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They wanted to hold Exxon accountable. Then they got hacked. A decade after climate activists’ emails were breached, a court case is shedding new light on who allegedly orchestrated the hacking.

By Matt Simon

Illustration by Grist / Getty Images​​

Jul 23, 2026

Topic

Climate + Transportation

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This story is published in partnership with the Guardian.​

On a cold January morning in 2016, Kert Davies joined a group of climate advocates and lawyers at the Rockefeller Family Fund’s office in Upper Manhattan to discuss an audacious goal: holding Exxon Mobil, one of the world’s largest fossil fuel companies, accountable for climate change. A few months earlier, a set of explosive media reports had revealed that the company’s own scientists determined as early as 1982 that the extraction and burning of fossil fuels caused climate change — but Exxon went on to fund climate denial campaigns anyway.

For Exxon, it was a public relations crisis that carried potentially devastating legal consequences. Davies, the founder of the Climate Investigations Center, a group that monitors the fossil fuel industry, had been strategizing with other climate advocates to make those consequences stick, using the hashtag #ExxonKnew to raise public awareness.

About a month after the meeting in Manhattan, Davies received the first fishy email. It appeared to be from Facebook and said, “Kert, you have 5 poke.” Similar messages arrived over the next few days — emails that looked like notifications from people on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.

Not realizing he was being phished, Davies clicked some of the links embedded in the strange messages. But he soon felt a creeping sense of dread. In early March, he asked his colleagues on a climate activist listserv: “Has anybody received weird emails?” They replied that they had. Some had clicked links and entered their passwords.

Inundated with ominous emails, the feeling of constant danger started to stifle the group’s communication. Then, the following month, a Wall Street Journal reporter reached out to Davies about a detailed agenda she had obtained for the January meeting he’d attended at the Rockefeller Family Fund’s office. In April 2016, details from the email were published by the Wall Street Journal and the Washington Free Beacon, a conservative news publication, which alleged “secret coordination” against Exxon by climate activists. 

Although Davies didn’t think it was unusual for environmental advocates to meet to strategize against one of the world’s largest polluters, Exxon soon latched onto the media reports to fight subpoenas and lawsuits it was now facing from 17 attorneys general. Defending itself from the investigations, Exxon quoted the meeting agenda in its court filings to argue that activists were conspiring against the company.

A criminal investigation would later reveal that the email obtained by the two publications had been hacked. But details about who ordered the hack have long been a mystery. Now, court documents allege that the hack was ordered by a firm representing Exxon itself — the very company Davies and others were trying to hold accountable for climate deception.  

An Exxon Mobil gas refinery, as seen in March 2006 in Baytown, Texas. Benjamin Lowy / Getty Images

The potential link to the oil company came to light last year, after the U.S. government issued an arrest warrant and attempted to extradite Israeli private investigator Amit Forlit from the U.K. Suddenly, Forlit was facing hacking and wire fraud charges that could land him in prison for up to 45 years. In the indictment from the U.S. attorney’s office in New York, which was unsealed earlier this year, prosecutors alleged that a public affairs firm working on behalf of an oil giant matching Exxon’s description hired Forlit to execute a project that involved hacking climate activists. In court documents, Forlit referenced the indictment and alleged that the hacking was commissioned by DCI group, a public affairs firm with a longtime relationship with Exxon. Separately, Reuters reported that the FBI had investigated DCI Group regarding the hacking operation.

DCI Group and Exxon deny involvement. Exxon Mobil did not reply to a request for comment, however, the company has previously said it has not been “involved in, nor are we aware of, any hacking activities. If there was any hacking involved, we condemn it in the strongest possible terms.” The company has said it acknowledges “climate change is real, and we have an entire business dedicated to reducing emissions.”

“We do and always have directed all our employees and consultants to comply with the law,” Craig Stevens, a partner at DCI Group, wrote in an email. He added that his firm has “been told by the government that neither DCI nor any of its personnel are under investigation” and that they had “no knowledge or understanding” of the alleged hacking activity. “Any insinuation otherwise is completely false and unsubstantiated,” he wrote.

Through his lawyer, Forlit declined to comment. He has pleaded not guilty.

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Today, as a direct result of the revelations about what Exxon knew about climate change and when, the fossil fuel giant and others are fighting lawsuits brought by states and cities that could result in hundreds of billions of dollars in damages. And in the past decade, threats to climate advocates have only grown more dangerous; fossil fuel companies have worked with security firms or police to surveil activists who opposed pipeline projects like the Dakota Access Pipeline and Line 3. Cybercrime has grown more sophisticated, and a global hack-for-hire industry has, so far, faced few consequences.

Davies, who is still monitoring Exxon, hopes the Forlit case will reveal whether the oil giant was involved in the hack. “None of that has been proven yet. So any furtherance of that story and that proof is really important to me, personally, and to a lot of the people who were attacked by this operation 10 years ago,” he said. “It’s personal, because I really don’t like bullies or liars or cheaters.”

About a year after Davies began receiving those strange messages, an investigative reporter who was covering financial fraud in Germany began receiving similar emails and flagged them to the University of Toronto’s Citizen Lab, which investigates efforts to surveil civil society. John Scott-Railton, a senior researcher at the lab, quickly determined they were phishing attacks. Citizen Lab researchers noticed that the links in the emails used a custom URL shortener. They then developed a technique to figure out the full unshortened URLs containing target email addresses, giving them a comprehensive list of those targeted.

Many of the victims were people at environmental groups and advocates campaigning against Exxon, but Scott-Railton and his colleagues found that the hundreds of targets also included the families and friends of activists. Non-environmental groups — for example, hedge funds, short sellers, and financial journalists — were targeted as well.

“We began toying with the idea that perhaps this was a mercenary group and they were taking commissions,” Scott-Railton said.

Scott-Railton contacted Davies in the fall of 2017. By then, Davies was experiencing another wave of phishing attacks. This time, a number of emails mentioned Exxon, including one pretending to be his colleague sharing a Dropbox document titled “ExxonMobil (confidential).docx”.

Davies still had no idea where the messages were coming from. When he met with Scott-Railton, the researcher showed Davies that he was on a long list of targets — one that included far more activists than just those in his circle of Exxon critics.

“It was really a relief to know that I wasn’t imagining that we were being targeted,” Davies recalled.

As he investigated the hacking group, Scott-Railton helped Davies and other potential targets search their inboxes for evidence that the strange messages were phishing attempts that could be traced to a single hacking group. Davies alone had received more than 80 such emails. Armed with this evidence, several targets of the phishing attacks shared Citizen Lab’s findings with the Department of Justice, or DOJ, which then began gathering evidence of a coordinated scheme. 

The Justice Department uncovered correspondence that showed a group of unnamed co-conspirators had emailed Israeli private investigator Aviram Azari, suggesting “we can make some money working together” and inviting him to a business meeting in India. The group then used phishing attacks to successfully hack into the email accounts of various targets located in the U.S. Based on this evidence, in September 2019, federal agents arrested Azari at the John F. Kennedy International Airport while he was on his way to Disneyland with his family. He was charged with managing hacking projects and pleaded not guilty. (Azari’s attorney did not reply to requests for comment.)

As the government continued to build its case, Davies met with DOJ investigators in early 2020 and told them everything he knew. A few months later, Citizen Lab published a groundbreaking report revealing that the phishing emails came from Dark Basin, a hack-for-hire group based in India. The climate advocates were just one group of targets among many; the hackers had attacked thousands of people across six continents, including politicians, prosecutors, CEOs, journalists, and human rights defenders. The report revealed the hackers had a highly detailed understanding of the Exxon critics and their relationships — suggesting they’d been provided with instructions. But the client who ordered the hack was still unknown.

Climate activists protest on the first day of the Exxon Mobil trial outside the New York State Supreme Court building in October 2019. Angela Weiss / AFP via Getty Images

After languishing in a New York prison for years awaiting trial, Azari pleaded guilty to the hacking charges in 2022, but denied knowledge of the client. Sentencing documents revealed that he played a crucial role in a global hacking campaign that targeted thousands of people — stretching well beyond the #ExxonKnew campaign — with clients paying him more than $4.8 million over almost five years for managing intelligence-gathering and phishing campaigns. He directed hackers, including the group in India, to target specific victims’ online accounts. 

The DOJ investigation confirmed the successful hacking of more than 100 of Azari’s victims, including those involved in the #ExxonKnew campaign. The government’s sentencing memo said that some of the hacked documents that were stolen from climate advocates’ online accounts were leaked to the press, and that articles about those hacked documents were incorporated into Exxon’s court filings as it battled state attorneys general investigations. DOJ investigators also asked Davies and others to write victim impact statements for Azari’s sentencing. Davies wrote that the attack had caused “anxiety, paranoia, depression, sleeplessness, and fear.”

But despite the revelations from the Azari case, the client who allegedly ordered the hack remained unknown — until the DOJ issued a warrant for the arrest of Israeli private investigator Amit Forlit and requested his extradition.

Forlit’s extradition case sent shockwaves through the U.S. climate community and began providing the answers Davies and others had been waiting for. Davies knew that Exxon had a long working relationship with DCI Group, a strategic communications firm based in Washington, D.C. Public documents show Exxon was a major client of DCI Group, spending more than $3 million on lobbying, including $320,000 in 2015, the year the hacking was allegedly commissioned.

In a filing arguing against his extradition last year, Forlit’s lawyer named the alleged client for the first time: “The hacking is alleged to have been commissioned by DCI Group, a lobbying firm representing ExxonMobil, one of the world’s largest fossil fuel companies.” 

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Davies was elated. Finally, what he had suspected all along was trickling out in court documents. “There’s been periods of time where I thought, ‘Oh, that’s over. There’s no way to ever figure it out.’ And then all of a sudden — this breakthrough,” he said.

With Forlit potentially facing decades in prison if extradited to the U.S., his lawyer referenced the then-sealed DOJ indictment and named the companies in a legal filing. The lawyer argued that one of the reasons for his prosecution in the U.S. was to “advance the politically-motivated case of pursuing ExxonMobil, with Mr. Forlit a form of collateral damage in that endeavor.” But the court didn’t find this argument persuasive, and in April, Forlit was extradited to the U.S.

The U.S. indictment was unsealed in April, offering tantalizing new details. It alleged Forlit was “a leader of a sprawling cybercriminal enterprise” via Israel-based intelligence-gathering firms, and that his actions involved co-conspirators in the U.S., U.K., Israel, and India. The indictment says the operation targeting climate activists was carried out on behalf of a client: “one of the world’s largest oil and gas corporations, with headquarters in Irving, Texas.” (When the indictment was first filed in 2022, Exxon Mobil was the only major global oil company with headquarters in Irving, Texas.)

The exterior of Exxon Mobil’s campus on the outskirts of Houston, Texas, where the company relocated its headquarters from Irving, photographed in February 2022. Brandon Bell / Getty Images

The indictment described allegations using ciphers instead of specific names of people and companies, but the names were clear to anyone who had read Forlit’s U.K. court filings opposing his extradition. The indictment laid out a chain of events connecting Forlit and Azari to a “lobbying firm” — which Forlit’s U.K. filings say was DCI Group — and in turn the lobbying firm’s “client,” which the U.K. filings say was Exxon Mobil. The indictment alleged that in October 2015, the client asked the lobbying firm for help responding to civil investigations it was facing related to climate change. 

According to the indictment, a principal at the lobbying firm contacted Forlit about a project that would target people working on climate and environmental issues. In a memo to Forlit, the principal laid out a plan for how they “would operationalize the research on the bad guys.” The principal sent the memo to Forlit with a cover email that said: “This is what I gave the client yesterday.” The memo referenced “recent attacks” on the client — the oil and gas company in Irving, Texas — “over climate change by groups on the left” and the “opportunity to go ‘on offense.’”

Prosecutors alleged that Forlit then emailed the principal a proposal for the climate change project, with a $125,000 monthly budget, outlining how his firms would gather intelligence for the client’s use in lobbying and legal proceedings. Forlit then allegedly contracted Azari and others who, in turn, hired hackers. 

The indictment alleges that the hackers successfully breached the accounts of two targets who worked for a climate advocacy nonprofit in February and March of 2016 (around the time that Davies heard from the Wall Street Journal reporter) and continued their phishing spree, successfully hacking more targets, until late 2017. The indictment alleges the stolen materials were funneled through Azari and Forlit to the principal at the lobbying firm and ultimately used in lobbying work and climate litigation filings for the client. Between 2014 and 2017, Forlit’s firms allegedly earned $7 million through the scheme, including work on the climate hack.

A decade after they received a flood of phishing attempts, the targets are now poring over the unsealed indictment, trying to piece together the identity and motivations of those who attacked them a decade ago. Although the government investigation confirmed the successful hacking of 100 victims, the Forlit indictment focuses on five unnamed victims.

Lee Wasserman, director and secretary of the Rockefeller Family Foundation, has reason to believe he is “Victim 5.” He and others received letters from the DOJ stating that they were victims of the scheme, although the government never confirmed to them whether they were successfully hacked.

Wasserman believes he was targeted because he supported a Columbia Journalism School investigation into what Exxon knew about climate change that was published in the Los Angeles Times. He also met with the New York attorney general to talk about Exxon. “We think Exxon and their allies’ conduct was the most consequential corporate deception of all time,” Wasserman said. 

But the phishing attempts had a chilling effect on their accountability efforts, he added. They switched from email to phone calls, and at times, Wasserman found himself whispering because he wondered if someone had bugged his office or home. He pondered whether cars could be lurking outside to follow him or his colleagues.

A Mobil logo is seen on a gas station in Los Angeles in November 2023. Jakub Porzycki / NurPhoto / Getty Images

Wasserman hopes the court process will reveal how the idea was hatched, who directed the operation, and who paid for it. “We’re all sitting on the edge of our seats waiting to see if we hear that at trial,” he said.

In 2016, Jennifer Cunningham was a partner with SKDKnickerbocker, a public affairs firm, and a policy consultant to the New York Attorney General. She was involved in the climate litigation work and recalled receiving phishing emails, which she believes were attempts to obtain information about the litigation strategy.

In an interview with Grist, she initially said the hackers were not successful. “I remember there were a couple that I really narrowly avoided, because [they appeared to be] from a colleague,” she said. Her office turned over the phishing emails to federal prosecutors.

But later, after reviewing the Forlit indictment, she was fairly certain she recognized herself in it. “Wait — I must be Victim 3?” she wrote in a text message. “If so, I guess they were successful in hacking in, which I never knew.” She hopes the court case will reveal more details, including the communication between the companies and the hackers.

Scott-Railton, who first exposed the hacking operation, said, “The #ExxonKnew hacking campaign stands out, in my mind, as one of the largest and most brazen hacking attempts I’ve ever seen against environmental organizations — or for that matter, U.S. advocacy organizations in general.” These groups continue to face digital threats, he explained; phishing attempts still occur, and hacking has progressed to include more sophisticated methods of intrusion that don’t require targets to click on anything. For instance, the Israeli cyber-intelligence firm NSO Group’s Pegasus spyware had been used to target human rights defenders and journalists. “I have no doubt that a version of this is going to come again,” he said.

This year, Davies received a letter from the DOJ stating that he was a “victim” in the Forlit case. He hopes that the people who ordered the hacking operation are named and held accountable.

“I still live not knowing if I was hacked,” Davies said. “I don’t have proof that they did hack me, that they did get my password. I don’t have proof that they didn’t. And that’s the thing that still rests with me: Am I secure?”

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline They wanted to hold Exxon accountable. Then they got hacked. on Jul 15, 2026.

On Saturday, June 20, over 3,000 people from across Europe and around the world gathered in Central Hall Westminster in London, UK for the International...

The post Lessons from the London International Conference Against War first appeared on Spring.

Hadirnya koleksi game yang semakin lengkap membuka kesempatan bagi pemain untuk mengenal berbagai konsep permainan dalam satu platform. Mulai dari tema petualangan, mitologi, budaya Asia, hingga dunia fantasi modern, setiap permainan memiliki karakteristik dan mekanisme yang berbeda. Variasi ini menjadi salah satu alasan mengapa banyak pengguna tertarik menjelajahi berbagai pilihan yang tersedia.

Pengamat industri hiburan menilai bahwa keberagaman permainan merupakan faktor penting dalam meningkatkan pengalaman pengguna. Tidak hanya mengandalkan tampilan visual, para pengembang juga menghadirkan fitur-fitur inovatif seperti putaran bonus, animasi interaktif, serta mekanisme permainan yang dirancang agar lebih menarik. Dengan demikian, setiap permainan mampu memberikan sensasi yang berbeda tanpa kehilangan ciri khasnya.

Istilah “slot gacor” sendiri kerap digunakan oleh komunitas pemain sebagai sebutan populer untuk permainan yang dianggap memberikan pengalaman bermain yang menyenangkan berdasarkan persepsi maupun pengalaman masing-masing pengguna. Perlu dipahami bahwa hasil dalam permainan berbasis sistem acak tetap bersifat acak, sehingga tidak ada jaminan hasil tertentu pada setiap putaran. Karena itu, istilah tersebut lebih mencerminkan tren pembicaraan di kalangan komunitas daripada sebuah kepastian.

Di sisi lain, perkembangan teknologi turut mendorong kualitas permainan menjadi semakin baik. Grafis beresolusi tinggi, efek suara yang imersif, serta kompatibilitas dengan berbagai perangkat membuat pengguna dapat menikmati permainan dengan lebih nyaman. Baik melalui komputer maupun perangkat seluler, akses terhadap berbagai pilihan game kini semakin mudah dilakukan kapan saja.

Tidak hanya dari sisi teknologi, para penyedia permainan juga terus memperluas koleksi judul game dengan menghadirkan pembaruan secara berkala. Kehadiran tema-tema baru memberikan warna tersendiri bagi pemain yang ingin mencoba pengalaman berbeda. Langkah ini sekaligus mencerminkan tingginya persaingan industri dalam menghadirkan hiburan digital yang lebih inovatif dan relevan dengan minat pengguna.

Berbagai komunitas daring juga turut berperan dalam memperkenalkan permainan-permainan yang sedang menjadi perbincangan. Melalui forum diskusi maupun media sosial, para pemain saling berbagi pengalaman mengenai fitur permainan, tampilan grafis, hingga mekanisme bonus yang mereka anggap menarik. Aktivitas tersebut menciptakan ekosistem informasi yang membantu pemain mengenal lebih banyak pilihan game.

Meski demikian, para pengguna tetap disarankan untuk mengedepankan sikap bijak dalam menikmati hiburan digital. Menentukan batas waktu bermain, memahami aturan permainan, serta tidak menjadikan permainan sebagai sarana mencari keuntungan yang pasti merupakan langkah penting dalam menjaga pengalaman bermain tetap positif dan seimbang.

Secara keseluruhan, hadirnya game yang semakin beragam telah membuka cakrawala baru bagi pencinta permainan slot digital. Variasi tema, teknologi yang terus berkembang, serta inovasi fitur menjadi daya tarik utama yang membuat kategori permainan ini terus diperbincangkan. Dengan memilih permainan sesuai preferensi pribadi dan menikmati hiburan secara bertanggung jawab, pengguna dapat merasakan pengalaman bermain yang lebih nyaman, informatif, dan menyenangkan.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture plans to close the Beltsville Agricultural Research Center, a 6,500-acre agricultural research station in Maryland that is home to the nation’s premier bee research and disease diagnosis hub. The closure comes at a critical moment for bees.

Issue 94, Green Energy Times’ July –October 2026 Edition, has gone to press and will soon be available at the usual locations.

It can be downloaded as a pdf file HERE.

Individual articles will soon be available. 

"The effects on farmers, livestock and crops have been catastrophic. The AGRIFISH Council, which is due to meet on 13 July 2026, must include measures to tackle this situation."

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In 2024, the Santa Barbara Council of Governments won a grant from Caltrans to use artificial intelligence to design a countywide bike map in collaboration with UC Santa Barbara and Simon Fraser University. The grant promised to teach AI to map bicycle infrastructure and develop a universal, regional wayfinding plan and would “revolutionize bicycle infrastructure mapping” according to a statement.

Now that revolution will be put to the test.

This week, the Santa Barbara County Association of Governments (SBCAG) launched the map in English and Spanish and is seeking feedback from bicyclists to test the map’s accuracy.

“The map is only as good as the information behind it,” SBCAG Transportation Planner Peter Williamson said in announcing the project. “The people who know our streets and neighborhoods best are the people who live, work and ride here.”

The interactive map uses artificial intelligence trained on Google Street View imagery and OpenStreetMap data to estimate how comfortable people will feel bicycling on roads throughout Santa Barbara County. Riders are being asked to review the map and report missing bike lanes, incorrect route information, inaccurate comfort ratings, and other errors before the public comment period ends on August 14.

Unlike traditional bicycle maps that simply show where bike facilities exist, the AI model attempts to classify streets based on rider comfort by analyzing roadway characteristics including bike infrastructure, traffic volumes, speed limits, lane widths, and other features visible in street imagery and mapping data.

For transportation planners, that could make the tool useful for identifying where riders are likely to feel comfortable—or where they are likely to avoid riding altogether. But only if the model matches reality.

As transportation agencies increasingly experiment with artificial intelligence, Santa Barbara’s project may become an early test of where AI can genuinely improve bicycle planning—and where it still needs human judgment.

The SBCAG project is expected to wrap-up, including publishing its final maps, in summer 2027.

Drivers who don’t move their parked cars for street cleaning are getting in the way of New York City’s viral new hobby: picking up trash. 

Even a state Assembly Member is following the trend, and complaining about scofflaws who refuse to move their cars when the Department of Sanitation drives street sweepers down their block. 

“The amount of garbage under this car lets me know that this car does not move,” said Assembly Member Chantel Jackson (D-East Tremont) in an Instagram video documenting her neighborhood cleanup on June 27. Jackson’s camera panned to a black sedan with trash caked around each wheel. 

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“They have not been able to clean this street, so let’s get this done,” Jackson narrated before using her trash picker and broom to try to clean the accumulated litter. “I don’t see any tickets on it, so I’m really not sure what the situation is with this car, if it’s abandoned or if the ticket agent is just skipping this one. I tried to clean it as much as I could but it’s really better if the cars move to get this done.”

Facts on the ground

Ninety-seven percent of New York City’s street parking is completely free. All the city asks of drivers is that they move their cars a few times a week for approximately 90 minutes so that DSNY’s street sweepers can vacuum up debris.

This arrangement has firmly lodged itself in city folklore. New Yorkers romanticize the “street-cleaning shuffle,” in which motorists wait in double-parked cars until sweepers come through and then quickly reclaim their parking spot. Documentary filmmaker Jon Wilson devoted an entire episode of his popular HBO series “How To” to the practice. 

In reality, free street parking encourages drivers to use the public curb as long-term car storage. The city’s meager fine for failing to move for the street sweepers — just $65 — is far less than the cost of a dedicated garage. Drivers leave their cars on the street and gladly pay the fines because parking in a garage is oftentimes far more expensive. This allows trash to accumulate underneath cars, adding to the buildup of filth in the city.

“I think there’s some deep problems in the system, and I do think that tickets would have to [increase] if the city actually wants the behavior to be changed,” said David Clarke, who grew his Instagram account @TrashTalkNYC to 45,000 followers in just 48 days by posting a daily video cleaning up city streets with little more than a picker and a broom.

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Based on his experience cleaning streets across the city, Clarke said the city’s official street cleaning system doesn’t work at all. On his block on 171st Street, he has never once seen the street sweeper make it down without any cars in the way. 

“On my street, the street sweeper only makes it to the curb once every ten times,” he told Streetsblog. “I have strong feelings about it, because to me, at that point, you might as well just have someone with a broom come through. Like, why are we paying for a system that we can’t use?”

Clarke recently began using a car to transport gear for his volunteer meetups. Looking for parking in a safe lot revealed the financial pressures at play.

“The tickets have to be proportional to the cost of parking in the area,” Clarke said of current alternate-side parking penalties. A local garage asked him to pay $400 per month to park his new ride. From his close observations of his block, he estimates he would get a $65 ticket around twice a month if he left it on the street for free — far less than the monthly garage rent.

“The city is just occasionally enforcing tickets, but not really solving the problem,” he said. 

Put a sticker on it

Both DSNY and the NYPD can ticket cars for staying put during street cleaning. NYPD issues around 1.5 million tickets per year, while DSNY issues around 500,000 per year, according to DSNY.

Some lawmakers want the city to adopt a more confrontational approach when discouraging drivers from blocking street sweepers. The city council recently passed a bill, sponsored by Council Member Gale Brewer (D-Upper West Side), that reinstates the practice of applying hard-to-remove stickers on the windows of law-breakers’ precious vehicles. 

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In May, the City Council passed a resolution that called on Albany to allow the city to install automated enforcement cameras on street sweeper vehicles. Under the relevant legislation, S1891A, those cameras would catch the license plates of cars blocking the way and issue a ticket automatically. The pending bill, sponsored by state Senator Robert Jackson (D-Upper Manhattan) and heralded by DSNY, cleared the State Senate in early June but didn’t get a vote in the State Assembly before the year’s legislative session ended.

In the absence of effective enforcement, DSNY has resorted to public shaming. Beyond the resurrected stickers, the department publishes a “Hall of Shame” of “Sidewalk Slobs” — the agency’s term for property owners and businesses who neglect to keep the sidewalk outside their buildings clean, as required by law.

After all, the department told Streetsblog the city doesn’t give out enough tickets to deter the practice. Under two million parkers are ticketed per year for not moving their cars, but you probably don’t remember the last time you walked down an entirely compliant block.

“Nearly 500,000 car owners disregard street cleaning regulations every week, keeping us from cleaning more than 3,000 miles of streets,” DSNY Commissioner Gregory Anderson said in a statement. “Our goal here is not to issue more summonses, but to send a message that if you decide that your convenience is more important than clean neighborhoods, then yes, you will receive a summons. And if Albany lets us send that message loudly and clearly to all neighborhoods, people will finally start to move their cars. We don’t want to issue summonses — we just want to clean the streets.”

Fill a government vacuum

DSNY has a complicated relationship with do-gooders like Clarke and Assembly Member Jackson, in part due to burdensome bureaucratic process that requires official city approval for volunteer clean-ups.

To officially organize a street clean-up in NYC, volunteers must plan it at least two weeks in advance. The department only approves clean-ups on streets and sidewalks, not in other public places like parks or beaches. The organized clean-ups are intended for the department to share supplies, but New York’s Strongest won’t stop people like Clarke from venturing out on their own, the agency said.

However, trash pickers still risk fines if they leave bagged trash in the wrong spot. DSNY recently established a rule that forbids any entity that cleans the streets — including business improvement districts and neighborhood associations, but also random groups of volunteers — from placing “any amount of refuse or recycling next to or against any public litter basket.”

“They make it very difficult for grassroots efforts,” said Samantha MacBride, who worked at DSNY for nearly 20 years in sustainable waste management and now teaches at Baruch College’s Marxe School of Public and International Affairs. “The type of spontaneous community groups, like this sort of newest generation, that doesn’t work for [DSNY], because it’s very bureaucratic.” 

MacBride works in an academic field known as Discard Studies, which examines and critiques popular assumptions about waste, including those related to volunteers who pick up litter.

“Even though I critique individualizing environmental problems in the area of recycling, with litter it’s different, because it is very close to actual individual behavior and individual daily life and individual outcomes,” she said, adding that social media accounts like Clarke’s “really show the ingenuity and how much further ahead socially and technologically these groups are than large city agencies.” 

But for all the positives, MacBride cautioned against an outcome where people are picking up the government’s slack. 

“When any type of voluntary effort starts to substitute for basic provision of services,” she said, “there is reason to be concerned.”

Correction: An earlier this story incorrectly stated that Clarke had used his GoFundMe money to purchase a car. He already owned the car.

The federal government would be required to set aside a portion of future transportation funding for high-speed rail under a new Congressional bill aimed at countering a Republican-led bid to just keep building highways.

Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) has re-introduced the American High-Speed Rail Act, which authorizes $205 billion over five years to boost high-speed rail and, most important, would make funding for high-speed rail development automatic rather than subject to normal annual appropriations.

“America deserves the same world-class high-speed rail system that other countries have had now for decades,” said Moulton. “This isn’t just about improving convenience, it’s about creating smart, business-driven investment that will create millions of good-paying jobs, connect communities big and small, fight climate change, and ensure America leads the way in the infrastructure of the future.”

The bill puts an emphasis on transit-oriented development, expanding incentives to ensure that new rail hubs catalyze affordable housing and commercial growth in surrounding areas. It also has provisions that would encourage private investment through grants and loan eligibility and increase funding flexibility for the timing and sources of the non-federal costs.

“This legislation marks a transformative step toward creating a more connected, sustainable, and prosperous future for all Americans,” said Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-Wash.), a co-sponsor. “By investing in a national high-speed rail network, we are not only alleviating strain on our highways and airports and creating safer communities, but we are also strengthening productivity and lowering carbon emissions.”

The bill would be a necessary counterweight to the BUILD America 250 Act currently making its way through negotiations.

As Streetsblog USA has reported, the House’s proposed infrastructure legislation would be uniquely bad for passenger rail. Unlike Moulton’s proposal, it does not fund any specific funding beyond what’s secured by the Highway Trust Fund.. The proposed bill also contrasts the robust Biden-era Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, expiring on Sept. 30, that secured record amounts of funding for rail projects.

Crucially, roughly $475 billion of the $580 billion that the BUILD American 250 bill would allocate over its five years is automatically set aside for highway funding without requiring annual appropriations. Meanwhile, the remaining $106 billion for transit will be subject to the give-and-take of the annual appropriation process, which, as NACTO put it in a statement, “makes it more challenging for local agencies to plan and build transit projects, as funding is not guaranteed.” 

Never a better time

The guaranteed high-speed rail funding would come as crucial high-speed rail projects — such as the California High-speed rail project between San Francisco and Los Angeles and another between Chicago and St. Louis —  are struggling to get off the ground.

The latter proposal, in particular, could use the funding guarantee after commissioners of the Illinois High Speed Rail Commission objected to the most recent cost and ridership projections.

The Commission has focused on the route that has the highest projected ridership of the options and is uniquely well-positioned for development because it’s wholly contained in Illinois. The line is projected to see over 2.8 million riders annually, almost five times the current annual ridership. The journey would be two and a half hours, a dramatic improvement from the four-and-a-half-hour car ride and the five-hour Amtrak offering.

Questionably, the projections did not account for any future transit-oriented development, underestimating the broader effects of the project. Their projections also don’t consider positive effects on the greater Midwest region. 

The High Speed Rail Alliance’s vision for a network in the Midwest hinges on Chicago as a core driver of intercity ridership in the network, with lines branching out to other midwestern hubs like Minneapolis-St. Paul, Indianapolis, and Cincinnati. 

Also overlooked in the projections is induced demand — the principle that increasing the supply or quality of something makes consumers want more. It’s often applied to “one more lane” highway expansion that leads to something like the 26-lane Katy Freeway in Houston.

The same logic applies to high-speed rail. Building it will make taking the train more attractive — it will then be faster, cheaper, and more convenient — leading to higher ridership.

For example, the Amtrak Borealis line between St. Paul and Chicago debuted in May 2024 and it beat projected ridership by nearly 60 percent even though it is just regular passenger rail service,. 

The line’s success shows that demand for safe, reliable transportation options for Americans is there and is often underestimated. A frequent and reliable high-speed option would only make the offering that much sweeter for passengers.

Americans are ready for a high-speed rail network.

In a survey conducted for the U.S High Speed Rail Association, 72 percent of registered voters say that they support creating a nationwide high-speed rail network.

The survey tells us that Americans are tired of lackluster rail options. 

Rail investment in the most-densely populated regions in the country is a no-brainer. High-speed rail connections in cities like Chicago and San Francisco that already have robust public transit networks would eliminate many car trips and lead some residents to abandon the costs and hassles of car ownership entirely.

For more information, visit the High Speed Rail Alliance.

We’ve been busy at Sound Transit. We’re in the midst of one of the most-ambitious transit expansions in the country. We set all-time records for daily and monthly ridership during the World Cup during our region’s moment as host to visitors from around the globe. And our board just closed a daunting gap in the agency’s long-term financial plan, setting us on a sustainable trajectory to continue building and operating a world-class transit system for decades to come. 

We’ve done all this while growing our light rail ridership beyond that of systems in L.A., Boston, and San Diego to claim the top spot nationally, and while we’ve driven down our monthly hours of unplanned service disruptions to a new low since we started tracking that metric in 2024. 

In March, we took a giant step forward in our system expansion when we opened the Crosslake Connection, a new light rail segment linking Seattle to the tech-oriented communities of Bellevue and Redmond on the east side of Lake Washington. The feat required groundbreaking engineering — it is, after all, the world’s first passenger rail on a floating bridge. And the support Sound Transit received on the day we cut the ribbon is something none of us at the agency will ever forget.

Getting to that moment, however, required overcoming major challenges. There were pockets of community opposition. There were lawsuits. There were thorny engineering problems to solve. The opening was ultimately delayed by almost three years. 

At a high level, what got us to that ribbon-cutting was an abiding commitment from all who worked on the project to see it through to completion. Beyond that, there are several discrete lessons we took away from the Crosslake opening that I believe can be applied to just about any ambitious public works project. Following are three of them:

Lesson 1: Know and uphold your values

Part of how we overcame project obstacles was by adhering to a clear set of values that guided our decision-making process. These longstanding agency values of safety, integrity, collaboration, and quality were not abstract principles, but pillars in the practical framework that allowed us to navigate each challenge we encountered.

In our planning of the Crosslake segment, some residents in a nearby jurisdiction were unhappy with a change in highway lane configuration due to the addition of light rail onto the bridge. In response to a lawsuit they brought — one that would have delayed permits — we eventually reached an agreement to carry out some mitigation measures.

When we made it to the Crosslake opening years later, city leaders from this community praised the new segment, even calling rail on the bridge “one of the most beautiful public train routes anywhere.”

Light rail on the I-90 floating bridge.

What started as a contentious legal battle eventually evolved into a productive relationship. Over time, we built trust with this community by adhering to our values — by being transparent and collaborative in response to both local and regional needs.

Lesson 2: Iterate, refine and test

Being the first to do something comes with difficulties and risks. Our capital delivery team and partners faced a tall order when asked to run rail across a floating bridge. There was of course no blueprint from elsewhere to reference, so it required ingenuity, resolve, and a willingness to challenge our own thinking.

To ensure we developed a piece of rail infrastructure that could move in six directions and accommodate changing water levels, wind and waves, and vehicle traffic volumes, we designed a novel track bridge inspired by systems used to retrofit large buildings for earthquakes. We then put our design to the test using full-scale models at the Transportation Technology Center in Colorado, with about 10,000 sensors placed on the trains and tracks to collect data. See this video for an in-depth technical look at the bridge project.

Once we entered the construction phase, we again had to lean on our values of safety, accountability and adaptability in navigating fabrication challenges so we could deliver not only a system that worked, but one that will function reliably and safely for generations to come. 

Lesson 3: Connect the big picture to the details

When I started as CEO, one of my first requests of staff was to hand me a delivery schedule for the Crosslake project. The project team and I then reviewed it step by step, line by line, to identify any place where we could compress the schedule without compromising safety or system resilience. In doing this, we were able to draw clearer lines between how specific steps were being carried out and related impacts to the overall schedule. 

The exercise bore fruit, as it enabled us to move up the previously assumed opening date by several months. This demonstrated how an organization’s leader is often uniquely positioned to coordinate efforts in service of a primary objective, encourage those working seemingly intractable issues to stop “suffering in silence,” accept an appropriate level of risk, and seek collaborative solutions to the toughest questions. 

After opening the Crosslake segment, our agency and region were immediately rewarded. New riders begin using the newly-expanded system to commute to and from work, attend events, or simply enjoy a trip to one of the many destinations now accessible via a $3 train trip.

• How would the BUILD America 250 Act affect your state and congressional district? In terms of raw dollars, New York and California have the most to lose from House Republicans’ five-year transportation funding bill. However, rural red states would also lose a substantial portion of their transit funding. (Urban Institute)
• Two-thirds of Americans say they would pay more to live in a walkable neighborhood, but fewer support the types of development that make walkable neighborhoods possible. (Realtor.com)
• Salvage yards are having a hard time selling used EV batteries to recyclers because it’s often cheaper to mine more minerals straight from the ground. (NPR)
• Lloyd Alter, age 73, argues that states should be testing drivers in their 70s, but most are going in the opposite direction. (Carbon Upfront!)
• Climate change is going to make highway construction even more expensive. For example, it will cost hundreds of millions of dollars, if not billions, to protect just one short stretch of Northern California highway from increased flooding. (Grist)
• Drivers kill eight people a day in Florida at least partly because, unlike European countries with far lower traffic death rates, the state is not serious about punishing speeders. (Florida Politics)
• Denver built, widened or repaired 41 miles of sidewalk last year, which only leaves another 1,400 miles to go. (Denver 7)
• Only a quarter of Kansas City streetcar riders were attending a FIFA fan festival, which suggests a recent extension had as much to do with record June ridership as the World Cup. (Star)
• Columbus, Ohio has finished installing the city’s longest protected bike lane, two-and-a-half miles on North 4th Street. (WOSU)
• Omaha is redesigning Ames Avenue as part of its Vision Zero plan. (3 News Now)
• Watch Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo name-drop his way out of a traffic ticket. (MeidasTouch/X)
• Portland cyclists are looking to break the world record for largest e-bike ride. (Momentum Mag)

Drowning in manure: How livestock farms threaten Iowa’s drinking water and public health rcoleman July 14, 2026 Ethan Bahe Anne Schechinger, M.S. July 14, 2026 Overview

• EWG found 15,309 Iowa factory farms producing over 107 million tons of manure a year.
• The number of large animal facilities increased by 13% between 2019 and 2025.
• The state’s livestock produce significant amounts of manure that pollute drinking water and recreational water, leading to public health harms like cancer.
• Because of inadequate oversight, polluted drinking water results from all sizes of facilities.

Iowa – the nation’s top hog producer – had more than 15,000 factory farms in 2025 producing over 107 million tons of manure, a first-of-its-kind EWG analysis finds. This waste can pollute water, exposing people to serious health risks like cancer.

EWG mapped every livestock facility across Iowa to uncover the massive scale of the farms and their manure. The waste generated would weigh the same as over 53 million Ford F150 pickup trucks, and would account for 33 tons of manure each year for every person in Iowa.

And the problem isn’t limited to Iowa. 

A third of all pork raised in the U.S. is produced in Iowa, which is by far the largest hog-producing state. Minnesota, the runner-up, makes up only 12% of total U.S. hog production. If you’ve eaten pork, it’s very likely that you've eaten pork from hogs raised in Iowa. The consequences of huge Iowa hog farms extend far beyond the state borders.

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources tracks the number of hog and other animal feeding operations and their locations, with a data file showing just under 11,000 facilities.

In contrast, EWG’s well-established methodology located thousands more facilities that are not included in the state’s dataset. This analysis found more than 15,000 factory farms on the ground from aerial and satellite imagery, providing the most comprehensive picture yet of Iowa’s enormous industrial livestock footprint. 

This investigation updates a 2020 EWG analysis that mapped the state’s largest animal operations only. That study found there were 3,936 large factory farms in the state in 2019. Our latest research found a 12.9% increase in large facilities, to 4,444 in 2025.

The vast amounts of manure these facilities generate are often applied to nearby farm fields as a fertilizer, since it contains nitrogen and phosphorus, nutrients that feed crops. But manure and its components can wash off farm fields, leach through soil into drainage systems that empty into nearby rivers, streams and lakes, and get into groundwater. 

Nitrogen can form in drinking water as nitrate, and consuming this contaminated water can increase the risk of birth defects and cancer. Iowa is the state with the second-highest rate of new cancer cases. 

Manure runoff can also create potentially toxic algae blooms in recreational waters when more nutrients are applied than crops can absorb. EWG has reported on algae toxins in bodies of water throughout Iowa.

To help reduce the environmental and public health damages caused by livestock raised in these facilities, consumers can choose to eat less meat or eat meat not raised in a factory farm. And federal and state-level policies must change to improve public health and the safety of water for Iowans. 

Iowa produces huge amounts of manure

Animal feeding operations are concentrated facilities and feedlots that produce livestock for meat, eggs and dairy products. Hundreds and even thousands of cattle, swine, chickens, turkeys and other animals are raised in large buildings or, in the case of cattle, in open feedlots. Over 90% of U.S. livestock are raised in factory farms. 

EWG found that Iowa had 15,309 such facilities in 2025. Hogs made up the vast majority of facilities in the state, at 66%. 

There were 10,172 facilities housing 33.4 million hogs, 336 poultry facilities housing 178.6 million turkeys and chickens, and 4,801 operations that contained 2.7 million cattle.

Together these facilities produced 107.6 million tons of manure in 2025.

Two-thirds of all factory farms produced swine last year. They also produced the largest share of manure. (See Figure 1.) 

Figure 1. Hog facilities generated over 64% of total manure in Iowa. 

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Source: EWG, with data from Department of Agriculture National Agriculture Imagery Program and Iowa DNR 

The five Iowa counties with the most animal feeding operations in descending order were Sioux, Lyon, Plymouth, O’Brien and Washington. These counties contained 3,095 factory farms, or one in five of all facilities in the state. 

Water quality problems are especially prevalent in the counties with the most operations. This map shows the locations of all the state’s 15,000-plus factory farms:

Interactive map Iowa livestock facilities in 2025

EWG mapped every livestock facility in the state using aerial and satellite imagery, uncovering a much greater industrial footprint than Iowa’s own data suggests.

View map here Large operations have increased since 2019

Iowa has seen a substantial increase in the number of large animal facilities in just the past few years. The largest operations generate the most manure, exacerbating manure storage issues. It becomes increasingly difficult to manage waste without applying excessive amounts to nearby farmland, where it contributes to water pollution and other environmental problems.

For this analysis, EWG used the Environmental Protection Agency’s definition of concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, to determine farm size. According to the EPA, small facilities have fewer than 300 “animal units,” medium facilities have between 300 and 999, and large facilities have 1,000 or more animal units. 

An “animal unit” is defined as an animal that’s equivalent to 1,000 pounds of live weight. For example, a single animal unit would be one 1,000-pound beef cattle, 2.5 hogs or 125 chickens. Large CAFOs house at least 1,000 beef cattle or 2,500 hogs or 125,000 chickens – a lot of animals generating an enormous amount of manure.

The number of large swine operations increased the most between 2019 and 2025, at over 400 facilities.

The largest facilities produced a disproportionate amount of manure. The 4,444 large facilities accounted for 29% of all facilities but generated 60% of all manure.

Medium-size facilities made up 51% of operations but only 35% of the manure. Small farms accounted for only 20% of facilities and 5% of the manure. 

This expansion between 2019 and 2025 reflects the continued consolidation of livestock production into larger, more intensive facilities with greater waste management and drinking water challenges.

Sioux, Kossuth and Hamilton counties were the three with the greatest number of large animal feeding operations, where manure application in these counties likely has a big impact on water quality. 

Existing regulatory requirements

There were also thousands of factory farms just below the “large” size designation. These operations generate significant amounts of manure but are not required by the EPA to get a National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System, or NPDES, water permit.

To obtain the required permits, large animal feeding operations submit applications that include manure management plans identifying the fields where manure will be applied each year. 

Management plans aim to prevent multiple facilities from applying manure to the same fields or applying manure above the agronomic rate. 

Animal facilities that have more than 500 animal units but under 1,000 need to submit a manure management plan to the Iowa DNR, but they do not have to get a NPDES permit. 

Although manure management plans are an important safeguard, they are often incomplete and inconsistently enforced. In 2025, there were only 745 inspections of manure management plans for Iowa facilities that had over 500 animal units. 

Operations with fewer than 1,000 animal units are exempt from many of the permit requirements faced by larger facilities, despite generating enough manure to pose water quality and public health risks similar to the risks of waste generated by large facilities. And those under the 1,000 animal unit threshold with manure management plans are only infrequently inspected.

A total of 3,276 operations had between 950 and 999 animal units – just 50 animal units short of the large CAFO designation. These facilities represented 21% of all facilities in the state and produced a lot of manure, but they are not regulated the same way as operations with 1,000 or more animal units are. 

Threat to water and public health

Human waste usually goes through a multistage treatment process before being released back into the environment. 

But the more than 100 million tons of manure produced annually by Iowa’s animal operations are typically spread, untreated, on nearby agricultural fields as a fertilizer. It’s the most common disposal option because the waste contains nitrogen and phosphorus, which feed the crops.

But once spread, the nitrogen in manure gets into groundwater, leaches through soil into drainage systems that empty into nearby waterways, and runs off fields to contaminate lakes and streams.

EWG recently released an analysis of nitrate levels in drinking water served by community water systems across the U.S. The report found that, in Iowa, 822 community water systems tested for nitrate between 2021 and 2023. 

Of those systems, 146 provided drinking water to almost 1.2 million Iowans and had at least one nitrate test at or above 3 milligrams per liter, or mg/L. During that time, 81 community water systems serving just under 800,000 people tested at or above 5 mg/L, and eight systems serving over 56,000 people tested at or above 10 mg/L.

Nitrate contamination in drinking water poses significant risks both to public health and the environment, with the potential harms varying based on the amount of nitrate (see Figure 2).  

The EPA’s legal limit for nitrate in drinking water – known as the maximum contaminant level, or MCL – is 10 mg/L. This standard was set based on 1960s science to guard against “blue baby syndrome,” a potentially fatal condition that starves infants of oxygen if they ingest too much nitrate. 

More recent research shows strong evidence of an increased risk of colorectal and other cancers, thyroid disease and birth defects at 5 mg/L and other levels far below the woefully outdated federal legal limit for nitrate in drinking water. 

Figure 2. Levels of nitrate in drinking water and their associated health risks. 

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Source: EWG, Drinking water of almost 1 in 5 Americans contains nitrates linked to cancer and birth defects

These findings are especially concerning in Iowa, which has the second-highest incidence of cancer cases in the nation and continues to experience rising cancer rates. 

Considerable evidence connects nitrate consumption to increased risk of bladder cancer and colorectal cancer. Emerging research also links kidney, ovarian, thyroid and pediatric cancers with consumption of nitrate in drinking water at levels below the MCL. 

The risks of negative birth outcomes for infants also go up when pregnant people drink water contaminated with nitrate, even at levels far below the MCL – preterm birth, low birth weight and birth defects, including neural tube birth defects like spina bifida.

Beyond its impacts on human health, excessive fertilizer and manure application contribute to climate change. Nitrogen from commercial fertilizers and livestock manure is converted in soil into nitrous oxide, a greenhouse gas nearly 300 times more potent than carbon dioxide. 

Agriculture is one of the largest sources of nitrous oxide emissions, making improved nutrient management critical for protecting both water quality and the climate.

How consumers and policymakers can help

Consumers

Iowa is the largest producer of pork in the U.S., and swine facilities are the largest contributors of manure in the state. Consumers can choose to eat less meat or eat meat not raised in a factory farm, in turn helping to reduce the environmental and public health damages caused by raising livestock in these facilities. EWG’s Meat and Dairy Label Decoder helps users decipher what individual meat and dairy labels mean about how the livestock generating those food products were raised. 

The decoder suggests consumers look for these labels on meat packages at the grocery store to avoid factory-farmed meat: 

• Animal Welfare Approved by AGW
• Certified Humane, if the package also includes “grass fed” or “pasture-raised” 
• Global Animal Partnership, if the steps are 4, 5 or 5+. 

Pictures of EWG’s recommended meat labels are provided below. 

Image

These labels can help consumers choose products from animals raised on pasture, not in factory farms. Pasture-raised animals cause much less of a manure problem.

Policymakers

Changes to federal conservation policy could help reduce one of the largest sources of water contamination in Iowa. Millions of dollars from the Agriculture Department’s Environmental Quality Incentives Program, or EQIP, support infrastructure that compounds the problems of industrial livestock production rather than practices that protect water quality, one of the stated goals of the program. 

That is, this money subsidizes infrastructure that supports factory farms. 

According to EWG’s Conservation Database, two of the top most-funded EQIP practices in Iowa between 2017 and 2024 were animal manure storage facilities, and roofs and covers for them. Together these two practices received $44.7 million in federal funding during that period, representing 17% of all EQIP dollars awarded to Iowa farmers. 

Instead, federal conservation funding should prioritize proven conservation practices that reduce nutrient runoff, improve soil health and protect drinking water. Funding should be prioritized so it goes to practices that improve water quality, like those on EWG’s list of regenerative agriculture practices.

Iowans should also press their state officials to create policy changes that would reduce the amount of manure that gets into water. 

The amount of manure that animal feeding operations produce, and where the manure is applied, could be better regulated with a number of policy changes. Many of these policy updates could reduce the risk of cancer Iowans currently face.

One idea that could attract bipartisan support would be to shift the regulation of animal feeding operations to counties. Iowa’s DNR currently manages how livestock facilities operate and expand, as well as the application of manure to farm fields. 

Shifting that decisionmaking authority to county governments would give a greater voice to the people who live and work near animal facilities and are most likely to experience the health outcomes tied to the operations. 

With this change, county officials would decide whether to approve proposals for building new facilities or expanding existing ones. These officials would also manage the amount of manure that is produced and where it is applied. 

Taken together, these achievable federal and state policy changes, along with consumer calls for action and changes to their eating preferences, could make a welcome difference to Iowans’ health.

EWG: Iowa’s 15,000+ factory farms produce over 107M tons of manure, risking public health Anthony Lacey July 14, 2026

MINNEAPOLIS – Iowa has 15,309 livestock farms that generated 107.6 million tons of manure in 2025, polluting the state’s water and putting Iowans’ health at risk, a landmark Environmental Working Group mapping project finds.

For this comprehensive report, EWG mapped every livestock facility in the state using aerial and satellite imagery, uncovering a much greater industrial footprint than Iowa’s own data suggests. The state Department of Natural Resources tracks just under 11,000 facilities – a significant undercount, compared to the 15,000-plus EWG found.

Much of the manure generated ends up applied – untreated – to nearby farm fields, where it can leach into groundwater or run off into rivers, streams and lakes, polluting tap water.

When manure leaves the fields it is applied to, the nitrogen it contains can form nitrate in drinking water. Research links nitrate – found in manure and commercial fertilizer – in drinking water to an increased risk of colorectal, bladder, kidney, ovarian and thyroid cancers, as well as adverse birth outcomes, including preterm birth, low birth weight and spina bifida. 

Iowa has the second-highest rate of new cancer cases in the nation, and its cancer rates continue to rise.

“Iowa is drowning in manure from factory farms,” said report co-author Anne Schechinger, EWG’s senior director of agriculture and climate research. “The health threats of manure ending up in recreational and drinking water are well known and need to be addressed.”

The manure generated by Iowa’s factory farms is equivalent to 33 tons of waste for every person in the state each year – the same weight as over 53 million Ford F-150 pickup trucks

Many large factory farms

Hog operations dominate Iowa’s factory farm landscape, accounting for 66% of all facilities, EWG’s mapping found. Iowa produces a third of all U.S. pork, so the pollution problems linked to the large-scale factory farming of hogs aren’t limited to the Hawkeye State. 

Minnesota, the second-largest pork producer, accounts for just 12% of U.S. production.

The number of large animal facilities – those with 1,000 or more “animal units” – increased by nearly 13% between 2019 and 2025, from 3,936 to 4,444. Those large facilities represent just 29% of all operations but generate 60% of all manure.

EWG also found 3,276 operations with between 950 and 999 animal units – just below the threshold that triggers Environmental Protection Agency requirements for water permits and manure management plans. These facilities produce large amounts of manure but are not regulated as stringently as larger operations, leaving nearby communities without adequate protection.

Nitrate pollution associated with the application of these facilities’ manure to fields is alarming. EWG recently released an analysis of nitrate levels in drinking water provided by community water systems across the U.S. It revealed that in Iowa, 146 community water systems had elevated levels of nitrate at some time between 2021 and 2023. 

Manure runoff from farm fields also fuels toxic algae blooms in recreational waters, posing additional risks to public health.

“Science increasingly links this waste to serious health harms, including cancer. We can’t keep ignoring the problem – real policy changes can help and are overdue,” added Schechinger. 

Potential policy solutions

The federal government spends billions annually on farm conservation programs. But EWG’s analysis of the Agriculture Department’s Environmental Quality Incentives Program, or EQIP, finds that federal dollars are not being directed to where they could make the most difference.

Two of the most-funded EQIP practices in Iowa between 2017 and 2024 were waste storage facilities and manure storage structure covers – infrastructure that supports factory farming. Together those two practices received $44.7 million in federal funding, representing 17% of all EQIP dollars awarded to Iowa farmers.

“Federal money subsidizes the very practices that drive this water pollution problem. That has to change,” said Ethan Bahe, the report’s other co-author and EWG senior GIS analyst.

EWG recommends redirecting conservation funding to practices proven to reduce nutrient runoff and protect drinking water, including those on EWG’s list of regenerative agriculture practices. Expansion of permitting requirements to cover more facilities would also ensure greater oversight of factory farms, which should include more local authority over them.

Consumers can also help by choosing to eat less factory-farmed meat, which could reduce the market demand that leads to the proliferation of facilities in Iowa and across the country. EWG’s Meat and Dairy Label Decoder helps consumers identify products from animals raised outside industrial operations.

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The Environmental Working Group is a nonprofit, non-partisan organization that empowers people to live healthier lives in a healthier environment. Through research, advocacy and unique education tools, EWG drives consumer choice and civic action. Visit www.ewg.org for more information.

Areas of Focus Water Farming & Agriculture Factory Farms Farm Pollution Midwest Number of large facilities jumped 13% since 2019 Press Contact Alex Formuzis alex@ewg.org (202) 667-6982 July 14, 2026

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Prioritizing personal limits creates space for fun while safeguarding emotional well-being. Embracing this proactive approach ensures that players enjoy all that Tangandewa has to offer without losing sight of what truly matters.

The post Easy Way Login Tangandewa Slot, No Hassle, Trusted! appeared first on HAMBACHFOREST.

In their second fatal shooting of the wrong person in just days - and as his three-year-old daughter watched - ICE thugs murdered a young Colombian husband and father legally working in Biddeford, ME for simply trying to driving away. After state Dems blasted the killing and advocates insisted "this has gone too far," ICE waited 12 hours to say they fired "fearing for public safety" while "every law enforcement officer in America was scratching their head trying to figure out what that means."

Talk about following the money. Having somehow railroaded through last year's big obscene bill gifting over $170 billion to immigration and border enforcement - and last month inexplicably adding another $75 billion, seven times ICE’s annual budget (thanks Susan), with virtually no public accounting of how they spend it - the regime is now scurrying to spend their blood money by setting random, armed-to-the-teeth, 2,000-arrests-a-day benchmarks of what have become mere numbers of bodies in an ethnic cleansing of immigrants, brown and black people, or anyone standing near them. What could possibly go wrong?

For starters, a record-breaking mortality rate of 11 people fatally shot, over 20 other deaths in custody, over 70,000 mostly harmless people in concentration-camp-like detention, and a "systemic failure" of accountability. A new report by Physicians for Human Rights and Berkeley's Human Rights Center just added more: At least 412 incidents of "misuse" of brutal crowd-control tactics - teargas, pepper spray, "less-lethal kinetic impact projectiles" from rubber bullets to stun grenades - resulting in over 200 "lasting and traumatic injuries" including blindings, brain trauma, fractures often to journalists, elderly people, children.

As Maine goes, so goes the nation. Monday's murder of 26-year-old Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero came after ICE's relatively brief, grotesquely named Operation Catch of the Day last year that saw the arrest of over 500 people, most with no criminal records. Originally from Bucaramanga, Colombia, Guerrero was legally authorized to be here, worked two jobs, had a Social Security card and was going to a delivery job. After some initial confusion/lies, the regime said he was not the intended target of the endlessly inept, homicidal ICE goons; nor were any wearing body cameras that Congress had appropriated $20 million for.

The same lethal incompetence marked last week's murder in Houston TX of Lorenzo Salgado Araujo, a father of three who'd spent 35 years building homes and raising his U.S. citizen kids, all of whom he helped get through college. He was shot and killed by ICE agents who said he "weaponized" his vehicle; it took about 5 minutes for Araujo's three passengers, who'd witnessed it all and were quickly detained for it, to refute the claim. So did video footage of the deadly encounter. Again, the goons had the wrong guy - and outdated address info - and none were wearing body cameras Congress generously allocated for them.

On Pool Street in Biddeford, a small southern mill city of about 22,000 with a long immigrant history, marauding ICE agents in an SUV rammed the small white Kia Guerrero was driving to work shortly after 7 a.m. Video shows Guerrero, evidently fearful after armed men rammed him, turning his car around and trying to drive away. ICE agents fired what witnesses said were up to seven shots, and at least four smashed through his windshield - though law enforcement guidelines clearly prohibit firing at a moving vehicle unless there is an imminent threat of death or serious bodily harm, and call for police to (duh) just move away.

A neighbor said he heard a “pop, pop, pop,” looked out his window and saw the car still slowly moving until the SUV hit it again. After the Kia came to a stop, witnesses said Guerrero, bleeding from his head, was pulled from his car; several heard him say, "I tried to stop." Gruesome video shows ICE thugs handcuffing him on the ground, where his soon-lifeless body lay for five hours. Horrified witnesses said goons "yelled" at his young daughter, still in Bluey pajamas, trying to smell some nearby flowers. "I watched a wife fall to her knees looking at her husband’s dead body," said one. "I watched a little girl with a pink backpack crying because she’s never going to see her father again.”

One upset neighbor said an ICE agent claimed, "He tried to run me over." But here, as elsewhere, ICE has "lost the benefit of the doubt," and the city erupted in grief and rage. By mid-day, hundreds of pissed Mainers had marched, chanting "Whose Streets, Our Streets," to rally in Mechanics Park with signs: "Crush ICE," "Due Process For All," "Immigrants Make Biddeford Great," "Extrajudicial Killings Are A War Crime, and "Is This the America We Want?" Sadie Dilboy said Guerrero often came to her laundromat, giving his daughter quarters to buy vending-machine candy: "He was such a good person. He was always cleaning up.” A worker at Applebee’s, where Guerrero often picked up orders, would always ask if we needed anything: "He was always a good smile to see,” thus clearly "one of those dangerous criminal aliens who have turned America into a living hell."

Later, a crowd of protesters swarmed the local office of Susan Collins with fierce chants of "Vote her out!." One prominent sign, speaking for us all, proclaimed, "Get the Fuck Out." Collins, forever on the wrong and bloody side of history and drunken rapists, was the deciding vote last month to approve the extra, mind-boggling $75 billion in ICE funding, though most Mainers want to see it abolished. Last year, after the murders of Alex Pretti and Renee Good, she voted against both language seeking to curtail further violence and funding for mandatory body cameras, which most thugs are clearly not wearing anyway.

In the wake of yet another senseless murder on America's streets in broad daylight, a presumably very concerned Collins urged "a full and impartial investigation." She did not condemn ICE’s actions, nor did she voice sympathy for the man whose life was just snuffed out. Her staff later cited her vote for a few measures - optional body cameras, more oversight of concentration camps, a paltry $2 million for "de-escalation training" - for better ICE "accountability." As local police blocked her office door, they also noted ICE's "work goes far beyond immigration enforcement to help protect our country" - from brown-skinned delivery drivers, taco makers, contractors, landscapers, nurses, abuelas and kids with cancer. So fuck Susan Collins.

GOP gubernatorial nominee Bobby Charles cravenly echoed her: "Maine deserves the truth about what happened." He also urged there be ”no getting ahead of the facts - let facts, not politics, drive our conclusions," adding, "Federal agents put their lives on the line every day...If an agent's life was threatened, he had every right under the law to protect himself" - presumably from brown delivery drivers, contractors, sick kids et al. So fuck him too. He wants facts? Being here legally and driving to work should not cause death by rogue morons looking for someone else. Guerrero lay in the street for five hours. His government didn't bother to name him for almost a day, but his neighbors did. We hope his daughter gets the therapy she'll need.

The largest, darkest question: "How many more people 'not the target' will die before someone in Washington decides the answer to a wrong-vehicle stop cannot be seven rounds through a windshield?" Tuesday, ICE told their goons to suspend most vehicle stops around the country; they declined to disclose "law enforcement tactics" but said they're "always evaluating our procedures to (keep) criminals off our streets," in which case they should probably remove all their own sociopaths. But they likely won't. The outrage was nationwide - "ICE murdered a 26-year-old in front of his wife & daughter. It’s just pure evil" - and global. Colombian President Gustavo Petro: "He was killed because he was believed to be an inferior being with no rights."

Hopefully, his death will impact the electoral chances of Susan Collins, who funded it. Happily, Maine Dems were unshy about voicing their rage at her abetting ICE violence that’s gone on too long. Gov. Janet Mills: “This has to end.” Senate candidate Dr. Nirav Shah, who urged support for immigrants through the Maine Solidarity Fund, blasted Collins for approving billions more for ICE to "terrorize our communities...She gave them a blank check to kill. Maybe sit this one out.” In an angry video, Rep. Chellie Pingree asked ICE, "Why are you in Maine?" given "every report we hear is somebody picked up who's legally here. It's time to get ICE off our streets."

Troy Jackson, a top Senate contender to replace Graham Platner and the only one polls show beating Collins (though several come close) attended a Portland protest Monday, charging "our immigrant communities are under attack" by a rogue ICE that must be abolished. Advocates also argued, "Our communities are hurting." Maine Immigrants’ Rights Coalition head Mufalo Chita: "We are furious, and we will not allow this death to be treated as routine or inevitable." Crystal Cron of Presente!, on another family "shattered by state violence": “To say we are heartbroken does not convey the depth of the exhaustion, terror, or grief we are feeling."

Maine authorities have struggled to get information from the feds, unsurprising given they just, finally turned over to Minnesota investigators evidence from the murders of Renee Good and Alex Pretti in January. It took over 12 hours, till Monday night, for ICE to name their victim and say, in fascist gobbledygook, "an illegal alien" tried to "flee" during "a targeted surveillance" and a goon, "fearing for public safety," "discharged his weapon.” Notably, there was no claim of a driver "weaponizing" his vehicle, leaving national law enforcement "stunned" as to why anyone fired: “If you want to arrest someone, this is a good example of how to do everything wrong."

Murdering brown people in cold blood for no reason is likewise a good example of how to topple democratic governance and the rule of law. “Does the senseless murder of this man make any of our lives better in any way?" asked Kelli Brennan of the Maine State Nurses Association. Critics argue every member of Congress who voted for more money for ICE or DHS has blood on their hands; so do their supporters. During last spring's shutdown, Susan Collins, that act's deciding vote, whined it wasn't "fair" to those thugs to have a "cloud of uncertainty" over whether they'd be paid. “They are keeping us safe,” she mewled. Fuck Susan Collins and the incomparable real-world damage she's done. Vote like your life and many others depend on it, because they do. Fundraiser here.

Johan Sebastián Durán Guerrero and his daughterPhoto from Facebook

Checks & Balances Project (C&BP) seeks all emails and other communications in which Sussex County Board of Supervisors Chairman Steve White used his state employee email for county business.

Multiple sources show White uses his state of Virginia email address for his county job, but the agency he works for won’t say where he works or whether he’s on a leave.

Since April, White has served as the acting county administrator for Sussex County, after he engineered the firing of former administrator Richard Douglas during a surprise move in the supervisors’ monthly meeting.

White’s service as acting county administrator is in apparent violation of Virginia law that says elected officials can’t serve in county jobs.

C&BP has filed requests with the FBI, Virginia Bureau of Criminal Investigation, Sussex County sheriff, and the Sussex County commonwealth attorney seeking an investigation into White’s conduct.

Multiple sources say White is routinely at the county administration building, known to locals as the Blue Box, for hours a day. If White is working there, how can he be at his regular job, as a Trades Manager II for the Virginia Department of Behavioral Health and Developmental Services (DBHDS)?

The salary for that job, which is classified in salary band 6, ranges between $75,423 and $189,075, Virginia records show.

Ray Locker is the executive director for Checks & Balances Project, an investigative watchdog blog holding government officials, lobbyists, and corporate management accountable to the public. Funding for C&BP is provided by Renew American Prosperity and individual donors.

You may also want to read:

Checks & Balances Project files FBI complaint about White, SCVRS

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The post Checks & Balances Project seeks Steve White’s emails with state address appeared first on Checks and Balances Project.

Our July Common Sense monthly newsletter dives into how injustice is fundamental to the U.S. legal system and was deliberately incorporated since the founding of this nation. This is why revolution and various forms of disruption are not just justified, but essential.

The post “Common Sense” Newsletter – July 2026: Injustice Calls for Revolutionary Disruption appeared first on CELDF - Community Rights Pioneers - Protecting Nature and Communities.

By Jeremy Brecher,
Senior Strategic Advisor, LNS Co-Founder

Listen to the audio version >>

While Trump conducts his war against Greentech, many US states are forging ahead with energy expansion based on sun, wind, and water. Greentech’s slashing of the cost of renewable energy production and use has made states turn to it not only to protect the climate but to make energy affordable for their people. 

A photo of Donald Trump in the Oval Office with several of his Executive Orders, January 20, 2025. Photo credit: The White House, public domain.

The US federal system gives states a powerful position in energy policy. States regulate electric generation, local distribution of electricity, and infrastructure siting. They can set policy in myriad other areas from urban planning to public transit to housing that can help shape the utilization of climate-protecting Greentech.

Shortly after his inauguration, President Trump issued an executive order entitled “Protecting American Energy from State Overreach.” The order describes state clean energy policies as “burdensome and ideologically motivated ‘climate change’ or energy policies that threaten American energy dominance and our economic and national security.” The order calls on the Attorney General to take action against these state laws, and she began to file lawsuits against them almost immediately. This executive order was followed by many other Trump efforts to hamstring or outlaw state climate policies, ranging from blocking California emission standards to forced reopening of shuttered coal-fired power plants.

Meanwhile, recent headlines have publicized retrenchment in state climate policies. New York state abandoned its commitment to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 40% from 1990 levels by 2030, substituting weaker and squishier targets. California also relaxed requirements for emission reductions – although the change continues to be contested in the state legislature. In both cases energy affordability was given as a reason, although advocates of both changes acknowledged that they would not bring down energy prices any time soon. Both New York and California changes were preceded by heavy fossil fuel industry lobbying.

Such retreats register the reality that Trump’s attacks are restricting the development of the Greentech New Deal. Federal defunding of climate-protecting initiatives has made them more expensive; regulatory changes and subsidies have advantaged fossil fuels; and legal attack has undermined the Greentech revolution. But these retreats should not conceal the advances the Greentech Revolution has made in US states even during the first year-and-a-half of the Trump era.

Today’s Greentech advances in the states typically combine climate protection with affordability. That’s possible because Greentech has made production and use of renewable energy so much cheaper – rendering fossil fuels non-competitive.

California–Two steps forward, one step back?

California’s electricity is increasingly coming from solar. Photo credit: Tom Brewster Photography, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0. Data Source: US Energy Information Administration

California, now the world’s fourth largest economy, illustrates the collision of the irresistible force of the Greentech Revolution with the immovable object of the Trumpian fossil fuel counter-revolution. In recent years it has faced devastating heatwaves, droughts, storms, wildfires, and other extreme weather conditions resulting from global warming. Not surprisingly, an overwhelming proportion of Californians worry about climate change and back policies to fight it. In 2006 California passed AB 32, the Global Warming Solutions Act, which set targets for greenhouse gas emissions and sets a declining limit on total emissions by the state’s major polluters. Over the next twenty years California substantially raised its targets and implemented many other climate protection policies. From 2001 to 2019, California reduced its carbon emissions by 25%, leaving a typical Californian emitting only half as much as other Americans.

In 2024, California’s natural gas generation fell by 8%; coal is expected to soon be eliminated entirely from its electrical supply. By the end of 2025 the state had 2.5 times more battery storage available than it did in 2022.

As soon as Trump was inaugurated president, he began a massive attack on California’s climate protection efforts. For example, he attacked the state’s first-in-the-nation ban on the sale of new gas-powered cars by 2035. The state sued to preserve the ban. In 2025 it extended the cap and trade program, renamed cap and invest, by 15 years. Then Governor Newsom, under heavy lobbying from California’s oil industry, announced a new plan which offers free pollution permits worth as much as $4 billion to oil refineries and other major polluters. Legislative leaders are refusing to accept the plan, however, and have refused to fund many of Newsom’s other programs until he abandons his plan. Contested negotiations are expected to continue until the legislative session ends in September. The result is hanging in the balance.

Other states go Greentech

The California climate drama should not obscure what is happening in other states.

Soon after Trump’s inauguration, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey issued an executive order that directs the state to procure 10 GW of clean energy and 5 GW of battery storage by 2035. The governor’s office projects up to $10 billion in savings for residents and businesses. Massachusetts also announced $180 million in immediate utility rate reductions. This cut residential electricity bills by up to 25 percent for two months.

Maryland’s Utility RELIEF (Reducing Energy Load Inflation for Everyday Families) Act provides $200 million from the state’s Strategic Energy Investment Fund to accelerate local clean energy development and storage and provides targeted utility bill relief. An Affordable Solar Act which would add up to 4 GW of new solar capacity by 2035, promote plug-in solar, and improve grid access, is pending in the legislature.

Upon her inauguration, New Jersey Gov. Mikie Sherrill declared a state of emergency on utility costs. An executive order directed the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities to pursue rate relief by pausing new hikes and delivering residential bill credits. Another ordered rapid expansion of solar and battery storage and streamlining of the permitting process. In March, the BPU approved the expansion of the state’s community solar program, adding 3 GW of new capacity, with low-income households guaranteed a discount of at least 25 percent on their bills. According to American Progress, this expansion was the largest of a state-run program in the country’s history, and the program has already delivered more than $70 million in bill credits to households across the state. The governor also signed a measure that increases transmission-scale storage across the state, helping store low-cost clean energy and deploy it during peak demand to reduce price spikes and improve reliability.

In Pennsylvania, the PA EDGE (Pennsylvania Economic Development for a Growing Economy) creates tax credit programs for billions of dollars in energy and advanced manufacturing investment, including clean energy technologies. In June 2026 the Pennsylvania House put a cap on profits from utility company investments in infrastructure and eliminated nearly $1.7 billion in taxes that electricity companies now pass along to consumers as part of their bills.

In Virginia, a clean energy package includes streamlining solar siting, expanding storage connections to the grid, limiting carbon-emitting backup generators at data centers, and expanding virtual power plant programs that let utilities draw on distributed clean energy sources such as rooftop solar and home batteries.

The obstacles fall

One of the main objections to renewable energy has always been that it becomes unavailable when the sun doesn’t shine or the wind doesn’t blow. This objection has been largely overcome by Greentech’s radical reduction in the cost of energy storage. As a result, the most recent wave of state programs has put battery storage front and center.

Illinois’s Clean and Reliable Grid Affordability Act instructs the state to procure three gigawatts of new battery storage by 2030 to help stabilize electricity prices. It also includes a “storage for all” program that provides incentives for income-qualified households and businesses to install battery systems co-located with solar projects. The Illinois Power Agency expects the act to save customers $13.4 billion over two decades.

Pennsylvania is investing $22 million to help battery manufacturer Eos Energy Enterprises expand battery manufacturing operations in the Pittsburgh area. The expansion is expected to create 735 new jobs in Allegheny County. Last year the workers at Eos Energy voted to join the United Steelworkers Union. Eos also announced a plan to develop energy storage projects across Pennsylvania.

Another obstacle facing renewable energy is that the location where it is needed is not necessarily the location where it is produced. So state policies are addressing the extreme inadequacies of the electrical grid. For example, the state of Washington has established the Washington Electric Transmission Authority, a new state entity empowered to plan, site, and finance transmission infrastructure. New Mexico and Colorado have established similar authorities.

New technology doesn’t always mean greater complexity. Witness the emergence of small solar systems that hang on a balcony and plug right into a wall socket. More than a million homes in Germany now have such “balcony power plants,” but they are forbidden in the US. Last year the Utah legislature voted unanimously to let residents use plug-in collectors. 23 other state legislatures are now considering similar bills. According to the New York Times, such legislation would “eliminate one of the technology’s biggest barriers in the United States”: homeowners or renters could install plug-in systems “without approval from their local utility.”

A common complaint against large-scale solar projects is that they use up land that would otherwise be available for agriculture. However, solar projects are now actually supporting agriculture by the new techniques known as agrivoltaics. State policies are now promoting agrivoltaics. Last year, the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities launched a new dual-use pilot project to organize and accelerate agrivoltaics development in the state. The three-year pilot program calls for up to 200 megawatts of solar power, with Rutgers University applying its agrivoltaics research to develop best practices and guidelines. Connecticut, Maryland, and Virginia also have agrivoltaics programs under way.

Renewable energy projects can also contribute to improved land use by utilizing currently degraded spaces like landfills and contaminated industrial sites. An example is New Jersey’s Brownfields Redevelopment Incentive Program, accompanied by a Landfill to Solar online guide for local governments and solar developers, created by the Governor’s Office of Climate Action and the Green Economy. An already completed example is the Toms River project, the largest solar power plant in New Jersey and also the largest solar array on a Superfund site anywhere in the US.

Beyond the blue

Wolf Ridge Wind Farm in Muenster, Texas. Photo credit: Ben (Out with the Old, In with the New), Wikimedia Commons, CC BY-SA 2.0.

The expansion of Greentech in the Trump era has by no means been limited to blue states. Some of the most extensive installations of Greentech are in red states – witness Texas. Utility-scale solar plants produced 45 terawatts from January through September, 2025, up 50% from 2024 and nearly four times what they generated in 2021. Wind power also continued to climb, producing 87 terawatts through September – a 4% increase from 2024 and 36% more than in 2021. Together, wind and solar supplied more than a third of Texas’ electricity in the first 9 months of 2025. Battery use is also growing. Three of the four largest US battery storage projects scheduled to open in 2026 are in Texas. Solar collection and battery storage are now being systematically combined: one dual project is adding 837 megawatts of solar power and 418 megawatts in battery energy storage capacity.

In Nevada, generally regarded as a “purple” state, a third of all energy demand is now met by solar panels. The state has the highest solar electricity generation per capita in the country, as well as the most solar-industry jobs per capita. The goal of producing half of its electricity from renewables by 2030 is enshrined in the state’s constitution. The Las Vegas region has the highest concentration of residential rooftop solar in the continental US. The city’s chief sustainability officer attributes this in part to the city’s easy permitting. “You’re pretty much in and out of our office with a permit in 30 minutes.”

In the absence of federal support, states are reaching out to each other to create regional alliances to implement Greentech. For example, thirteen states have formed the Geothermal Power Accelerator collaboration to rapidly expand geothermal power development. Another example: The California State Legislature passed Assembly Bill 825 to begin the process of establishing a regional electricity partnership across the West. In late June, the state of Washington joined the partnership along with California and Quebec. And, after briefly withdrawing, Virginia rejoined the 11-member northeastern Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.

In some states like Texas, the Greentech boom is occurring without much attempt to reap its potential social benefits. But in many states, as we will see in a subsequent commentary in this series, the Greentech revolution is enabling a broader program for jobs and justice that embodies the principles of the Green New Deal. That in turn is laying the basis for a national Greentech New Deal to come.

Looming over recent climate politics has been the issue of energy affordability. Because Greentech has made the production and use of renewable energy so much less costly than fossil fuel energy, states have accelerated their introduction of it. But the energy cost squeeze on consumers has in some cases also led states to shortsightedly reduce investment in Greentech and unleash fossil fuels.

These dynamics are now being exacerbated by the escalation in fossil fuel prices and the threat of energy insecurity that have accompanied the Iran war. The relative expense and unreliability of fossil fuel energy is likely to accelerate Greentech in the states. States that don’t want to render their economies “stranded assets” should go all out for the Greentech revolution right now.

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The post Greentech Revolution in the States first appeared on Labor Network for Sustainability.

On a quiet stretch of land along Stinking Creek, deep in Knox County, Kentucky, the Lend‑A‑Hand Center began with two women who devoted their lives to serving community members in need. Irma Gall, a teacher and farmer, and Peggy Kemner, a nurse‑midwife, came to Knox County in 1958 to serve the community. 

In those early days, Peggy would walk or ride miles to care for a mother in labor, and Irma would build roads, bridges and tend to the farm’s livestock and produce. They would share food at their house and provide Sunday school, 4H, and Day Camp programs for children in the area. Any need someone had, from home repair to help getting back on their feet after a hardship, they would lend a hand. 

Over time, the Lend‑A‑Hand Center grew into a place the community could depend on in times of need for healthcare, food or simply connection. Today, the clinic and the food pantry continue to be critical lifelines on Stinking Creek.  

Now co-directed by Charles and Diann Carnes, the organization primarily relies on volunteers to maintain the center and its services. Volunteers sort donations and operate a twice a month pantry that serves 300 people. 

Like many small nonprofits, it has had to learn how to stretch every dollar. Keeping the lights on, the refrigerators running, and the pantry stocked takes resources. Their utility bill is their biggest overhead, costing them around $500 per month. At the same time, they desperately needed storage. 

Charles and Kathryn of Lend-A-Hand with Josh Bills of Mountain Association and a team from Appalachia-Science in the Public Interest in June 2026

“We were having to turn away donations – things that people around here can really use, like new doors and windows, you name it,” said Charles. 

With support from the Mountain Association, KY Office of Energy Policy, The Nature Conservancy, the Solar Finance Fund and Invest Appalachia, the Center is taking steps to reduce its energy costs by installing solar panels and batteries on a newly constructed building. Volunteers broke ground on the building in April 2026 and are continuing to work through the summer. The wood comes from the 500 acres the center owns with Charles processing each board at their on-site sawmill. 

“This is a generational investment,” said Kathryn Engle, Lend-A-Hand board member. “With this, our overhead will greatly decrease and we’ll be able to invest even more into the community and into our programs.” 

The batteries will serve as a backup source of power for the food pantry during outages, helping ensure refrigerated food stays safe and services can continue when the community needs them most. 

The Mountain Association’s Energy Team has assisted in system design, siting and connections to partner resources like funding from the Nature Conservancy and the KY Office of Energy Policy.

“This project shows how energy savings can be a powerful tool for strengthening communities,” said Josh Bills, Senior Energy Analyst at the Mountain Association. “The solar and battery system will provide reliable power, greater energy security and lower operating costs, allowing them to focus on serving families through whatever challenges they are facing.” 

As volunteers work through the summer to complete the new building, the investment represents another chapter in a story that began 68 years ago, ensuring that the work of lending a hand continues, one meal, one family and one act of care at a time.

The post Lend-A-Hand Grows Knox County Food Pantry with Solar Savings  appeared first on Mountain Association.