Resilience
States and localities are having to adjust to a changing climate, establishing new policies, rules and guidelines relating to energy, land use and water rights, as well as responding to emergencies triggered by more intense storms, floods and wildfires.
After years of cuts, the agency’s budget has doubled since 2020. But its new director will face challenges due to policy differences with the incoming Trump administration.
State officials face challenges from shrinking revenue and major changes from Washington in shared programs such as education and Medicaid.
Even the most basic computing tasks require electrical power. The level of computing that drives today’s economy is far from basic.
Some communities are investing in new infrastructure and designs not only to protect residents but improve quality of life.
When a sports team loses, its fans don't hang around for the postgame show.
Seven states rely on water from the Colorado River. They’ve split into two camps and have made “zero progress” ahead of current apportionment rules expiring in 2026.
Eleven states belong to the 20-year-old Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, which created the nation’s first regional cap-and-invest system for reducing carbon emissions. With the change in administration, RGGI may set more aggressive emissions reductions goals.
More hybrid vehicles are coming on the market because customers seem to lack the appetite for all-electric vehicles. The Trump administration may cut back on tax credits and other EV support.
The Trump administration is likely to reverse some climate policies but local officials are determined to continue addressing impacts on their communities.
Solar farms are being shut off, losing more than twice as much potential power than in 2021. The surplus would be worse if utilities weren’t paying other states to take some of the excess.
The power often goes out in Eastport, Maine, due to storms. Now, the small city is developing solar and tidal power to fuel its own microgrid.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer announced the investment and others tied to a clean hydrogen hub project in a news release on Wednesday.
The governor’s office has proposed creating a Texas Nuclear Power Fund to incentivize nuclear growth as well as passing pro-nuclear legislation, creating a university research network and bolstering the nuclear supply chain.
Municipalities across the state have challenged the legality of the state’s processing of permitting requests for large-scale solar and wind energy facilities. The controversial law passed last year and diminishes local control.
Hurricane Helene put rural Western North Carolina’s home-based child-care providers under an existential threat. The natural disaster exacerbated problems caused by years of insufficient funding and lack of support, causing many child-care providers to fear they won’t be able to start over.
They’re good for our children’s health and for the environment, and transitioning away from diesel-powered buses is the fiscally conservative thing to do. Unsubstantiated claims about them only serve as political theater.
State air regulators voted last week to update the Low Carbon Fuel Standard to aim to reduce carbon emissions of transportation fuels by 30 percent by 2030.
An initiative to cut a carbon tax out of the Washington Climate Commitment Act was soundly rejected by voters. Gov. Jay Inslee sees the margin of defeat as an important message.
Many of the environmentally-friendly upgrades that turn a home into an energy efficient one are cost-prohibitive for builders outside of luxury homes. As popularity for efficient housing grows, can Maryland find a way to bring down costs?
The Hawthorne Fire on Lamentation Mountain continues to spread. 127,000 gallons of water from next-door Silver Lake has been dumped on the fire so far.
Fear and confusion in the aftermath of disasters create fertile ground for misinformation. Social media and AI can amplify it, but there are ways to weather the storm.
Few homeowners are protected against flood damage. What can be done to reduce the burden of recovery on them and their communities?
State geologist Mark Myers hopes that hydrogen deposits in Alaska’s metamorphic rock could be enough to fuel the state’s energy industry. The idea comes from a well in Mali that has fueled one village since 2012.
The San Joaquin Valley, Calif., school district plans to buy about 20 Flex Farms, a self-contained system that circulates nutrient-rich water to as many as 288 plants, so that students can learn a new way to grow food.
Elevating buildings to avoid storm surges and flooding can increase the chance of survival for people and homes along the coast. But as hurricanes like Helene, and possibly Milton, continue to break records, building higher may not be enough.
Historic rainfall that devastated the Southeast was generated by conditions that still exist. What lessons can local governments in other parts of the country take from Helene?
The S.S. United States, which has been docked in South Philadelphia since the mid-1990s, will soon be retired and sunk into the Gulf of Mexico to act as the world’s largest artificial reef.
Dozens of jurisdictions are seeking damages from fossil fuel companies. Jeffrey B. Simon, an attorney representing Multnohmah County, Ore., talks about the ways science and precedent will influence the success of their cases.
A petroleum and chemical tank farm operator and a Louisiana environmental group are working together to install air monitors measuring emissions.
The Bureau of Land Management’s controversial plan updates preferred solar zones for the first time in 12 years and identifies nearly 12 million acres for available solar development in Nevada, more than any of the 11 other states included in the plan.
The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that California could lose up to 75 percent of its beaches in the next 75 years. The changes have sparked multimillion-dollar restoration projects and lawsuits along the state’s coast.
