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File:  ltr to Congress, 76 scientists 2012.pdfResource Type: Letters

File:  ltr to Congress, 76 scientists 2012.pdfResource Type: Letters

This is a re-post from Yale Climate Connections by Ben Tracy, Climate Central

If you feel like your electricity bill just keeps climbing, you aren’t imagining it. Since 2020, U.S. residential energy prices have surged by about 30%, making power the largest household energy expense behind gasoline, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

But for residents like Alex Curtis, the days of feeling powerless against rising costs are coming to an end. Curtis is waging a war on his electric bill, and his new weapon of choice is a lightweight, thin-film solar panel.

“Oh, it’s super light too,” Curtis remarked as he unboxed the kit on the balcony of his condo in Sunnyvale, California. It weighs just about 10 pounds. 

The ‘plug-and-play’ revolution Unlike traditional rooftop solar, which requires thousands of dollars in upfront costs, specialized mounting hardware, and professional electricians, this system is designed for the everyday consumer. It’s a $400 kit from Bright Saver, a non-profit advocating for “plug-and-play” solar that works for renters and homeowners alike.

The setup is deceptively simple: you hang the panel on a balcony or prop it up in a backyard and plug it directly into a standard wall outlet.

“I did some rough math and this might save me like $30 to $50 a month,” Curtis said.

The magic happens behind the scenes. Once plugged in, a small inverter syncs the solar energy with the home’s existing electrical infrastructure. It took about 15 minutes to get it all set up. Bright Saver’s Rupert Mayer then pointed to a light on the inverter: “Ah, here it is, it’s blue.”

“This is it. Easy,” Curtis replied. Within minutes, he was generating his own clean energy. He estimates it will be enough to power an appliance like his refrigerator. 

Small panels, big impact

Cora Stryker, co-founder of Bright Saver, believes this technology is key to democratizing the green energy transition. It not only cuts an individual’s planet-warming pollution but also their electric bill. 

“Clean energy actually is the cheapest form of energy around,” Stryker said, “and we the consumers should be benefiting from that.”

While these panels won’t take a home entirely off the grid, Stryker says the units can trim monthly costs by 10% to 25% depending on how many panels a user installs. More savings can be had if the panels are paired with batteries that can store excess solar energy. 

“They cover a part of your energy bill and then you do need to draw the rest from the grid as you do now,” Stryker explained. 

The “Balkonkraftwerk” trend

While the technology is just gaining a foothold in the U.S., it is already a cultural phenomenon in Europe. In Germany, these systems are so common they have a specific name: Balkonkraftwerk, or “balcony power plant.”

An estimated 4 million balcony solar units are currently installed in Germany. The U.S., however, has been slower to adopt the tech, largely due to a patchwork of utility regulations and bureaucratic red tape. Utilities in some states have pushed back against the use of these systems citing potential hazards to the safety of the grid and line workers. 

“And that is patently ridiculous for these little systems,” Stryker said. “Those laws were intended for rooftop systems 5 to 20 times as large.”

A changing legal landscape

The tide is quickly turning. In 2025, Utah became the first state to officially authorize plug-in solar. Overall, 34 states and Washington, D.C., have introduced legislation to allow for use of the technology. It has passed in Colorado, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, New Hampshire, and Virginia. 

For advocates like Stryker, it’s a matter of personal liberty: “It’s kind of like ‘don’t tell me what to do in my own backyard and on my own balcony.’”

As for Alex Curtis, he knows his Sunnyvale neighbors might have questions when they see the sleek panel hanging from his railing, but he’s focused on his newfound taste of energy independence. 

“I think that’s what gets me excited,” Curtis said. “Being able to power my own stuff and be self- sufficient like in baby steps which is pretty cool.”

Climate Central is an independent group of scientists and communicators who research and report the facts about our changing climate and how it affects people’s lives. It is a policy-neutral 501(c)(3) nonprofit.

PHILADELPHIA, PA (June 12, 2026) –  As the Greater Philadelphia region prepares to welcome hundreds of thousands of visitors for FIFA World Cup matches and America 250  celebrations, Clean Air Council has launched an interactive digital map to help visitors and residents reach major events without driving. 

This map highlights event locations and shows public transit and biking options, helping you avoid traffic and parking hassles, reduce pollution, and explore Philly car-free. 

The map is hosted on the Clean Air Council’s website at gophillygo.cleanair.org.

“No one wants to spend their summer sitting in traffic and paying for expensive event parking,” said Titania Markland, Clean Air Council Sustainable Transportation Program Manager. “Traveling car-free to the Philadelphia region’s many events this summer is a win for attendee experience, your wallet, and the environment. We are excited to launch GoPhillyGo: Car-Free Routes to make car-free travel planning easy and fun.”

“The Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission is pleased to help fund this effort to make traveling around our region without a car this summer, and beyond, a bit easier, for visitors and residents alike,” said Stacy Bartels, Manager of TDM Strategy and Marketing. “Fewer cars on the roads means less traffic congestion and air pollution, which is good for everyone.”

The fun doesn’t stop at summer’s end. Clean Air Council plans to keep the map updated with events and travel information year-round to promote a sustainable, car-free lifestyle. For more information and to access the map, please visit: gophillygo.cleanair.org.

In January 2025, the Trump administration began shutting down projects within the EPA’s independent science division that touched on climate change and environmental justice. Air quality researcher Thomas Luben, who had worked at the agency for 18 years, was fired for objecting.

Read more on E360 →

When Congress approved a $1 billion Energy Resilience Fund for Puerto Rico in 2022, the money was desperately needed. Multiple hurricanes had battered the island’s notoriously fragile electric grid, and lawmakers envisioned the money supporting rooftop solar and battery systems that could provide resilient backup power during emergencies.

The Biden administration’s Department of Energy developed a plan to distribute the funds to about 40,000 low-income Puerto Ricans, many of whom live with health conditions requiring access to reliable power. Biden officials envisioned a network of solar and battery systems that would keep medically vulnerable Puerto Ricans safe during storms and reduce reliance on the island’s unstable grid.

The Trump administration has different ideas.

The plan all but disappeared after President Trump took office last year. Trump’s DOE has since redirected a large share of the funds to the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority, or PREPA, the bankrupt utility that operates the island’s grid. The money is now poised to shore up PREPA’s fleet of power plants, which largely run on fossil fuels, and $50 million will fund a new natural gas pipeline. The administration has defended the decision by arguing that PREPA’s infrastructure improvements will ultimately benefit a broader swath of the island’s population.

The process by which Trump’s DOE unilaterally redirected the resilience funds, seemingly against Congress’ intent, has so far been shrouded in secrecy. But public records obtained by Grist under the Freedom of Information Act shed new light on how Trump’s political appointees engineered the change. The documents show that the DOE gave PREPA unusually favorable treatment, in part by soliciting no competing bids for the funds, fast-tracking the review process, and using Trump’s executive order announcing an “energy emergency” as the justification for the award. 

Read Next Trump is trying to kill clean energy. The market has other plans. Matt Simon

Most eyebrow-raising, perhaps, was the way that the DOE waived its typical requirement that grant recipients pony up substantial funding of their own to contribute to project costs. Exceptions are sometimes made for indigent recipients or economically distressed communities, but for large organizations such as PREPA — which has nearly $4 billion in annual revenue — the agency typically requires a 50 percent cost share. 

In PREPA’s case, the DOE accepted just a 1 percent cost share, noting that the utility was under “significant financial stress” and that waiving the cost-share requirement is “necessary in order to provide a more stable foundation for Puerto Rico to begin to perform long-term energy planning and repairs.”

Some critics who have worked at the agency in the past are unsatisfied with this explanation.

“The 1 percent cost share is potentially unprecedented for a DOE award of this size, and to a recipient with this much cash flow,” said a former Biden administration DOE official, who spoke under condition of anonymity due to concerns it would affect their current employment. The former official noted that in order for such an exception to be legal, it must have been made by the secretary of energy, Chris Wright, himself. “Congress decreed that cost-share waivers are only supposed to be available via a secretarial determination. They weren’t intended to be used often, and they haven’t been.” 

A spokesperson with the Office for Electricity at the DOE said that the agency “carefully evaluated procurement options and determined that a noncompetitive, sole-source award to PREPA was justified” and that achieving the goals of the energy resilience fund required the use of PREPA. The spokesperson acknowledged that the “reduction from the standard 50 percent cost share is significant,” but noted that the determination was made under authority provided by the Energy Policy Act. 

“PREPA continues to face severe fiscal constraints while maintaining responsibility for critical generation and transmission infrastructure,” the spokesperson said. “Requiring a 50 percent cost share would not have been feasible and would have delayed urgently needed grid stabilization and repair activities, undermining the core purpose of the Puerto Rico Energy Resilience Fund.”

The agency seemed well aware that its decision to award the funds to PREPA without considering competing applicants — and without seeking congressional approval for reallocating the funds from their intended use — would likely draw scrutiny. A section titled “Sensitivities” in a memo drafted by the head of the agency’s Grid Deployment Office highlighted that the decision to waive a 30-day congressional notice period, not seek other bids, and “the cost-share reduction may generate negative commentary, as the initial monies were planned to fund solar installations for multi-family housing (limited to common areas), community-based healthcare facilities.” The memo also went on to state that the “sole source designation to PREPA may raise objections to fairness, and perceived undue favoritism.” (“Sole source designation” is the term of art for a noncompetitive award to a single vendor.)

Puerto Rico’s electric grid has long been fragile. The average resident on the island experienced more than 70 hours of outages in 2024. When Hurricane Maria made landfall in 2017, the island’s more than 3 million residents lost power for weeks. It took PREPA more than nine months to restore power to some parts of the island. In the aftermath of the deadly disaster, Congress allocated more than $17 billion to modernize the grid. But almost a decade later, PREPA has completed very few projects with that massive influx of funding, and the utility has continued to navigate bankruptcy proceedings since 2017. The resilience funds being redirected to PREPA are in addition to this earlier allocation. The DOE memo acknowledges these issues, noting that “all parties involved are in less than desirable financial condition.” 

“It is really surprising that DOE would plan to send these sums to PREPA itself, given its record of federal spending,” the former Biden administration official added.

Still, Trump’s DOE came to the conclusion that PREPA was best suited to receive the funds. The memo argued that even if the agency had undergone a time-consuming competitive process — one that would have taken 18 months — it would have ultimately selected PREPA because the operator has sole ownership of the island’s grid. “Given the urgency of the situation, there is no other entity in Puerto Rico with the breadth of capability, asset ownership, and legal mandate to execute energy emergency response, grid stabilization, and recovery projects at this scale,” according to the document.

Read Next Solar was poised to help Puerto Ricans survive blackouts — until Trump axed nearly $1B in funding Naveena Sadasivam

Last month, more than 40 congressional Democrats sent Secretary Wright a letter demanding to know why the agency had redirected the resilience funding. The lawmakers asked for a briefing that would detail the agency’s justification for moving funds to PREPA. 

“DOE’s lack of transparency, wasteful reuse of the funding, disregard for congressional intent, and potentially illegal cancellation of contracts — combined with the resulting increase in energy poverty and loss of energy security — raise serious questions about the Department’s uses of the Puerto Rico-Energy Resilience Fund,” the letter said. 

The lawmakers were particularly concerned about the funds being used to build a natural gas pipeline. On its website, the DOE does not detail funding of the pipeline directly but instead refers to the project as “fuel supply security between San Juan and Palo Seco.” In internal documents, however, the DOE plainly notes that it intends to allocate $50 million to construct a natural gas pipeline. According to reporting in El Nuevo Día, a Puerto Rican publication, local authorities have already been working on building a natural gas pipeline connecting power stations in San Juan and Palo Seco, which is about 9 miles away. 

“Trying to force a liquefied methane pipeline project onto the people of Puerto Rico would help lock in the need to import fuels — keeping methane gas prices exorbitant for decades to come, putting ratepayers on the hook for funding it, and adding to already astronomical electricity costs,” the lawmakers’ letter reads. 

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This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Inside the government’s push to divert Puerto Rico solar funds to a bankrupt utility on Jun 17, 2026.

Georgia’s legislature has allotted $2 million for the first year of the Georgia Farmland Conservation Fund. Farm landowners across the state have applied for a piece of that funding to protect their land from development — for housing, warehouses, data centers, and other uses. Applicants will find out in August if they’ve been selected.

Some 30 states have what are known as “purchase of agricultural conservation easement” programs, though the amount of funding varies a great deal from state to state. Texas allocates $2 million annually, while Florida set aside $300 million in 2022 and $100 million in 2024. Georgia’s law, modeled after these initiatives, was passed in 2023, established a formal program to coordinate federal, state, and local match funding, and created an advisory council to review and approve proposals. The legislature passed the initial round of funding in 2024, and the first round of applications closed May 20.

The easements allow landowners to sell the future development rights for their land to an organization, like a land trust. An appraisal process determines the value of those development rights, and the farmer and easement holder negotiate the details of their agreement. The landowner receives an upfront payment, half of which comes from the state funds. The rest is match funding, which could come from a land trust, local government, or the U.S. Department of Agriculture, which allocates $450 million annually to match dollars in state conservation programs. The landowner can continue farming, growing and harvesting timber, or however else they use their land. They can even sell the land — just not to a developer who will turn it into housing, a strip mall, or an industrial site.

“It’s a compelling alternative to our farming landowners that are feeling a lot of financial crunch and are just being inundated with offers for selling out,” said Katherine Moore, president of the Georgia Conservancy, which advocated for the new state fund.

Those offers to sell can vary widely, depending on location, development plans, and many other factors. Prices in the sale of transitional land — property changing from one use to another — ranged from just over $6,000 to more than $260,000 per acre in 2025, according to a report by Saunders Land, a real estate brokerage and management firm. The value of a conservation easement varies widely too for similar reasons, though a landowner would typically receive less money for an easement than they would in an outright sale, since they’re selling rights rather than the land itself.

One such farmer is Russ Moon, who grows corn, soybeans, and strawberries and raises cattle on his family farm in Madison County, Georgia, outside of Athens. His family has worked that land for four generations, around 100 years. He wants to keep it that way and pass the farm on to his kids one day. Moon said he’s watched more housing and development come to the area over the years. It’s appealing to many, he said, to live near the University of Georgia in Athens and also enjoy the bucolic rural setting. Other farms around him have already sold, he said, and he’s worried that if left unchecked, the development rush will fundamentally change the community.

The irrigation system waters a field on Russ Moon’s family farm outside Athens, Georgia. Russ Moon

“Selling the land is really not an option,” he said of his own plans. “I intend on remaining in agriculture for as long as possible.” 

Moon said he’d only sell if forced to. But that could happen someday, for him or for his kids when they take over. Farming can be an unstable business, subject to weather and changing crop prices and global markets.

“There may be a day where they have to sell, but I don’t want the land to be developed,” he said. “That’s my desire, that’s my family’s desire.”

Some of Moon’s land is in a conservation easement, which he entered into directly with a land trust in 2019. The state’s new conservation fund aims to protect more land in a similar way by providing state funding to help facilitate such deals. 

It’s a critical step, said Moore of the Georgia Conservancy.

“It is unprecedented for Georgia to have such a program, which is a little wild when you think that, you know, agribusiness in total is our number one economic engine in the state,” she said.

Even though agriculture is Georgia’s leading industry, farmers face mounting pressure to sell to developers. The state could lose some 800,000 acres of farmland by 2040, according to the Georgia Department of Agriculture.

“That means 10 percent of our farmland will be gone in the next 15 years or so,” said state agriculture commissioner Tyler Harper. “And that’s a staggering statistic.”

That’s a concern not only because farms provide food and jobs and are a big part of the state’s economy, but also because of the potential climate impacts. 

Converting farmland to other uses can increase greenhouse gas emissions, according to the American Farmland Trust. Topsoil often has to be removed to pave the land, releasing the carbon that’s stored in it. Uses like low-density residential development or industrial operations often produce more emissions than farming. Conservation easements, on the other hand, can encourage farming and management practices that sequester more carbon, and they often protect non-agricultural land adjacent to fields — like woods and wetlands.

State leaders often tout the booming economy, proudly calling Georgia the number one state to do business. But that gives Moon pause.

“The whole time we keep being the number one place to do business, we’re hurting our number one industry,” he said. That damage could be permanent. “Once you develop a piece of property, you’re never going to — it’s never going to go back. You lose farmland, it’s gone forever,” Moon said.

He hopes that getting more farmland into conservation can help maintain some balance before it’s too late.

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Georgia is losing farmland fast. Is a state conservation fund enough to save it? on Jun 17, 2026.

The COP31 co-presidents had the idea right on global electrification targets. They got the measurement wrong.

The post We’re targeting 35 pct electrification in less than 10 years – but 35 pct of what? appeared first on Renew Economy.

Turkiye Urged to Adopt More Climate-Ambitious Zero Waste Policies Declaration Released As World Leaders Meet at Bonn Intersessional 

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: June 17, 2026

Bonn, Germany– As world leaders gather in Bonn, Germany to lay the groundwork for negotiations at COP31, Global Alliance for Incinerator Alternatives (GAIA) has released a public declaration in collaboration with Greenpeace Türkiye, World Wildlife Fund Türkiye, the Microplastic Research Group, and the Plastic Free Türkiye Platform, and  signed on by 124 organizations in almost 60 countries representing zero waste practitioners, policy experts, and community groups. 

The declaration highlights the gap between Türkiye’s promotion of zero waste on the international stage and domestic policies that continue to support practices inconsistent with ambitious climate action, environmental justice, and public health.The signatories urge Türkiye, as host of COP31, to set a high bar for climate ambition by advancing a comprehensive zero waste agenda that addresses the root causes of waste and emissions.

At a press conference last Tuesday, June 9 ahead of the Bonn intersessional, COP31 President-Designate Murat Kurum announced a goal of halving global waste by 2035. While this target is visionary, zero waste advocates remain unclear on the baseline, scope, and implementation of such a goal, and whether it will include reducing plastic production and providing a just transition for waste pickers and workers, as well as other key strategies.

Sedat Gündoğdu of the Microplastic Research Group states:  

“It is good that Turkey has prioritized zero waste on the COP31 agenda; however, it appears that the current plastic waste governance may not be entirely consistent with this ambitious political objective. Specifically, new investments in petrochemical plants, the ongoing waste trade, and the exclusion of waste pickers from the system seem to be at odds with this goal. For the COP31 agenda to be successfully implemented, a phasing out strategy from plastic is necessary. The concept of zero waste should be genuinely pursued, not merely presented as a facade.”

Mariel Vilella, Global Climate Program Director at GAIA, states:

“Zero waste is one of the fastest and most effective climate solutions available today, but it must go beyond waste management. A credible zero waste agenda means reducing plastic production at its source, cutting methane emissions through organics diversion, and ending reliance on polluting technologies such as waste-to-energy incineration and pyrolysis. As COP31 host, Türkiye has an opportunity to show that climate leadership means tackling the fossil fuel and waste crises together while ensuring a just transition that protects waste pickers, workers, and frontline communities.”

Following China’s National Sword policy, which restricted most plastic waste imports into the country, Türkiye emerged as one of the world’s leading destinations for imported plastic waste.  The declaration calls on Türkiye to address its role in the global waste trade, end waste colonialism, and prioritize environmental justice for communities disproportionately affected by waste pollution. 

Berk Butan, Campaigner at Greenpeace Türkiye, states:

 “Real climate leadership at COP31 begins with acknowledging that 99 percent of plastics are made from fossil fuels. A true zero waste strategy requires turning off the tap on plastic production and ending the injustice of waste colonialism that turns Türkiye into Europe’s plastic dumping ground.”

The Declaration calls for: 

• Zero waste strategies that are linked to fossil fuel phase-out and reduced plastic production
• Stronger methane reduction commitments and accountability measures, particularly through organics diversion and landfill methane prevention
• Rejection of false solutions such as waste-to-energy incineration, pyrolysis, and other carbon-intensive technologies
• An end to waste colonialism and a commitment to environmental justice for affected communities
• A just transition that recognizes, protects, and includes waste pickers and waste workers in policy, financing, and implementation

Note to the Editor:

The Joint Declaration: Aligning Zero Waste with High-Ambitious Climate Action for COP31 can be found at: https://www.no-burn.org/joint-declaration-zero-waste-climate-action-cop31/

Press contact:

Claire Arkin, Global Communications Lead

claire@no-burn.org | +1 510-604-7833

###

GAIA is a worldwide alliance of more than 1,000 grassroots groups, non-governmental organizations, and individuals in over 100 countries. With our work, we aim to catalyze a global shift towards environmental justice by strengthening grassroots social movements that advance solutions to waste and pollution. We envision a just, zero waste world built on respect for ecological limits and community rights, where people are free from the burden of toxic pollution, and resources are sustainably conserved, not burned or dumped. 

The post 124 Civil Society Groups Call on COP31 Presidency to Turn Zero Waste Ambition into Climate Action first appeared on GAIA.

MEDIA ADVISORY

For Immediate Release

All eyes on Article 9.1

Bonn, Germany— Under Article 9.1 of the Paris Agreement, Global North countries most responsible for historical emissions and spurring the climate crisis are required to help provide the climate finance necessary for Global South countries to respond to climate change. Yet, year after year, Global North governments come to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) and refuse to pay their climate debt while using every tactic in their obstructionist playbook to block any meaningful attempt to discuss, let alone implement, delivery of meaningful climate finance. As the 64th meeting of the Subsidiary Bodies of the UNFCCC (SB64) heads into its final stretch the story is no different. 

Finance remains entirely inadequate. Article 9.1 continues to be contested and diluted. But Global North countries must fulfil their obligations under Article 9.1 and provide public, grant-based, predictable and adequate finance to the Global South. Not as aid or charity, but as the fulfillment of a  a legal and moral obligation. In the final hours of these climate negotiations, climate finance remains a defining test of whether the climate regime is prepared to uphold the principles of equity and historical responsibility. 

Join members of the Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice (DCJ) to hear about what’s currently happening in the Article 9.1 negotiations and what can be done to set us on a path towards a COP31 that delivers on climate finance obligations.  

WHEN: Wednesday 17 June 2026, 11:00-11:30 CEST (UTC + 2) 

WHERE: Nairobi 4, Main building, Inside the World Conference Center and webcast here

WITH: 

• Aleijn Reintegrado – Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt and Development 
• Meena Raman – Third World Network
• Teresa Anderson – ActionAid
• Wanun Permpibul – Climate Watch Thailand
• Moderated by Rachitaa Gupta, Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice

CONTACT: dcj.comms@demandclimatejustice.org 

For more detail on DCJ’s demands across all topics on the agenda for Bonn, read  DCJ’s SB64 Position Paper: Advancing Climate Justice in an Age of Climate Crisis

The post Media Advisory: All eyes on Article 9.1 appeared first on Global Campaign to Demand Climate Justice.

The scales fall from our eyes Channel Comment brendan 17th June 2026 Teaser Media

Headline policy reform has not translated into improved investment conditions for renewables in Australia, a new survey has found, with 20% saying things have got worse.

The post Investors still “largely downbeat” about renewables, as policy and fossil risks overshadow rewards appeared first on Renew Economy.

• Transit agencies usually hedge against rising fuel costs by keeping a year’s supply of diesel fuel on hand, so they’re not as affected by price variations as airlines. On the other hand, they also can’t raise prices at the drop of a hat. (Smart Cities Dive)
• Because 70 percent of freight is shipped by truck, high diesel costs affect almost every consumer. (Penn Today)
• Truckers don’t want to make last-mile deliveries, which is why they see New York City’s microhub program as a success. (Trucking Info)
• GM is getting into the business of building batteries for data centers. (Tech Crunch)
• After the new Bellevue line opened, Seattle now has the busiest light rail system in the country. (Secret Seattle)
• Houston created a Green Corridor to help soccer fans walk or bike around the city during the World Cup, and many people are hoping the changes stick. (Houston Public Media)
• A new Colorado law requires automakers to recycle electric vehicle batteries. (The Drive)
• Amtrak’s Borealis line between Chicago and St. Paul has drawn more than 400,000 passengers since it launched two years ago. (Minnesota Public Radio)
• Jarrett Walker drew a new bus route map for Des Moines that improves headways in the densest areas. (Human Transit)
• A safe streets advocate argues that Hawaii bikeshare Biki deserves more funding. (Civil Beat)
• Wyoming transit agencies are seeing massive cuts to their federal funding. (Buffalo Bulletin)
• The Hop is shifting to its “festival line” route for the summer. (Urban Milwaukee)
• Aspen is starting a fare-free transit pilot program. (Passenger Transport)
• An epic handshake is happening between unlikely partners in developers, transit advocates and environmentalists over a North Carolina bill banning parking minimums. (WHQR)
• Meet the guys responsible for painting the L.A. Metro. (The Source)
  
  

Global fossil fuel use must halve by 2035 and be phased out entirely by 2070 at the latest if the world is to keep global warming below 1.5°C.

The post “Pouring oil on climate fire:” Global fossil fuel use must halve by 2035 to avoid catastrophic climate damage appeared first on Renew Economy.

Federal energy minister seeks principles-based rule change to ensure retailers are doing more than just the bare minimum to engage with electricity customers.

The post Must do better: Bowen seeks rule change to force energy retailers to do right thing by electricity customers appeared first on Renew Economy.

The autonomous vehicle industry drove onto the scene with resources no transportation industry had ever enjoyed before: billions in capital, the most-sophisticated engineering talent in the world, genuine public excitement, and a regulatory environment that laid down smooth asphalt. For a window of time, the dream of redesigning public transportation from the ground up was genuinely within reach.

But, for the most part, the industry has used it to build a better taxi.

Most public scrutiny around autonomous vehicles has centered on whether the technology works and its various mishaps and misdeeds. Did a Waymo just run a red light? Did Tesla Autopilot cause a crash? Are regulators keeping pace with what’s happening on the roads? This focus misses the larger problem. Technically, the vehicles work well enough, helping to prevent crashes and save lives.

Practically, what has emerged is an industry trend that prioritizes hype instead of mobility equity.

Robotaxis remain operational in narrow geofenced corridors across a handful of major cities, serving riders who already have multiple ways to get around, not to mention Ubers, Lyfts, yellow cabs, etc. Yet 45 percent of the U.S. population has little to no access to adequate public transportation, a figure that has barely moved despite years of industry expansion and billions in cumulative investment. Rather than closing that gap, the AV industry has driven away from it.

The problem runs deeper than simple oversight or neglect. Autonomous vehicles actually exacerbate the problem as robotaxis generate “deadhead” miles at scale, with empty vehicles circling between rides and adding congestion to urban streets without moving a single additional person anywhere. In 2025, deadhead miles accounted for nearly half of Waymo’s total travel in San Francisco, according to California’s Public Utilities Commission. They didn’t contribute new mobility options to the city, only additional traffic competing with transit infrastructure already struggling to function.

Meanwhile, the communities most in need of new mobility options are watching their existing ones disappear. Transit agencies across the country are cutting routes and reducing service hours, not because demand has fallen, but because running low-density corridors, early-morning services, and last-mile connections to transit hubs simply costs too much to justify on current budgets. Routes on low-density corridors are always the first to go when finances tighten, and they are the ones that people with the fewest alternatives depend on most. Nevertheless, the AV industry, flush with capital and engineering capacity, has treated this as someone else’s problem.

Yet, this is precisely where autonomous vehicle economics should change the outcome. The financial case for cutting a transit route rests most heavily on staffing costs. Transportation providers continue to report a persistent bus driver shortage, with one in four transit workers worldwide expected to retire by 2035. Many systems are already operating at a fraction of their required driver capacity, forcing route cuts even where ridership demand exists. At the same time, drivers are expensive, and overnight shifts on low-ridership corridors produce unit economics that no transit agency can defend when facing a budget shortfall. Remove the staffing cost, and the calculus shifts substantially. Without drivers to pay or depots to man in the early hours of the day, a bus running at 5 a.m. on a sparse suburban corridor stops being a financial liability and becomes a service an agency can afford to sustain. Routes that transit operators couldn’t justify keeping become routes they can afford to launch.

The evidence that this works is already accumulating. Driverless shuttles are being deployed along Atlanta’s BeltLine, connecting MARTA rail stations, university campuses, and the Lee and White district on fixed short routes designed specifically to close first-and-last-mile gaps that have long frustrated commuters. In Europe, an EU-backed initiative has launched autonomous transit trials in Oslo and Geneva, focused on integrating demand-responsive driverless vehicles directly into existing public transport networks. What remains unresolved is whether the broader industry will drive down the road where the evidence already leads.

The next phase of AV deployment is being negotiated now, in conversations among technology companies, regulators, and transit authorities, assessing whether this technology has anything practical to offer their networks. Transit operators are resource-constrained and not inclined toward optimism. They need a concrete and near-term return-on-investment case, not a promise of transformation. Years of industry effort have gone into building that case for premium riders in high-density ZIP codes. Building it for the agencies that serve everyone else has barely begun.

Cities that move more people more efficiently generate more economic output and more equitable access to healthcare, education, and employment opportunities. A robotaxi serving upscale passengers in a handful of city blocks will not change those numbers at any meaningful scale. Autonomous vehicle technology is already built for public transit and already operating on public roads. The driver may have left the vehicle, but the industry still has to decide what purpose that vehicle will serve.

Wind farm developer has shaved 110 hectares off its footprint after working with EPBC planners to improve the environmental credentials of the contested project.

The post Contested wind project pivots turbines and cuts footprint after discovering more endangered cycads appeared first on Renew Economy.

Maryland county allows dense development over fire training area

By Pat Elder
June 16, 2026

This map shows PFAS contamination in surface waters downstream of the former Montgomery County Public Safety Training Academy in Rockville, Maryland, where firefighting foams containing PFAS were historically used during training exercises. The striped corridor marks the Maryland water-contact advisory area along Muddy Branch Creek, while sampling locations MB8 and MB9 document contamination extending through a residential watershed near the former training grounds.

NBC4 Washington recently reported that PFAS contamination has been discovered in a creek and pond system near the former Montgomery County Public Safety Training Academy in Rockville. The report included a map showing contaminated surface waters, sampling locations, and a water-contact advisory area. The contamination has been traced to historical firefighting activities at the former academy, where firefighting foams containing PFAS were used during training exercises for decades.

Maryland maintains a statewide firefighter training network through the Maryland Fire and Rescue Institute (MFRI), which operates six regional training centers serving every part of the state. In addition to these state-supported facilities, many counties operate their own fire academies and public safety training centers, including facilities in Montgomery, Carroll, Anne Arundel, Baltimore, Howard, Prince George's, and Washington counties. These facilities have trained generations of firefighters and emergency responders, often using live-fire exercises and, historically, firefighting foams containing PFAS.

Dozens of firefighter training grounds, burn pits, foam-training areas, airport fire-training facilities, and military fire-training sites have operated throughout Maryland over the last fifty years. These facilities routinely discharged aqueous film-forming foam (AFFF), the same PFAS-laden foam responsible for widespread contamination at military bases throughout the state.

Military Poisons has documented PFAS contamination at Aberdeen Proving Ground, Joint Base Andrews, Fort Meade, Fort Detrick, Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Webster Field, the Naval Research Laboratory Chesapeake Bay Detachment, Forest Glen Annex, and several former military facilities throughout Maryland. At the same time, the organization has repeatedly warned that firefighter training academies, airports, and other non-military facilities have also created contamination patterns similar to those found on military bases.

The Maryland Department of the Environment has been reluctant to investigate, publicize, regulate, or clean up any of this. Maryland is behind many states in this regard.

Mongomery County planning documents provide disturbing details.

The former Montgomery County Public Safety Training Academy property consisted of approximately 44.84 acres at 9710 Great Seneca Highway in Rockville, Montgomery County, approved the disposition of essentially the entire site for private redevelopment as "The Elms at PSTA," (Public Safety Training Academy) a project containing roughly 630 residential units plus retail and open space. The academy closed in 2016, and the county subsequently sold or agreed to sell the property to the developer.

Montgomery County still owns land immediately adjacent to the former academy. Planning documents identify a 6.25-acre county-owned parcel south of the redevelopment site, currently occupied by the County Innovation Incubator and the National Cybersecurity Center of Excellence. The county also retained and received additional land associated with a potential future school site (Parcel V), which planning documents describe as approximately 6.5 acres.

‍Hundreds of homes are being built on property that served as Montgomery County's primary police and firefighter training facility for roughly forty years. The question that now demands an answer is whether Montgomery County or MDE investigated the property for PFAS contamination associated with historical firefighting activities before approving the redevelopment.

Given the well-established association between firefighter training facilities and PFAS contamination, it is difficult to understand how a comprehensive PFAS investigation was not publicly discussed before the site was approved for redevelopment. Firefighter training centers have been recognized nationwide as major PFAS source areas for years.

The planning documents note that a stream and approximately 3.35 acres of stream buffer run through the eastern portion of the former academy property and drain toward Muddy Branch.

The Maryland Department of the Environment recommends that all private well owners, regardless of location, have their well water tested at least once a year to ensure that their water is safe to drink and to include PFAS in that testing. The agency ought to be identifying well owners much further away and it ought to be providing these services. They dropped the ball.

‍It is important that the public be provided with the analytical results for each PFAS compound detected in the creek, pond, groundwater, and air. This is precisely the type of information the Maryland Department of the Environment has been hesitant to release at other severely contaminated PFAS sites around the state.

Although most PFAS compounds are not volatile, several compounds, especially PFOS, which is likely to dominate the chemical signature here, can attach to soil particles and become airborne. The carcinogens saturate the banks of the creek. When the water recedes, the toxins dry in the sun and are lifted by the wind into our lungs and into our homes as dust. The dust is a major PFAS pathway to small children. People living nearby should have their houses tested and they should change their air conditioner filters regularly. Sweeping and vacuuming ought to be traded for wet-mopping.

Since 2019, I have been writing about Maryland’s PFAS contamination associated with firefighter training activities. In 2021, when elevated PFAS levels were discovered in drinking water wells serving Westminster and Hampstead, I publicly questioned whether the Carroll County Public Fire Training Center was contributing to the contamination. At the time, I argued that Maryland should move beyond testing drinking water wells and begin identifying actual contamination sources through groundwater and surface-water investigations. My concern was that firefighter training facilities had used PFAS-containing foams for decades and were being overlooked as potential contributors to contamination. I sent all of my work to the Maryland Department of the Environment. They know the score.‍

The analytical data collected from Muddy Branch are essential for a host of reasons, but mostly because PFAS compounds can accumulate in fish. The EPA has reported that PFOS may bioaccumulate in fish up to 4,000 times the amount in the water. Streams and retention ponds near firefighter training facilities have been documented with PFOS concentrations in the hundreds and thousands of parts per trillion. Under such conditions, fish may contain PFAS concentrations in the hundreds of thousands or even millions of parts per trillion. One fish outside a fire training area in Michigan had 10 million parts per trillion in its filet.

‍The county health department must strive to identify those who have consumed fish from these waters. The county should also offer blood testing to individuals who may have been exposed to PFAS through consumption of the fish. The state will not do it.‍ ‍

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine has established guidance for PFAS blood levels and recommends clinical follow-up for individuals with more than 2 parts per billion of seven different PFAS compounds. Residents should not be forced to pay out of pocket to determine whether they have been exposed to chemicals released from a government-operated facility. But, government agencies may balk at the idea, so If people living in these nice new homes ought to know a PFAS skin prick test is available for $279 from Empower DX.‍ ‍

We must demand complete transparency. The state and the county should release the full analytical results for every PFAS compound detected at each sampling location, including surface water, groundwater, sediment, fish tissue, and any other environmental samples collected during the investigation. The public cannot adequately assess the risks posed by this contamination without access to the underlying data.

The contamination discovered near the former Montgomery County Public Safety Training Academy is not an isolated incident. It is the predictable consequence of decades of PFAS use at firefighter training facilities throughout Maryland. The question is no longer whether these facilities contaminated groundwater, streams, ponds, fish, and nearby communities. The question is how many sites remain uninvestigated, how many people have been exposed, and why state regulators failed to act sooner despite years of warnings.‍‍ ‍

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I’ve written 80 articles on PFAS contamination emanating from fire training areas in Maryland. Here are two:

Bad News for Westminster (MD) and the Surrounding Region – February 2, 2021

Here, I identified the Carroll County Public Fire Training Center as a potential PFAS source and asked, "Where's the PFAS coming from in Westminster?"

https://patelder.weebly.com/westminster-md--pfas.html?utm_source=

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Small Naval Facility in Southern Maryland Causes Massive PFAS Contamination - April 15, 2021

This article connected extremely high PFAS concentrations to a naval fire station and historical firefighting foam use.

https://www.militarypoisons.org/latest-news/small-naval-facility-in-southern-maryland-causes-massive-pfas-contamination?utm_source=‍ ‍

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