New York city sues oil companies over climate change, says it plans to divest

by Nicholas Kusnetz, InsideClimate News New York City is suing five of the largest oil companies over the billions of dollars it spends protecting the city from the effects of climate change, and it plans to divest its pension funds’ $5 billion in assets involving fossil fuel producers, Mayor Bill de Blasio announced Wednesday. As […]

Trump Admin. removes Florida from offshore drilling targets (California not so lucky)

by Ledyard King, The News-press Washington bureau WASHINGTON – In a sudden about-face, the Trump administration has decided to exclude Florida from its plan to expand offshore oil and gas drilling. Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke announced the decision Tuesday evening after meeting with Florida Gov. Rick Scott at Tallahassee International Airport. Scott had joined with […]

The New Climate Watchdogs: Democratic Attorneys General Take on Trump

by David Hasemyer, InsideClimate News Donald Trump was just hours from inauguration as the 45th president of the United States when a coalition of Democratic attorneys general went to court to defend EPA regulations limiting interstate air pollution. It was a legal shot across the bow of the fossil fuel industry, and the start of […]

China unveils an ambitious plan to curb climate change emissions

by Keith Bradsher and Lisa Friedman, NY Times SHANGHAI — China is the world’s No. 1 polluter. It burns more coal than the rest of the world combined. It produces more than a quarter of the world’s human-caused global warming gases, nearly as much as North America and Europe put together. On Tuesday, the country […]

FHA should reconsider their about face—about PACE

By Jacob Corvidae and Martha Campbell, Rocky Mountain Institute Last week, the Federal Housing Administration (FHA) announced it will stop insuring new mortgages on homes with property assessed clean energy (PACE) loans. As to what motivated its decision—according to its letter to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development—the FHA is “concerned with the […]

Wind power blows past coal in Texas

by Ryan Maye Handy, Chron Wind power, by one important measure, surpassed coal last month to become the second-largest electricity source in Texas, yet another milestone in the state’s march toward greater reliance on renewable energy. When a 155-megawatt wind farm in West Texas began commercial operation this month, it helped push the state’s wind […]

South Dakota warns it could revoke Keystone Pipeline permit over oil spill

by Phil Mckenna, InsideClimate News South Dakota regulators said they could revoke TransCanada’s permit for the 7-year-old Keystone Pipeline if an investigation into a large oil spill discovered last week concludes the company violated its terms. If that happens, the company would have to correct any issues—in the worst case, even replace part of the […]

California’s housing policy is holding back its climate policy

by Esmé E Deprez, Bloomberg The high cost of housing in California isn’t just hurting the state’s economy, fueling homelessness, and exacerbating economic inequality. It’s imperiling its reputation as a global leader in emissions reductions, too. Lila Cabrera’s move last year to Palmdale, a city of 160,000 in the high-desert region of Antelope Valley north […]

College Republican group ACC takes up Roosevelt’s environment mantle and hopes the GOP will follow

by Javier E. David, CNBC Dozens of college Republicans are tackling what might appear to be a mission impossible enough for Tom Cruise: Persuading GOP elders to embrace environmentally friendly policy. The American Conservative Coalition — a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization — is a group of young GOP campus activists that advocates pro-market clean-energy policies. On […]

Why Governor Jerry Brown was booed at the bonn climate summit

by Bill McKibben, The New Yorker Spare a little pity for Jerry Brown. The California governor has been standing up admirably to Donald Trump on many issues, but especially on climate change—even threatening to launch scientific satellites to replace the ones that Washington wants to ground. This week, he’s in Bonn, Germany, at the global […]