EJToday is a daily weekday digest of top environment/energy news and information of interest to environmental journalists, independently curated by Editor Joseph A. Davis. Sign up below to receive in your inbox. For queries, email EJToday@SEJ.org. For more info, read an EJToday FAQ. Plus, follow EJToday on social media at @EJTodayNews, and flag stories of note by including the @EJTodayNews handle on your posts. And tell us how to make EJToday even better by taking this brief survey.
Want to join the EJToday team? Volunteer time commitments can vary from just an hour a month up to a daily contribution, and would involve helping to curate content of interest. To learn more, reach out to the director of publications, Adam Glenn, at sejournaleditor@sej.org.
Note: Members have additional options to choose from (you'll need your log-in info).
"The data center capital of the world is shifting more transmission costs onto the energy-hungry sector." "The decision is expected to shift hundreds of millions of dollars in transmission costs away from the public."
"The case, Suncor v. Boulder, has spurred calls for two of the justices to recuse themselves as they weigh whether federal law or the Constitution bars local governments from suing fossil fuel companies over the costs of addressing climate change."
"A late add to try to unseat Sen. Susan Collins, the Democratic Senate hopeful blends a progressive streak with roots in the timber industry."
"Dust storms that blanketed the Phoenix area in thick haze this week were among the most intense to hit the region in years, scientists said Thursday. The storms — called haboobs — occur throughout the U.S. Southwest when strong downdrafts from thunderstorms stir up loose dust and dirt that get blown along in front of the approaching storm cell."
"As Australia prepares for the H5 bird flu to potentially rip through hundreds of species, residents of the Limestone Coast are already seeing the impacts"
"In 2023, the Environmental Protection Agency under the Biden administration proposed creating stronger cybersecurity guidelines to better safeguard the nation’s water supply from hackers. ... The E.P.A. rescinded the order, however, after Republican-led states and industry groups sued to block its enforcement."
"Winners this week either want to crack down on new data centers or enact a moratorium."
"The president’s push for data centers is driving a boom in gas-burning power plants. Texas is leading the way."
"The Senate on Wednesday voted mainly along party lines to confirm Erica Schwartz to lead the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The vote ends months of leadership uncertainty at the nation’s premier public health agency but leaves unresolved the central question that dominated her confirmation process: Will she preserve the agency’s scientific independence under Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.?"
"Trump has lashed out at U.S. Attorney Jeanine Pirro after she dropped vandalism cases and blamed damage at the pool on rushed and flawed work by a contractor."
"An environmental group argues Louisiana officials did not account for all of the harmful emissions Meta’s data center in Richland Parish will produce when it approved the facility’s Clean Air Act permit revisions in June."
"The agency spent hundreds of millions on lead remediation in Omaha, home of the nation’s largest residential Superfund site. New soil tests by the Flatwater Free Press and ProPublica show that many yards still have harmful levels of lead."
"Thomasville hoped to remove mold, lead and failing sewage from a historic Black neighborhood. Now residents fear another generation of neglect."
"The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has backed off its re-assessment of cancer-causing nitrates despite decades of research suggesting the contaminant is more harmful than previously thought and that nitrate pollution is at crisis levels in US drinking water."
"A federal appeals court signaled that it might not allow a lawsuit brought by fishing industry businesses and trade groups against a California aquarium to proceed because of the case’s potential impact on free speech."
