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Trump Announces $700 Million in Funds Meant to Boost Coal Industry

The president announced a total of $700 million in federal money to reinvigorate the domestic coal industry, which has been in decline for decades.

Β© Evelyn Hockstein/Reuters

Of the roughly $700 million in total funding, $425 million would be used to upgrade and extend the life of 13 coal plants that otherwise might have closed in the coming years.
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How One Company Plans to Mine the Bottom of the Sea

A look at the quest to mine the bottom of the ocean for valuable minerals, the connection between light pollution and allergies and more climate news.

Β© The New York Times

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Urban Light Pollution Might Be Worsening Allergies

Light pollution prompts plants to shed pollen longer and stronger, according to new research.

Β© Amir Hamja for The New York Times

A study found that trees in cities with brighter lights start producing pollen earlier in the spring and finish later in the fall, adding up to 130 days per year to the allergy season.
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Arizona, Nevada Agree to Trade for Desalinated Pacific Ocean Water

A decade-old treatment plant in San Diego County, Calif., could leave more water in the Colorado River for states facing severe shortages.

Β© Sandy Huffaker for The New York Times

From left, Dan Denham of the San Diego County Water Authority; Scott Cameron of the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation; Tom Buschatzke of the Arizona Department of Water Resources; and Colby Pellegrino of the Southern Nevada Water Authority toasted the agreement at the Carlsbad Desalination Plant in California on Wednesday.
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E.U. Steps Up Ocean Monitoring as Trump Administration Backs Away

Days after the U.S. said it would kill a network of ocean monitors, European officials pledged to invest more in their version, calling it a β€œnecessity.”

Β© Marta Masdeu Navarro/Shutterstock

The European plan to invest roughly $107 million comes as the U.S. has said it would dismantle a sprawling network of sensors.
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Unusual Greenpeace Lawsuit May Proceed, Dutch Court Says

Greenpeace International is arguing under Dutch law that an American pipeline company, Energy Transfer, sought to silence it with a costly lawsuit in North Dakota.

Β© Alyssa Schukar for The New York Times

Demonstrators against the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota in 2016. The lawsuits are centered on Greenpeace’s involvement in the protests.
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Democrats Pledge to Fight Trump’s Termination of Ocean Monitoring Observatories

The Trump administration is dismantling a $368 million deep-ocean observation system that monitors marine ecosystems and the effects of climate change.

Β© National Science Foundation Ocean Observatories Initiative

Recovering a surface buoy β€” part of a network of moorings, buoys and gliders making observations of the ocean β€” from the Irminger Sea off Greenland’s coast, in 2021.
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Trump Administration to Dismantle the Ocean Observatories Initiative

The $368 million network of instruments collecting data in both the Atlantic and Pacific has been critical to climate and ocean research.

Β© Rebecca Travis/WHOI

A mooring that was used in the Ocean Observatories Initiative was recovered after operating for a year in the Gulf of Alaska.
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I.R.A. Rebates for Appliance Swaps Could Be Phased Out

New guidance from the Energy Department would prevent people from receiving rebates after making such swaps.

Β© Bing Guan for The New York Times

The new guidance would also end rebates for the replacement of gas-powered dryers, heat pumps and water heaters.
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Oil Prices Jump as Middle East Tensions Build

Some analysts said the main international oil price, which was up 6 percent on Monday, could climb much higher in the coming weeks if the Strait of Hormuz doesn’t reopen.

Β© Damian Dovarganes/Associated Press

An oil refinery in Carson, Calif. The possibility of continued fighting has raised concerns about how long the world’s stockpiles of oil and fuels will last if the Strait of Hormuz does not reopen.
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2025 Wildfires Were the Costliest Ever, Researchers Say

Severe, hard-to-control blazes in densely populated areas like Los Angeles drove the year’s record losses.

Β© Loren Elliott for The New York Times

Pacific Palisades, Calif., on Jan. 7, 2025. Fires in the Los Angeles area last year burned at least 90 square miles, killing at least 31 people and displacing more than 150,000.
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S.E.C. Proposes to Kill Climate Change Disclosure Rule

The regulation would have required all publicly traded companies to disclose whether they faced significant risks from climate change and its effects.

Β© Loren Elliott for The New York Times

An oil drilling site in Wyoming. The S.E.C. rule would have required companies to disclose their contributions to climate change and the risks they faced from a warming planet.
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How NextEra Energy Wielded Political Power in Florida

NextEra, which is seeking to buy Dominion Energy, has often butted heads with consumer groups, residents and journalists in its home state.

Β© Ulysse Bellier/Agence France-Presse β€” Getty Images

A Dominion Energy power plant near Davis, W.Va. NextEra Energy’s political activities are expected to be scrutinized as it seeks approval of its purchase of Dominion.
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A Clean Energy PAC Helped Beat Chip Roy, and Now It Has New Targets

A PAC representing wind and solar energy interests spent $1.1 million to boost the Republican primary opponent of Chip Roy, an opponent of renewables. Now they are trying to save a Republican ally in Iowa.

Β© Michael A. McCoy for The New York Times

A group of renewable energy investors paid for this projection on the side of the Energy Department building in Washington gloating over Representative Chip Roy’s defeat in a Republican primary for Texas attorney general.
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Greenpeace’s Long War With a Pipeline Titan Enters a Strange New Phase

This month, a North Dakota court barred Greenpeace from saying what it wanted in a European court, an unusual move. The environmental group says it is forging ahead.

Β© Robin Utrecht/ANP, via Alamy

A court building in Amsterdam. The North Dakota Supreme Court this month barred Greenpeace International from making claims against Energy Transfer in a Dutch countersuit.
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Can New Technology Help Save North Atlantic Right Whales?

Innovative systems to keep ships from hitting North Atlantic right whales are coming into use. The Trump administration is weighing whether they can replace a bedrock protection.

Β© Sophie Park for The New York Times

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E.P.A. to Repeal Some Limits on β€˜Forever Chemicals’ in Drinking Water

The rules were established by the Biden administration after research linked the compounds to a range of serious health problems.

Β© Haiyun Jiang/The New York Times

Lee Zeldin, the E.P.A. administrator, has argued that the agency made a procedural error when it established the drinking water standards in 2024.
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U.S. Aims to Give Cold War Plutonium to Start-Ups for Nuclear Fuel

Companies say it’s a better way to dispose of the Cold War-era material β€” and fix a shortage of nuclear fuel. But the plan has also faced criticism from nonproliferation experts.

Β© Science Source

Work with radioactive materials at a plutonium facility at the at Los Alamos National Laboratory in 1978.
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