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.
Endangered Species Act faces new threat as ‘God Squad’ convenes
The Florida manatee, a subspecies of the West Indian manatee, is a large, slow-moving marine mammal with an elongated, round body and paddle-shaped flippers and tail. (Adobe Stock)
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Mar 30, 2026
The Endangered Species Act has helped bring some Florida animals and plants back from the brink, from the Florida panther to the West Indian manatee but the Trump administration could change it as soon as this week.
The White House is convening a special committee, nicknamed the “God Squad,” to pursue an exemption which would allow Gulf drilling without full consideration of its effects on wildlife. One species at risk is the Rice’s whale, with only about 50 remaining.
Marilu Flores, communications and digital associate for the Endangered Species Coalition, said the law has been a bedrock of conservation. “The Endangered Species Act has really been the cornerstone conservation law that has really helped us protect numerous species, including the American bald eagle, over the course of its existence,” Flores explained. “It really does play a special role in conservation in South Florida.”
The “God Squad” has only been convened three times in nearly 50 years. Critics said the administration is bypassing required steps, including public hearings. A federal judge has allowed the meeting to proceed as the legal challenge continues. The meeting is set for Tuesday at the U.S. Interior Department in Washington, D.C. The meeting is scheduled to be livestreamed on YouTube.
Northern CA leaders promote the benefits of microgrids
The microgrid at Blue Lake Rancheria generates renewable energy and provides about $150,000 in annual electricity savings. (Schatz Energy Resource Center)
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Mar 23, 2026
Microgrids can be a lifeline in remote rural areas prone to power outages, according to local and tribal leaders in Humboldt County.
North Coast leaders spoke out at an event on energy security in an era of wildfire, drought and sea-level rise, all linked to climate change.
Arne Jacobson, director of the Schatz Energy Research Center at California State Polytechnic University-Humboldt, said microgrids often involve solar panels plus battery storage.
“During normal operation, they’re connected to the regional grid and they can export power and generate revenue,” Jacobson explained. “During a regional grid outage, they operate in ‘island mode’ and can provide resilience energy services.”
Revolution offshore wind farm begins operation despite federal barriers
The Energy Information Administration finds Connecticut has the third-highest average electricity price among the states, after Hawaii and California. (Adobe Stock)
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Mar 19, 2026
After a tumultuous few months, Connecticut’s first offshore wind farm is beginning operation.
Revolution Wind is expected to provide more than 700 megawatts of electricity to power 350,000 homes across Connecticut and Rhode Island. The project was delayed because of several stop-work orders issued by the Trump administration.
Samantha Dynowski, director of the Sierra Club’s Connecticut Chapter, said feedback on Revolution Wind is positive so far.
“We need offshore wind and other renewable resources to make a transition away from that really unhealthy source of energy to cleaner, healthier, renewable resources,” she said.
Fred Quinn III, fmr. Swissvale Borough council member warns EPA rollback could worsen poor air quality in PA
Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas, trapping more than 80 times as much heat as carbon dioxide. Roughly 30 percent of current global warming is linked to methane released by human activities, including leaks from oil and gas operations. (Adobe Stock)
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Mar 12, 2026
A former politician living in the Mon Valley says the region’s already poor air quality could worsen after the Environmental Protection Agency revoked the Endangerment Finding, a key legal finding for regulating air pollution.
Federal data show the United States saw $27 billion in climate disasters in 2024.
Fred Quinn III, a former Swissvale Borough council member with asthma, said Mon Valley residents already face serious air quality issues, even during winter storms. Without scientific restraints on the industry, he said, more communities will suffer.
“Rolling back these EPA protections would just lead to increased emissions,” he said, “and it would lead to poor air quality overall.”
Environmental advocates argue the change comes at a time when climate impacts are intensifying nationwide. Quinn said the Endangerment Finding, first established in 2009, determined that greenhouse gases such as carbon dioxide and methane threaten public health. That determination provided the legal authority for federal regulators to limit climate pollution from major sectors, including vehicles, power plants and industrial facilities.
Leaked memo shows NY Gov. Hochul may roll back NYS climate law
New York State’s Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act Scoping Plan estimates the cost of relying on fossil fuels will be more than $115 billion greater than the cost of implementing the CLCPA. (Adobe Stock)
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Mar 11, 2026
A leaked memo suggests New York Gov. Kathy Hochul may roll back part of the state’s climate law.
The New York State Energy Research and Development Authority memo says elements of the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act are unbeneficial to New Yorkers. The memo focuses on the Clean Air Initiative, a cap-and-invest program that it claims would make energy less affordable.
Vanessa Fajans-Turner, executive director of Environmental Advocates New York, said this is intentionally misleading. “The scenario this latest memo prices quietly excludes all material protections for consumers,” she said. “It is a scenario no one was seriously considering for implementation.”
The missing consumer guardrails include rebates for homes affected by higher energy costs and home weatherization investments. The cap-and-invest program limits greenhouse gas emissions statewide, with higher emitters having to buy allowances for their emissions. This money would in turn help the state afford renewable-energy developments, which have higher up-front costs, without passing the burden on to consumers.
Groups pressure MD data center builder to use renewable energy
Currents plans to operate the Atmosphere Data Center include taking power from the fossil fuel-heavy PJM power grid, which could add 1 million tons of CO₂ per year – the equivalent of 200,000 cars – to Montgomery County’s air. (Adobe Stock)
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Mar 6, 2026
Montgomery County environmental groups are concerned a hyperscale data center in Dickerson could generate enough carbon emissions to “single-handedly” sink Montgomery County’s climate pollution reduction goals. The Chesapeake Climate Action Network Fund warned developers of the proposed Atmosphere Data Center have refused to commit to clean energy.
Mike Tidwell, executive director of the network, said the center plans to draw power from the carbon-heavy regional electric grid. “This one data center, the first one they’re proposing here, would increase county greenhouse gas emissions by 12.5% and represent a 1% to 2% increase in CO₂ for the entire state of Maryland,” Tidwell explained.
Atmosphere’s website touts the center as “sustainable,” drawing power from carbon-free nuclear energy with a battery backup system. However, in meetings with county officials, the developers refused to commit to renewable energy, saying they plan to use the RJM regional power grid and use diesel-powered backup generators. The project is in the county’s approval process. Montgomery County has a goal of a 100% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions by 2035.
NM Rep. Debbie Sariñana dedicates funds to tackle orphaned oil and gas wells
A 2021 Harvard study estimated that fossil fuel air pollution is responsible for 1 in 5 premature deaths worldwide. (Adobe Stock)
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Mar 5, 2026
New Mexico is strengthening efforts to cleanup oil and gas wells that threaten public health and the environment.
After Texas, New Mexico is the second-largest crude oil-producing state in the nation. But in recent years, said state Rep. Debbie Sariñana, D-Albuquerque, not enough money has gone to hire workers for compliance and inspection. As a result, cleanup of orphaned wells – those with original owners that can’t be located – dropped from 105 wells in 2024 to 42 last year. To address the problem, she said a bill passed in this year’s session increases industry-specific tax allocations to the Oil and Gas Reclamation Fund.
“In New Mexico, we have 66,000 wells, between the Permian [and] San Juan Basins,” she said. “We also have a lot of wells by our schools, so all the emissions that are coming from those are toxic.”
Trump’s BLM bonding rollback could cost US taxpayers over $750 billion
In 2024, the U.S Bureau of Land Management updated oil and gas producer bonding requirements for the first time in 60 years in response to a growing number of abandoned wells. (Adobe Stock)
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By Eric Galatas
Mar 3, 2026
Taxpayers in Colorado, New Mexico, California and states across the U.S. could be on the hook for more than $750 billion if the Trump administration moves forward with plans to roll back recently updated bonding requirements for oil and gas companies operating on public lands, according to a new analysis by Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship.
The U.S. Bureau of Land Management requires companies to post surety bonds to protect taxpayers against companies failing to honor a permit condition that wells must be properly plugged and sites restored after drilling is complete. For decades, the bonding amounts failed to keep up with the rising cost of plugging and clean up, leaving taxpayers on the hook when companies abandoned the wells and their commitment.
David Jenkins, president of the group Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship, said if bonding costs drop back to paltry 1960 levels, bad actors will continue to skip town and leave messes for taxpayers to clean up.
“If they promise to clean up as a condition of the permit, then we’ve got to hold them to that,” Jenkins contended. “Anyone saying we shouldn’t hold them to that is just turning their back on taxpayers.”
NY, US and Ukrainian experts develop plan for Ukraine’s energy independence
Ukraine’s energy sector is one of the most heavily impacted by Russia’s invasion, with up to 93% of damaged or destroyed assets across power generation, transmission and distribution infrastructure. (Adobe Stock)
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Mar 2, 2026
Experts in New York and nationwide have created a plan to bolster Ukraine’s clean energy future. With the Russia-Ukraine war in its fourth year, attacks on the country’s centralized fossil fuel systems have left almost 40 million people living in the country without heat, electricity or other household essentials.
Darka Harnyk, director of the Ukraine Energy Security Marshall Plan for the group Elected Officials to Protect America, said the plan demonstrates clean energy’s importance to everyday Ukrainians living through the war at home. “In the opinion of me and my team, (it) is one question and one huge intersection where all of the sides in this world can come together,” Harnyk emphasized. “Because renewable energy solutions are good for climate, just as well as they’re good for military security.”
As the war got underway in 2022, Harnyk noted Ukraine’s government made renewable energy a priority, even obtaining international funding for it. She acknowledged the pace of change has been greatly reduced by the ongoing war. Residents are now taking matters into their own hands, installing solar panels or using battery storage to establish self-reliant clean energy.
Some of the new plan’s goals include cutting dependence on foreign oil, achieving energy independence in Ukraine and rebuilding energy infrastructure without waiting for the end of the war.
Ievgeniia Kopytsia, associate professor of environmental law at Yaroslav Mudryi National Law University in Kharkiv, Ukraine, and a Ukraine policy expert for Elected Officials to Protect America, said the biggest challenge in helping the plan come to fruition is financing. “What we witnessed, of course, in Ukraine, when there is the absence of geopolitical risk insurance, it does prevent businesses from investing in Ukraine, like till the war is over,” Kopytsia pointed out.
Senate hearing Feb 25 for controversial Trump BLM nominee
Conservation groups say they fear for the future of Nevada’s national monuments at Avi Kwa Ame, Gold Butte, and Basin and Range if the U.S. Senate confirms former New Mexico Congressman Steve Pearce as director of the Bureau of Land Management. (Tom/Adobe Stock)
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Feb 25, 2026
Conservation leaders in Nevada are speaking out against President Trump’s choice to lead the Bureau of Land Management as the U.S. Senate holds a nomination hearing Feb. 25.
Sen. Catherine Cortez-Masto, D-Nev., who sits on the House Energy and Natural Resources Committee, is expected to question nominee Steve Pearce about his past efforts to undo public lands protections.
Kristee Watson, executive director of the Nevada Conservation League, said she fears Pearce will prioritize development and disregard concerns about animal habitat, migratory patterns and public access for hiking, hunting and fishing. “We’re fearful that he’s looking to just sell the land off to the highest bidder with zero benefit to the state of Nevada,” Watson explained. “Using our land as kind of a blank check for the federal government to steal that resource from us.”
President Donald Trump nominated Pearce last November but it requires Senate confirmation. In the past, Pearce ran an oil field services company, served as a congressman from New Mexico and was chair of the New Mexico Republican Party.
Virginia health advocates warn of tailpipe regulation rollback with EPA’s repeal of Endangerment Fund
Estimates suggest as many as 17,000 people could die by 2050 from pollution-related deaths. (Adobe Stock)
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Feb 24, 2026
As President Donald Trump prepares to deliver his State of the Union address, experts are calling the administration’s repeal of the Endangerment Finding bad for public health. The legal finding states greenhouse gas emissions threaten the health and welfare of the public and forms the basis for the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulations on tailpipe emissions. Earlier this month, the Trump administration announced it would revoke the finding.
Dr. Bobby Mahajan, director of interventional pulmonology at Inova Health System, said fewer protections for clean air could threaten at-risk groups like children, the elderly and those with chronic health conditions. “We need to look at not just the idea of what the plan is now but for our future generations,” Mahajan explained. “We want to make sure that they’re providing healthy air and something that’s safe. We stand behind the Endangerment Finding, which is supported by law and science and has been a cornerstone for protection for more than 15 years.”
CA leaders urge BLM to stop new oil and gas leases
A 2021 Harvard study estimated that pollution from burning fossil fuels was responsible for more than 8 million deaths worldwide in 2018. (Susan Vineyard/Adobe Stock)
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Feb 23, 2026
California groups are speaking out against moves by the Bureau of Land Management to open up new leases for oil and gas drilling in the Bakersfield area and on the Central Coast.
Public comment is open now through March 13 on the Environmental Impact Statements for both regions.
Felipe Perez, former mayor and current city council member in Firebaugh in Fresno County, said the area is already choked with dirty air from existing wells. “In Kern County, anyone can smell the pollution there from oil and gas operations,” Perez pointed out. “People breathe it in all the time; areas where mainly people of color live. People’s lives should always come before corporate profits.”
President Donald Trump has made it a priority to support the oil and gas industry, promising regulatory relief if they contributed $1 billion to his campaign.
Angel Alfaro Carranza, energy security solutions program officer for the group Elected Officials to Protect America, said drilling sites can emit toxic air pollution, bring increased truck traffic and contaminate the water. “Public lands belong to all Californians and should be managed for their ecological, cultural and recreational values,” Carranza contended. “Not sacrificed for extractive industries looking to make profits.”
Removal of Maine’s Acadia National Park climate change signage spurs lawsuit
An NPCA and YouGov poll finds 78 percent of Americans believe national parks should not remove materials on America’s history. Signs describing Wabanaki history as well as the impacts of climate change have been removed from Acadia National Park in Maine. (Adobe Stock)
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Feb 20, 2026
A coalition of conservation groups has filed a lawsuit against the Trump administration to stop the removal of historical and science-based materials from America’s national parks. It includes signage on the effects of climate change and Wabanaki heritage in Maine’s Acadia National Park and the controversial removal of a slavery exhibit in Philadelphia.
Kristin Brengel, senior vice president of government affairs for the National Parks Conservation Association, said visitors are curious about local history and the changing environment, not just cute stories. “This is not what the public wants,” Brengel contended. “No one is clamoring for this and no one is asking for it. The administration is headed in the exact wrong direction.”
An executive order signed by President Donald Trump last year requires park materials considered “disparaging” to American greatness be removed. Brengel argued it goes against long-standing National Park Service laws requiring educational signs or brochures be peer-reviewed and meet the highest scientific standards.
Federal funding restored to IL energy projects after federal ruling
Clean energy jobs grew more than three times faster than the rest of the U.S. economy in 2024, bringing the total number of clean energy workers in the U.S. to over 3.5 million. (Adobe Stock)
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Feb 4, 2026
Illinois and 15 other states will get back funding for clean-energy projects after a major ruling.
A federal judge decided that President Donald Trump illegally blocked more than $7 billion in grants to states that supported Kamala Harris during the 2024 election. The money is intended for battery plants, hydrogen technology projects and electric grid upgrades.
Micaela Preskill, director of state advocacy for the nonpartisan environmental group E2, said the administration’s decision to cancel the funds had negative implications for Illinois.
“When the Energy Department makes decisions to cancel grants that are already in the pipeline, it’s bad for the economy,” she said. “These grants were providing opportunities for matching private investment, were going to lead to developing new projects that would be creating jobs bringing local development to communities.”
Climate ‘superfund’ bill advances in Maine legislature
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration estimates that 27 weather and climate disasters in 2024 amounted to nearly $182.7 billion in damages. (Adobe Stock)
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Feb 2, 2026
A bill to create a climate “superfund” in Maine has advanced out of a legislative committee.
Supporters said fining major fossil fuel companies most responsible for climate change would help cover an estimated $17.5 billion in coastal damage alone by 2050.
Richard Peterson, professor emeritus of environmental studies at the University of New England, said, “If you break it, you fix it.”
“Those who are most responsible for causing climate damage here in Maine, and we have experienced a lot of climate damage, have the most responsibility to try to pay for the damages,” Peterson contended.
Report: NM’s public lands protections weakened by Project 2025
The El Mapais National Monument is one of several significant protected areas in New Mexico. (Adobe Stock)
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Feb 5, 2026
A new report finds the Trump administration has implemented 80% of the public lands goals laid out in Project 2025, significantly impacting New Mexico and other Western states.
The Center for Western Priorities has said the actions have been carried out despite the president’s repeated disavowal of the document on the 2024 campaign trail.
Kate Groetzinger, the center’s communications manager, said researchers with the center found multiple efforts to undermine the environmental review and public comment process under the National Environmental Policy Act. “The Trump administration has really cut the ‘public’ out of public lands,” she said, “by limiting the amount of work that companies need to do to get a permit and limiting the opportunities for public participation in permitting.”
Supporters of the administration’s efforts have maintained that environmental reviews often take years, slowing down projects that could support jobs and tax revenue. That’s led Republicans in Congress to use a little-known law to overturn federal public lands decisions – the 1996 Congressional Review Act. It allows Congress to roll back certain federal agency rules with a simple majority vote and the president’s signature. Until recently, the law rarely had been used in the context of public lands.
According to the Center for American Progress, Trump remains the only president in U.S. history to remove protections for more public lands than he has added. Groetzinger said this leaves New Mexico sites at risk.
CA leaders speak out to support offshore wind terminal in Humboldt
The marine terminal at the Port of Humboldt Bay is in the design and environmental review stage, using state grants and voter-approved bond funding. (Humboldt Bay Harbor, Recreation and Conservation District)
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Feb 2, 2026
California is pressing ahead with a marine terminal for offshore wind at the Port of Humboldt Bay, emboldened by recent court victories allowing four offshore wind projects on the East Coast to proceed despite opposition from the federal government.
The marine terminal at the Port of Humboldt Bay will be ready to build and deploy floating turbines once a more environmentally friendly administration takes office.
Matt Simmons, climate attorney for the nonprofit Environmental Protection Information Center in Arcata, said offshore wind is a crucial step toward California’s goal of net-zero emissions by 2045. “We as Californians stand up to the Trump administration’s arbitrary attack on the industry,” Simmons asserted. “We have to decarbonize our electricity system, which means generating a lot of electric power using renewables, like solar and wind, while protecting the environment.”
On his first day in office, President Donald Trump signed an executive order attacking the offshore wind industry, citing concerns about energy reliability and affordability. The order was later partially struck down in court. A report by Environment California Research and Policy Center and the Frontier Group found California offshore wind has the potential to produce more than 1.5 times the amount of electricity used in the entire state as of 2019.
Stacy Atkins-Salazar, vice mayor of Arcata, said the project will boost jobs and local grid reliability. “Strong port and staging infrastructure is essential to our broader transmission planning,” Atkins-Salazar contended. “Our region relies too heavily on aging fossil fuel systems, so we need the transmission upgrades that offshore wind can help deliver. And the sooner they come, the better.”
CT groups call on lawmakers to pass climate ‘superfund’ bill
Connecticut is one of ten states considering climate ‘superfund’ bills to make fossil fuel companies pay for climate change resilience. (Adobe Stock)
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Jan 29, 2026
Connecticut groups are rallying support for a statewide climate “superfund” bill that fines large-scale greenhouse-gas contributors and uses the collected funds to support statewide climate-resilience projects.
Nearby Vermont and New York passed similar laws, which the federal government and fossil fuel companies are now challenging in court.
Julianna Larue, an organizer for the Sierra Club Connecticut chapter, described some of the projects this would fund. “Whether that’s building bridges to fortify them, to make them stronger against climate-related weather, rebuilding bridges or rebuilding roads, making sure that municipalities have the resources to rebuild after storms,” she said.
These funds would also help farmers mitigate topsoil damage and provide compensation for farm loss. Reports show stronger storms are creating millions of dollars in damage. Extreme rain during the first two weeks of July 2023 hit Connecticut with 425% of its normal monthly rainfall. This led to $21 million in losses because of farm and crop damage.
Xcel gas infrastructure plan will hurt and targets communities of color in CO
In Adams County, all 18 of Xcel Energy’s proposed natural gas projects are in neighborhoods the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment determined face the highest burdens from fossil fuel pollution, cumulative health risks and inadequate regulatory oversight. (Adobe Stock)
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Jan 28, 2026
Of all the projects proposed in Xcel Energy’s 2025 Colorado Gas Infrastructure Plan, 76% are in or adjacent to Latino, Indigenous and low-income neighborhoods already burdened by cumulative pollution and health risks, according to a new analysis by the advocacy group GreenLatinos.
The Colorado Public Utilities Commission is currently accepting public comments on the plan.
Patricia Garcia-Nelson, Colorado fossil fuel just transition advocate for GreenLatinos, said disproportionately affected communities deserve investments to improve health and lead the transition to clean energy, not projects locking in decades of reliance on fossil fuels. “Not only do we want there to be no expansion of gas infrastructure in disproportionately impacted communities, but we also want Xcel to stop passing the costs of their gas infrastructure onto the ratepayers,” Garcia-Nelson emphasized.
American Petroleum Institute targets pollution ‘superfund’ laws
The oil and gas industry has known about the effects of their product on climate for more than 40 years but the industry has conducted misinformation and greenwashing PR campaigns, including labeling methane as “natural gas,” and coining the term “climate footprint” to shift the blame to individuals.
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Jan 27, 2026
The nation’s largest lobbying arm of the oil and gas industry is calling on Congress to shield companies from a growing number of lawsuits and state laws passed to make the industry pay for the effects of pollution. The American Petroleum Institute’s 2026 policy priorities include ending the expansion of climate “superfund” policies recently passed in Vermont and New York.
Claire Dorner, associate director of legislative and administrative advocacy for the Beyond Dirty Fuels campaign for the Sierra Club, said the new laws simply say if you make a mess, you need to clean it up. “It isn’t fair that big oil and gas companies are continuing to rake in record profits while we pay the price for pollution and lives, literally paying the price,” Dorner contended. “We need to make them pay for their damages.”
Superfund laws have also been introduced in California, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts and New Jersey but are not expected in Wyoming. The American Petroleum Institute called the new laws abusive and is urging Congress to intervene to “maintain U.S. energy leadership around the world.” The Institute also wants lawmakers to speed up permitting processes in order for the industry to make investments they said would strengthen the nation’s energy grid.
But taxpayers in Wyoming and across the U.S. are already making investments in the fossil fuel industry.
Toni Aguilar Rosenthal, senior researcher for the watchdog group the Revolving Door Project, said as working families struggle with the rising cost of housing, groceries and utilities, U.S. oil and gas companies currently receive more than $34 billion in government handouts every year.
Big Oil pushing back on state climate ‘superfund’ laws
Big Oil has known about the impacts of their product on climate for over 40 years, but the industry has conducted misinformation and greenwashing PR campaigns, including labeling methane as ‘natural gas,’ and coining the term ‘climate footprint’ to shift the blame to individuals. (Adobe Stock)
Listen to the story HERE
Jan 26, 2026
The nation’s largest lobbying arm of the oil and gas industry is calling on Congress to shield companies from a growing number of lawsuits and state laws passed to make the industry pay for the impacts of pollution.
The American Petroleum Institute’s 2026 policy priorities include ending the expansion of climate superfund policies recently passed in Vermont and New York. Claire Dorner, associate director of the Sierra Club, said these new laws simply say if you make a mess, you need to clean it up.
“It isn’t fair that big oil and gas companies are continuing to rake in record profits while we pay the price for pollution,” said Dorner, “and lives literally paying the price, and we need to make them pay for their damages.”
Superfund laws have also been introduced in California, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, and New Jersey, but not yet in Colorado.
The American Petroleum Institute calls the new laws abusive, and is urging Congress to intervene to “maintain U.S. energy leadership around the world.”
EV sales are way down, but industry experts remain optimistic
As of this fall, the price gap between used EVs and their gas-powered equivalents had narrowed to just $900. (Jet City Image/Adobe Stock)
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Jan 20, 2026
By Tik Root for Grist.
Across the country, dealers sold about 20 percent fewer used electric cars in October than in September and saw a staggering 50 percent drop for new ones, according to the latest data. No one was surprised. Congress voted in July to end the federal tax credits that helped consumers afford them on September 30, years before they were supposed to expire. That led to a rush of purchases before the deadline and a precipitous drop afterward.
The question now is whether this dip is a sign of a prolonged slump or a mere blip in an otherwise upward trajectory. While only time will tell, many analysts believe that electric vehicle adoption in the United States will continue to grow — albeit maybe not at the same pace seen before Congress killed the credits and automakers started second-guessing themselves.
“We’re definitely gonna see a slowdown,” said Stephanie Valdez Streaty, director of industry insights at Cox Automotive. Eliminating the federal credit of $7,500 on new EVs and $4,500 on used ones is certainly taking a toll. But the price of batteries, and thus cars, also continues to come down. Used models are becoming more of a bargain, too. As of this fall, the price gap between used EVs and their gas-powered equivalents had narrowed to just $900. In China, Valdez Streaty said, electric versions of cars often already cost less than their conventional counterparts.
10M after feds roll back royalties on oil and gas leases
Roughly 40 percent of New Mexico’s general fund comes from fossil fuel production in the Permian Basin. (FreezeFrames/AdobeStock)
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January 16, 2026
New Mexico taxpayers will get less money for education, health care, infrastructure and other priorities from the recent sale of oil and gas leases on federal lands thanks to President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.”
Passed in 2025, the bill allowed the Trump administration to reset the royalty rate for new leases to a minimum of 12.5 percent, reversing the nearly 17 percent minimum set during the Biden era.
Jesse Deubel, executive director of the New Mexico Wildlife Federation, estimates taxpayers will lose millions of dollars in future royalty revenues. “We recognize in New Mexico that oil and gas is a necessary industry,” Deubel acknowledged. “Unfortunately, New Mexico residents lost over $110 million in royalties from this sale alone.”
Elected officials declare U.S. moves in Venezuela a national security threat
Environmental and anti-war advocates argue that renewable energy makes the world safer because it decreases the dependency of democratic countries on autocratic oil-producing nations. (De/Adobe Stock)
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Jan 13, 2026
The Trump administration’s plan to take over Venezuela and its oil production is drawing criticism from environmental advocates.
One coalition of elected representatives said American actions in Venezuela would increase carbon emissions and further dependency on fossil fuels, which would in turn harm national security.
Alex Cornell du Houx, president of Elected Officials to Protect America, a former Maine legislator and adjunct professor at the University of San Francisco, said the government should be taking the opposite approach. “Taking military action to increase our oil dependency is going in the wrong direction,” du Houx contended. “The best thing we can do is secure clean, distributed, renewable energy, because that’s what actually makes the world more secure.”
Report: OR progresses on clean energy, despite federal disinvestment
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Jan 12, 2026
Oregon is making progress in building its clean energy capacity, despite major federal disinvestment, according to a new report.
The League of Conservation Voters’ 2025 report showed 30 states passed and implemented policies to cut energy costs, advance clean energy and tackle climate change last year.
Eliza Walton, coalition director for the Oregon League of Conservation Voters, said the report makes it clear clean energy is still the most affordable option for ratepayers. “But affordability doesn’t just happen automatically,” Walton pointed out. “We have to keep going and doing more to make sure that savings actually reach people, and not just utilities or large corporations.”
PA clean energy boom threatened as federal funding stalls says new report
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January 12, 2026
Clean energy projects in Pennsylvania and throughout Appalachia are being delayed or cancelled as federal funding has been eliminated.
A new report details the resulting uncertainty – about jobs, emissions cuts and long-term economic growth.
The joint report from ReImagine Appalachia and Keystone Research Center says federal legislation drove more than $23 billion in public and private clean energy investment across Pennsylvania, Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia between 2022 and 2024.
Report Co-Author Diana Polson, a senior policy analyst with the Keystone Research Center, said the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and Inflation Reduction Act jump-started that growth – but recent cuts by Congress and the Trump administration have strangled the federal tax credits and other investments that targeted coal country and western Pennsylvania. “Our report found that since 2021, Pennsylvania has received $9.2 billion in climate funding for 986 projects,” said Polson. “So far, since the start of this year, $461 million of that funding has been canceled or threatened.”
Big finance fueling climate crisis beyond tipping point says report
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January 7, 2026
Many banks, financial firms and insurance companies have made bold public commitments to do their part to rein in climate change. But the Pulitzer Center for Investigative Reporting has revealed that those same companies are financing the search for new sources of fossil fuels and new infrastructure to burn them.
According to global scientific consensus, tapping any new oil and gas reserves will likely produce catastrophic outcomes.
Josephine Moulds, a reporter with the Bureau of Investigative Journalism, said there’s enough oil and gas already in the pipeline to fuel a clean-energy transition. “We’ve got enough, in terms of the projects that we’ve already got running – we’ve got enough to keep us going,” she said, “as long as we shift over to solar and wind and all of the other renewables.”