EPA decision could make it harder to impose environmental rules

Dec 31, 2018
Coal mining companies and power plants that burn coal are trying to sort out the implications of a deregulatory move by the Trump administration late Friday. The EPA is proposing to re-think rules cutting the air pollutant mercury – it’s a toxin which can impact the brain development of babies. For now, the agency says […]

In Houston, a growing debate about flooding and sand mining

Dec 31, 2018
In business-friendly Texas, lawmakers could crack down on sand mines amid flooding concerns.
Excavators dig massive pits at the River Aggregates sand mine near Houston, Texas.
Travis Bubenik for Marketplace

EPA moves raise questions about future of methane reduction market

Dec 26, 2018
Texas is of course a big oil state, but it’s also home to a growing industry focused on reducing emissions of oil field methane, a climate change causing gas. But the Trump administration is loosening the rules on methane, which could leave these methane-reduction companies with a smaller market for their products and services. The […]
Spencer Platt/Getty Images

American wind power draws big investments

Dec 17, 2018
The wind power industry is still catching its breath after a remarkable auction. Last Thursday, and into Friday, wind energy companies outbid each other for the right to build wind farms off the coast of Massachusetts. In the end, the winning bids before the Interior Department were higher than the latest auction price to drill […]

EPA poised to roll back what waterways are protected

Dec 11, 2018
The Trump administration is set to release a plan that would redefine which bodies of water are protected by the 1972 Clean Water Act.
The Trump administration is set to release a plan that would redefine which bodies of water are protected by the 1972 Clean Water Act. 
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI/AFP/Getty Images

With California requiring solar panels on new homes, higher building costs and lower energy bills

Dec 10, 2018
California has become the first state in the nation to require solar panels on most new homes starting in 2020.
California has become the first state to require solar panels on most new homes.
Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

U.S. still wants to negotiate global climate change issues

Dec 4, 2018
But does it have the leverage now that it's pulling out of the Paris Agreement?
Steam and exhaust rise from different companies on a cold winter day in Oberhausen, Germany.
Lukas Schulze/Getty Images

For public good, not for profit.

Keeping the family recycling business afloat

Nov 29, 2018
There have been rough years before, but this year may be the toughest.
SAUL LOEB/AFP/Getty Images

The outdoor economy is shifting the way we think about spending time outside

Nov 23, 2018
This sector of the U.S. economy is using its financial power to address the threat to public lands and to increase participation outdoors.
Hiking is one of the many activities included in the outdoor economy.
Austin Ban

Study links air pollution to early death

Nov 19, 2018
A new report ranks air pollution as the greatest threat to human life, above war and disease.
A Chinese man wears a mask as he waits to cross the road near the CCTV building during heavy smog on November 29, 2014 in Beijing, China. 
Kevin Frayer/Getty Images