"Less than six months after rejecting a proposal for a major desalination plant in Huntington Beach, the California Coastal Commission on Thursday approved plans for a different, smaller project in Orange County that could serve as a model for future projects."
"Across North America, hundreds of downtowns, college campuses and hospitals are heated by steam carried through networks of underground pipes. Electric companies installed many of these "steam loops" or district energy systems more than 100 years ago in older East Coast cities like New York, Boston, and Philadelphia."
"Residents of a small community in Vermont were blindsided last month by news that one official in their water department quietly lowered fluoride levels nearly four years ago, giving rise to worries about their children’s dental health and transparent government — and highlighting the enduring misinformation around water fluoridation."
"America’s first experiment with high-speed rail has become a multi-billion-dollar nightmare. Political compromises created a project so expensive that almost no one knows how it can be built as originally envisioned."
"Efforts to speed a long-delayed, overbudget natural gas project in Sen. Joe Manchin’s home state by revamping federal permitting rules will play out in agencies and courts for now, after Congress balked last month."
"States have plans to ban gas-powered cars and the White House wants chargers along highways, but implementation is a challenge".
"President Joe Biden on Monday pledged more than $60 million in aid to help U.S. territory Puerto Rico and said more money was coming, as he sought to present a more compassionate image than his predecessor, Donald Trump, while surveying damage from Hurricane Fiona."
"Pakistan is facing a disaster within a disaster as diseases spread rapidly and deaths mount following widespread deadly flooding - a crisis worsened by the country's weak health system and lack of emergency planning, medical experts warn."
Concerns about seaborne plastic waste go back decades, but science writer Juli Berwald suggests that myths and disinformation about sources and solutions continue to cloud the waters. From lentil-sized nurdles to sprawling fishing nets, 200 million tons of plastic now fill the ocean and, for her, it has become evident that the ocean plastics story is really a land story. But will the newly signed international treaty on plastics offer relief?
Electric utilities may sound like a wonky beat, but in the hands of L.A. Times’ Sammy Roth, it became an opportunity to weave together seemingly dry, technical subject matter into a series of award-winning stories on natural gas that captured flash points for climate change, communities of color and energy politics. Roth shares his reporting experience in the latest Inside Story Q&A.
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