Infrastructure

"Ending support for renewables and keeping fossil fuel power plants are the wrong tactics for addressing skyrocketing electricity rates"

"The Trump administration has extended its order to keep a Michigan coal-fired power plant running until November, well past its planned closure in the spring. It’s the latest move in a push to force dirty, expensive power plants to keep operating, which experts warn could saddle Americans with billions of dollars in unnecessary electricity costs."

"The Interior Department is deputizing federal border agents and sending them to National Park Service sites amid the federal law enforcement takeover of Washington, D.C., Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said Wednesday."

"The Agriculture Department is curtailing its support for solar and wind energy on farmlands."

"China has been installing solar panels at a blistering pace, far faster than anywhere else in the world, and the investment is starting to pay off. A study released Thursday found that the country’s carbon emissions edged down 1% in the first six months of the year compared to a year earlier, extending a trend that began in March 2024."

"Hayden, a long-established coal community, is pitching companies to come take advantage of “reliable, cost-effective heating and cooling” at its light industrial park once its new geothermal network is complete."

"A train derails and spills at least 1,000 gallons of hazardous materials in the U.S. about once every two months. Nearly half of those derailments resulted in evacuations; more than a quarter resulted in a fire or explosion since 2015, an analysis of federal derailment data showed. And many communities along the rail lines aren’t prepared to keep people safe when it happens."

"Coastal communities nationwide are ramping up efforts to fend off rising seas, higher tides and stronger storm surges that are chewing away at coastlines, pushing saltwater farther inland and threatening ecosystems and communities."

"Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said he halted construction of a wind project off the coast of New York earlier this year because scientists revealed that the Biden administration “rushed approval” of the development based on “flawed science. But Burgum himself won’t reveal what those scientists said — or present the flaws."

"EPA expressed alarm at contamination in a creek near a predominantly Black neighborhood. Then the agency eliminated its civil-rights office and has taken no further action."