While the Trump administration systematically unravels marine protections at home, it appears to be enforcing far higher conservation standards abroad. The State Department imposed visa restrictions on 26 foreign nationals engaged in illegal fishing last month. Among those restricted is a former Argentine official allegedly involved in an illegal Patagonian toothfish harvesting scandal and a […]

The Resistance, Part 2: Three Gulf Coast environmentalists confront Formosa Plastics Corp. at its shareholders meeting. YUNLIN COUNTY, Taiwan—In many ways, at nearly 80 years old, Diane Wilson would have rather stayed home. A retired shrimper with a high school education, she agreed to come here without thinking too much, as usual. That’s how she […]

At the end of May, eight endangered Asiatic lions died at a national park in India. Officials feared the animals had succumbed to a tick-borne parasitic disease that previously killed lions in the area. But over the weekend, the Gujarat government announced that the lions’ real killer was extreme heat, The Hindu reports. These casualties […]

China’s Belt and Road Initiative, the world’s largest ongoing infrastructure program, has a substantial climate impact. More than half its emissions stem from steel, the majority of which was produced in China. Cutting the emissions will require stronger environmental policies and major investment in cleaner manufacturing technologies, two new studies concluded. More than 130 million […]

Wildfires have worsened ozone levels across the United States so much over the last decade that they have reversed around four years of progress, a new study has found. Surface ozone levels, or smog concentrations, steadily increased from 2015 to 2024, deteriorating air quality across the Midwest and Western U.S., researchers at the University of […]

The upcoming loss of a deep-ocean monitoring system is triggering deep anxiety in Alaska, the nation’s top fish-producing state, where temperatures are warming twice as quickly as the global average. The National Science Foundation announced plans in May to decommission the Ocean Observatories Initiative, a nearly $368 million network of scientific instruments that tracks ocean […]

Under a Trump administration emergency order, a Florida coal-fired power plant will continue operating. The facility had been scheduled for retirement in 2025 as part of an Orlando Utilities Commission (OUC) plan to transition to renewable energy sources such as solar, with the goal of achieving net zero emissions by 2050. OUC is the second-largest […]

Bazile Minogiizhigaabo Panek, a member of the Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, was 7 years old when he attended his first rice harvest in northern Wisconsin. He and his sister rode in a canoe while his mom pushed the boat with a pole through the plants growing out of the shallow water. Together, […]

BROOKHAVEN, N.Y.—The crowd grew restless at Brookhaven Town Hall on Long Island as residents voiced their concerns about groundwater contamination from a nearby landfill that has spread beneath parts of their community. At the meeting in late March, speakers criticizing the landfill’s operations were met with applause and shouts of support from the audience. Monique […]

The Ratepayer Protection Act, making its way through the North Carolina legislature, conjoins two opposing ideas. On one side, the bill would rein in data centers and their ravenous power consumption, and shield North Carolinians from paying higher electric bills as a result of data centers’ operations. On the other, the measure would liberate Duke […]

ROCKWELL CITY, Iowa—James Hepp is sick of excuses. The 36-year-old farmer manages about 1,600 acres of corn, soy and small grains in northern Iowa. He keeps a close eye on his bottom line and says he wants to build a business that his three young children would be foolish not to join. For Hepp, a […]

When pathologists cut open dead sloths from a planned Florida tourist attraction, they found a plethora of pathogens. Parasites, bacteria and viruses were all lurking in animals weakened by grueling international transport and stressful conditions at the warehouse that received them, according to necropsy records and a state inspection report obtained by Inside Climate News […]

If you knew a major storm or fire was heading toward your home, what would you save? Maybe your pet? A box of letters? The blanket that your grandma knitted for you as a baby? A pop-up exhibit led by the Climate Action Campaign and curated by Sam Hartman, an artist and survivor of Hurricane […]

Montana officials are warning that the 2026 wildfire season could bring above-normal fire risk to parts of the state, driven by a mix of drought conditions, wind events and warmer-than-average winter temperatures. At a statewide wildfire outlook briefing on Tuesday, Gov. Greg Gianforte joined state, local and federal officials to discuss preparedness for the upcoming […]

Thursday’s flurry of coal news from energy officials included $425 million to extend the life of 12 coal plants in several states, such as $50 million from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) for the Wheeling Power Company’s plans to “modernize” the Mitchell Plant in Moundsville, West Virginia. “This was not necessarily a surprise. But […]

Georgia’s two largest utility proceedings of the year were settled last month between Georgia regulators and Georgia Power. Customers and utility advocates see mixed results in the outcome. Georgia Power sought approval to recover costs tied to their operations and maintenance. The proceedings, which occur regularly every few years, will ultimately lower near-term costs for […]

The New York Legislature passed a one-year moratorium Thursday night on data center permits, the latest sign of pushback amid a nationwide rush to build the power-hungry facilities. New York would become the first state in the nation to enact such a freeze if Gov. Kathy Hochul signs the bill into law. But Hochul, who […]

Four years after the Calf Canyon/Hermits Peak Fire burned 341,471 acres in northern New Mexico, the massive burn scar from the most destructive blaze in state history still holds vast stretches of leafless, barren and charred trees. It’s one of many scorched landscapes across the state—the New Mexico Energy, Minerals and Natural Resources Department (EMNRD) […]

SEATTLE—Tribal bison were on an extraordinary roll before the second term of President Donald J. Trump. Herds were expanding across Indian Country, as was Native consumption of bison meat, which is less fatty than beef. Science has confirmed that bison are better for prairie ecosystems than cattle. Most importantly to the tribes, public grazing land […]

Mangrove forests have adapted over tens of millions of years to survive in harsh flooding from salty seas, while locking away vast stores of climate-warming carbon and protecting the world’s coastlines from storm surge. But a new modeling study suggests that even these hardy trees may reach their breaking point in the face of rapidly […]

The worldwide fallout from the U.S. war in Iran isn’t limited to gas prices. The largely blocked Strait of Hormuz has become “a critical failure point for global food security,” Máximo Torero Cullen, chief economist of the United Nations’ Food and Agriculture Organization, warned this week. Approximately a third of the world’s seaborne fertilizer trade […]

BOULDER, Colo.—The federal government will impose a 10-year operating framework for managing water use in the Colorado River Basin by the end of this summer if the seven states that rely on the river cannot come to an agreement before then, said Scott Cameron, acting commissioner for the Bureau of Reclamation, at a water conference […]

Duke Energy could receive $28.4 million in taxpayer money to upgrade two coal-fired power units in Person County, North Carolina, where residents are already contending with the construction of new natural gas plants, a pipeline and a proposed Microsoft data center. The Roxboro plant in Person County is one of 13 projects nationwide expected to […]

An executive order in Massachusetts and a regulatory commission action in Minnesota are among the big moves this year that highlight the growing role of virtual power plants in grid management. A virtual power plant, or VPP, is a network of resources that a central controller can call upon to send power to the grid […]

California regulators passed a rule in January 2024 that they said would protect communities from one of the state’s most popular, and dangerous, pesticides. For decades, they knew that 1,3-dichloropropane, or 1,3-D, causes tumors in multiple organs in laboratory animals, which led the state to flag it as a carcinogen in 1989. Yet regulators allowed […]

MONTGOMERY, Ala—Sheila McNeil thought she knew the race ahead of her. Without a primary challenger, McNeil knew she was slated to be the Democratic nominee for a seat on the Public Service Commission, the state agency charged with regulating utilities like Alabama Power. Then, after the conclusion of the Republican primary process, McNeil would compete […]

While their dazzling bright lights are visible from space, much of the global squid fleet operates in total darkness. Hundreds of former Indonesian and Filipino crew members working onboard squid ships have exposed widespread environmental crimes and human rights abuses on the high seas every day, according to a new report by the nonprofit Environmental […]

PRINCETON, Iowa—From the beginning, the new well was a headache. Late in 2022, an overly powerful pump caused eight months of costly water main breaks in Princeton, a town of nearly 1,000 residents on the banks of the silty Mississippi River. Installing a smaller motor seemed to fix that issue, but revealed a different, all-too-familiar […]

RALEIGH, N.C.—The Ratepayer Protection Act, wending its way through the North Carolina legislature, conjoins two opposing ideas: rein in data centers and their power consumption but liberate Duke Energy from limits on fossil fuels. The first section of Senate Bill 730 would forbid data center developers from using eminent domain to seize land for their […]

After years of fighting to curb toxic pollution in communities of color, Illinois activists are celebrating a step forward. A bill expanding the state’s regulatory obligations over industrial air polluters in environmental justice communities passed the state legislature last week and is expected to go into effect at the start of next year. The bill […]