A monumental federal plan would require most fossil fuel power plants to slash their greenhouse gas pollution by 90% by 2040 — or shut down. The Biden administration plan, announced on Thursday, could limit the amount of climate change-causing emissions released. If implemented, for the first time in U.S. history, the amount of greenhouse gasses […]
Adam Mahoney
Adam Mahoney is the climate and environment reporter at Capital B. He can be reached by email at adam.mahoney@capitalbnews.org, on Bluesky, and on X at @AdamLMahoney.
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Extreme Weather
Get Prepared: Researchers Predict Very Active Hurricane Season
Get ready for a very active hurricane season, as researchers are forecasting there could be nine coming this year. Since 2014, a team at the University of Arizona has accurately predicted hurricane activity in the U.S. Typically, the Gulf and East coast see roughly seven hurricanes annually, with less than half being major events, but […]
Posted inAir Pollution, Environmental Justice
Chemical Plants Destroyed These Black Towns. The EPA Hopes New Regulations Will Help.
As the Environmental Protection Agency moves to curb the amount of cancer-causing pollution spewed out by 218 of the country’s largest oil and chemical plants, environmental leaders and Black residents in some Southern states say the proposal doesn’t go far enough. Roughly two-thirds of these plants are sprinkled across Texas and Louisiana, where many of […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Extreme Weather
As Disasters Pile Up, Louisiana’s Hurricane Victims Wonder if They’ll Ever Recover
Nearly two years after Hurricane Ida gutted her home, Maria Populis cries every day because she’s lost everything – and fears she’ll be homeless. “I’m not supposed to be living on nobody’s street,” the 60-year-old grandmother says. “I feel like a failure.” The record-breaking storm destroyed her Edgard, Louisiana, home – which had been in […]
Posted inAir Pollution, Environmental Justice
What Happens When a Black Enclave Is Built by Big Oil
When Tara Bettis is at her home in Beaumont, Texas, the 57-year-old doesn’t need a clock to know what time it is. Her body instinctively knows based on the pitches of whistles and bells ringing from her neighbor’s property: a massive, land-gobbling oil refinery and chemical plant owned by ExxonMobil. “Everybody knows the whistles — […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice, Extreme Weather
Want to Better Prepare Black Communities for Tornadoes? Erode the Income Gap.
The severity of the recent network of tornadoes that practically erased a majority Black rural town in Mississippi off the map would’ve leveled any community in its path — but the region’s high amount of mobile homes, low access to information networks, and poor insurance rates created a perfect storm. “Tornadic storms will continue to […]
Posted inAir Pollution, Environmental Justice
Proposed Bill Treats Environmental Justice as a Civil Rights Issue
Almost two years to the day of its last introduction, progressive leaders are reinvigorating a push to pass the Environmental Justice For All Act, a potential landmark bill that aims to address environmental disparities in majority Black, Latino and Indigenous communities. Sponsored by U.S. Rep. Raúl Grijalva, D-Arizona, the proposal hopes to address public health […]
Posted inEnvironmental Justice
How Slavery and Sharecropping Created a Sewage Crisis in Alabama’s Black Belt
In Alabama’s Black Belt, many residents have to hold their breath every time they attempt to flush their toilets because there’s a great chance that sewage will be sent back through their toilet bowls, bathtubs, and sinks. A group of environmental justice organizations filed a civil rights complaint last week against the state of Alabama, […]
Posted inClimate Change, Environmental Justice
A Growing Call for Climate Reparations, Explained
America is finally joining the global movement of wealthy nations agreeing to pay poorer countries for the damage they’ve endured because of climate change. To the dismay of many Republican legislators, last year the Biden administration agreed to participate in the United Nations’ fund for “loss and damage,” also known as climate reparations. Although the […]
Posted inCriminal Justice, Policing
Violent Confrontations End Peaceful Stop Cop City Music Festival
A music festival organized by members of the Stop Cop City movement came to a fiery end Sunday evening, with at least 35 arrests. Roughly 1,000 people gathered near the Weelaunee Forest for the second day of a music festival. The unrest began when a group of protesters, separate from the music festival, entered the […]