, droughts and floods this year. But it’s not the biggest culprit of climate extremes. 

After Trump stopped funding the WHO, the agency retreated even more from occupational safety and health programs, putting millions of workers at risk as the planet warms, advocates contend. They hope its leaders change that when they meet next week.By Liza GrossEvery year, hundreds of millions of people around the world suffer from workplace injuries or illnesses, and nearly 3 million die from job-related accidents or exposures. Climate change is making many jobs even more dangerous, exposing mi

With a wildfire season that runs from March to May, fewer acres have burned than usual. But with fewer prescribed burns to thin combustible underbrush, severe fire remains a possibility.By Anna MattsonThe New Jersey Forest Fire Service this month announced an elevated risk for fire spread across Delaware and parts of New Jersey. Conditions aligned—humidity dropped, temperatures rose into the 80s and southwest winds were gusting up to 30 miles per hour, elevating fire risk across the region.

“I think there's a great loss for the wrong reasons. There's no good reason for dismantling this or tearing it down,” a former NASA chief scientist says.Interview by Steve Curwood, Living on EarthFrom our collaborating partner “Living on Earth,” public radio’s environmental news magazine, an interview by host Steve Curwood with former NASA chief scientist Waleed Abdalati.

Legislation includes profit recovery provisions for the energy company, increased State Corporation Commission authority.By Charles PaullinRICHMOND, Va.—Gov. Abigail Spanberger on Thursday signed legislation that directs regulators to assign electricity costs to data centers and allows Dominion Energy to spend $900,000 a mile burying local distribution lines.

The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals is hearing the first challenge to a series of orders that have blocked retirement of aging coal and oil plants. Advocates say keeping the plants running has been costly to consumers and the environment.By Marianne LavelleThe Trump administration on Friday defended its legal authority to order coal plants to stay open, arguing before a panel of federal judges that it alone has the power to decide whether an energy emergency exists.

TVA employees distributed the 35-page booklet at a public hearing about corrective action plans for coal ash ponds at the Cumberland Fossil Plant in Tennessee. By Dennis PillionA 35-page booklet distributed in a public meeting by the Tennessee Valley Authority about coal ash is filled with “lies” and misleading information, according to coal ash researchers.  

Montana’s American Prairie will have to remove its bison from seven parcels of BLM land it leased for grazing under the Biden administration. It says it will appeal the “politically motivated” decision.By Blaine HardenSEATTLE—The Trump administration’s “final decision” banning bison grazing on public land is legally convoluted—and curiously narrow.

The Well Done Foundation is remediating abandoned and orphaned fossil fuel wells that pollute water, soils and the atmosphere. But plugging a borehole can be even harder than drilling it.Story and photos by J. MattOKMULGEE, Okla.—There are a few truisms in the oil and gas industry: It is crowded with prodigious egos, there is always a boom around the corner and some industry operators aren’t above walking away from their mess at played-out well sites.

As states consider a new wave of reactors, the fallout of the most expensive power project in U.S. history offers a cautionary tale.By Ryan KrugmanAs states across the country weigh a new wave of nuclear energy, many in Georgia are urging caution. Two years after Plant Vogtle’s newest reactors came online there, customers are still paying for the project—and many say they are not getting their money’s worth.

Go behind the scenes with senior editor Corey Mitchell, reporter Phil McKenna, and data journalist Peter Aldhous as they discuss a new Senate probe over lucrative and questionable tax credits to the country’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas.By Phil McKenna, Peter AldhousLiquefied natural gas vessels are fueled by their cargo—they’re built specifically to make use of the gas boiling off from their tanks.

U.S. Rep. Frank Pallone Jr. says the Trump administration has cut regional staffing serving the state by a third, making progress on Superfund cleanups “nearly impossible.”By Anna MattsonNew Jersey is home to nearly 9 percent of the nation’s Superfund sites—more than any other state. They range from chemical plants with toxic byproducts leached into the soil, to oil-filled lagoons, open fields rife with septic waste and rivers polluted with toxic chemicals. Many have remained contaminated for de

In “Smog and Sunshine,” UCLA’s Ann Carlson tells of the scientists, lawyers, government officials and community members behind the decades-long effort to clear Southern California skies.By Steven RodasAs a child growing up in Southern California, Ann Carlson remembers mountains obscured by haze and yellowish brown air that stung her eyes and made her lungs ache.

Bound by a common threat, unlikely allies of tribes, commercial fishermen and the conservation community came together to stop a gold and copper mine, and won.Interview by Steve Curwood, Living on EarthFrom our collaborating partner “Living on Earth,” public radio’s environmental news magazine, an interview by host Steve Curwood with Alannah Hurley, executive director of the United Tribes of Bristol Bay.

In the San Luis Valley, the ongoing megadrought and a record-low snowpack are draining groundwater and increasing its concentrations of toxic metals. There are few protections for residents drinking from private wells.By Emily PayneJulie Zahringer hears a common refrain at her environmental laboratory in Alamosa, Colorado: A customer has been drinking well water on family land where they’ve lived for years, but recently noticed it has changed. They want to know why.

As pollen season gets longer and more severe, allergies can compound with other climate health hazards to cause serious harm.By Keerti GopalIt’s not in your head.

The 28-mile conduit is part of a huge natural gas infrastructure buildout in the state that Duke Energy says is necessary to keep up with demand, especially from a coming wave of data centers.By Lisa SorgSILER CITY, N.C.—John Alderman opened the letter, sent by certified mail from an attorney in New Orleans. 

Reacting to Trump administration proposals calling for higher-paced processing, critics say protections for workers, animals and food safety are not the only concerns.By Georgina GustinJill Mauer spent more than 30 years as a government inspector, watching over meat plants as workers slaughtered and processed animals into market-ready chops and wings.