RADIO
The following radio reports are done in partnership with Public News Service. Please click on the headline to read the entire article or on the highlighted “HERE” to listen to the report.
Even though methane mitigation jobs are high paying, NM lags behind Colorado, Texas
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February 26, 2025
A study commissioned by the Environmental Defense Fund showed the industries developed to find and repair methane leaks have grown by 88% over the past decade.
It also found New Mexico has more work to do in attracting such firms.
Marcy Lowe, founder and principal of Datu Research, said addressing methane waste is a win-win, as the environment, public health and the industry all benefit.
“It’s really kind of the low-hanging fruit for moving the needle in on our battle against climate change,” Lowe contended. “Also for the industry, since these are ways in which the equipment isn’t performing as it’s supposed to.”
NM’s Gila National Forest loses key workers to Trump firings
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February 24, 2025
Conservation advocates say the Trump administration’s firing of probationary U.S. Forest Service workers in New Mexico and other Western states could ruin summer vacations – and even prove life-threatening.
The Forest Service has not commented, but Gila National Forest workers told the Silver City Daily Press that at least 13 employees of the trails and recreation crew lost their jobs.
Aaron Weiss, deputy director with the Center for Western Priorities, said those employees terminated are people we’ve come to depend on.
“They’re the ones leading the tours, they’re the one answering questions in the visitor center, they’re the ones cleaning trails,” said Weiss. “So in some cases here, you’re talking literally about the folks who make sure you have a safe, sanitary, clean family vacation.”
Report: Methane mitigation in PA drives economic growth, fights climate change
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February 20, 2025
A new report shows U.S. companies tackling oil and gas pollution are seeing solid and strong economic growth. Pennsylvania’s methane mitigation industry is boosting the economy and job market, ranking among the top five states with 51 employee locations.
Marcy Lowe, principal with Datu Research, says manufacturers and service firms in the industry help oil and gas operators reduce methane emissions by providing leak detection, measurement and mitigation equipment. She adds that natural gas is mostly methane, a potent greenhouse gas that drives global warming.
“These manufacturing and service firms play a really important role in getting a handle on climate change, since they’re all about reducing emissions of methane, which is much more powerful in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide,” she explained.
The report states that the number of U.S. companies in methane mitigation is growing fast, and in 2024, there were 268 companies, up 24% from 215 in 2021.
Ohio communities at risk amid Trump’s cuts at EPA
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February 21, 2025
The Trump administration has begun dismantling the Environmental Protection Agency’s office working to reducing environmental harms in minority and low-income communities.
More than 160 staffers in the Office of Environmental Justice and Civil Rights have been placed on paid administrative leave.
Adrienne Hollis, vice president of environmental justice, health and community resilience and revitalization for the National Wildlife Federation, said the office plays a crucial role in coordinating environmental protection efforts, including in Ohio, where many communities face challenges.
“Some communities may file a complaint about the fact that, given the contamination they’re exposed to, there may be issues that violate the Civil Rights Act,” Hollis explained. “Just as the air group, you need a focal point.”
MI keeps EV charging plans on track despite Trump’s attempted hault of federal Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funds
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February 21, 2025
Earlier this month, the Federal Highway Administration stopped new funding for electric vehicle charging stations under the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program.
Through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, the program allocated $5 billion over five years to all U.S. states, D.C., and Puerto Rico. Michigan was set to receive $110 million for fast-charging stations along key routes.
Chase Attanasio, policy manager for the advocacy group Clean Fuels Michigan, said despite the cuts, EV charging ports expansion plans in the state are affected but not aborted.
“The utility companies in Michigan have been and will continue to invest heavily in EV infrastructure deployments in their service territories that support a variety of different use cases,” Attanasio pointed out. “And there are state programs that will continue to support EV charger deployments across the state.”
Migrant farmworkers in VA threatened by mass deportation policy
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February 19, 2025
President Donald Trump has issued a flurry of executive orders meant to jump-start his mass deportation policy but the policy may negatively affect migrant farmworkers in Virginia.
Nationwide, nearly half of agricultural workers are immigrants and more than a quarter of those workers are undocumented. More than 300,000 people work in Virginia’s agricultural sector, many of whom are immigrants. Numbers are not available at the state level for how many workers are undocumented.
Manuel Gago Silcox, co-director of the Virginia-based Worker Justice Program at the Legal Aid Justice Center, said Trump’s policies come during a slow period in agricultural production in the Commonwealth.
“We’re still not seeing a big repercussion of this,” Gago Silcox pointed out. “We will know about this when the season starts, like around May, April. We’ll see how this plan will be affecting farms and crops, especially in the summer, the harvesting season, when it’s more labor-intensive.”
NM lawmakers weigh bills to protect air, land, water for future generations
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February 17, 2025
Recognizing climate change is not isolated to certain parts of New Mexico, legislators are considering bills to help protect the state’s air, land and water.
One in three counties in the state has experienced devastating fire and flood damage in recent years.
Shelley Mann-Lev, executive director of the advocacy group Healthy Climate New Mexico, a group of public health professionals and students who believe climate change is the greatest threat to residents’ health, as well as the state’s ability to provide health care in local communities, said the effects are far-reaching. “It’s not just chronic diseases,” Mann-Lev pointed out. “Heat, flooding, fires, drought are creating incredible health threats and if we don’t take action, we’ll make it so that we will not have a livable future.”
CA towns, cities must adapt as dangers of bigger wildfires loom
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February 17, 2025
One glimpse at the devastation in the Los Angeles area, and it’s hard to imagine a complete rebuild. But look at the town of Paradise in northern California today, and you’d never know that the deadliest wildfire in the state’s history leveled Paradise a few short years ago. On November 8, 2018, a downed power line sparked the Camp Fire. It began 12 miles outside the city and, fueled by high winds like the recent Los Angeles fires, rammed into Paradise, claiming 85 lives and 95% of the town’s structures. Six years on, new residents have moved in, old residents have rebuilt, and new development has sprung up. But the legacy of that windy Thursday morning still haunts rebuilding efforts—inspiring fear that it could happen again.
Another fire almost certainly will come to this far-northern California landscape and to the dry scrub habitats further south in the state. Flames have been jumping Paradise’s forested hillsides for millennia—some trees evolved to require fire to open their resinous cones. But humans are making natural fires much worse through climate change and poor management. So the question has become how to prevent fire, when it does come, from becoming a major disaster.
Solar power gives MN resort new blood, new life
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February 17, 2025
The Lodge of Whispering Pines stands among the trees near an entrance to the Boundary Waters Canoe Wilderness, at the end of a hilly and winding road, 20 miles north of Ely.
It has what most other resorts in northern Minnesota offer: a great view of the outdoors, cute cabins, campsites and the glimpse of a quieter life. But it’s the sun shining brightly on these cold winter days that sets the lodge apart.
In fact, it wouldn’t be open without it.
After sitting dormant during the winter for the past decade, strained by high energy costs, the Lodge of Whispering Pines is up and running on the strength of a solar project that largely powers its dozen cabins.
Public lands advocates slam Trump’s federal review of national monuments
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February 14, 2025
Groups that fight to protect public lands are criticizing the Trump administration’s new review of all oil, gas and mining on public lands.
National monuments in California protect about 4 million acres of land.
New U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has ordered a 15-day internal review of these sites, which conservation groups warn could be a first step toward altering their boundaries to allow fossil-fuel and mineral extraction. And yet, Daniel Hart, director of clean-energy and climate-resiliency policy at the National Parks Conservation Association, said this would do little to address the “energy emergency” recently declared by President Donald Trump.
“The timeline from starting a lease sale until oil and gas is pumping, and then refined and into the markets, is a long time,” he said. “It would not immediately do anything to lower gas prices.”
How could Trump’s 15-day review of monuments, public lands affect AZ?
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February 14, 2025
New U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum has issued a 15-day review of all public lands and national monuments that, until now, have been excluded from drilling and mining development. The Trump administration says it’s part of efforts to diversify the nation’s energy portfolio.
Arizona is home to 19 national monuments – the latest one designated in 2023 by President Joe Biden near the Grand Canyon.
The White House claims expanding drilling could be the answer to lowering the costs of fuel and energy. Daniel Hart, director of clean-energy and climate-resiliency policy at the National Parks Conservation Association, questioned whether that would actually be the case. “They also have said that the need is there because there has been so little oil and gas leasing,” he said. “However, the Biden administration had some of the most oil and gas production by an administration in a long time, and it was ramped up under him. And some lease sales have gone without a bid over the past four years, even.”
IN EV charger station installs on pause as Trump stops Bipartisan Infrastructure Law federal funds
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February 6, 2025
The number of registered electric vehicles in Indiana rose from 13,000 in 2023 to nearly 15,000 in 2024. However, plans to install more EV chargers in Indianapolis are on hold due to President Donald Trump’s executive order to freeze federal spending linked to the 2024 Biden-Harris Administration Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.
Mo McReynolds, interim director of the Office of Sustainability for the City of Indianapolis, said the city applied for funding between 2021 and 2024 and was approved for millions last year and should the federal government authorize funding distribution within weeks or months, plans will designate local charging and fueling infrastructure sites to appear at popular neighborhood places.
“We were awarded $15 million, in that realm, to establish as many sites as we can afford within that budget,” McReynolds explained. “We’re still determining that amount within a partnership with Indianapolis public libraries, Indy park locations and culturally relevant sites for Black and brown communities.”
NY’s Climate Change Superfund Act takes effect – making fossil fuel companies pay fueling the climate crisis
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January 2, 2025
A law signed by New York Gov. Kathy Hochul takes effect this week to penalize polluters for emissions.
The Climate Change Superfund Act puts a fine on the largest contributors to greenhouse gas emissions between 2000 and 2018, specifically those responsible for more than 1 billion tons of global greenhouse gas emissions. The collected money will be put into a special fund to pay for climate change resilience measures starting in 2028.
Rich Schrader, northeast senior government affairs director for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said the law will greatly benefit New York State. “Each budget would be put into the state budget to do work like upgrading roads and bridges that have been damaged and do work in terms of installing new water systems,” Schrader outlined. “Part of the money would go into things like, since we’re having hotter summers or hotter springs, really, how to get better air conditioning in public housing, but also in public schools.”
Warning: Tiny plastic pieces enter the body in ways you’d never think of
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December 24, 2024
Microplastics are tiny pieces of plastic less than 5mm in size. Small and ubiquitous – they are only about as thick as a paperclip – microplastics have been detected in our water supply, agricultural soils and the farm animals we raise for food. One study suggests the presence of microplastics might be anywhere from 4 to 23 times higher in farm soils than in waterways. Whether in soils or water, plastic pollution flows throughout our food system, Brett Nadrich, communications officer for Break Free From Plastic, tells Sentient, and “we have to turn off the tap.”
NY elected officials work to electrify municipal buildings for everyone’s health and prosperity
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December 20, 2024
New York lawmakers are focusing on electrifying municipal buildings.
Buildings statewide make up 32% of New York’s greenhouse gas emissions and experts said electrifying them would lower heating and cooling costs, as well as reducing emissions. Inflation Reduction Act funds are available for municipalities to convert public buildings to use electricity.
Marian Brown, elected official fellow for Elected Officials to Protect America, said there is one challenge worrying elected leaders. “One of the biggest challenges right now, and we were hearing this from folks, is uncertainty over the durability of Inflation Reduction Act funding, the IRA, with a new federal administration that’s already signaling that it’s not supportive of clean energy technologies,” Brown explained.
EPA allows CA to implement strict clean-car rules – big win for future with EVs
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December 19, 2024
Groups that fight for environmental justice are praising the Biden administration’s decision to grant California a waiver so it can implement clean-car rules that exceed federal standards.
California’s rules would ban the sale of new gas-powered cars after 2035 and require trucks to further clean up their exhaust.
Andrea Marpillero-Colomina, data analytics advisor for the nonprofit GreenLatinos, said the new standards will help clean up the air in low-income areas overburdened by truck traffic.
“Latino communities are more likely to be located near highways, near shipping centers, near freight distribution centers, and therefore they’re more susceptible to air pollution from vehicles,” she said.
Clean Trucks Campaign touts benefits of electric vehicles for Pennsylvania
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December 19, 2024
Business leaders, clean transportation advocates and other experts say new technologies are helping to accelerate the transition to clean trucks and sustainable freight across Pennsylvania. Members of the Clean Trucks Pennsylvania Coalition are calling on federal and state leaders to back programs that support the deployment of clean-power trucks across the Commonwealth.
Jordan Stutt, senior director, northeast region with CALSTART, a nonprofit dedicated to advancing clean transportation solutions, said the goal is to get gas and diesel-powered trucks off the road.
“We are going to take one of the busiest freight corridors in the country, I-95, and turn it into one of the first zero-emission freight corridors in the U.S. That investment and the jobs that it will bring underscore that this transition to clean trucks is all about opportunity,” he said.
Reports: CA transmission grid plans need to take wildlife into account
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December 17, 2024
The power grid will need to be dramatically upgraded and expanded in the coming years to handle the transition to renewable energy – and two new reports look at the impact on wildlife, both on and off-shore.
A report on offshore wind farms recommends buffer zones around sensitive coral habitat.
It also says cables for windmills fixed to the ocean floor must be shielded and buried to reduce impacts from electromagnetic fields.
Co-author Shayna Steingard – an offshore wind senior policy specialist with the National Wildlife Federation – said if it’s done right, the clean-energy transition will preserve habitat, and slow ocean warming and sea-level rise linked to climate change.
“I think climate change presents an existential threat to all species, particularly ocean species,” said Steingard. “The threats from offshore wind development pale in comparison to the threat from not addressing climate change. There is no climate solution without offshore wind.”
Environmental groups call for LA County power plant closure
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December 16, 2024
Environmental groups are calling for the immediate closure of Los Angeles County’s Walnut Creek Energy Park, because of potentially dangerous levels of emissions.
A new report finds the gas-fired power plant has repeatedly shown levels of nitrogen oxide that are close to, or above, national air-quality standards.
The report, commissioned by the Sierra Club and the California Environmental Justice Alliance, lists Walnut Creek as the highest-risk facility in the state – among eight other gas-fired power plants. Jordan Salcido, a community organizer with the LA County Youth Climate Commission, lives within a mile of the plant. She said many of her neighbors might not realize how close they are to these pollutants.
“There definitely is a cluster of industry,” said Salcido, “but it’s right in the heart and in the center of people’s lives and where they live and work and play and raise their families.”
NY, NJ ports receive federal grants for clean energy transition
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December 16, 2024
The Port of New York and New Jersey is receiving funding to cut emissions. It’s part of the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Ports Program.
Of the $3 billion national grant, the port will get more than $347 million to monitor emissions and transition equipment to zero-emission power.
Jordan Stutt, CALSTART’s northeast region senior director, said zero-emission vehicles can help port operations in many ways.
“So, we’re going to see everything from electric forklifts and drayage trucks,” said Stutt, “to shore power systems – to help major ships use electricity at ports, instead of burning diesel while they idle there for days.”
Mainers urged to nab clean energy IRA rebates before they’re gone
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By Kathryn Carley
December 9, 2024
Mainers are encouraged to take advantage of clean energy rebates and tax credits before they are gone.
The Inflation Reduction Act offers incentives to buy electric vehicles, upgrade appliances or install heat pumps. President-elect Trump has called the landmark climate law a “green new scam” and vowed to repeal any unspent funds.
Emily Walker, researcher for the energy consulting group and online marketplace EnergySage, urged homeowners to act quickly.
“There’s going to be either a faster phaseout of some of these incentives, or the value will become lower,” Walker outlined. “Or they’ll become more difficult to obtain because there’s more restrictions around who can actually get them.”