"A Texas county is suing EPA over the agency’s cancellation of nearly $250 million in solar energy grants." "The lawsuit says the Trump administration unlawfully revoked funding for low-income communities to access clean, affordable energy."
"The water isn’t always brown, but Scarlet Weathers lives like it is. Not once has she drank the tap water from her kitchen sink in her house in Sweeny, Texas. She knows, like everyone else in the town, that it can’t be trusted. Even her small grandchildren have noticed it during bathtime. Why is the water brown?"
"For as long as 55-year-old Hopi Chairman Tim Nuvangyaoma has been alive, high-voltage power lines have cut across Hopi lands in northeast Arizona, carrying vast amounts of power long distances throughout the Southwest. But residents of the Hopi Reservation have never been connected to that grid."
"Arizona’s lax water laws let corporate farms pump unlimited groundwater to grow alfalfa for cattle overseas, even as local families spend their savings drilling new wells."
"Last year, state epidemiologists studied an industrialized region east of Houston. They reported finding high rates of cancer, but refused to release key geographic details—a decision some experts say is irresponsible."
"Exxon Mobil will postpone its plans for a large new plastics production plant on the Gulf Coast of Texas, according to the company. Construction was initially planned to begin next year on the $10 billion facility in rural Calhoun County."
"With sizzling temperatures and a parched climate, it can be hard to survive in the Sonoran Desert of Arizona. But some species have evolved to thrive in this extreme environment, including the iconic saguaro cactus. Part of the reason for this prickly plant’s success is its intimate relationship with a smaller—but similarly mighty—desert player: fungi."
Before giving summer its send-off, consider that heat kills more people in the U.S. annually than any other weather-related disaster. Phoenix journalist Katherine Davis-Young is well acquainted with this human toll. Drawing on her own reporting experience, she looks at how to cover extreme heat in your community. Pro tip: Don’t wait until next summer to familiarize yourself with vulnerable communities and investigate local mitigation policies.
"Before and after the 2024 election, Elon Musk made it clear he disliked environmental regulations and considered them a barrier to innovation, especially given the quick timelines his companies prefer to operate on."
When reporters from Inside Climate News and The Texas Tribune teamed up on a multipart series about Texas environmental regulators, they found state agencies sidestepping science, the law and accountability. The beneficiaries? The oil and gas industry. Their prizewinning reporting was praised for its data analysis, and public records and field reporting. Read an Inside Story Q&A with Martha Pskowski of Inside Climate News.
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