New Mexico could be on the verge of adding 14 million tons of CO2, erasing all of its climate gains in the last 20 years, by adding one OpenAI data center. NPR spoke with @michael-thomas.bsky.social www.npr.org/2026/03/07/n...
The EPA has hit a 40-year staffing low. An Inside Climate News analysis of just-released federal workforce data shows more than 4,000 employees departed between January 2025 and January 2026, including a majority of team leaders. @insideclimatenews.org insideclimatenews.org/news/0603202...
In Iran, this is becoming an environmental disaster and not an accidental one. Black poisonous rain fell from the sky. “This was in essence chemical warfare, even if the chemicals were the (easily anticipated) result of “normal” bombs,” Bill McKibben writes. billmckibben.substack.com/p/a-dark-and...
A map of SoCal with orange and red patterns indicating heat wave plus some suggested actions to stay cool.
For now, we’re just talking about a March heat wave. But even those are records we do not want to be breaking. I had multiple Zooms this week with folks in Vermont and New York who were enjoying the 70 to 80-degree weather, as they should. But there is something ominous in the coming weather too.
It's early March but winter in the west is over and we're about to see an “unprecedented” heat wave. “We are in a fairly serious situation," @weatherwest.bsky.social said in his office hours this week. So, no, I'm not loving the idea of a “super El Niño.”
legal-planet.org/2026/03/11/u...
An amazing stat:
Iran exported more oil *today* than it did daily before the war.
It's the one country whose tankers are getting through the Strait of Hormuz.
www.wsj.com/world/middle...
I'll have a livestream to discuss early indications on Tuesday (Mar 10 at 3pm PT) and then likely also a new Weather West post later this week. Stay tuned...
The BLM is about to hand over nearly 400,000 acres across the Central Coast and Southern California to oil drilling and fracking—near parks, schools, and communities.
📣 Submit a public comment before March 13.
👉 forestwatch.org/stop-oil
Come hang out at UCLA for the day on 4/3 and talk about the intersection of affordability and environmental protections. The @uclalawemmett.bsky.social symposium is always super thought-provoking and fun. (If enviro law and policy is your kind of fun.) law.ucla.edu/academics/ce...
Nancy Youssef, ..guil @ X.com @nancyayoussef The preliminary Pentagon cost estimate of the war in Iran is $1 billion a day, a congressional official told me. 12:20 PM • 3/4/26 • 44K Views
Preliminary Pentagon cost estimate of the war in Iran is $1 BILLION a day. So far.
There's some good news on the climate beat this week thanks to recent hires, expansions, and investments from HEATED to the LA Times to POLITICO and Drilled. legal-planet.org/2026/03/04/w...
A US map showing which states had the highest percentage increases in electricity rates from 2024 to 2025.
A map of electricity bill pain in the Trump era:
insideclimatenews.org/news/0203202...
I wrote about the one actually great thing that happened this week
This is amazing.
www.getyourfuckingmoneyback.com
"It’s clear that EPA means to tilt the scales in favor of polluting school buses, and kill any interest in the Clean School Bus program by unexpectedly halting and starting funding for school districts." - @lasmogguy.bsky.social
legal-planet.org/2026/02/26/p...
Trump’s EPA announced recently that it wants to funnel federal funding away from electric school buses and toward dirtier options like those fueled by fossil gas. But they've been messing with school districts for more than a year now.
legal-planet.org/2026/02/26/p...
"Our City's financial state is the culmination of decades of unsustainable budgeting, seen and felt by Angelenos across the City in our crumbling infrastructure and deteriorating services” is how the city controller opened his recent annual report. Sure seems like some want to shoot the messenger…
General consensus is that the endangerment finding rescission strengthens state law claims and authorities. But there is one way in which the rescission could undermine, not strengthen, Boulder’s arguments. Our Cara Horowitz explains @legal-planet.org legal-planet.org/2026/02/25/t...
The federal government claiming state preemption after killing the endangerment finding “feels like a bad ex-boyfriend who says, I don’t want to date you anymore, but you can’t date those other people either,” Georgetown Prof. Vicki Arroyo told @emilypont.bsky.social
heatmap.news/climate/enda...
The justices had turned away similar industry appeals in recent years but will hear this Big Oil climate liability case next fall.
JD Vance personally invited Pope Leo to the U.S. 250th celebration on the 4th of July. Today the Vatican announced Leo will be spending the day with migrants instead.
Tuesday’s State of the Union is gonna be a little awkward.
The popular Eagle Cams operated by Friends of Big Bear Valley is a proof of concept when majestic animals are also involved! www.youtube.com/live/41eq4Vz...
Now do California.
Advocates unveiled a site where you can search if your name was used by the AI-powered campaign to submit a comment to SCAQMD
www.publiccommentsearch.com
After the big @hayleysmith.bsky.social LAT investigation into the use of AI to generate public comments aimed at blocking SoCal air rules, advocates are demanding an investigation and holding a press conference to discuss this threat to civic engagement.
Trump’s EPA just rolled back critical, lifesaving Mercury and Air Toxics Standards, allowing dirty coal plants to release more mercury, arsenic, and other dangerous pollutants into our air.
The tariffs at issue in the Supreme Court case — half the total tariff bill — half of about $30 billion every month. “Refunds are messy but doable.”
By 6-3 decision, tariffs struck down.
New in data center democracy concerns: Police in Claremore, Okla. arrested a community activist named for "trespassing" during a public meeting after officers said he exceeded his allotted time to speak (by seconds mind you). The project is the planning phase.
www.newson6.com/tulsa-oklaho...
