"In one of the poorest states in America, the local utility earns massive profits producing dirty energy with almost no pushback from state regulators."
"The U.S. Department of Energy has announced up to $100 million in federal funding for projects modernizing the nation’s remaining coal plants, nearly half of which were slated to close by 2030."
"Communities around Louisiana, in a bid to get more information about the environmental and health impacts of industrial pollution, are taking data collection into their own hands — despite a law restricting how their research findings can be used to enforce state regulations. "
"A fast-moving bill to reduce wildfire risks in national forests would give the Agriculture Department a work-around past even the bill’s modest environmental safeguards, making the measure tough to swallow for some environmentalists and Hill Democrats."
"Several of the country’s largest chicken and turkey companies operate processing plants that routinely violate the federal government’s safety standards for salmonella contamination, according to a new analysis released by the animal welfare organization Farm Forward."
"With Trump propelling the U.S. LNG industry into a massive expansion, companies are flouting landmark environmental laws."
Efforts under Trump 2.0 to cut funding for environmental justice programs may be the new reality, but the uncertain status of hundreds of Biden-era grants offers important local stories. And as Reporter’s Toolbox finds, a database that rescued federal grant information helps make that reporting possible, with coding by congressional district to put the conflict into political context.
"Earlier this month, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) reported that the global population of green turtles has increased nearly 30 percent since the 1970s, thanks to a suite of international actions aimed at saving the animals."
"Oil companies have polluted groundwater and the environment by injecting oil field waste deep into the earth at pressures high enough to violate Oklahoma law. ... The regulatory agency says it ... has not fined any company for wastewater leaks in the last five years."
"Melissa, one of the strongest storms on record to make landfall in the Caribbean, began to dissipate on Friday after sowing devastation across much of Jamaica, cutting off communities in Cuba, drenching Haiti and leaving at least 50 dead."
