"Maryland lawmakers’ new solution for rising utility bills reduces a surcharge funding an effective energy-efficiency program, offers rebates by raiding the state’s clean energy fund and includes subsidies for nuclear power that advocates say may prove costly over time."
"When the Supreme Court blocked President Barack Obama’s signature climate regulation a decade ago, conservative justices were worried about the cost to industry, according to private memos reported by The New York Times."
"A federal judge in Massachusetts on Tuesday sided with renewable energy developers in their challenge to the Trump administration’s actions targeting wind and solar projects, blocking the administration from enforcing decisions that advocates say have slowed the development of projects across the country."
SEJournal is providing full coverage of all eight of the day-long tours from the annual Society of Environmental Journalists’ conference, April 15-18, in Chicago. In Part 2, contributors Meg Duff, Nathaniel Eisen, Nhung Nguyen and Marlowe Starling provide detailed reports from tours focused on the transitioning steel industry, microgrids, climate-friendly crop practices and evolving Midwestern agricultural systems.
Also check out the first round of tour coverage and read all the great work from our team of early-career freelance journalists, part of SEJournal’s live #SEJ2026 Live conference reporting.
Nearly as rejuvenating as attending the Society of Environmental Journalists’ annual gathering is perusing the après-conference spoof by contributing quipster David Helvarg. While it seemed he was mostly there unabashedly preselling his forthcoming book, he somehow found time to send up SEJ’s earnest sessions, lambast its blown-up tours and rib its beat dinners. Read his Chicago roast.
"The U.S. government plans another oil and gas lease sale for Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge — following two prior sales that saw no interest from major oil companies and amid ongoing litigation aimed at blocking drilling in a region seen as sacred by the indigenous Gwich’in."
"In a setback to the Trump administration’s extraordinary legal campaign against state climate action, a federal judge threw out the Justice Department’s lawsuit seeking to prevent the state of Hawaii from suing oil companies for damages."
"On a busy tourist strip in Orlando, behind noisy bars and souvenir shops, 21 sloths in crates reached the end of a grueling international trip. Soon, they would all be dead."
"Environmental groups are suing the Trump administration over its decision to exempt oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico from complying with the Endangered Species Act, a move they say threatens both the coastline region and the law designed to protect threatened plants and animals."
"The Trump administration is moving ahead with a uranium mining project in South Dakota that’s drawn years of pushback from the Oglala Sioux Tribe." "Federal regulators are preparing an environmental review for a project opposed by members of a nearby tribe and conservation groups."
