Inside Climate News

MARTINEZ, Calif.—Scores of people tired of living near accident-prone refineries packed an elementary school auditorium to hear what their government officials were doing to protect them. Two local refineries, Marathon Martinez Renewables and Martinez Refining Co., have racked up hundreds of air quality violations over the past five years. MRC agreed in February to pay […]

Oil companies will no longer be required to conduct environmental reviews before exploring for fossil fuel reservoirs in the Western Arctic, the largest tract of federally managed public land in the United States. The Bureau of Land Management announced a categorical exclusion under the National Environmental Policy Act for winter oil and gas exploration in […]

A crude oil pipeline spill last month in the Detroit suburbs has prompted federal authorities to open an investigation into the safety of all 20,000 miles of hazardous liquids pipelines operated by Energy Transfer. The 600-gallon spill at a commercial intersection in Sterling Heights, Michigan, has received little media coverage. Local news reports at the […]

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission issued an unusual warning this week to the country’s largest asset managers and a climate-focused investor group over their roles in a 2021 campaign that replaced board directors at ExxonMobil. The commission published a letter saying it had concluded a probe into the entities, and while it found no […]

This story is part of an investigation conducted by an international team of journalists based at The Outlaw Ocean Project. Read the other stories here. Xinjiang is a land of unforgiving extremes. Across its 600,000 square miles on China’s far northwest frontier, barely six inches of rain falls each year. The region’s Taklamakan Desert has […]

Around 100 Baltimore residents packed a community hall in the Curtis Bay neighborhood on the evening of Oct. 1. One after another, they implored the Maryland Department of the Environment not to renew the air permit for the city’s largest trash incinerator. The speakers—young residents and retirees, longtime neighbors, doctors, students and environmental advocates—described the […]

A new report paints a dark picture of the state of global wildlife—but also highlights flickers of light where some populations are on the upswing.  Over the past half-century, populations of thousands of vertebrate species across the globe have decreased in size by 73 percent on average, according to the “Living Planet” report published Wednesday […]

In Montgomery County, Indiana, utility-scale solar projects appear on an official list of undesirable land uses that also includes “adult-oriented businesses.” So it wasn’t surprising that the county Board of Commissioners unanimously rejected a 200-megawatt solar project on Sept. 28. But it still stings for renewable energy advocates. It shows a huge challenge lurking right […]

Maryland environmental regulators say jet fuel continues to seep into Piscataway Creek from Joint Base Andrews more than six months after the spill was reported, despite the base’s assurances that it has isolated the damaged fuel system and stopped the leak. “MDE remains deeply concerned about the ongoing environmental impacts and continues to observe signs […]

Environmental groups and citizens are urging Pennsylvania regulators to increase the minimum amount of protective buffer space between gas wells and homes, schools and water sources. The issue has taken on new urgency as the AI data center buildout spurs more demand for natural gas.  On Wednesday, a coalition of environmental and community groups held […]

Ozone pollution from fires, along with extreme heat and drought, is further weakening the Amazon rainforest’s ability to absorb carbon dioxide, new research shows.  The Amazon and other forests absorb more than a quarter of human-caused CO2 emissions each year, more than 11 billion metric tons. But in recent decades, increasingly larger areas of forests […]

In 1991, Random House published a picture book called “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: ABC’s for a Better Planet,” in which the masked cartoon turtles trade in their signature nunchucks for signs bearing environmental slogans. For “A,” the turtles explain the sources of acid rain. Under “B,” the concept of biodegradability.  “Don’t Pollute Dudes!” the turtles […]

As Mainers prepare to choose a new governor in November, climate and energy issues may not be top of mind for every voter—but they are having big effects on residents’ lives.  The average cost of heating oil recently soared to a record high of more than $6 per gallon, promising an expensive winter ahead for […]

If there was a year the world began waking up to climate change, it might have been 1988. That June, the NASA climatologist James Hansen testified to Congress that the climate was warming and would continue to do so as long as humans pumped fossil fuel pollution into the atmosphere. Months later, the United Nations […]

MONTGOMERY, Ala.—The Alabama Public Service Commission approved a new set of rules for future data center projects Tuesday that require more transparency and disclosure from data center companies and public votes by the PSC for data center approval. But they leave in place what critics call a “disappointing” provision allowing for approval by default of […]

In the Southern Ocean, whales, penguins, seals and seabirds feast on massive swarms of krill that underpin much of the region’s marine food web. Meanwhile, a growing fishing industry in Antarctica is also targeting the tiny crustaceans, used to make Omega-3 supplements, pet food and feed for farm-raised salmon. Now, a coalition of more than […]

Europe’s fish stocks are in such dire straits that even the retailers who rely on them are now telling the fishing industry to slow down.  Last week, the International Council for the Exploration of the Sea—an intergovernmental marine science organization whose data is used to determine annual catch limits—published its annual mackerel report. Following upward […]

Drinking water costs spiked faster than inflation, grocery prices and median household income, researchers at nonprofit Food & Water Watch outlined in a first-of-its-kind report released Tuesday. The average community water system increased household drinking water prices by 62 percent between 2015 and 2025—with costs in Louisiana, Maryland and New Hampshire having particularly steep rises, […]

NY-17: The third in a series on the environmental stakes behind one of the nation’s most fiercely contested congressional races. At 8, on her walk home from elementary school, Sylke Jackson would drop sticks, leaves and nut shells in Nyack Brook. They would soften and float along beside her, as if companions. At 10, as […]

Armed Border Patrol agents raided a protest camp in Lochiel, in southeast Arizona, making way for contractors to cut down the last standing cottonwood tree Monday morning for a double border wall, after protesters protected it for more than 70 days.  Activists in Lochiel said at least 12 people had been arrested as of 8 […]