Consumer

"A new brand of offsetting allows companies to call themselves "plastic-neutral" while continuing to use plastic themselves. What's it all about?"

"Scrambling to spare millions of households the pain of skyrocketing energy bills this winter, Britain’s new prime minister, Liz Truss, announced a sweeping plan on Thursday to freeze gas and electricity rates for two years, at a cost of tens of billions of pounds to the British Treasury."

"Enforcement could be complex and legal challenges are likely. But ultimately, experts say, success or failure will depend on steady supply and buyers’ appetite."

"Dodge will stop making gas-powered Chargers and Challengers next year, ending an era for a brand that helped define the muscle car, as it and other carmakers shift toward more climate-friendly offerings."

"Two-thirds of pledges to go greener on plastic fail or are dropped, a DW investigation has found. Here's how European food and drink companies break their own commitments, and how legislation might hold them accountable."

"When the Federal Emergency Management Agency overhauled its flood insurance program last year, it wanted to encourage homeowners to buy coverage by showing them more precisely the risk that each property faces of being flooded. But instead, hundreds of thousands of people have dropped the flood policies they were buying through FEMA, raising concerns that an unprecedented number of households are financially exposed to flood damage."

"The future of Texas’ troubled electric grid is being decided in the dark, with zero public input, by a group of people with deep connections to the fossil fuel industry."

"The national average price for a gallon of gas fell below $4 on Thursday for the first time since early March, according to AAA data. The milestone was reached after more than 55 consecutive days of declining prices at the pump."

"Congress is spending billions to save communities from Western megafires by thinning large swaths of forests even as scientists say climate change-driven drought and heat are too extreme for it to work. The money would be better spent thinning woods closest to homes and shoring up houses against embers raining down from firestorms, according to academics, former agency officials, and others who study wildfires."