Politics & Policy

The decision to replace John Kerry with John Podesta as the top U.S. climate diplomat may be making headlines this week. But there’s another presidential appointee who could also have a significant impact on the nation’s efforts to address climate change but has mostly flown under the radar.  On Wednesday, the Senate confirmed Joseph Goffman […]

After a 2023 legislative session that saw Virginia lawmakers claw back oversight over Dominion Energy’s previously unchecked profits, Virginia’s monopoly utility is once again facing scrutiny over its balance sheet and commitment to clean energy.  Sen. Creigh Deeds, a Democrat representing Charlottesville and an architect of last year’s successful push to restore regulatory oversight of […]

MOODY, Ala.—Richard Harp couldn’t believe his ears.  On Thursday, he heard for the first time from Inside Climate News that an EPA official had publicly confirmed what he already knew—the massive underground landfill fire near Moody, Alabama, just a football field away from his home, is still burning. In fact, the official told ICN, it […]

NEW MARKET, Ala.—Merri Gardunia thought her house might be on fire.  Gardunia, a special education teacher, was on her way home in August 2023 when she saw the smoke billowing above her road in New Market, Alabama, a small town just northeast of Huntsville.  As she got closer, she sighed in relief. It wasn’t her […]

The White House has announced that it is temporarily pausing the federal approval process for all pending export terminals of liquified natural gas, or LNG, marking a significant win for environmentalists who had been fighting the projects for years. President Joe Biden, in a statement released early Friday morning, cited the climate crisis for the […]

Taking aim at the United States and an “irresponsible lifestyle” with some of the world’s highest carbon emissions per capita, Pope Francis on Wednesday doubled down on his earlier call for urgent action to tackle climate change, while also criticizing a failing global response to the crisis. Eight years after the Vatican published Francis’ landmark […]

LOUISVILLE, Ky.—Gov. Andy Beshear, looking for another four years in the governor’s mansion, bucks Democratic Party conventional wisdom on handling climate change, by securing endorsements from coal mining interests while, according to Sierra Club leaders, rejecting a potential nod of approval from the environmental group’s Kentucky chapter. And as he faces off this fall against […]

Apple’s recent announcement of its first-ever “carbon neutral” product was questioned in a new report by a Chinese environmental research organization that gathers and tracks data on greenhouse gas emissions from China’s manufacturing sector, which makes the majority of Apple products.  As part of a high profile environmental campaign including a 5-minute video featuring an […]

HARRISBURG, Pa.—Barbara Brandom fought back tears as she contemplated the destruction of nature and a lost environment she fears her grandchildren will never experience as a result of climate change.  “If we continue to consume fossil fuels as we did in the past, by 2050, the air temperature will have increased another five degrees,” she […]

Moving to New York can be a culture shock. When Liz French decamped from Indiana to Long Island City, Queens, in 1989—well before it was a trendy place to live—she was sad to learn she’d lost access to a beloved childhood ritual: composting. Her parents, “kind of hippies,” had introduced her to the practice growing […]