Inside Climate News

“Cashing Out” investigated a system that lets companies win multimillion or even billion-dollar penalties against countries trying to protect the environment and public.

By ICN Editors

An Inside Climate News investigation into the wide-ranging environmental and human rights consequences of a little-known international arbitration system is a finalist in the Scripps Howard Journalism Awards.

From Inside Climate News via this RSS feed

One expert speaking at a forum on insurance and housing says climate change could soon mark a “death spiral” for the financial industry in parts of the country.

By Lisa Sorg

A trifecta of crises—accelerating climate change, a scarcity of affordable housing and escalating insurance rates—are threatening the one place where people usually feel secure: their homes.

From Inside Climate News via this RSS feed

House moves to repeal the Golden State’s authority to set higher car and truck emission standards, which have long been targeted by Trump.

By Liza Gross

On a warm July morning in 1943, in the middle of World War II, a thick cloud of acrid smoke blanketed downtown Los Angeles, turning its clear blue skies into an inscrutable brown haze that left Angelenos with burning eyes, noses and throats. The aerial assault was so intense it sparked rumors of chemical warfare as city officials scrambled to identify the source of one of the city’s first bouts with smog.

From Inside Climate News via this RSS feed

In its bid to resist a court order to unfreeze grants, the Trump administration reveals a laser focus on eliminating environmental justice aid. More than $2.4 billion is targeted for termination, Inside Climate News found.

By Marianne Lavelle, Peter Aldhous

As the nation marked the 55th anniversary of the environmental movement on Earth Day, Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin declared a renewed commitment to “clean air, land and water for all Americans.”

From Inside Climate News via this RSS feed

Four nations face tariffs of up to 3,500 percent on solar cell imports, seen as counterproductive to some solar industry observers and thrilling to others.

By Arcelia Martin

The U.S. Department of Commerce determined last week solar cell imports from four Southeast Asian countries should see tariffs of up to 3,521 percent.

From Inside Climate News via this RSS feed

Dominion Energy wants to power a “hyperscale” data center a stone’s throw from a residential subdivision in Fairfax County, Virginia. The state’s leaders are bullish, but the center’s would-be neighbors are not thrilled.

By Charles Paullin

ALEXANDRIA, Va.—Tyler Ray and his husband were drawn to their community, Bren Pointe, by the amenities that make Fairfax County such a desirable place to live in the Washington, D.C., suburbs of Northern Virginia. It’s close to shopping, dining and entertainment in Old Town and not far from Reagan National Airport.

From Inside Climate News via this RSS feed

Officials at a rural school district voted on Tuesday to begin developing a tax break agreement intended to draw Exxon to their stretch of the Gulf Coast.

By Dylan Baddour

Plans for a large new plastics plant on the Gulf Coast of Texas crept forward on Tuesday evening when officials at a small, rural school district moved to enter into tax break negotiations with ExxonMobil, the project developer.

From Inside Climate News via this RSS feed

PJM’s energy market and grid rules face legal challenges from the state consumer advocate, which says the grid operator unfairly charges local customers for out-of-state power needs and for bloated capacity costs.

By Aman Azhar

The Maryland Office of People’s Counsel, the state’s consumer watchdog, has filed two major complaints against the regional power grid operator, arguing that its market and infrastructure planning rules are systematically overcharging Maryland electricity customers to subsidize services and infrastructure benefiting other states—particularly Virginia.

From Inside Climate News via this RSS feed

Meanwhile, a new study from American University shows budget cuts to public research would significantly hurt the economy in the long run, with large negative effects on GDP, investment and government revenue.

By Arcelia Martin

Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) kicked off a Wednesday hearing criticizing ​​the Trump administration for cutting science funding, firing federal scientists and triggering policy uncertainties that she said threaten to undermine the foundation for America’s global leadership.

From Inside Climate News via this RSS feed

Donald van der Vaart also served as N.C. environment secretary before joining the EPA’s Science Advisory Board during the first Trump administration. He’s been a proponent of fracking and offshore drilling.

By Lisa Sorg

Donald van der Vaart—the state’s former environment secretary and a climate skeptic who was shortlisted for EPA administrator during the first Trump administration—has been appointed to the North Carolina Utilities Commission by Republican Treasurer Brad Briner.

From Inside Climate News via this RSS feed

A grassroots effort successfully pushed back on a development in Homewood that would have destroyed a critical salamander habitat. Still, amphibians face constant risks.

By Lee Hedgepeth

HOMEWOOD, Ala.—Nine-year-old Ruby Banta thought it was a pretty simple choice, even for adults.

From Inside Climate News via this RSS feed

Compared to his first term, the threat posed by Trump’s second administration is on a “new level,” environmental groups and legal experts say.

By Kiley Bense, Bob Berwyn, Dennis Pillion, Georgina Gustin, Jake Bolster, Marianne Lavelle, Wyatt Myskow

One hundred days into the second Trump administration, many environmentalists’ worst fears about the new presidency have been realized—and surpassed.

From Inside Climate News via this RSS feed

The state is eyeing advanced nuclear plants to put electricity on the grid and power energy-intensive industries like mining. Some business leaders dream of a Wyoming supply chain for atomic energy.

By Najifa Farhat

Wyoming has the largest uranium ore reserves in the U.S., and for decades, uranium mining was one of the key drivers of the state’s economy. In the late 1970s, the state’s mining industry produced 12 million pounds annually of the element needed to fuel nuclear power plants, and was a major source of employment.

From Inside Climate News via this RSS feed

The Trump administration has terminated the leases of 25 U.S. Geological Survey Water Science Centers, which inform the water decisions of local and state governments across the country.

By Wyatt Myskow

Across the country, the data collected at stream gauges managed by the U.S. Geological Survey are used to implement drought measures when streamflows are low, alert local authorities of floods, help administer water to users on rivers and issue pollution discharge permits required by the Clean Water Act for communities across the country.

From Inside Climate News via this RSS feed

San Diego County communities have lamented public health impacts of sewage pollution in the watershed, which crosses from Mexico into California before flowing into the ocean.

By Kiley Price

Water knows no borders. Unfortunately, neither does sewage.

From Inside Climate News via this RSS feed