California Will Get Half its Energy From Renewables by 2020
California Coastline along State Road 1Robert Bohrer/Shutterstock The US fight against climate change hasn’t exactly made much progress recently. Just this week, for instance, the Trump administration spent its time at the UN conference on climate change in Bonn praising the benefits of coal. But there is actually one bit of good news. A report released Monday from the California Public Utilities Commission shows that the state will get half of its…
Here’s What Climate Change Is Doing to the West
A wildfire burns in Medford, Ore.Usfs/Planet Pix/Zuma This story was originally published by High Country News and appears here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. The complexity of climate change means it’s hard to trace simple lines from cause to effect in daily life, much less plan for the future. That’s one reason the federal government updates its…
Cory Booker’s New Bill Has a “Snowball’s Chance in Hell” of Passing
Mel Evans/AP This story was originally published by CityLab and appears here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. On October 23, Senator Cory Booker, one of the members of Congress most capable of harnessing bipartisan cooperation, introduced the Environmental Justice Act of 2017, which was devoid of one Republican sponsor. If passed, the bill would force the federal government to…
Guess Which Country Was AWOL at the UN Climate Conference?
Andy Kroll A door. That, more or less, is the extent of the United States government’s public presence at the 23rd United Nations climate change conference, hosted this year in Bonn, Germany. During the Obama years, the US dispatched scores of delegates to Copenhagen, Marrakech, Doha, and Lima for climate negotiations. They represented the country’s…
The Republican Tax Plan Is an Assault on Renewable Energy
Solar energy companies don’t fare much better. The House GOP plan would also repeal the Investment Tax Credit for big solar projects that start construction after 2027. House Republicans also propose eliminating the $7,500 credit for electric vehicle purchases, which analysts say “could cripple the emerging EV market.” Along with the proposed changed to the…
We Now Know Just How Bad the Flint Water Crisis Was for Pregnant Women
A Flint resident holds up a bottle of the city’s water along with hair pulled from her drain.Molly Riley/AP This story was originally published by The Atlantic and appears here as part of the Climate Desk collaboration. When the city of Flint, Michigan, temporarily switched its water source to the Flint River in 2014, it didn’t treat the water…