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The Midcontinent Independent System Operator is expected to have growing capacity surpluses over the next five years, according to the OMS-MISO survey.

Welcome to CELDF’s America 250: A Revolutionary Perspective, an ongoing series this year.

The post CELDF’s What is America 250: A Revolutionary Perspective appeared first on CELDF - Community Rights Pioneers - Protecting Nature and Communities.

A growing body of research shows how air pollution, fertilizers, and fungicides are altering the chemical signals that plants and animals use to communicate. Scientists warn that insect reproduction, foraging, navigation, and even the pollination of crops could be affected.

Read more on E360 →

Most media outlets won’t be in Bonn, but we will. Sending our reporters to cover these international negotiations is expensive, but at a time when many newsrooms are cutting their climate coverage, it’s more important than ever. If you value our reporting, you can support our work and access all our exclusive coverage by becoming a subscriber today.

The annual June climate talks in Bonn are taking place this year against the backdrop of an oil and gas supply crisis tied to the Iran war and deadly heatwaves in Europe, India and the Middle East. Can they produce anything substantial to ease the squeeze on economies and communities around the world?

Watchers of the negotiations say the UN climate process is under pressure to prove its worth at a time when climate action and clean energy offer an increasingly attractive alternative to the global economic and political instability brought by fossil fuel dependency.

Kaysie Brown, associate director of climate diplomacy and geopolitics at think-tank E3G, said the June 8-18 meetings “must show that the multilateral system can make a durable and politically resilient shift to support delivery [of climate action] at scale”. She added that it “will act as a key health check for the climate regime at a time of a rapidly shifting global order”.  

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There are hopes for significant progress on issues ranging from a new mechanism to support a just transition away from fossil fuels, to funding and measuring adaptation to worsening climate impacts. 

Bonn will also see the launch of dialogues on trade and climate change, on how to implement what was promised in the first stocktake of national climate plans in 2023, and on ways to shift global finance flows to support a low-carbon and climate-resilient world. 

Climate Home News doesn’t have a crystal ball, but we have done our homework. Here’s what experts expect to top the agenda at the World Conference Center by the River Rhine:

COP31 priorities

Bonn is where we will get a sense of what the joint COP31 hosts – Türkiye and Australia – want from their presidency. Signs are that they will push for a global goal on the share of final energy consumption that will come from electricity, which may be based on a target proposed by the International Renewable Energy Agency of 35% by 2035.

Watch back: Webinar – From Santa Marta to Bon, where next for the fossil fuel transition?

Other priorities already identified include energy storage, energy security and clean cooking. Türkiye has stressed reducing emissions from landfills as a priority for the “Action Agenda” strand of COP31, which encompasses government and business initiatives outside the formal discussions. Türkiye will lead on the Action Agenda, while Australia handles the negotiations.

Just transition mechanism

The Bonn negotiations are tasked with producing a draft decision on how to set up a new just transition mechanism that can facilitate a fair and orderly shift from a high-carbon world to a greener future. This decision will be forwarded for approval by countries at COP31. 

Governments agreed at COP30 in Brazil to set up what civil society has dubbed the “Belém-Antalya Mechanism” (BAM) but the details have yet to be worked out. Climate Action Network International, which has advocated strongly for the global mechanism, said it should be designed to provide decent jobs, social protection, public investment, energy access and support for affected workers and communities.  

How Belém launched the Just Transition mechanism

“If governments move decisively, the [BAM] could become one of the most significant developments in the climate regime since the Paris Agreement – helping connect climate action with economic transformation and tangible improvements in people’s daily lives,” the coalition of hundreds of green groups said in a statement ahead of Bonn.

Let’s talk trade

At COP30, after two years of trying, emerging economies finally got the overlap between trade and climate policy onto the UN climate talks agenda. Governments agreed to hold dialogues on trade at the June Bonn talks in 2026, 2027 and 2028 before a summary of these dialogues is presented at a “high-level event” in 2028.

What aspects of trade are to be discussed at the first such dialogue on Saturday June 13 is undecided. Developing-country heavyweights like China and India will likely be keen to criticise the European Union’s new carbon border adjustment mechanism, which they regard as protectionist and burdensome for their exporters. Representatives of the World Trade Organization and other trade bodies will make presentations, which governments and civil society will be allowed to comment upon.

Brazil’s call for COP trade forum gets lukewarm response

On Sunday June 14, a separate meeting of the fledgling Integrated Forum on Climate Change and Trade – an initiative launched by the Brazilian COP30 Presidency – will take place in a grand hilltop hotel overlooking Bonn and the Rhine. The meeting is not part of the official UN climate process or the official Bonn talks and will be more informal than the previous day’s dialogue. 

Topics that will be discussed are trade and climate adaptation, how to create a level playing field for low-carbon products, how to trade particularly polluting products and how to bridge climate and trade tools. An expert panel chaired by South Africa’s Faizel Ismail and New Zealand’s Jo Tyndall has been appointed to advise the forum.

Aligning on adaptation 

At COP30, talks on finalising a list of indicators to measure progress on adapting to climate change ended in recriminations, with several Latin American governments complaining that the decision was adopted by the Brazilian presidency without their consent.

The indicators, which were developed by experts in a two-year process, were stripped down by the Brazilians on the last night of COP30 and presented to governments at the last minute as a done deal. 

New data shows rich nations likely missed 2025 goal to double adaptation finance

Several governments and some of the technical experts have argued that many of the adopted indicators are unworkable, as they lack definitions or explanations of how they will be measured. Many indicators for important areas – like poverty reduction, ecosystems, infrastructure and food production – are missing or inadequate, they say.

Government negotiators and experts now have two years to fix the mess, through a “policy alignment process” due to end at COP32 in Ethiopia. At the Bonn talks, governments will try to agree on who will make up a new taskforce of experts to help countries put the indicators into practice and how it will operate.

Our most in-depth Bonn coverage — including most of our Bonn Bulletins from the negotiating floor — will be available exclusively to paid subscribers. Sign up today to ensure you don’t miss out.

Mission to 1.5 and Global Implementation Accelerator

After pressure from small island nations, governments at COP30 agreed to set up the Belém Mission to 1.5 and the Global Implementation Accelerator (GIA) to speed up the implementation of countries’ emissions-cutting and adaptation plans.

For the Mission to 1.5, several past and current COP presidencies are drawing up a report – scheduled to be published before COP31 – which will identify several especially impactful solutions to climate change. On June 12 in Bonn, governments and civil society will weigh in on what they want included.

Also in Bonn, governments will input into the GIA. The Brazilian COP30 Presidency’s vision is that it should drive forward the strongest climate solutions. According to COP30 CEO Ana Toni, an independent panel of experts will pre-select 10-15 solutions and a council will narrow this down to three to five each year which the GIA would then aim to speed up.

The GIA’s “added value is that it will focus exclusively on solutions with the potential to scale and generate cascading effects through high-impact exponential technologies”, she said last month. 

A person points at a stack of trays holding treated limestone, used to absorb CO2 from the air, at Heirloom’s new plant, in Tracy, California, November 9, 2023. (Heirloom Carbon/Handout via REUTERS) A person points at a stack of trays holding treated limestone, used to absorb CO2 from the air, at Heirloom’s new plant, in Tracy, California, November 9, 2023. (Heirloom Carbon/Handout via REUTERS)

Whether Mission to 1.5 and the GIA will identify the same shortlist of solutions – and how they work together – is unclear. But the GIA could become a permanent body working on the real-world “Action Agenda” of COPs.

Ruenna Haynes is the deputy lead negotiator for the small islands group (AOSIS) which pushed for these two initiatives, but she is now worried about what the COP presidencies might make of them. 

She told a recent briefing, “the last thing we want to do is to set up a process that is nothing more than a talking shop that doesn’t deliver and doesn’t go anywhere”. To avoid that, the reports of the GIA and Mission 1.5 must be linked to the wider UN climate talks process and at least discussed by governments, she emphasised. 

Finance roadmap and dialogue

COP30 left a bitter taste regarding what was expected to be one of its main outcomes: progress on how to increase climate finance through the “Baku to Belém Roadmap to $1.3 trillion”. The initiative, included in the new finance goal agreed in Baku – the NCQG – was an effort to top up the 2035 target of $300 billion a year in public finance which fell short of what developing countries wanted and an independent panel of experts estimated would be needed.

The high expectations surrounding this roadmap began to fade during 2025 as the process lacked transparency, clarity, participation and ambition. The result was a report abundant in general recommendations of actions to be taken but lacking clear commitments. Most of the suggestions mentioned are targeted at institutions outside the UN climate process, such as multilateral development banks.

The COP30 decision merely “took note of” that report. So was it the end of the road for this particular roadmap? Not yet.

From Baku to Belém and beyond: How we turn a climate finance roadmap into reality

In Bonn, an “implementation” meeting will be held to “listen to the Parties and observers on the updated work being carried out,” as a member of the COP30 Presidency team told Climate Home News. The challenge is how to ensure the roadmap doesn’t remain fine words in a document and is put into practice. It will also serve either as a good or bad example for the other two voluntary roadmaps (on deforestation and fossil fuels) that the Brazilian presidency is putting together ahead of COP31.

Also in Bonn, the Veredas Dialogue will address the opportunities and obstacles to implementing Article 2.1.c of the Paris Agreement – on making finance flows consistent with low-carbon development – and its complementarity with Article 9 on the responsibility of developed countries to provide financial resources. The limitations of the Baku to Belém Roadmap could shift the divisions between developed and developing nations to this dialogue, especially considering that 2026 is the first year for mobilising finance under the NCQG. 

More roadmaps on fossil fuels and forests

At COP30, a group of 80 countries led a failed push to kickstart a process for a global roadmap to guide the transition away from fossil fuels (TAFF). As an alternative, the Brazilian presidency proposed to draft two voluntary roadmaps: one on phasing out fossil fuels and another to end deforestation by 2030, both commitments endorsed by all countries in the COP28 deal.

In the lead-up to Bonn and after months of consultations with countries, Brazil presented an outline for the forest roadmap – which will invite countries to submit their own voluntary national roadmaps to halt forest loss. 

It will also include a menu of options to bridge the $216-billion forest funding gap. One of the key initiatives to achieve this is the new rainforest fund, the Tropical Forest Forever Facility (TFFF), which is still rallying investors for seed funding. Brazil convened an investor meeting in Rotterdam last week, with participation from over 50 financial institutions – including BlackRock, Bank of America and Barclays – and 30 government representatives.

COP30 rainforest fund unlikely to make first payments until 2028

While not on the formal negotiating agenda In Bonn, Brazil will continue consultations on the forest roadmap at an event with governments on June 8. The final document is expected to be published later in September.

As for the TAFF roadmap, Brazil will hold an open event on June 12 after receiving suggestions from 120 countries. It is expected to be informed by the first global fossil fuel phase-out summit held in Santa Marta in April.

COP30 advisor Flávia Bellaguarda told an online briefing that the informal sessions in Bonn are meant to open a “space for dialogue” on both roadmaps, and that the more countries engage, the more international relevance the process gains.

“We managed to get the elephant into the room. Now, it needs to stay there. For that, we need to give him plenty of food so he can’t fit through the door and leave. We achieve that with dialogue and creating space for genuine exchange,” the Brazilian advisor said.

The post What to expect from the Bonn climate talks appeared first on Climate Home News.

Headline News:

• “Regenerative French Farms Lost Only A Third As Much As Others To Drought” • Data on drought-hit French farmland reveals that the most promising solution could be the greenest. In a study of over 1,200 farms during the 2023 droughts, early findings show that highly regenerative farms recorded an 8% drop in yields, while the others lost 22%. [Euronews]

French farm (Lucas van Oort, Unsplash)

• “Higher Gas Prices Fueling Pain At The Pentagon” • A growing list of unplanned and rising expenses is increasingly straining the Pentagon, with fuel costs emerging as one of the most significant pressures. Oil and fuel prices have surged during the Iran war. That surge could saddle the Pentagon with more than $1 billion in unplanned costs this year. [ABC News]
• “BMW iX3 Starting $5,000 Cheaper Than Comparable BMW X3” • Is the new BMW iX3 about to shake things up? Based on the key facts we’ve seen released about it, it should! The iX3 is coming in a whopping $5,000 cheaper than the comparable version of the gas-powered BMW X3. And the iX3 also offers 434 miles of range. [CleanTechnica]
• “India’s Renewable Energy Boom, Over 4.4 Million Jobs By 2030: Report” • India’s push towards renewable energy could generate over 4.4 million jobs by 2030, according to a study released by the Council on Energy, Environment and Water and NRDC India. The study forecasts rooftop solar to be the single largest employment engine. [Times Now]
• “US Will Dismantle The Ocean Observatories Initiative” • As the US seeks to halt science, the National Science Foundation announced it is “descoping” the Ocean Observatories Initiative. OOI is a vast ocean observation network that comprises more than 900 instruments deployed throughout the world’s oceans. It seems the US would rather not know. [CleanTechnica]

For more news, please visit geoharvey – Daily News about Energy and Climate Change.

• June 4, 2026

JUDGMENT RESERVED: HIGH COURT CONSIDERS ARGUMENTS CHALLENGING WEST COAST SEISMIC SURVEY APPROVAL

Civil Society Organizations and Community Members Held a Demonstration Outside Western Cape High Court and Attended Court Hearing Against TGS Geophysical Seismic Surveys Off the West Coast

On Tuesday afternoon, the Western Cape High Court concluded a two-day hearing in the ongoing legal challenge by Aukotowa Fisheries Primary Co-operative, The Green Connection and Natural Justice (the Applicants) against the State and TGS Geophysical Company UK Ltd. According to The Green Connection’s Outreach Ambassador, Neville van Rooy, “A key issue was whether decision-makers had access to, and properly considered, all relevant information before approving the project. Given its potential consequences for marine ecosystems and coastal livelihoods, this case is not only about compliance – it is about transparent and lawful decisions that genuinely serve the public interest.”

The case concerns the environmental authorisation – granted by the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources (DMPR) and confirmed on appeal by the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment – of a large-scale offshore 3D seismic survey offshore of South Africa’s West Coast to search for oil and gas deposits. Small-scale fishers and civil society organisations previously appealed the decision, but these appeals were dismissed by the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment. They approached the courts to review and set aside these decisions.

The Applicants contend that several critical issues were not adequately assessed before environmental authorisation was granted, including the risks posed by seismic blasting – high-intensity sound pulses used to map the seabed for potential oil and gas deposits – to marine species and the ecosystems on which coastal communities depend.

“The need and desirability assessment for the project focuses largely on the projected economic benefits of the project. However, what is missing is a fair assessment of the potential costs, risks and consequences for coastal communities, marine ecosystems and future generations of the oil and gas value chain, which starts with seismic surveys. It is reckless not to consider the full picture. It’s like deciding to buy a house because of the view or the size, without checking whether the roof leaks, whether the area floods in winter, or what the monthly costs will be. Responsible decision-making seeks to weigh the potential benefits against long-term risks and consequences,” adds van Rooy.

“We therefore hope the court, just like in the Searcher Geodata case, recognises that important environmental and social impacts were not adequately considered before authorisation was granted,” he says. The case also focused on whether “need and desirability” were properly assessed. This means thoroughly checking to make sure the project is needed, environmentally responsible and socio economically justified. And while there is an ongoing debate about energy security, it remains critical to note that even if there would be local production of oil and gas, it would not be cheaper but instead opens the country to vulnerability and volatile global markets. Western Cape High Court concluded a two-day hearing in the ongoing legal challenge by Aukotowa Fisheries Primary Co-operative, The Green Connection and Natural Justice (the Applicants) against the State and TGS Geophysical Company UK Ltd. According to The Green Connection’s Outreach Ambassador, Neville van Rooy, “A key issue was whether decision-makers had access to, and properly considered, all relevant information before approving the project. Given its potential consequences for marine ecosystems and coastal livelihoods, this case is not only about compliance – it is about transparent and lawful decisions that genuinely serve the public interest.”

The case concerns the environmental authorisation – granted by the Department of Mineral and Petroleum Resources (DMPR) and confirmed on appeal by the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment – of a large-scale offshore 3D seismic survey offshore of South Africa’s West Coast to search for oil and gas deposits. Small-scale fishers and civil society organisations previously appealed the decision, but these appeals were dismissed by the Minister of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment. They approached the courts to review and set aside these decisions.

The Applicants contend that several critical issues were not adequately assessed before environmental authorisation was granted, including the risks posed by seismic blasting – high-intensity sound pulses used to map the seabed for potential oil and gas deposits – to marine species and the ecosystems on which coastal communities depend.

“The need and desirability assessment for the project focuses largely on the projected economic benefits of the project. However, what is missing is a fair assessment of the potential costs, risks and consequences for coastal communities, marine ecosystems and future generations of the oil and gas value chain, which starts with seismic surveys. It is reckless not to consider the full picture. It’s like deciding to buy a house because of the view or the size, without checking whether the roof leaks, whether the area floods in winter, or what the monthly costs will be. Responsible decision-making seeks to weigh the potential benefits against long-term risks and consequences,” adds van Rooy. 

“We therefore hope the court, just like in the Searcher Geodata case, recognises that important environmental and social impacts were not adequately considered before authorisation was granted,” he says. 

The case also focused on whether “need and desirability” were properly assessed. This means thoroughly checking to make sure the project is needed, environmentally responsible and socio economically justified. And while there is an ongoing debate about energy security, it remains critical to note that even if there would be local production of oil and gas, it would not be cheaper but instead opens the country to vulnerability and volatile global markets.

Civil society organizations and community members attended day two of court hearing against TGS Geophysical seismic surveys off the west coast

Walter Steenkamp of Aukotowa Fisheries Primary Co-operative says, “With decisions of this scale, caution is essential because if the fish are gone, what alternatives remain for our communities? As unemployment, poverty and inequality continues to grow in the country, we, as coastal communities, want to live with dignity, we do not want to become statistics. Had all relevant information been properly considered, government decision-makers would know that the impacts on small-scale fishing communities and coastal livelihoods could be devastating.”

Melissa Groenink-Groves, Programme Manager of the Defending Rights Programme at Natural Justice says, “In addition to raising arguments about deficiencies in the basic assessment report, which informed the decisions, it was clear that the Director-General in DPMR did not have the assessment or the specialist reports before him to consider before he granted the environmental authorisation.We remain optimistic about the result and trust that Judge Judith Cloete will recognise the impacts that seismic surveying can have on the environment and coastal communities whose livelihoods depend on the ocean.”

The approval of the project, despite evidence of the potential harm to people, the environment and the climate, raises broader concerns about how energy decisions are being made and whose voices are prioritised.

“This case also highlights another question that lies at the heart of this case, and the other legal challenges we have brought: how can South Africa claim to be committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions under the Paris Agreement when approximately 90% of its ocean territory is under lease for offshore oil and gas exploration? Oil and gas exploration cannot be considered in isolation. Decision makers should assess full lifecycle impacts – including environmental, social and climate consequences – rather than focussing narrowly on speculative economic benefits,” adds van Rooy.

Steenkamp concludes, “All we want is to protect our fishing grounds and our way of life from activities that could disrupt marine ecosystems or contribute to worsening climate change because it could affect our ability to earn a living and provide for our families. If the impacts on small-scale fishers and coastal communities were not properly considered, then a crucial part of the decision-making process was missing.”

Judgment has been reserved and will be delivered in due course.Walter Steenkamp of Aukotowa Fisheries Primary Co-operative says, “With decisions of this scale, caution is essential because if the fish are gone, what alternatives remain for our communities? As unemployment, poverty and inequality continues to grow in the country, we, as coastal communities, want to live with dignity, we do not want to become statistics. Had all relevant information been properly considered, government decision-makers would know that the impacts on small-scale fishing communities and coastal livelihoods could be devastating.”

Melissa Groenink-Groves, Programme Manager of the Defending Rights Programme at Natural Justice says, “In addition to raising arguments about deficiencies in the basic assessment report, which informed the decisions, it was clear that the Director-General in DPMR did not have the assessment or the specialist reports before him to consider before he granted the environmental authorisation. We remain optimistic about the result and trust that Judge Judith Cloete will recognise
the impacts that seismic surveying can have on the environment and coastal communities whose livelihoods depend on the ocean.”

The approval of the project, despite evidence of the potential harm to people, the environment and the climate, raises broader concerns about how energy decisions are being made and whose voices are prioritised.

“This case also highlights another question that lies at the heart of this case, and the other legal challenges we have brought: how can South Africa claim to be committed to reducing greenhouse gas emissions under the Paris Agreement when approximately 90% of its ocean territory is under lease for offshore oil and gas exploration? Oil and gas exploration cannot be considered in isolation. Decision-makers should assess full lifecycle impacts – including environmental, social and climate consequences – rather than focussing narrowly on speculative economic benefits,” adds van Rooy.

Steenkamp concludes, “All we want is to protect our fishing grounds and our way of life from activities that could disrupt marine ecosystems or contribute to worsening climate change because it could affect our ability to earn a living and provide for our families. If the impacts on small-scale fishers and coastal communities were not properly considered, then a crucial part of the decision-making process was missing.”

Judgment has been reserved and will be delivered in due course.

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The post JUDGMENT RESERVED: HIGH COURT CONSIDERS ARGUMENTS CHALLENGING WEST COAST SEISMIC SURVEY APPROVAL appeared first on The Green Connection.

Thousands of community and social service workers in Ontario, unionized under OPSEU, are currently on strike or locked out of their workplaces as they fight...

The post Workers undeterred by growing tensions in fight for Ontario’s social service sector first appeared on Spring.

You, me, and everyone we know were born on the Titanic. Some are shouting about icebergs. Some are shoveling coal into the furnaces. Some are jamming out while the band plays louder than ever. In this special episode Alex reviews the odyssey thus far.

When Trish Leigey’s taps started running brown and foul in late 2019, she had an uneasy suspicion about what was tainting the once-clear mountain water. 

Tests later confirmed her hunch. Bovine DNA had infiltrated drinking water supplies in rural Loganton, Pennsylvania — contamination her lawyers linked to Nicholas Meat and its practice of spreading liquefied animal waste on nearby fields.

That may not have surprised many of Leigey’s neighbors. Most of them were well aware of the desiccated animal parts occasionally strewn across local roads. Not many gave a second thought to trucks spraying a cocktail of blood, urine, water, and other slaughterhouse refuse over local farmland. But few wanted to accuse the company of wrongdoing, given that it employs over 425 people — about as many people in all of Loganton — and by some estimates processes 10 percent of the state’s beef.

Leigey, a single mother who works three jobs, decided she had to speak up, for herself, her family, and her neighbors. “I just want a simple life,” she said. “I don’t feel like I should have to be emotionally, mentally, financially, and physically exhausted because some millionaire wants to dump blood on fields because it’s a cheap way to dispose of it. It’s not right.”

 A crew cleans slaughterhouse waste that spilled along a rural road in central Pennsylvania in 2021. Courtesy of Nidel & Nace P.L.L.C.

A jury agreed and in December held the company liable for causing a nuisance and trespassing on neighboring properties by fouling their air and water. Leigey and three others who joined her in suing Nicholas Meat were awarded $145,000, a surprising victory in a state where lenient right-to-farm laws make such cases difficult to win.

Still, the verdict is not expected to change how operations like Nicholas Meat do business. There’s no compelling reason for them to.

Nicholas Meat is much smaller than giants like Tyson Foods, but it’s a big player in central Pennsylvania. What started in 1987 as a family business handling a couple dozen cattle each day bloomed over the decades into one of the county’s largest private employers. It slaughters about 1,000 cattle each day, according to the lawsuit, and has been the biggest business in a town so small it doesn’t have a traffic light. That makes the case against Nicholas Meat more than a neighborhood dispute. It illustrates how the economic pressures of industrial meat production can push environmental risks onto surrounding communities.

Across the state, waste from slaughterhouses, farms, and the like is routinely spread on fields as fertilizer. Spreading these “food processing residuals,” as the mixture is known, is legal, lightly regulated, and cheaper than transporting and treating the waste elsewhere. At least 900 farms and food-processing operations across the state participate in it. Many farms are eager to receive the waste as a more affordable way of fertilizing fields. “There is a place for it, especially as a replacement for synthetic fertilizers,” said Michael Kovach, president of the Pennsylvania Farmers Union.

The problem is scale. A small butcher, like the one Kovach works with, might kill and package a few dozen animals a day. Slaughterhouses handling hundreds or thousands generate waste at an entirely different level. The lawsuit estimated that Nicholas Meat produces at least 200,000 gallons a day, with the capacity to store 1 million gallons on-site and another 4.3 million elsewhere. Aside from mixing and aerating the slop, there is no treatment before disposal — something the state Department of Environmental Protection, or DEP, said is typical.

An aerial view of Nicholas Meats, as seen in 2005 and 2026, shows the operation’s growth. Google Earth / Grist @media screen and (max-width: 767px) { .topper .topper-headings::before{width:100%;} .juxtapose-wrapper { overflow:hidde, max-width:100%; } } .juxtapose { font-family: "Basis Grotesque Pro", sans-serif !important; margin-top: 1em; } .jx-knightlab { opacity: 0; } .jx-slider { color: #f0f0f0; } .jx-controller { border-radius: 9px; color: #e6ffa0; } .juxtapose-caption { margin-top: 0.5em; font-size: 0.95rem; color: #666; text-align: center; }

Nicholas Meat, which supplies supermarket chains like Giant and fast-food restaurants like Burger King, spreads and injects its waste on fields that Eugene Nicholas and his son, Doug, own or lease in Clinton County and across the county line in places like Antes Fort. Since the state considers it fertilizer, there is little oversight on how food processing residuals are applied.

“There’s nowhere that there’s a law or a regulation involved with the type of farming that we do,” Eugene Nicholas said during the trial. His son, Doug, now largely oversees the Loganton slaughterhouse. The Nicholases and their attorneys did not respond to multiple requests for comment.

Pennsylvania does not require a permit to spread food processing residuals, which includes everything from potato skins and dairy waste to slaughterhouse remains. The practice is governed by guidelines published in 1994. They do little more than require farmers to outline details like how much could be used for various crops, and warn people not to dump it near waterways or drinking water sources. 

Regulators investigate complaints of unbearable odors or polluted runoff, but DEP records dating to 2013 show people near the slaughterhouse would often wait days for a response. “There is really no oversight by anyone except residents,” said Angela Harding, a Clinton County commissioner who represents the area. “We don’t necessarily know what the long-term ramifications of this process will be.”

The lawsuit states that Nicholas Meat began spraying its waste on fields after it reopened in 2010 after a fire. It estimated that it sprays 10 million to 13 million gallons of waste over “hundreds” of acres annually. Reports from a Clinton County Conservation District employee presented during the trial revealed that the company was “way over applying blood” to farmland and the practice was “continuous for 8-10 hours a day.” One farmer quoted in a report said he couldn’t drive a tractor on his fields because they were saturated with waste. Evidence presented during the trial showed the company sprayed on barren, wet, and even snowy fields, creating the risk of runoff that could pollute other locations.

Food processing residuals from Nicholas Meat’s slaughterhouse are applied to a field near Trish Leigey’s home in Loganton. This photo was used as evidence in her lawsuit against the processor. Courtesy of Nidel & Nace P.L.L.C.

Local geography and geology add to that danger, particularly for those who depend upon wells. Springs and sinkholes are common in central Pennsylvania, and the cracks and channels in the rocky soil make it easier for contaminants to flow into aquifers and wells, said Brandon Fleming, a groundwater specialist with the U.S. Geological Survey Pennsylvania Water Science Center. He was not involved in the trial.

A 2017 U.S. Geological Survey assessment of Clinton County groundwater, conducted to establish baseline conditions ahead of potential fracking, found that more than half of 54 private wells, including Leigey’s, contained fecal bacteria, including E. coli, which appeared in about 25 percent of them. The study did not determine the source of the contamination. But evidence and testimony presented at the trial revealed that Nicholas Meat knew sinkholes dotted the fields where it sprayed and injected waste. That bloody mixture would have flowed into them and could contaminate groundwater, a groundwater expert testified.

Bovine DNA from blood or tissue, along with human fecal markers, also were detected in water samples taken from three homes near disposal sites in Sugar Valley as part of the legal case against Nicholas. Such pollutants can cause gastrointestinal illnesses resembling food poisoning, including diarrhea and severe abdominal cramps.

Read Next The new ethanol? Biogas producers are pushing livestock poop as renewable. John McCracken

Meat processing waste can expose people to viruses, bacteria, parasites, and chemicals associated with health risks ranging from gastrointestinal illness to methemoglobinemia (sometimes called blue baby syndrome) and cancer. The threat can be compounded by cleaning agents and antimicrobial drugs often found in such refuse, said Christopher Heaney, an associate professor at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, who was not involved in the trial.

Even exposure to airborne particles can cause or exacerbate respiratory problems like asthma, while persistent noxious odors — which Leanna Rockey, a retired nurse who sued the slaughterhouse alongside Leigey, described as “rotting flesh and blood” — can also lead to high blood pressure, stress, and other psychological impacts.

For those living near one of these sites, those impacts are part of daily life.

Leigey said her youngest daughter, Alaina, who is now 15, suffered debilitating headaches from the stench, something her neighbors described as often inescapable. It could get so bad that they’d seal themselves indoors despite the summer heat. Many neighbors stopped hanging their clothes out to dry years ago. For Rockey, it has meant investing in a water cooler and regularly hauling clothes to the laundromat so they aren’t stained by fouled water.

“We still don’t drink our water,” Rockey said. “I never dreamt in a million years my little piece of heaven would be turned into a dumping ground.”

The two-week trial lasted longer than most cases heard in Clinton County, which has just two judges. Craig P. Miller, who presided over the case, joked about Nicholas’ “team of 950 lawyers” from the high-powered firm of Fox Rothschild descending on the rural area. Leigey skipped work and her daughter missed school, and a handful of neighbors attended the trial to provide moral support. Much of the testimony focused on whether Nicholas Meat had a right to apply the waste. Jurors deliberated for several hours before returning a verdict that Nicholas’ attorneys appealed on May 5.

Even so, the victory may do little to change the underlying system. The $145,000 that jurors awarded will help cover what Leigey and her neighbors spent over the years on bottled water, laundromat visits, and new wells. But the jury did not award punitive damages, and nothing about the verdict requires the slaughterhouse to change how it operates despite the history of environmental violations revealed during the trial.

“There’s no disincentive for him to do this,” said Chris Nidel, Leigey’s lawyer. Based on the volume of waste produced, he estimated the company saves $4,500 an hour spreading it locally rather than hauling it to a wastewater facility. “They can make that money up in less than a week.”

This 2019 image of Trish Leigey’s tap water was introduced as evidence in a trial that found Nicholas Meat guilty of trespassing and creating a nuisance through the land application of slaughterhouse waste. Courtesy of Trish Leigey

But unless state regulators pursue an investigation or adopt new rules, accountability remains elusive. Cases like Leigey’s can be difficult to prove if defendants can create enough doubt by pointing to other possible sources of contamination — another farm, a leaky septic tank, or past agricultural use. These cases are usually “a catch-me-if-you-can situation,” said Dani Replogle, an attorney with Food & Water Watch who was not involved in the lawsuit.

The same pressures play out nationwide in a $161 billion beef industry built on processing vast numbers of animals at low cost to meet high demand. 

“The more animals you have in one location, the worse the environmental problems are going to be,” Replogle said. Stricter regulation is the only way to negate that, she said. “That is just not happening. There’s a really powerful lobby standing in the way of that.”

That pressure is reinforced locally. Nicholas Meat employs a significant share of the region’s population. Neighbors may be employees, relatives, or landowners connected to the operation, leaving communities tied to the facility responsible for the pollution. That leaves few people willing to complain.

Kovach, the president of the farmers’ union, believes the case reflects a broader shift in agriculture: Livestock production and processing have become concentrated in the hands of fewer, larger operators. “What we need is a lot fewer plants that can handle 600 to 1,000 [cattle] a day and more that can handle 100 a day,” he said.

Michael Kovach, president of the Pennsylvania Farmers Union and a small-scale farmer, takes a selfie with one of his young turkeys. Courtesy of Michael Kovach

Regardless of whether the industry makes that shift, state Representative Paul Friel said the rules need to change. He has introduced legislation to tighten oversight and hold polluters more accountable because some “bad actors” are turning “farm fields into unregulated landfills.”

“There has to be a distinction between normal farming practice and industrial waste disposal,” he said. “There’s not a path forward to manage this without legislation.”

In the months since Leigey won her civil suit, the air around her house has been crisp and fresh. The pungent smell of rotting flesh has waned, but that’s largely because Nicholas Meat is spreading its waste on other fields across the Sugar Valley of central Pennsylvania.

She spent around $10,000 having a deeper well dug in 2021, and although her water now runs clear, she worries how long it’ll stay that way. Her lawyer hopes the lawsuit might inspire others to take a stand and force the industry to change, but Leigey and her neighbors wonder whose well might be the next to run rank.

“Innocent people should not have to suffer for the greed of other people,” she said. “I’m still going to keep an eye on it. Sometimes bad habits are hard to break.”

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Blood in the well: One town’s fight against the slaughterhouse polluting it on Jun 4, 2026.

Nearly six years ago, during Donald Trump’s first term in the White House, the president signed a piece of bipartisan legislation introduced to phase out the rampant use of hydrofluorocarbons, or HFCs, which are potent greenhouse gases commonly used in commercial cooling equipment in grocery stores and air-conditioning systems. 

At the time, he praised the American Innovation and Manufacturing Act, created in line with an international agreement to tamp down widespread use of the “super pollutant,” as something that would benefit U.S. manufacturers working to produce alternative and less environmentally harmful refrigerants. The Environmental Protection Agency would then spend the next four years under former President Joe Biden working to implement a series of rules to help enforce the law, which set the goal of phasing out production and use of the pollutants by 85 percent by 2036.

Now, Trump has reversed his position. At a White House press conference last month, he announced the administration would be loosening two of the EPA’s refrigerant rules, delaying the deadline required for grocery stores and air-conditioning companies to begin reducing their use of hydrofluorocarbons, and exempting transport companies from repairing HFC leaks in refrigeration equipment. 

Flanked by EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin and a handful of the country’s biggest grocery chain executives, the president assailed both the rule and the very law he signed, promising Americans the move would have no environmental consequence and bring down supermarket bills. Trump estimated that U.S. businesses and families will save more than $2.4 billion under the new rule changes, while expressing his desire to get rid of the underlying law altogether.  

“Thanks to today’s reforms, the American people have lower grocery prices, cheaper transportation of goods, lower costs of air conditioning at no detriment to our country,” Trump said.

There’s just one problem — that’s just not true. Economists and former EPA officials say the rollbacks are more likely to raise prices than reduce them. Some industry groups warn the administration’s sudden turnabout would result in ramped up demand for equipment that use the most climate-damaging HFCs, which the sector had been steadily scaling back. Even Trump’s EPA has acknowledged in an internal assessment that the rule change could achieve the opposite of its stated goal — rather than lowering costs, the supply and demand dynamics it may create could elevate them. 

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“It just doesn’t add up. There’s just no plausible way in which relaxing these rules is going to generate any meaningful reduction in the costs of food people purchase,” said Chris Barrett, an economist at Cornell University. 

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Dollar data, which is widely considered the best breakdown of costs that go into an American consumer’s grocery bill, food retail, transport, storage, and energy costs together amount to roughly 20 percent. But refrigerants, according to Barrett, are not a meaningful slice of that share. “We’re talking about a maximum reduction of a percentage point in your grocery bill,” said Barrett, who added it’s much more likely to amount to a fraction of a percentage point. “For a consumer who’s spending $200 a week on groceries, maybe it will save you a dollar or two, at the maximum.” 

HFCs are incredibly powerful greenhouse gases that are primarily used as cooling agents in everything from supermarket freezers to slushie machines. Commercial systems using HFCs are prone to leaking, too — the EPA has estimated that U.S. supermarkets alone leak an average of 25 percent of their refrigerants every year. Though the super pollutants don’t stick around in the atmosphere for too long, their global warming potential is hundreds to thousands of times more potent than carbon dioxide. 

The 2020 law signed by Trump initiated a gradual phaseout of production and use of HFCs in alignment with an international deal known as the Kigali Amendment. The result of years of negotiation by parties to the 1987 Montreal Protocol on ozone pollution, the Kigali Amendment aimed to prevent up to 0.5 degrees Celsius of added warming by the end of the century, which scientists warn will have enormous consequences for agriculture and the global food system. Though Trump did not send the deal to the Senate for approval during his first term, the U.S. formally ratified the amendment in 2022 under Biden. Inside Climate News reported that a recent EPA assessment estimated that loosening the national phaseout deadlines is likely to increase emissions by 68 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent by 2050.

Joseph Goffman, former assistant administrator of EPA’s Office of Air and Radiation during the Biden administration, suspects that Trump’s cost-savings messaging around the rollbacks are nothing more than a “gimmick” to appease disgruntled voters struggling with soaring inflation ahead of midterms. Part of what Trump and Zeldin are doing with these changes, he said, is “wanting to create some grocery-price theater.” 

The administration argues that alternative materials to high-global-warming-potential HFCs are not sufficiently available, making the deadlines set by the rules for the phaseout too aggressive and expensive for food companies — costs, they say, that will be passed down to consumers. But critics have countered that U.S. businesses have spent the last several years investing billions into new refrigerants, equipment, production lines, and staffing. Chemours and Honeywell have already developed alternative refrigerants sold domestically and worldwide. Groups like the Air-Conditioning, Heating, and Refrigeration Institute and the Alliance for Responsible Atmospheric Policy have also denounced the idea that the market needs more time. 

“We heard that argument, I would say, three years ago,” said Goffman. “It’s almost, by definition, arbitrary for the Trump EPA to say, ‘We’ll come along and make these changes,’ as if the EPA hadn’t already received a lot of information and worked through these issues.”

While several major supermarket chains and grocery trade groups have spoken out in support of the rule changes, the administration’s claim that savings will flow through to grocery consumers remains unsubstantiated. As they stand, the EPA’s rule amendments carry no mandates for grocers to lower their prices, and it is unclear whether companies would voluntarily use any presumed savings from the rollbacks to lower their prices, rather than relieving pressure on their own bottom lines.

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Food prices are shaped by many dynamics, but the dominant forces are demand and supply. Over the last few decades, food demand has only continued to grow, fueled by rising global populations, higher incomes, and urbanization. Supply has struggled to keep pace, and food prices have been climbing steadily as a result, punctuated by sharp spikes from recent shocks like the COVID-19 pandemic, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran. 

But Barrett says the overwhelming persistent stressors behind steadily rising food inflation for most of the last six years has been extreme weather and climate-related shocks coupled with lagging productivity growth in food production. Americans are actively seeing this play out with skyrocketing beef prices nationwide, largely driven by persistent and prolonged droughts and heat waves that have decimated cattle herds and created severe supply shortages. “The evidence is very clear,” said Barrett. “Climate change is predictably driving the growth of supply down, and therefore driving prices up in due time.” 

By that logic, the administration’s rollback of the refrigerant rules, intended to mitigate planet-warming emissions, won’t, then, abate rising food inflation but stoke it.   

“So, if relaxing these rules aggravates climate change, and gives us more severe and more frequent episodes of extreme weather that hurts productivity in agriculture, we’re actually going to increase grocery prices down the road,” he said. “It just seems very hard to see how this administration is doing much to help relieve consumer food price inflation concerns.” 

“Who’s really benefiting from these empty promises?” he said. “We all need to start asking that question.” 

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This story was originally published by Grist with the headline No, rolling back these environmental rules won’t lower your grocery bill on Jun 4, 2026.

This chapter from r3.0's latest Seeds Series explores how societies can move beyond extractive economic systems by embracing systems thinking, place-based resilience and regenerative approaches to food, energy and community development.

Rising energy and fertiliser prices linked to the conflict in the Middle East are increasing the risk of global food insecurity, prompting renewed questions about how to strengthen food security and reduce dependence on fragile global supply chains.

This is a guest blog by Yu Sun Chin, Senior Regional Researcher at Zero Carbon Analytics (ZCA).  ZCA is an international research group that provides insights and analysis on climate change and the energy transition.

In the Philippines, families have been seeing their power bills rise over the past few months, especially since the Iran war. 

“When we got our energy bill after the Iran war broke out, we were very shocked. It was wow. It was a significant increase,” Jaime Quemado, who had just bought rooftop solar in Manila, said in a recent AP story about the price shocks. 

The Philippines already has one of the highest power prices in Asia, second only to Singapore, which is a much wealthier country. Low-income households can spend up to 10% of their annual income on electricity, making electricity affordability a big issue.

Imported fossil fuels are pushing up electricity bills

There are many reasons why the country’s power prices are so high, including inefficient coal plants, how expensive it is to transmit power over the country’s 7,600 islands, and the fact that the government doesn’t subsidise electricity costs for consumers, unlike in other Southeast Asian countries, including Indonesia, Malaysia, and Thailand. 

But a big reason is that the Philippines generates just over three-quarters of its electricity from burning coal and gas in power plants, and a lot of this fuel is imported from other countries.

Importing coal and gas is expensive, and becomes even more so when conflicts like the Iran war squeeze global supply and push up prices. Currently, LNG (liquefied natural gas, a gas cooled into liquid to travel long distances) prices in Asia are more than 70% higher than on February 27, the day before the Iran war began, and coal prices in Asia have risen around 20% over the same time period. A similar thing happened in 2022, when LNG prices hit historical highs in Asia after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Price of fossil fuels in Asia have increased since the war in Iran. Credit: Zero Carbon Analytics

As the fuels used for power get pricier, electricity becomes more expensive to produce, and increases in global coal, oil and gas prices are felt in consumers’ pockets – especially in countries that rely on imported fossil fuels for power. In the Philippines, households literally see an increasing “generation charge” in their monthly electricity bills, which refers to how much it costs to produce electricity. 

Poorer families will be hit hardest by rising energy prices – research shows that poorer Filipinos will lose a higher percentage of their income from energy price shocks than richer Filipinos, because, in addition to paying more for fuel and power, rising energy prices also raise food prices.

But the Philippines isn’t the only country that imports a lot of fossil fuels. Many countries across the world meet the majority of their energy needs with fossil fuel imports, including Japan, Korea, Türkiye and Germany, according to think tank Ember. 

Other countries in South and Southeast Asia, like Thailand and Pakistan, import substantial amounts of gas, which they use to generate power. Thailand relies on gas to generate about two-thirds of its electricity, and Pakistan relies on it for around one-third. As a result, power bills are also going up in many of these countries, including Türkiye and Pakistan.   

Governments in Asia are rushing to get renewables online

These high electricity bills aren’t inevitable – they are a result of power systems that are built to rely on turbulent fossil fuel markets. A system that uses renewable energy sources, like wind or solar PV, can help lower power prices. Once they are up and running, wind and solar power don’t require fuel – apart from sun and wind, which are free – so there are no fuel costs to fluctuate. Solar can produce stable power for up to 30 years.

Research has shown that it is already cheaper to produce electricity from solar than from gas in the Philippines. The same is true in Thailand and other Southeast Asian countries, like Vietnam and Malaysia. 

In the Philippines, the government is taking note and rushing solar power online. On March 30, the government said it had activated 250 megawatts (MW) of solar capacity – equivalent to 8% of the county’s 2024 solar capacity – and 450 megawatt-hour (MWh) of battery storage. It has also said it would fast-track the completion of 22 power projects to bring an additional 1.47 gigawatts (GW) of renewable energy and storage online by the end of April. 

Many are turning to solar panels to generate electricity as they are cheaper than oil and gas. Image credit: ulleo, Pixabay

Filipino homeowners are also hurrying to install solar panels, with rooftop solar becoming increasingly popular. A survey of 20 local solar companies saw a 70% rise in weekly installations and a six-fold increase in customer inquiries since the Iran war began, according to the AP.

Thailand is also seeing a surge in inquiries about installing new solar since the start of the Iran war, according to media reports. In April, the Thai government also approved THB 5 billion (about USD 156 million) in loans for people to install rooftop solar and buy EVs.

In fact, our recent research found that 15 Asian countries have announced clean energy measures in response to the Iran war.

Many asian countries have announced clean energy measures in response to the war in Iran. Credit: Zero Carbon Analytics

More renewable energy is good for energy bills and the planet

All of this new solar is good news for consumers’ pockets. If the Philippines continues to expand solar and use it to replace imported coal and gas in the power mix, it will help to lower electricity bills. The same is true for Thailand – we calculated that Thai households with solar could have saved 77% on their power bills compared to households without solar in 2024, saving an average THB 8340 (about USD 260).

New solar is also good news for the planet. More renewable energy means fewer emissions from coal and gas plants, which will help to slow global warming and lessen the chances of climate impacts and extreme weather. This is especially important in Southeast Asia, which is one of the regions most vulnerable to climate disasters. 

The Iran war has reminded us that imported coal and gas are an expensive and risky way to generate power, just four years after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine showed the same. Choosing to replace fossil fuel generation with renewable energy will help to protect families from paying the price of such global crises.

 

The post Out of pocket: The real cost of importing fossil fuels on electricity bills appeared first on 350.

The biggest data centre in Australia will be built in its only 100 pct net renewables grid. And it could have a major impact, including eliminating negative demand.

The post AI giant chooses Australia’s first 100 pct (net) renewable grid to build country’s biggest data centre appeared first on Renew Economy.

State commits nearly $18 million to the establishment of collection, transport and processing pathways for end-of-life solar panels and batteries.

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In an exclusive interview, Tesla Energy's Asia Pacific boss Josef Tadich discusses energy abundance (read solar), the role of batteries big and small, hybrids, the EV surge and the arrival of V2G.

The post Energy Insiders Podcast: Tesla Energy boss on energy abundance, EVs, V2G and big and small batteries appeared first on Renew Economy.

Critical policies that could unlock funding for cycling and pedestrian infrastructure across America have cleared the first hurdle in Congress — and the advocates who fought for them are launching a national nonprofit to promote a model that they hope can get the bill across the finish line and achieve similar wins.

Last month, advocates for the bipartisan Sarah Debbink Langenkamp Safety Act celebrated after legislators folded several key provisions of the bill into the House’s latest major transportation law, the BUILD America 250 Act.

That bill passed out of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee on May 22, and will now make its way through a months-long legislative gauntlet known as the federal “reauthorization” process. If the Langenkamp provisions survive those negotiations on Capitol Hill, though, they will explicitly encourage communities across America to spend their guaranteed Highway Safety Improvement Program dollars on filling gaps in their active transportation networks for the first time.

Even better, these provisions will allow communities to fortify their bike lanes and greenways with federal money alone. In years past, the same process required an onerous local match that many governments pointed to as an excuse to neglect people outside of cars in their HSIP plans.

“There is tremendous bipartisan support in the country for making our roadways far more pedestrian and cyclist friendly,” said Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Maryland), who introduced the legislation, in an interview with Streetsblog. “And this is especially true at a time of soaring gasoline prices. The pressure has been on for us to make sure that our tax dollars go to help people who are using every conceivable kind of transportation — including walking and bicycling.”

Recommended New Law Would Honor Legacy of Slain Cyclist Sarah Langenkamp By Helping Cities Fill Bike Network Gaps Kea Wilson March 30, 2023

They might sound wonky, but the measures outlined in the Langenkamp Act have topped many advocates’ policy wishlists for years. Proponents say they could unlock millions of dollars and catalyze countless active transportation projects that wouldn’t otherwise happen.

But they’ve been particularly urgent since the 2022 death of the mother, diplomat and cycling advocate for whom the bill is named — and the advocacy rides her family have organized in her memory every year since.

Known as the Ride For Your Life, these rolling protests have flooded D.C. streets with thousands of cyclists who turned out to demonstrate their support for Langenkamp’s namesake law and other measures to end traffic violence.

Langenkamp’s family recently established a nonprofit that will fight for similar legislation across the country. With each campaign, they’ll organize similar advocacy rides, which the family described as the cornerstone of their efforts. Raskin said these rides were essential to “mobilize focus and attention” around his legislation.

“People keep getting killed on our roads, and almost everywhere that happens, there’s a huge community of people who want to do something about it,” said Dan Langenkamp, Sarah’s husband. “I hope that we can work with those people to help channel their grief and anger into advocacy.”

Recommended Essay: Sarah Langenkamp Loved Biking. She Shouldn’t Have Died Because of It. Dan Langenkamp December 1, 2022

Of course, Ride For Your Life isn’t the first or only organization to adopt the humble group ride as a tool for policy change.

Cyclists who participated in Amsterdam’s Stop De Kindermoord protests in the 70s, for instance, helped transform the Netherlands into the biking capital of the world by laying down alongside their bikes in the street — long before the word “die-in” was common parlance.

More recently, the Magnus White Cycling Safety Act gained significant momentum after the Ride for Magnus: Ride For Your Life turned out more than 4,300 cyclists across 48 states. The provisions of that bill, which would require new cars to carry automatic braking systems capable of detecting cyclists and pedestrians, also appear in the current draft of BUILD America 250.

But Langenkamp says that other bike advocates still struggle to identify the kind of hyper-specific demands that could truly save lives on the road — or to meaningfully engage the powerful people who can fulfill those demands. And even well-intentioned organizes sometimes struggle to successfully tie “awareness” rides to their cause, he said.

With support from an organization that’s done all three, though, he hopes Ride for Your Life can help organizers conduct advocacy rides with real impact — and pass laws with real teeth.

“What we’re trying to do is affect real change on the ground by pairing our rides with legislation or policy asks,” Langenkamp stressed. “We bring in not only the families or people impacted by traffic violence, but also sympathetic legislators, the general public, and advocates to this effort. It actually works in getting things done.”

Recommended Memorial Ride For Teen Cycling Phenom Killed by Driver Hopes to Inspire National Change Kea Wilson August 5, 2024

Both Langenkamp and Rep. Raskin acknowledged that their bill alone won’t end the epidemic of cyclist deaths in America, and that group rides alone aren’t always enough to get good legislation off the ground. Even with much of the Langenkamp act included, the larger bill to which their legislation belongs drastically overfunds highways at the expense of other modes, and it will take all kinds of organizing to change that, including flipping seats in Congress itself.

“That’s really what elections need to be about,” added Raskin. “We need to have a rigorous public conversation about whether or not we are doing enough to invest in our transportation infrastructure in a way that benefits everybody in the country — and not just motorists.”

With Ride For Your Life events planned in Madison, Boston, and D.C. this autumn, Langenkamp hopes his group will continually refine their recipe for demanding change through more rides and smart organizing — and, in the process, potentially create a powerful new community of advocates on wheels.

“We all know that there are more than 100 people killed a day on U.S. roads — and it’s not just cyclists and pedestrians, it’s everybody,” said Langenkamp. “There’s no reason why there should not be more people interested in this subject … I think that we can actually help change the narrative and make this a higher priority issue, if we organize better.”

Construction of the LTESA-winning battery is set to start this year after the federal government gave the project the environmental green light.

The post Contested big battery with up to 10 hours of storage gets final green light appeared first on Renew Economy.

• A chemical in tires that’s already known to kill spawning salmon when it runs off into rivers may be harmful to humans as well, according to Yale researchers. (E360)
• If the future of transportation is privately owned autonomous vehicles and not fleets of robotaxis, traffic could grind to a complete halt. (City Lab; paywall)
• Buses and trains are a cheaper and more efficient way to move people around than cars, but transit agencies need to figure out how to compete with the fact that a car can take you exactly where you want to go. (Pedestrian Observations)
• The Vision Zero Network recommends addressing inequities in traffic stops by focusing on serious, potentially deadly offenses like speeding and drunk driving, rather than minor equipment infractions like broken taillights.
• Drivers kill thousands of people a year in places like parking lots and driveways that don’t count as roads. (Jalopnik)
• Uber is capping the amount of money employees can spend on AI after the company blew through its AI budget for the year in four months (Tech Crunch), but insists that announcement of layoffs is unrelated (CNBC).
• Seattle Mayor Katie Wilson proposed increasing bus frequency by doubling a 0.15 percent sales tax for King County Transit. (The Urbanist)
• The Metro Atlanta Rapid Transit Authority delayed the unveiling of new train cars, and it’s unclear whether they’ll be ready in time for the World Cup. (11 Alive)
• The redevelopment of Baltimore’s Penn Station is on hold. (Banner)
• Pittsburgh transit advocates rallied in the Pennsylvania capital of Harrisburg demanding more funding for paratransit to help disabled residents. (WTAE)
• Contrary to the advice of experts like Donald Shoup, Cleveland is lowering the cost of on-street parking. (19 News)
• Drivers keep blocking an East Nashville bike lane. (WKRN)
• The head of Milwaukee County’s government authorized deputies to impound vehicles for owners’ reckless driving. (Urban Milwaukee)
• A California authority signed a contract to electrify 119 miles of high-speed rail. (Railway Age)
• Honolulu’s bikeshare is down to less than 500 bikes from 1,300, partly due to vandalism. (Civil Beat)
• Seattle train service was disrupted when a 70-year-old driver followed her car’s GPS onto elevated tracks. (KIRO)
• Santa Clara prosecutors issued a warrant for 49ers star Brandon Aiyuk’s arrest after he posted a video of himself speeding. (ESPN)
• Bogota, which has the largest bus rapid transit system in the world, is finally getting its metro. (High Speed)
• The UK nationalized the country’s largest private passenger train operator. (LBC)
• London cyclists are being forced to swerve around a billboard in the middle of a new bike path. (Telegraph)

China’s carbon emissions bounced back up in early 2026 as “inflexible” grid management caused the country to waste vast quantities of clean power and burn more fossil fuels instead, new analysis shows.

After recording a first full-year decline in 2025, China’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from energy and industry grew by 2% in the first quarter of 2026, according to analysis by the Centre for Research on Energy and Clean Air (CREA) for Carbon Brief.

China burned more coal and gas to generate electricity than in the same period a year earlier, despite building record wind and solar capacity. Instead of being integrated into the network and used, clean power equivalent to more than France’s entire electricity output for the quarter was discarded.

Coal power plants protected

Lauri Myllyvirta, CREA’s lead analyst, said the paradox was primarily caused by China’s inflexible operation of coal and gas power plants, which supply electricity through long-term contracts that remove any incentive to reduce output when cheaper solar and wind power is available.

Electricity trading between Chinese provinces, also based on annual contracts, prevents surplus renewable energy from flowing to other areas in real time, the analysis found.

Santa Marta process can confront trade protection for fossil fuels, experts say

Myllyvirta said all operators should be required to sell electricity in real time so that coal power plants would face competition from very low prices during hours of strong renewables output and have an economic incentive to cut down generation. “But that has not made a lot of progress in China,” he added.

Curtailment rates rising

The intentional reduction of renewable energy generation, a process known as curtailment, saw a significant increase in China at the start of 2026, reaching 9.2% for solar and 8.5% for wind respectively, according to Bloomberg.

Myllyvirta noted that real curtailment rates are likely to be even higher than those reported in official statistics. He added that, until tracking improves, there won’t be enough political pressure to fix the issue.

The findings highlight Beijing’s failure to make full use of its record renewables build-out to accelerate the country’s transition away from fossil fuels.

If curtailments had not risen, increased capacity means wind and solar could have generated an extra 170 terawatt hours of electricity (TWh) in the first quarter, more than satisfying the growth in power demand, CREA’s analysis found. But, instead, clean power generation rose by just 60 TWh, with wind showing almost no growth.

Electricity generation from solar (left) and wind power (right) in China, terawatt hours per 12-month period. Red: Electricity actually fed into the grid. Yellow: Generation before reported levels of “curtailment”, where some electricity is discarded due to grid congestion. Blue: Generation if the rate of curtailment had stayed constant. Source: China Electricity Council monthly data on installed capacity and utilisation; National New Energy Consumption Monitoring and Early Warning Center data on curtailment Electricity generation from solar (left) and wind power (right) in China, terawatt hours per 12-month period. Red: Electricity actually fed into the grid. Yellow: Generation before reported levels of “curtailment”, where some electricity is discarded due to grid congestion. Blue: Generation if the rate of curtailment had stayed constant. Source: China Electricity Council monthly data on installed capacity and utilisation; National New Energy Consumption Monitoring and Early Warning Center data on curtailment Global problem

China is not alone in under-utilising its full renewable energy potential. Curtailments have risen in countries including the UK, Australia, India, Chile and Brazil, primarily as a result of bottlenecks in national transmission systems unable to accommodate additional clean power output.

After failing to keep up with the installation of renewable generation capacity, annual investments in updating grids need to increase by around 50% by 2030, according to the International Energy Agency. The watchdog said that, if power networks fail to prevent high levels of curtailments, clean energy operators risk facing significant revenue losses, threatening the investment case for renewables.

One of South America’s largest clean power generators said on Wednesday that it was putting plans for $1 billion in new renewables investment in Brazil on hold as the country’s grid operator rejected up to 25% of the power its existing projects could produce, Reuters reported.

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