"Residents in Maine are about to be bombarded with a multimillion-dollar public relations campaign aimed at saving the state’s two dominant electric utilities from being voted out of existence in November."
It’s a political knot with the potential to tangle the fossil energy industry, the clean energy industry … or both. Environmental journalists looking to better report on the impacts of permitting reform can start with our latest Backgrounder, which explores the issue’s recent history and the competing visions that have stalled changes. There’s also the “backroom problem.” Plus, get a rundown of key actors.
After a massive fire at a Texas petrochemical storage facility, reporters from Public Health Watch and The Texas Tribune worked together to shed light on who was responsible for this disaster and what health threats had been hidden from the public. This behind-the-scenes report from Public Health Watch’s David Leffler and Savanna Strott looks at the challenges the team faced and how they overcame them.
"Residents, lawyers, and environmental groups point to aging facilities and reluctant state regulators as reasons for the continued string of industrial fires."
"A new regulation will formalize a roughly 80% cut in project fees for wind and solar energy developments on federal lands under a proposal by the Biden administration on Thursday as part of a strategy to boost renewable energy to fight climate change."
"A U.S.-based rare earth supply chain could boost clean energy and electric vehicles — and military weapons."
"The Environmental Protection Agency has announced more stringent rules governing offshore oil spill response, amid continuing concerns about the effects on public health and wildlife from chemical disasters, including BP’s Deepwater Horizon explosion in 2010."
"US power companies have made political donations of at least $215m to dark money groups in recent years, according to a new analysis of 25 for-profit utilities, amid growing concerns around how they wield influence." "Donations have helped utilities increase electricity prices, hinder solar schemes and helped elect sympathetic legislators".
"U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said on Thursday that countries must start phasing out oil, coal and gas - not just emissions - and demanded fossil fuel companies "cease and desist" measures that aim to "knee-cap" climate progress."
"In a church on Chicago's West Side near where he grew up, Marques Jones Jr. is hoping to earn more money and help his family by learning how to install and maintain the solar panels he now sees everywhere he goes."
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