"The Energy Department is planning to prop up old and shuttered coal plants using more than half a billion dollars that Congress originally set aside to advance carbon capture technologies and improve energy resiliency and environmental protection in rural areas."
Get more Voices of Environmental Justice in 2026, as we increase column frequency to bimonthly. And for her first contribution of the year, writer Yessenia Funes calls on climate reporters to offer audiences a sense of hope by leaning into solutions narratives, hard-hitting and data-driven stories that hold the powerful accountable. Expert advice on how to make solutions journalism work.
Bird populations remain in steep decline, mostly due to human activity. But as the latest TipSheet reports, reporting on the disappearance of our avian residents can lead journalists to some bread-and-butter environmental stories: whether about local ecosystems, climate change, chemicals, land disturbance and more. Read on for more, including nearly a dozen-and-a-half story ideas and reporting resources.
More heat pumps than ever are going into homes and businesses in the United States these days. But they are just one small-scale use of geothermal energy, a promising utility-scale technology that is growing worldwide — and with a minimal carbon footprint to boot. But there are drawbacks as well. The new Issue Backgrounder explains how it all works.
"At the North American International Auto Show, tires squeal as gearheads put shiny new vehicles through their paces on a pair of indoor tracks that sprawl across the event space. One of those tracks used to be set aside exclusively for electric vehicles as U.S. automakers sought to quickly build out the cars of the future."
"As the son of a popular Michigan Congressman, John Dingell, Jr., grew up accustomed to being around power brokers and deal-makers. In 1938, at the tender age of 12, he began working as a page in the U.S. House of Representatives, long before he would succeed his father and launch his own distinguished Congressional career. But it was the time he spent with his father in the woods, not the U.S. Capitol, that had the most lasting impact."
"A federal judge issued a temporary injunction, allowing the developer of Empire Wind, an offshore wind project off the coast of Long Island, to resume construction after the Trump administration suspended work there in late December."
"The Trump administration has completed its first Venezuelan oil sale, valued at $500 million, an administration official confirmed to The Hill on Wednesday. "
"Earth’s average temperature last year hovered among one of the three hottest on record, while the past three years indicate that warming could be speeding up, international climate monitoring teams reported."
"As electricity prices climb, an unusual disconnect is emerging between what regular people pay — and what data centers pay."
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