Posts by Matt Herbert
Welcome to @canarymedia.com's new series on clean energy in rural America! For the inaugural feature I went to Californiaâs Central Valley, where water-starved farmers are planning what could be the world's biggest solar and battery project: www.canarymedia.com/articles/sol...
#energysky
In 2025, state legislatures passed 113 policies to boost distributed energy resources, like home batteries, rooftop solar, and smart appliances â a 79% increase đ from 2024.
Check out @pewtrusts.orgâs new #DER State Policy Explorer & analysis for more âĄď¸ bit.ly/4d3yiyD #Energy #CERAWeek
The EPA plans this week to loosen restrictions on coal-burning power plants, allowing them to emit more hazardous pollutants including mercury, a powerful neurotoxin that can impair babiesâ brain development, internal agency documents show.
"...the administration is essentially saying that the vast majority of scientists around the world are wrong and that a hotter planet is not the menace that decades of research shows it to be.
Itâs a rejection of fact that had been accepted for decades by presidents of both parties..."
Gift link.
Update: The Environmental Protection Agency is eliminating a Clean Air Act finding from 2009 that is the basis for much of the federal government's actions to rein in climate change.
they should make a movie series about how itâs irresponsible to use technology to mess with the natural order of things for profit
Here's a time-lapse from yesterday as thousands of people marched through downtown Minneapolis to protest ICE.
đˇď¸: Sydney Lewis/The Minnesota Star Tribune
Large brick wall with a tiny white signat the base of the wall that says "Slavery was real"
"Slavery was real"
Tiny sign at the base of a brick wall that, until yesterday, held panels about the people enslaved by George Washington.
Presidents House, Philadelphia.
Tomorrowâs front page of the Minnesota Star Tribune: Jan. 23, 2026
From Trumpâs first term in 2018. RIP
Despite ongoing border wall construction, a new ocelot & a new jaguar have arrived in AZ.
âWe may be the last Arizonans to share mountains where jaguars & ocelots still roamâ McSpadden said. âI think history will judge us... if we fail to protect this rare, wild freedom.â tucson.com/news/local/s...
Many cities across the country where companies seeking to build massive data centers to win the AI race with China are coming up against the reality of local politics.
China building geopolitical power w/energy tech of the future, while US pursuing military lawlessness for energy tech of the past. (1/x)
The Trump administration is considering giving nearly 800 acres of land in a federal wildlife refuge in Texas to SpaceX, the rocket and satellite maker run by Elon Musk, according to documents reviewed by The New York Times.
As the destruction and costs from weather- and climate-related disasters in the U.S. continued to rise in 2025, more states are cultivating resilience expertise and investing in projects to reduce risk.
More from my @pewtrusts.org colleagues ⤾ď¸
www.pew.org/en/research-...
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How Trump has wrecked domestic tourism: Steep new fees, travel restrictions, visa hurdles, uncertainty at the border, and his aggressive language toward Canada and other countries. www.nytimes.com/2025/12/19/t...
Tiger conservation in Thailand is a rare bright spot.
The countryâs Western Forest Complex has helped grow the Indochinese tiger population from ~40 in 2007 to 140+ today, with new evidence of breeding in the south as corridors open up.
Realtors know that, in many parts of the country, if you educate people about climate risk, the housing market will collapse.
www.nytimes.com/2025/11/30/c...
SD-AL đđ˝đŚŹ
ICYMI: Last week was âthe week from hell for environmental policy in the United States.â
More in @nytimes.com: www.nytimes.com/2025/11/22/c...
I stopped listening to Bill Gates talk about climate change a long time ago.
You should stop too.
Through the first six months of 2025, disasters across the United States caused more than $100 billion in damage -- the most expensive start to any year on record.
Fourteen disasters each caused at least $1 billion in damage through the first half of the year.
The Trump administration stopped updating a federal database that tracked the cost of extreme weather disasters, including hurricanes, wildfires and other events, that each caused at least $1 billion in damage.
A group of scientists has revived it. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/22/c...
Donald Trump is scrapping a 2001 rule that protects 58m acres of the most prized forests in the US "so we are allowed to take down trees and make a lot of money."
I went to the forest where the roadless rule was unveiled to find out what's at stake www.theguardian.com/us-news/2025...
Breaking News: Jane Goodall, one of the worldâs most revered conservationists, died at 91. Her discoveries in the 1960s about how chimpanzees behaved in the wild broke new ground and represented what was called âone of the Western worldâs great scientific achievements.â nyti.ms/42kpGxt