Energy

Environment

Rockefellers profited on fossil fuels. These days, they're taking aim at the industry

5:10pm May 28, 2024

by Juana Summers

NPR's Juana Summers talks with Miranda Kaiser, a fifth-generation Rockefeller and the president of the Rockefeller Family Fund, about her efforts to take down the fossil fuel industry.

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Environment

White House announces a program aimed at improving the country's electric grid

4:53pm May 28, 2024

by Michael Copley

Over a million electricity customers in Texas were without power after severe storms over the Memorial Day weekend. The White House announced a program that could help make electricity more reliable.

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Power for nearly 1 million Houston buildings could be out for days after storm

5:38pm May 17, 2024

Houston is reeling after thunderstorms with hurricane-force winds knocked out electricity to nearly 1 million homes and businesses and causing widespread damage. Four people were killed.

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A giant truck hauls coal at a mine in the Powder River Basin in Wyoming

Biden ending new leases in America's top coal region

4:20pm May 16, 2024

by Kirk Siegler

Citing climate change, federal land managers are moving to end new leasing for coal in the country's top producing region.

Jackye Lafon, who's in her 80s, cools herself with a water spray at her home in Toulouse, France during a heat wave in 2022. Older people face higher heat risk than those who are younger. Climate change is making heat risk even greater.

More than 200 million seniors face extreme heat risks in coming decades, study finds

3:29pm May 14, 2024

by Alejandra Borunda

A new study warns that millions of people around the world who are 69 years or older will be at risk of dying in heat waves by 2050.

Tina Riley moved to Idaho recently in search of a new career working in the clean energy transition.

Oil industry could help the Biden administration tap 'invisible' green energy

5:39pm May 08, 2024

by Kirk Siegler

The White House wants a twenty-fold increase in geothermal energy production to fight climate change and it's counting on the oil and gas industry for help.

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Ithaca residents called for officials to take action on climate change at a rally on Earth Day 2024.

After adopting its own Green New Deal, a college town sets a new target

5:00am May 04, 2024

by Rebecca Redelmeier

Ithaca, N.Y., will require that 50% of the money spent on its energy transition and on major infrastructure projects is directed toward those residents most at risk from climate change.

An aerial view of Colombia's Regadera Reservoir in Usme, near Bogotá, April 16. Colombia's capital of Bogotá imposed water rations due to a severe drought aggravated by the El Niño.

El Niño weather is leading to droughts and power cuts in South America

5:00am May 01, 2024

by Manuel Rueda

A drought has upended life in several South American cities, leading to water rationing and power cuts as well as forest fires.

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Volunteers clean up plastic waste on a beach in Peru.

With a deadline looming, countries race for a global agreement to cut plastic waste

4:01pm April 30, 2024

by Michael Copley

A United Nations official said negotiators have a "clear path to landing an ambitious deal" on plastic pollution. But environmentalists say the plastic industry is undermining an effective agreement.

Independence Hall in Philadelphia in 2021. The National Park Service plans to install gas-fired boilers at Independence National Historical Park, despite a 2007 law mandating new and remodeled federal buildings be 100% free of fossil fuels by 2030.

Fossil fuels are banned from federal buildings in a new rule

8:51am April 26, 2024

by Jeff Brady

The Energy Department finalized rules that will ban fossil fuels in new and remodeled federal buildings by 2030.