Environment & Health - Inside Climate News

North Carolina’s Iconic College Town Struggles to Redevelop a Toxic Coal Ash Mound

By Lisa Sorg — Sun, 21 Jul 2024 09:00:00 +0000

Chapel Hill officials envision an office park, perhaps, with trails. But some community members and lawyers say a few feet of clean fill can’t protect against chemicals linked to serious illnesses.

By Lisa Sorg

CHAPEL HILL, N.C.—No dog parks. No golf. No soccer or football.

In Idaho, Water Shortages Pit Farmers Against One Another

By Daniel Rothberg — Sat, 20 Jul 2024 09:15:00 +0000

This summer, a short-lived curtailment order brought a dispute to a head between farmers irrigating from the Snake River and those dependent on groundwater. Without a long-term plan to share water, the cuts could come back next year.

By Daniel Rothberg

TWIN FALLS, Idaho—Along the banks of the Snake River, below the Magic Valley’s fields of barley, wheat and corn, groundwater from a massive aquifer springs from steep, dark rock and crashes down the cliff to the river.

In New Mexico, a Walk Commemorates the Nuclear Disaster Few Outside the Navajo Nation Remember

By Noel Lyn Smith — Sat, 20 Jul 2024 09:10:00 +0000

The Church Rock spill released more radioactive material than the partial meltdown at Three Mile Island four months earlier. Last week’s walk highlights the continuing cleanup and the ongoing hazards uranium mining poses to tribal lands.

By Noel Lyn Smith

RED WATER POND ROAD, New Mexico—As Tony Hood walked along New Mexico Highway 566 last Saturday, he thought about where he was 45 years earlier, when an earthen dam broke at the site of a uranium mill operated by the United Nuclear Corp., releasing 94 million gallons of radioactive water and 1,100 tons of uranium waste across portions of New Mexico, Arizona and the Navajo Nation.

Louisiana’s ‘Business-Friendly’ Climate Response: Canceled Home Insurance Plans

By Terry L. Jones, Floodlight — Sat, 20 Jul 2024 09:00:00 +0000

Under a new state law, residents will no longer be protected from homeowners’ policy cancellations, higher deductibles or big rate increases.

By Terry L. Jones, Floodlight

This story was originally published by Floodlight, a nonprofit investigative newsroom focused on climate accountability.

Plastics Pollution Has Become a ‘Crisis,’ Biden Administration Acknowledges

By Marianne Lavelle — Fri, 19 Jul 2024 18:37:58 +0000

The White House strategy aims to cut pollutants, not cap production, and use government purchasing power to discourage single-use plastic.

By Marianne Lavelle

Single-use plastic would be phased out of all U.S. government operations by 2035 under a new federal plastics pollution strategy unveiled Friday by President Joe Biden’s administration, which cited a “crisis” of littered oceans and poisoned air due to plastics.

Funds to Help Low-Income Families With Summer Electric Bills Are Stretched Thin

By Martha Pskowski, Jenaye Johnson — Fri, 19 Jul 2024 09:00:00 +0000

A federal program helps people in poverty cover the costs of heat and cooling. But advocates say it disadvantages states like Texas and Arizona, even though extreme heat is a key cause of weather-related deaths.

By Martha Pskowski, Jenaye Johnson

In San Elizario, Texas, tucked between cotton fields and the U.S.-Mexico border fence, nearly 30 percent of the population lives below the poverty line.

Lithium Critical to the Energy Transition Is Coming at the Expense of Water

By Wyatt Myskow — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 18:45:00 +0000

A new study finds that the mining and processing of the metal critical to EV batteries and renewable energy storage projects depletes and contaminates surface water, often in already vulnerable communities.

By Wyatt Myskow

Lithium needed for batteries that power electric vehicles and store electricity from renewable energy projects is likely to deplete—and in some cases, contaminate—local water supplies, according to a new paper published this week.

Rooftop Solar Was Having a Moment in Texas Before Beryl. What Happens Now?

By Dan Gearino — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 13:00:00 +0000

The Lone Star State has seen a recent surge in small-scale solar development. Grid instability could push more residents to consider adoption.

By Dan Gearino

While much of the Houston area suffered through heat and electricity failures following Hurricane Beryl last week, Bill Swann never lost power.

Montana Is a Frontier for Deep Carbon Storage, and the Controversies Surrounding the Potential Climate Solution

By Najifa Farhat — Thu, 18 Jul 2024 09:00:00 +0000

The Big Sky State hopes to get federal incentives to store captured carbon under public lands, but for many residents near the project, the threat is greater than the opportunity.

By Najifa Farhat

A new project aims to take carbon dioxide pollution, likely from two natural gas processing plants in Wyoming, and store it thousands of feet underground beneath the wide-open prairies of southeastern Montana.

In Alabama’s Bald Eagle Territory, Residents Say an Unexpected Mining Operation Emerged as Independence Day Unfolded

By Lee Hedgepeth — Wed, 17 Jul 2024 09:05:00 +0000

Aside Lake Guntersville, bald eagles are royalty. But locals say a planned chert pit is already changing that status.

By Lee Hedgepeth

LANGSTON, Ala.—In a state-owned lodge atop Taylor Mountain in Lake Guntersville State Park, the walls are covered with paintings of bald eagles. Busts of the national bird carved in stone adorn end tables in the wood-paneled lobby.