"Gov. Tony Evers says he’s joining a group of governors vowing to combat climate change at the state level, in part by pursuing reduced greenhouse gas emissions."
"The U.S. president has joined Kentucky's governor and the coal state's U.S. senators in trying to pressure the Tennessee Valley Authority to keep a 49-year-old coal-fired power plant operating, even though the nation's largest public electric utility has concluded that the plant is unreliable, no longer needed and too expensive to repair and operate."
"Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) announced today he plans to bring the 'Green New Deal' up for a vote in the Senate."
Our latest Issue Backgrounder looks at the potentially historic impact of the ambitious climate action agenda known as the Green New Deal — not just on this Congress or the next, or even on the race for the White House in 2020, but for the soul of the Democratic Party. An analysis of a public policy program in the making, the political maneuvering it’s engendering and its prospects to sow division or prompt a united front.
The Green New Deal may be just a broad outline, even after the recent introduction of a resolution in Congress. But don’t think the lack of specificity means the Green New Deal won’t be news for the long term. This week’s TipSheet explains the reasons the Green New Deal may endure and why it matters, plus story ideas and resources for journalists covering climate, environmental politics and more.
"Scientific monitoring in the Pacific Ocean, using buoys to take seawater temperatures, screeched to a halt when the government recently shut down for 35 days. But those efforts to monitor El Nino, the warming of the equatorial Pacific Ocean that affects global weather patterns, are just some of the shutdown’s impacts on science that Kevin Trenberth describes."
"The Congressional Leadership Fund, a political action committee with ties to House Republicans, launched ads today against two Democrats over the 'Green New Deal.'"
"In 2016, the solar industry created 1 in every 50 new jobs in the United States. A year later, that number decreased for the first time in seven years as President Donald Trump’s threat to slap import fees on photovoltaic panels loomed. That decline continued for a second year in a row in 2018, new data show."
SEJ's Fund for Environmental Journalism has awarded $19,976 for seven new story projects selected through the Winter 2018-2019 round of competition for stories about drinking water and stormwater in the United States. Pictured: Grantee Arizona Daily Star's Tony Davis.
