Climate change
U.S. Interior secretary unveils $125 million for local climate projects
BOISE, Idaho — The U.S. Interior Department will send $125 million from the bipartisan infrastructure law to scores of local climate resiliency and conservation projects, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland told a group of environmental reporters Friday. Speaking at the Society of Environmental Journalists annual conference, Haaland promoted several aspects of the Interior Department’s agenda, including programs […]
Environmental groups call on regulator to audit coal subsidies in corrupt utility bailout
Correction: The Public Utilities Commission responded to a question for this story on Wednesday. It has been updated. Ohio’s utility regulator played a central role in a historic bribery and money laundering scandal. Now environmental groups are calling on it to perform legally mandated audits of hundreds of millions in coal subsidies that were part […]
FirstEnergy asks for more time, more money on purchase of coal plant
Akron-based FirstEnergy on Friday blew through a regulator’s deadline for a report — and it told the regulator that it needed to rush through a $36 million annual rate increase in a matter of weeks if it wanted the analysis to go forward. The West Virginia Public Service Commission on Dec. 30 ordered the Ohio […]
U.S. House passes sweeping energy bill pushing back against Biden climate policies
WASHINGTON – The U.S. House on Thursday approved a bill packed with Republican energy priorities meant to counteract the Biden administration’s approach and boost U.S. oil and gas production. Numbered H.R. 1 as a signal that energy policy is the House majority’s top legislative priority, the bill includes a package of GOP proposals, ranging from reforming the […]
Ohio higher-ed bill would require instructors to teach ‘both sides’ on climate change
Ohio college and university instructors could be barred from teaching climate science without also including false or misleading counterpoints under a sprawling higher education bill that received its first hearing last week. Senate Bill 83, or the Higher Education Enhancement Act, seeks to police classroom speech on a wide range of topics, including climate change, […]
Coal plants helped cause bribery scandal. Now FirstEnergy might be buying one back
Akron-based FirstEnergy might be poised to increase its coal-fired generation capacity by 40% with the purchase of a West Virginia plant it owned less than four years ago and spun off as part of a massive racketeering scandal. The reason why the company paid out more than $60 million between 2017 and 2020 to force […]
Climate, pandemic conspire against hungry Ohioans
In addition to overseas wars and continuing supply-chain disruptions, diseases and climate-driven storms are making it hard to feed the hungriest Ohioans, Ohio’s top food bank official said Friday. And that’s even as continuing inflation is creating ever more of them, she said. “We’re just not seeing a return to normal at all,” said Lisa […]
Climate funding could suffer in the farm bill under GOP control of Congress
WASHINGTON — Republicans who may be taking control of Congress in this week’s midterm elections have not been very specific about many policy goals — but the farm bill is an exception. Members of the GOP in the U.S. House and Senate are sending strong signals they want to strip climate funding from the massive […]
Even as drought forces water cutbacks, climate gets short shrift in midterm election
LAKE MEAD, Nev. —The streaks of white on the rock ringing the nation’s largest reservoir show how far its water levels have dropped since it was last full. Lake Mead and nearby Lake Powell, which send water to 40 million people in the Southwest, are at their lowest levels since they were filled in the […]
New poll finds Roe v. Wade, same-sex marriage at top of voters minds going into November election
A new poll from Baldwin Wallace University shows a largely favorable opinion of Gov. Mike DeWine, U.S. Senate candidate Tim Ryan and former President Donald Trump among Ohio voters. Found to be unfavorable by likely Ohio voters is a lack of gun control in the state and a lack of action on climate change. “On […]
World Food Day is Sunday and Ohio will be a focal point
One of the most celebrated holidays on the United Nations' calendar is Sunday, when more than 150 nations will celebrate World Food Day. And Ohio State will host North America's official session. Former Agriculture Secretary Dan Glickman and Jocelyn Brown Hall, director of the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization for North America, will be among the speakers.
Ohio utilities ranked among the worst on fossil fuel use
Three Ohio electricity companies are among the worst in the United States when it comes to weaning themselves off of fossil fuels, according to a major Sierra Club report released this week. And it’s possible that a culprit is huge coal subsidies passed as part of one of the biggest bribery scandals in state history. […]