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The Supreme Court Ends Chevron Deference—What Now?

ExplainerUnited StatesJeff Turrentine
For one, the ability of federal agencies like the EPA to set rules and enforce environmental protections now shrinks.
An illustration of two people lying down on grass surrounded by flowers on one side and litter on the other, with one person holding a ladybug in their hands

It’s Time to Talk about Climate Anxiety

ExplainerUnited StatesJenny Shalant
Don’t bottle it up—openly acknowledging your climate anxiety and grief gives you the power to heal and move forward.
A brightly colored illustration showing a green hydrogen hub. A container ship on a waterway and a hydrogen production and storage facility are in the foreground, a solar panel array and wind turbines are in the mid-ground, and a city and sunset sky are in the distance.

Can Hydrogen Help Combat the Climate Crisis?

ExplainerUnited StatesSusan Cosier
Hydrogen hubs across the country seek to fuel high-emission industries with cleaner energy.

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Biden Administration Launches Cleanup of Oil’s Messy Legacy

Expert BlogUnited StatesJosh Axelrod
The Interior Department is giving $1.15 billion to states in its first round of funding to clean up old, oil and gas wells. The investment helps create thousands of good-paying jobs and address an intractable environmental issue.

Jobs, Health, Climate: Plugging Wells, Making Polluters Pay

Expert BlogUnited StatesJosh Axelrod

For more than 100 years, the oil and gas industry has been drilling wells across the nation and then, as often as not, walking away. Today Congress took a major step toward fixing that problem.

How to Raise Revenue Quickly: End Fossil Fuel Handouts

Expert BlogUnited StatesJosh Axelrod

The House Natural Resources Committee has released a budget proposal that would end a slew of harmful handouts to the fossil fuel industry, protect publicly owned resources, and raise significant new revenues for U.S. taxpayers. This is a fiscally responsible…

Report: The Oil and Gas Leasing Pause Has Minimal Impact

Expert BlogUnited StatesJosh Axelrod

In a newly released report—commissioned by NRDC in partnership with the Center for Western Priorities and eight other groups—the Conservation Economics Institute (CEI) finds that the temporary moratorium on leasing public lands for oil and gas development has negligible economic…

Court Takes Industry Bait, Caves to Fossil Fuels

Expert BlogUnited StatesJosh Axelrod, Lauren Kubiak

In a disappointing decision, Judge Terry Doughty of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana ruled that the Biden administration must end its temporary moratorium on offshore and onshore oil and gas leasing.

Coming Soon: Review of Our Broken Oil and Gas Leasing System

Expert BlogUnited StatesJosh Axelrod, Valerie Cleland, Lauren Kubiak

The way we lease and extract oil and gas from our public lands and waters is broken, and our ability to stave off the worst impacts of climate change depends, in part, on fixing it now.

Modeling a More Hopeful Climate Future

Expert BlogUnited StatesJosh Axelrod

Ending new federal leasing now and using existing, undeveloped leases as a runway to transition and support fossil-dependent economies presents a far more durable, forward-looking economic path to a clean energy future than taking industry’s advice and burying our heads…

Climate and Reform in Focus: Interior's Oil and Gas Forum

Expert BlogUnited StatesJosh Axelrod, Valerie Cleland, Lauren Kubiak
Secretary Haaland kicked off the Department of Interior's review of oil and gas leasing with this admonition: “Now is the time for all of us to have a frank conversation about the future of our shared resources. The pause in…

Federal Oil and Gas Leasing Needs Reform and Phaseout

Expert BlogUnited StatesJosh Axelrod, Valerie Cleland, Lauren Kubiak
As climate change inflicts mounting costs and rising dangers on people across the country, selling off our public lands and waters to fossil fuel companies at steep discounts serves neither present nor future generations. Instead, it locks both into the very fuels that are driving the climate crisis.

Fossils and Nukes: The Downsides to Congress’ Latest Actions

Expert BlogUnited States, Washington, D.C.Josh Axelrod, Geoffrey H. Fettus
With the passage of significant energy and climate legislation as part of an end-of-year spending package, Congress cobbled together legislation with both major climate wins (including the phase-down of HFCs) and problematic handouts for the fossil fuel industry and dangerous…

Thousands Oppose Forest Service Oil and Gas Plans

Expert BlogUnited StatesJosh Axelrod
The U.S. Forest Service is looking to make it far easier to drill for oil and gas on National Forests and Grasslands. Despite the significance of the rule changes the agency is proposing, it is dismissing concerns and calling the…

Oil and Gas Leasing Is Off the Rails

Expert BlogUnited StatesJosh Axelrod
University learning, free enterprise economics and the American political system have failed to deliver the knowledge we need to solve the challenges we face today

Fixing the Fix: How to Stop a Fossil Fuel Bailout

Expert BlogUnited StatesJosh Axelrod

Senator Jeff Merkley (D-OR) and Representative Nanette Barragán (D-CA) introduced legislation today—the Resources for Workforce Investments, not Drilling Act (ReWIND)—that would limit access of fossil fuel companies to federal bailouts that respond to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Energy Shift Approaches as Fossil Finance Dries Up

Expert BlogJosh Axelrod
The twilight of the coal industry is upon us, but with financial giants taking baby steps away from oil and gas, and a major proposed oil production project throwing in the towel, is the true end of new fossil fuel…