Grist
Solar to overtake coal on Texas grid for the first time ever this year
Solar power is on track to surpass coal as an electricity source on the Texas grid for the first time in history, a milestone driven by market forces rather than government mandates. The boom reflects Texas's deregulated energy market, where solar's plummeting costs have made it the obvious choice for developers and utilities alike. The trend puts the nation's most coal-friendly administration in the awkward position of watching its preferred narrative collapse in its own political backyard.
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As Wildfire Grows Near Ex-Nuclear Site, California County Sets Up Radiation Air Monitors
A wildfire burning within a quarter-mile of the Santa Susana Field Laboratory — a former nuclear reactor and rocket testing site in Ventura County — has prompted officials to deploy radiation air monitors as a precautionary measure. The Sandy Fire's proximity to the contaminated site has raised concerns among residents, with at least one family evacuating when the blaze ignited Monday. The situation underscores the long-standing public health anxieties surrounding SSFL, where nuclear research and toxic contamination have made any nearby environmental disruption a cause for heightened scrutiny.
Read article →Inside Climate News
A Youth-Led Campaign Claims a Win For Climate Justice
A UN General Assembly resolution backed by 141 countries has formally welcomed a landmark advisory opinion on climate change and international law — a direct result of a campaign launched by Pacific Island youth in 2019. The opinion, shaped by the realities of rising seas and extreme heat faced by frontline nations, is poised to influence how international courts and governments assign legal responsibility for climate inaction. For a movement that started in a law school classroom, the vote marks a significant step toward holding high-emitting nations accountable.
Read article →Inside Climate News
Federal Law Requires US Seafood Imports to Not Threaten Marine Mammals. A Lawsuit Is Pushing the Government to Finally Act.
Environmental groups have filed suit against the federal government to enforce a long-standing law requiring that imported seafood meet the same bycatch standards that protect whales and dolphins in U.S. waters. As the world's largest seafood importer, America has largely failed to apply these protections to foreign fishing fleets, creating a significant loophole that exposes marine mammals to lethal entanglement. The case could force a sweeping overhaul of how the U.S. vets the billions of dollars in seafood it sources from overseas.
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Mongabay
‘Corporate capture’ of critical minerals risks repeating DRC’s extractive past, warns indigenous leader
The global scramble for critical minerals is replicating the exploitative dynamics that have defined the DRC's colonial and post-colonial history, according to Ituri lawmaker and civil society leader Robert Agenong'a. Local communities continue to absorb the environmental and social costs of extraction while profits flow elsewhere — a pattern Agenong'a warns is being entrenched, not broken, by green energy demand. Without structural reform and genuine indigenous participation, the clean energy transition risks becoming the latest chapter in a long story of dispossession.
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