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Large-scale solar power plants are key elements of energy policies in New York and other states. Lev Radin/Pacific Press/LightRocket via Getty Images

Building more renewable energy sources means rethinking land use for agriculture and conservation

The state of New York could meet its goal of building 46 gigawatts of large-scale solar by midcentury, but not without making difficult choices in how land is used across the state.

That’s the overall finding of an analysis several colleagues and I have made in that state. It’s an issue that other states, and the U.S. as a whole, ...Read more

Kevin Frayer/Getty Images North America/TNS

Commentary: US lead in science is shrinking fast as China, India and even Iran catch up

A country with one of the fastest-rising scientific profiles operates under sweeping international sanctions, has limited access to Western research infrastructure and is rarely mentioned in American conversations about global innovation. That country is Iran.

Its rise, alongside China’s dominance in critical fields and India’s rapid ...Read more

RJ Sangosti/The Denver Post/TNS

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis declares statewide drought emergency

DENVER — Colorado’s state leadership on Thursday declared a drought emergency as this winter’s record-low snowpack and an abnormally warm spring fuel one of the worst statewide droughts on record.

The emergency declaration opens the door for a future request for a federal disaster declaration and aid. It also mandates that state agencies ...Read more

Alex Wong/Getty Images North America/TNS

Trump administration is disbanding climate research during hurricane season

The Trump administration’s most recently wave of defundings directly affects North Carolinians at one of the most crucial times of the year: hurricane season.

The National Science Foundation has begun descaling their Ocean Observatories Initiative following President Donald Trump’s firing of the NSF’s independent board through an email in...Read more

Jon Cherry/Getty Images North America/TNS

Trump invokes emergency powers to invest $700 million in coal

President Donald Trump on Thursday said he will invoke Cold War-era emergency powers to direct a nearly $700 million investment into the waning coal industry, including construction of a new West Coast coal export terminal in Oakland.

Speaking from the White House, Trump said he will use the Defense Production Act, a 1950 law that grants the ...Read more

Jon Cherry/Getty Images North America/TNS

Trump invokes emergency powers to invest $700 million in coal

President Donald Trump on Thursday said he will invoke Cold War-era emergency powers to direct a nearly $700 million investment into the waning coal industry, including construction of a new West Coast coal export terminal in Oakland.

Speaking from the White House, Trump said he will use the Defense Production Act, a 1950 law that grants the ...Read more

Smoky haze from wildfires in Canada blankets a New York City neighborhood on June 7, 2023. David Dee Delgado/Getty Images

Wildfires are reversing America’s progress on ozone pollution

For decades, the United States made steady progress in reducing surface ozone pollution, the main ingredient in smog. But that progress – made as vehicles, industries and power sources became cleaner – is increasingly being overshadowed by a different and growing source of ozone pollution: wildfires.

Our team of atmospheric and ...Read more

Jennifer Briggs/Zuma Press/TNS

Space Force digs in to uncover extent of Blue Origin New Glenn explosion

The explosion of Blue Origin’s New Glenn at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station was massive, but the response by the Space Force emergency crews was quick and well-prepared.

“I had just gotten home and sat down in the living room, talking to my kids and wife, and looked out the window and saw the explosion,” said Space Launch Delta 45 ...Read more

Bison walk through part of the American Prairie land in Montana.
              AP Photo/Matt Brown

Bison restoration efforts and grazing rights hinge on one question: Are bison wildlife?

Bison are political animals. A federal decision to revoke grazing leases for bison on public lands on the rolling plains of eastern Montana is the latest manifestation of long-standing contention. The largest land animal in North America, bison are considered a “keystone” species, meaning they have high ecological and cultural importance....Read more

Brian Cassella/Chicago Tribune/TNS

Chicago litter group battles illegal dumping at newly transformed Englewood community garden

CHICAGO — When David Bippes recently brought his parents to see a small plot of land tucked between a raised railway track and a row of homes in Englewood, he was hoping to show them his latest community project.

Bippes, an Eagle Scout whose passion for community gardens began with a high school service project in Missouri, now helps lead ...Read more

Despite bans, PFAS from old wax dust can still be found in wax rooms. Philipp von Ditfurth/picture alliance via Getty Images

PFAS in ski wax: Despite bans, these forever chemicals linger in wax rooms, study shows – so does their health risk

For more than 30 years, manufacturers of ski and snowboard waxes used PFAS – per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances – to make skis and snowboards glide faster over snow. These synthetic chemicals were highly effective and common in competitive racing just about everywhere.

Then studies began finding PFAS in human bodies, and research...Read more

Liv Paggiarino/Las Vegas Review-Journal/TNS

Nevada may ease Colorado River worries with California ocean desalination deal

Sipping freshly desalinated water from the Pacific Ocean, water managers from Nevada, Arizona and California ushered in what could become a game-changing agreement for the drought-stricken American West.

Because San Diego has excess water available in its larger portfolio of supply, Nevada and Arizona officials are exploring how their states �...Read more

Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images North America/TNS

Spotted lanternflies are reemerging in Maryland. Here's what to know

It’s that time of year again — spotted lanternflies have made a comeback across Maryland and most of the eastern U.S.

Spotted lanternflies typically hatch in late April and early May, meaning juveniles of the species are popping up around the state. The Maryland Department of Agriculture predicted in March that Baltimore City and central ...Read more

Seagate Space/TNS

Space Florida to fund ocean-based space launch company, other secretive projects

Space Florida continues to hold things close to the vest with several ongoing projects as it tries to attract aerospace business to the state — but did reveal the company behind what they had dubbed “Project Manta” to be Seagate Space, for which the state agency will help fund an offshore launch platform.

The state’s aerospace finance ...Read more

David Guralnick/The Detroit News/TNS

Gotion wants Michigan township to pay the $23.7M it owes in incentives

DETROIT — Gotion Inc. has asked a federal judge to order the Michigan township where it was supposed to call home to repay the roughly $23.7 million it owes the state in taxpayer-funded incentives.

Green Township's actions opposing Gotion's planned battery parts plant made it all but impossible to move forward, the company argued, leaving ...Read more

Northeast Philadelphia Airport could soon run on 100% solar power

A large solar array is being planned to fully power Northeast Philadelphia Airport (PNE).

A bill that still needs approval by City Council would authorize a contractor to build a 1.5-megawatt solar farm. In return, the city would purchase the energy for the airport for 25 years at a set rate.

It would become the largest municipal on-site solar...Read more

Sascha Schuermann/Getty Images Europe/TNS

Catherine Thorbecke: What if AI retraining is just a comforting lie?

No one knows whether AI will trigger a white-collar jobpocalypse. The loudest warnings still come from people building and selling the technology, whose predictions often double as hype-mongering or cover for unrelated cost cutting with investor-friendly language. Think-tank and analyst forecasts are no less vertiginous.

The honest answer is ...Read more

Allen J. Schaben/Los Angeles Times/TNS

Value of Huntington Beach defense tech startup balloons to $1.8 billion

LOS ANGELES — California defense tech startup Mach Industries said Tuesday it raised $300 million, nearly quadrupling the company's valuation to $1.8 billion within a year.

The Huntington Beach startup's soaring valuation underscores how defense tech funding is booming as armed conflicts such as the Iran war and the Russian-Ukrainian war ...Read more

Benjamin Fanjoy/Getty Images North America/TNS

Parmy Olson: Google's AI shift is causing a collective freak-out

When Google recently announced radical changes to its search tool that will overshadow the page of blue links we’ve been used to seeing for more than a decade, online advertisers had something of a collective freak-out. The Alphabet Inc.-owned company called it the biggest such shift in more than 25 years, and that the search bar would be “...Read more

Zafro/Zafro/TNS

Gadgets: Portable air conditioner

For whatever reason, you might need a portable air conditioner: your central system goes out, you need cooling in a space that is without AC, or you don’t want to cool the entire house and instead just cool the room where you sleep. If so, the Zafro 16,000 BTU portable air conditioner can be a practical solution.

My experience with AC units...Read more