EJToday is a daily weekday digest of top environment/energy news and information of interest to environmental journalists, independently curated by Editor Joseph A. Davis. Sign up below to receive in your inbox. For queries, email EJToday@SEJ.org. For more info, read an EJToday FAQ. Plus, follow EJToday on social media at @EJTodayNews, and flag stories of note by including the @EJTodayNews handle on your posts. And tell us how to make EJToday even better by taking this brief survey.
Want to join the EJToday team? Volunteer time commitments can vary from just an hour a month up to a daily contribution, and would involve helping to curate content of interest. To learn more, reach out to the director of publications, Adam Glenn, at sejournaleditor@sej.org.
Note: Members have additional options to choose from (you'll need your log-in info).
"Trump administration rolled back clean-air rules to support AI-driven electricity demand. St. Louis faces poor air quality and high health costs as coal plants remain online."
"In places like Indonesia, plastic refuse is often burned in unregulated low-tech furnaces that pose grave health risks."
"Placerville, Calif., bears all the markers of a community at risk of a wildfire. The city's rolling hillsides are dense with brush, which dries out during the hot summers. Older homes made of wood, which are more prone to igniting, are dotted throughout."
"Two deer tested positive for Chronic Wasting Disease at Catoctin Mountain Park in Maryland during recent white-tailed deer reduction operations and subsequent disease sampling. This is the first CWD-positive detection at Catoctin Mountain Park."
"The long-running conflict in a formerly unified community, the second ever observed, adds to Jane Goodall’s studies about a different chimp war in the 1970s."
"The Trump administration on Thursday proposed weakening rules for the disposal of ash produced by burning coal that can contain hazardous heavy metals and contaminate groundwater. Those regulations were strengthened under the Biden administration as part of a wider crackdown on pollution from coal-fired power plants."
"March’s persistent unseasonable heat was so intense that the continental United States registered its most abnormally hot month in 132 years of records, according to federal weather data. And the next year or so looks to turn the dial up on global warmth even more, as some forecasts predict a brewing El Niño will reach superstrength."
"WEST COLUMBIA, W.Va. — Eric Pinson is obsessed with stacks of electric bills laid out in neat piles on his desk. He runs a camping trailer park in West Virginia not far from a planned data center — all in the shadow of an enormous coal-powered plant that recently received millions in funding from the Trump administration for upgrades.
"Indiana Gov. Mike Braun (R) on Wednesday suspended the Hoosier State’s sales tax on gas for 30 days, as prices at the pump have increased since the U.S.-Israeli conflict with Iran began."
"The emperor penguin has been declared an endangered species as climate change pushes the icon of Antarctica a step closer to extinction, the global authority on threatened wildlife announced Thursday."
"Researchers studying the crustacean’s early life cycles find clues that can help the fishery that depends on them plan for a warmer future."
"A proposal to build a mega-manure digester in a small Washington state community is sparking uproar among citizens who say the project to convert waste from dairy cows into fuel will add to the region’s already significant pollution problems."
"As evidence of pesticide risks increases, a new report finds that the food industry is ‘actively reversing progress’ on lowering their use in supply chains."
"Consumers remain vulnerable to price spikes despite record domestic oil and gas production. But experts doubt the crisis will boost clean energy, absent strong policy."
"The acting director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has delayed publication of a CDC report showing the covid-19 vaccine cut the likelihood of emergency department visits and hospitalizations for healthy adults last winter by about half, according to two scientists familiar with the decision. The scientists spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation."
