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Battle Over Gas Power Facility Generates Months-Long Investigation

A private social media message piqued Arizona Republic reporter Joan Meiners’ interest in rural retirees’ efforts to block construction of a gas-fired peaker plant next to their homes. Her year-long, grant-funded investigation in 2024 uncovered questionable local government actions and utility executive motives, and concluded with action against the facility. Read Meiners’ account of how rural Arizonans became unlikely climate activists, in the latest FEJ Storylog.

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Will DOGE Evaporate Crucial Water Data?

Streamflow data gathered by thousands of U.S. Geological Survey gauges helps track the country’s floods and droughts. But it may be lost if the Trump administration follows up on a decision not to renew leases of USGS water science centers that read the gauges and disseminate the measurements. Reporter’s Toolbox on the value of this database and the risk of its loss.

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California’s Yurok Tribe Gets Back Ancestral Lands Taken Over 120 Years Ago

"As a youngster, Barry McCovey Jr. would sneak through metal gates and hide from security guards just to catch a steelhead trout in Blue Creek amid northwestern California redwoods. Since time immemorial, his ancestors from the Yurok Tribe had fished, hunted and gathered in this watershed flanked by coastal forests. But for more than 100 years, these lands were owned and managed by timber companies, severing the tribe’s access to its homelands."

Source: AP, 06/06/2025

FEMA Was Starting To Fix Long-Standing Problems. Then Came Trump Admin.

"Recent fixes to long-standing problems at the Federal Emergency Management Agency are in jeopardy as the Trump administration slashes programs and cuts staff, emergency experts warn."

Source: NPR, 06/06/2025

Months After Hurricane Helene, North Carolinians Struggle To Find Housing

"Before the remnants of Hurricane Helene swamped this town, the Super 8 Motel, wedged between a highway and the Swannanoa River, provided affordable short and long-term housing for dozens of people who couldn't find affordable housing elsewhere."

Source: NPR, 06/06/2025

"Data Centers Are Building Their Own Gas Power Plants in Texas"

"Not so long ago, developers of the massive server farms talked about powering them with wind and solar power. But now, with the coming of power-hungry AI platforms, they’re bypassing the grid, building their own gas-fired power plants on site." 

Source: Inside Climate News, 06/06/2025

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