Climate Change

"Melissa Ostroff finds gas leaks for a living, so it was surprising to hear someone say they smelled gas in her own home."

"In a first for the country, solar and wind generated more electricity than coal over most of 2024. The two renewable energy sources provided a record 17 percent of U.S. electricity from January to November, while coal contributed 15 percent, according to data from think tank Ember."

"Even as groundwater levels have rapidly declined in farming regions from California’s Central Valley to the High Plains, the federal government has mostly taken a hands-off approach to the chronic depletion of the nation’s aquifers. But in a new report for the White House, scientists say the country is facing serious and unprecedented groundwater challenges that call for the federal government to play a larger role."

"President-elect Donald Trump’s pick to lead EPA lives in an area at high risk for flooding that gets federal support for climate mitigation."

"Without insurance, it’s impossible to get a mortgage; without a mortgage, most Americans can’t buy a home."

"Additions of clean electricity generation and power lines are falling farther behind the pace of retiring coal and gas plants and surging data center and industrial demand, said the grid’s reliability monitor in an unusually grim outlook for the nation."

"With 2024 set to become the hottest year on record, growing climate extremes mean some places around the world will become uninhabitable and that could lead to mass migration."

"As the liquefied natural gas (LNG) boom gained momentum in southwest Louisiana, one public institution of higher learning, McNeese State University, courted the industry to help launch a new LNG Center of Excellence, hired a director doubling as an LNG industry lobbyist, and approached federal regulators to co-locate their own research center at the university, according to emails obtained via public records requests by DeSmog and The Guardian."

"Joe Biden has announced tougher targets on the US’s carbon dioxide emissions for the next decade, in a defiant final gesture intended as a “capstone” on his legacy on the climate."

"The Biden administration today approved California’s groundbreaking mandate phasing out new gas-powered cars just weeks before the incoming Trump administration poses a threat of overturning electric vehicle and climate rules."