Climate
Some ‘in limbo’ more than a year after deadly floods hit Eastern Kentucky
More than a year after four feet of water flooded her house, Nancy Herald still doesn’t know when – or if – she’ll return to the home that’s been in her family for nearly five decades.? Driving past the homeplace, even, is too painful. Sometimes she goes inside; sometimes she just passes quietly. And sometimes, […]
USDA’s climate grants for farms and forests run into Republican buzzsaw
WASHINGTON — The Biden administration is spending more than $3 billion to cultivate more American farmers and forest landowners as partners to mitigate climate change — even while some Republicans on Capitol Hill try to stop the program entirely. The administration launched a new farm program, Partnerships for Climate Smart Commodities, this year. It is […]
As extreme heat sweeps the U.S., Biden warns that states must act to protect workers
With many parts of the country gripped by extreme heat, President Joe Biden said Thursday his administration would target states that don’t offer workers heat protections and would direct millions of dollars to water projects and improved weather forecasting. In a live address, with the mayors of Phoenix and San Antonio joining by video, Biden […]
As Kentucky’s largest coal producer mines Bitcoin, its power discounts draw scrutiny
Union County in Western Kentucky has been the state’s top coal-producer for years, mining more than 10 million tons in 2022. Something else is being mined in Union County: Bitcoin. In both cases, the mining is done by Alliance Resource Partners (ARP) headed by Joseph Craft III, whose wife Kelly Craft, just lost an expensive […]
Log and burn? Or let it be? The fight over the future of Hoosier National Forest
PAOLI, Indiana—When Jesse Laws rides her seven-year-old palomino, Roscoe, in Hoosier National Forest, she often steers him toward the tall pines. Needles carpet the trails, muting the clop of his shoes and shifting the feel of the air. “The ground stays moist there, so it’s cooler and so quiet,” says Laws, whose great grandparents founded […]
Decarbonization ambitions ignite debate over mining, permitting
The decarbonized, electrified future envisioned by the Biden administration, state governments, automakers, utility companies and corporate sustainability goals depends to a huge degree on minerals and metals. Lots more lithium will be needed for car and truck batteries, as well as the big banks of batteries that are increasingly popping onto the electric grid to […]
Toyota’s first electric vehicle factory in the US will be in Kentucky at its Georgetown plant
In what Gov. Andy Beshear called an “enormous” economic development announcement for Kentucky, Toyota plans to establish its first electric car manufacturing facility in the United States at its plant in Scott County.? The Georgetown factory, which has manufactured millions of cars since 1988, plans to retain nearly 9,000 employees to manufacture electric SUVs as […]
EPA again proposes power plant carbon rules
The Obama administration’s 2015 Clean Power Plan — intended to cut carbon emissions from power plants — was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court. The Trump administration’s much-criticized replacement, the Affordable Clean Energy rule, derided as a “tortured series of misreadings” of the U.S. Clean Air Act, was also tossed by a federal court. […]
How flood cleanup left Kentucky disaster victims feeling violated and vulnerable
This article is republished from the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting. On a steamy day in August, Don Young dug through the rubble that used to be his home. He was desperately trying to salvage the most precious possessions representing the life he’d made in the Letcher County community of McRoberts. Floods last July ravaged […]
$124 million from feds will build hundreds of homes in tornado-impacted Western Kentucky
FRANKFORT — Kentucky officials are opening up applications this summer for almost $124 million in federal funding to help rebuild housing and infrastructure primarily in tornado-impacted Western Kentucky, which Gov. Andy Beshear said could help rebuild around 600 homes.? The federal funding from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) will go to […]
Kentucky one of four states passing up federal money to plan for climate change
Kentucky’s state government will be unable to compete for $4.6 billion from the federal government to reduce heat-trapping greenhouse gasses because it is one of only four states that did not apply for up to $3 million to create a climate action plan through a new grant program.? A spokesperson for Kentucky’s environmental agency said […]
Fossil fuel executives see a ‘golden age’ for gas, if they can brand it as ‘clean’
This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News, a nonprofit, independent news organization that covers climate, energy and the environment. It is republished with permission. Sign up for their newsletter here. Natural gas has long been subject to a war of words. Once it was a “bridge fuel” that would straddle the gap from fossil […]