The core of the Fat Boy bomb, which leveled two square miles of Nagasak, weighed 13.6 pounds. It was about the size of a softball. Photo by Diana Polekhina, Unsplash, cropped.
I am one of those people who hates the word “utilize.” The logic of the English language would seem to be that to utilize something is to alter it to give it utility that it didn’t originally have. One example is to punch holes in the bottom of a bucket … [continued]
Aerial view of a solar and wind energy farm set against Vietnam's scenic landscape. Photo by Quang Nguyen Vinh, via Pexels.
As I was reading through Steve Hanley’s article on the absurd new $700 million US subsidy for old, dirty coal, the ending really struck me. Here are his final words there: “Other red states joining the renewable energy party include Missouri, Arkansas, Ohio, Mississippi, Michigan, Arizona, Louisiana, and Wyoming. “And … [continued]
Denver, CO — On Thursday Governor Polis signed into law HB26-1226 (Manage Emissions from Electric Generating Units), which requires more transparency on the costs incurred from running coal units past their retirement dates, directs the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to approve new resources to help the state reach its 2030 climate targets, … [continued]
Washington, D.C. — According to reporting, today Donald Trump is set to announce plans to give away $700 million in taxpayer grants for aging, expensive, toxic coal plants—including grants to build two new coal plants—marking the latest in a string of costly bailouts for a collapsing industry. The U.S. has not … [continued]
The French firm TotalEnergies will not build offshore wind farms in the US, but it's a big world out there. This is the Seagreen wind farm in Scotland, courtesy of TotalEnergies.
NORTHEAST — Today, New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, and Vermont sued the Trump administration over the U.S. Department of the Interior’s $1 billion buyout of TotalEnergies’ offshore wind leases, a move that led the company to abandon its U.S. offshore wind projects in exchange for doubling down on … [continued]
Washington, D.C. — Today, Sierra Club released a new analysis and interactive dashboard that shows the staggeringly high energy burden low-income households are facing across the country. Sierra Club’s analysis shows that low-income households face the heaviest energy burdens. The Department of Energy defines a high energy burden as spending 6 percent or more of income … [continued]
Ah, it’s the important stuff. Titans of industry are in China this week with Donald Trump to meet with the most powerful man in the world, Xi Jinping. Something is afoot. Maybe. I’ll get to that in a moment. But first, what gets attention from one of the biggest newspapers … [continued]
DES MOINES, Iowa — The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed rolling back protections that stop coal-burning power plants from dumping toxic wastewater—including arsenic, mercury, selenium, and lead—from coal ash waste landfills into U.S. waterways. The discharge of coal ash wastewater has been an issue at Iowa coal plants, including in Sioux City on … [continued]
The Trump administration’s Jones Act waiver is a small policy exception with a much larger lesson. The same administration that says it wants to restore American maritime dominance, rebuild domestic shipbuilding, counter China’s industrial scale, and make U.S. logistics more secure also waived parts of the law usually treated as … [continued]
Washington, D.C. — Today, the Environmental Protection Agency proposed rolling back protections that stop coal-fired power plants from dumping toxic wastewater—including arsenic, mercury, selenium, and lead—from coal ash waste landfills into U.S. waterways. In September 2025, Donald Trump’s EPA gave coal plant companies a pass by delaying enforcement of long-overdue wastewater protections from coal … [continued]
