"After two years, Brightmark Energy has yet to get the factory up and running. Environmentalists say pyrolysis requires too much energy, emits greenhouse gases and pollutants, and turns plastic waste into new, dirty fossil fuels."
Chicken production in the United States is a colossal industry controlled by a few vertically integrated companies. On a much smaller scale, it’s also heritage breeds and increasingly popular backyard flocks. As the latest avian flu outbreak makes headlines, journalist Christine Heinrichs looks at environmental reporting opportunities related to poultry pathogens, pollution and more.
The auto market is getting supercharged by California’s recent decision to require all-electric vehicle sales in a little over a decade. The latest TipSheet looks at how this big national trend will affect climate change by cutting CO2 emissions, how California came to have such an outsized impact on the U.S. market and how local environmental reporters can plug in for stories around their communities.
"Gov. Wolf touted jobs and less plastic pollution when the plans were announced in April, but a professor from Carnegie Mellon who’s studied the technology says it can lead to “sustainability fraud.”"
Levels of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, have doubled in the past 150 years due to human activity, particularly from fossil fuels and extensive farming. As part of an ongoing Society of Environmental Journalists special project focused on covering climate solutions, check out a methane resource toolbox and stay tuned for a methane reporting tipsheet in the coming weeks. Plus, watch the recording of an SEJ virtual webinar, Covering Climate Solutions: Containing and Monitoring Methane.
"Nearly one-third of states are poised to adopt California’s new clean cars rule to fully phase out new gas-powered vehicle sales by 2035. The change could have a sweeping impact on the 17 states signed onto California’s vehicle standards and the car market across the country. In total, those states make up roughly 40% of nationwide auto sales."
"Six days after a state Senate panel killed legislation that would have required real-time air monitoring along the edges of major Louisiana industrial facilities, an Olin Chemical subsidiary had a significant chlorine gas leak that sickened 39 people."
"The governor of Mississippi urged residents of Jackson, the state’s capital and largest city, not to drink the water there — if they still had access to it — warning that running water would soon be unavailable as the city’s long-struggling treatment plant failed."
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