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

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

Something strange just popped up in the Gulf of Mexico: a hurricane. Well, not so much Hurricane Isaias, which storm-watchers expect to make landfall as a Category 2 somewhere between the coast of Mississippi and the Florida Panhandle late Friday, causing widespread destruction. It’s more the timing of it: This is the first Atlantic hurricane of the season, which began all the way back in June. That smashes the previous record in the satellite era for the latest first hurricane of a season, September 11. 

“This is pretty astounding, really, to break a record by just about a month,” said Brian McNoldy, a senior research associate who studies hurricanes at the University of Miami.

So what’s with the extraordinary delay? El Niño, of all things. 

Even though that band of warm water is on the other side of the Americas in the Pacific, it messes with two of the fundamental ingredients for making hurricanes in the Atlantic: wind and humidity. To spawn a tropical cyclone, you need warm water, which provides energy, as well as high humidity and winds moving in a consistent direction. (Hurricanes have been getting more intense lately because climate change is rapidly warming the oceans, creating high-octane fuel.) While the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico have been plenty warm, providing huge pools of fuel, El Niño has been messing with weather patterns, creating dry, sinking air. It also provides wind shear — air moving at different directions and speeds as you gain altitude — which hurricanes really hate. 

Hence the exceptionally quiet Atlantic hurricane season this year.

So why did Isaias finally break through in October? While it is indeed fighting wind shear in the Gulf, atmospheric conditions aren’t as bad for it as they are farther east. “It’s forming in one of the few places that a storm can occur in the Atlantic right now, because of the very strong El Niño that’s taking shape and imposing very strong vertical shear across the deep tropics,” McNoldy said. “The Gulf has a small window of opportunity for a storm to form, and it did.”

The Gulf is also running several degrees warmer than usual, at least at the surface, where Isaias is drawing its energy. Interestingly enough, though, the “ocean heat content,” a measurement of the thermal energy down through the depths, there is nearing a record low. “So that warmth is really only skin deep,” McNoldy said.

This sets up a weird dynamic for Isaias. Hurricanes are such violent storms that they churn up deeper waters: If that liquid is warm like the surface, that means more fuel. But if it’s cooler, that’s anathema to a hurricane. This effect is so pronounced that scientists can use satellites to trace the paths of hurricanes, just by detecting the trails of cold water they leave behind. 

While the Atlantic hurricane season has been exceptionally quiet, in the eastern Pacific has been very busy as seven have formed, five of them being major. (It’s hosted 18 named storms so far, five more than usual.) Hawai’i has suffered particularly badly this summer, with hurricanes Lala and Nolo bringing torrential rain. Right now, Hurricane Rachel is taking aim at Baja Mexico and Southern California, where it could spawn dangerous surf and winds this weekend. 

Meanwhile, the Gulf Coast is bracing for Isaias — a storm that may have arrived very late, but, with ferocious winds and a potential storm surge of up to 7 feet, is no less a threat for life and property.

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Hurricane Isaias is a typical storm — but it’s also ‘astounding’ on Oct 8, 2026.

The Supreme Court once billed the Endangered Species Act as “the most comprehensive legislation for the preservation of endangered species ever enacted by any nation.” Federal protections have been key to saving nearly 300 U.S. species — including the bald eagle, American alligator, and grizzly bear — from permanent extinction. 

Each year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, which is primarily responsible for implementing the law, evaluates species and lists them as “endangered” or “threatened.” When federal activity or private development has the potential to harm a listed species or its habitat, project developers are required to consult with the Service or obtain a permit prior to construction.

For the last several decades, the interpretation of two words in particular — “take” and “harm” — have formed the backbone of the Nixon-era law. Its prohibition of “taking” an animal criminalized any attempts to “harass, harm, pursue, hunt, shoot, wound, kill, trap, capture, or collect” at-risk species. And the provision on “harm” ensured that degrading a listed species’ habitat could be penalized. These definitions have been key to the success of the law. 

But that all changed last month when the Trump administration determined that razing the habitat where endangered or threatened species breed, feed, and shelter would no longer face federal penalties. In a separate internal memo, the administration also reinterpreted the definition of “take,” limiting it to instances of intentional killing of an endangered species. (Nearly two dozen attorneys general have sued over some of these changes.)

“These rule changes, when you zoom out, are an assault on threatened and endangered species unlike we’ve ever seen before,” said Elizabeth Forsyth, a senior attorney in the biodiversity defense program with Earthjustice, a nonprofit environmental law organization. “It’s an effort to eliminate habitat protections, eliminate automatic protections for threatened species, and give industry power.”

Climate change is making matters worse, as species struggle to adapt to warming temperatures and changing ecosystems. Below, Grist reporters look at how 10 species — from lovable sea otters to a misunderstood snake — might fare as the regulatory framework that has kept them afloat is weakened. 

A North Atlantic right whale and calf swim about 19 nautical miles off Little St. Simons Island, Georgia, in 2025. Clearwater Marine Aquarium Research Institute / NOAA permit 26919 North Atlantic right whale

North Atlantic right whales got their name perversely. Because they stick close to shore and to the surface, and float when killed, they were the “right whale” to hunt. So right that humans hunted them nearly to extinction before the practice was banned in the 1930s.

That’s not why right whales are dying today.

“Nobody goes out and says, ‘I’m gonna hit a right whale with my ship,’” said Delcianna Winders, director of the Animal Law and Policy Institute at Vermont Law and Graduate School. But it happens anyway.

Though it’s not always possible to determine the cause of death for a whale, research shows that the leading cause is human activity: Ships strike the whales and fishing gear ensnares them, leading to injury and death. It happens often enough that North Atlantic right whales have been experiencing an unusual mortality event since 2017, in which 43 have died and 133 have been spotted injured or in poor health. About 380 whales remain, only 70 of whom are breeding females.

A dead 1-year-old female North Atlantic right whale calf rests on a beach in Savannah, Georgia. Experts found evidence of blunt force trauma consistent with a vessel strike. Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation / NOAA permit 24359

Well before the latest changes to the Endangered Species Act, the Trump administration had already begun rolling back protections for right whales. In March, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced plans to rescind ocean speed restrictions designed to reduce the risk of vessel strikes. The agency later declined to expand the whales’ designated critical habitat to include their migratory route.

The administration will likely use its new definition of “take” to bolster those actions, Winders said. “Now they can point to this and say, ‘Look, we can’t have speed limits under the law because it only applies to intentional direct activities.’”

Right whales are “particularly vulnerable” to the changes, Winders said, both because of their critically low population figures and because their primary causes of death are incidental takes. 

“Right whales don’t have two years or four years” to wait for a new president or Congress to restore their protections, Winders said. “This is going to impact them immediately.”

— Emily Jones

An eastern massasauga rattlesnake crawls over moss and grass. Nathan Rathbun / USFWS Eastern massasauga rattlesnake

Admirers of the only venomous snake species in Michigan call the creature misunderstood. The eastern massasauga rattlesnake — which grows up to 3 feet long, with a rattle at the end of its sandy, brown-speckled body — is often vilified in rare accounts of snake bites and has been the subject of state advisories to stop harassing the animal.

These snakes are actually “very shy, pretty calm,” said Adam Austin, a wildlife biologist who leads the conservation nonprofit Midwest Friends of Wildlife. They prefer to hide in the wetlands that they call home, and their name is a nod to their swampy abodes; massasauga means “great river mouth” in Anishinaabemowin, the Indigenous language spoken across the Great Lakes.

In recent years, as wetland acreage has shrunk across the Midwest — due to development, drainage, and climate change — the massasauga’s habitats have become fragmented. The resulting isolation makes it difficult for them to breed with other populations, diminishing genetic diversity and leaving them less resistant to new diseases. More than a third of the roughly 260 sites where the snake has been surveyed across the Midwest are at risk of habitat loss, according to the Fish and Wildlife Service.

As a result, federal officials listed the snake as threatened under the Endangered Species Act in 2016. The move has helped conserve millions of acres of wetlands in the region, Austin said, but recent changes to federal protections are likely to spell trouble for the rattlesnake. 

Signs mark the location for oil pipeline construction in Howell, Michigan, part of the documented territory for the eastern massasauga rattlesnake. Jim West / UCG / Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Snake advocates worry that under the Trump administration, razing wetlands the massasauga roam in or accidentally killing them during construction may not be a violation of federal law. While Michigan has its own endangered species laws — eastern massasaugas are considered state-threatened — protections are narrower than the federal Endangered Species Act. The state also has strong legal protections for wetlands, but the loss of a federal backstop could shift more responsibility to the state to fill regulatory gaps, said Tara Zuardo, a senior advocate with the Center for Biological Diversity. 

“Michigan’s law and the federal Endangered Species Act would suddenly be operating under the same words, but radically different legal meanings,” Zuardo said.

— Vivian La

A bull trout swims over an antler in a stream in northwest Montana. Jim Mogen / USFWS Bull trout

Bull trout, native to Montana and recognizable by their large heads and white-tipped fins, are the alpine equivalent of a canary in a coal mine. They rely on cold, clean water, and as warmer temperatures, invasive species, and sediment runoff have degraded their habitat, Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks, the state’s wildlife management agency, has documented significant declines across half of the population. Road construction, particularly for industrial logging, poses one of the greatest threats to bull trout spawning habitat. The fish are particularly sensitive to sediment buildup, which can coat the gravelly bottom of a river and smother their eggs. 

“I could list off 10 streams right now that 15, 20 years ago had bull trout in them, and they don’t anymore,” said Brian Riggers, a retired fisheries biologist with the U.S. Forest Service who spent decades documenting bull trout in streams across western Montana. “That’s a sad thing.”

Bull trout are listed as “threatened” by the Fish and Wildlife Service in recognition that they’re likely to become endangered and at risk of extinction without protection. The listing ensures that anglers are not allowed to catch and release them like other species of trout, and it’s not legal to fish for them in most of their habitat.

Biologists measure a bull trout as part of a species survey. Shannon Downey / USFWS

The Trump administration’s proposed policy changes to weaken the Endangered Species Act, as well as rescind protections for roadless areas in national forests and allow more motorized recreation, are the latest blows to these imperiled fish.

Riggers said that without protections for their remaining habitat, bull trout will continue to face steep declines. The need to preserve their habitat has been a key component of legal challenges against large-scale logging projects in the state. Without the explicit federal protections to prevent harm to a listed species’ habitat, it could become nearly impossible to stop development projects that degrade spawning streams and block the bull trout’s ability to move through rivers. 

— Ellis Juhlin

A Florida panther, captured by the Fish and Wildlife Service. Larry W. Richardson / USFWS Florida panther

Florida panthers once roamed much of the American Southeast. But then settlers arrived and hunted them until just a few dozen remained. Their range dwindled to a small area in southern Florida — a state that, until 1950, paid a $5 bounty to any hunter who turned in a panther scalp. Today, the panthers, among the first species protected by the Endangered Species Act, are recovering, with an estimated 200 thought to live in the state. 

“It’s been a tremendous effort over the years,” said Elizabeth Fleming, a career expert on the species at Defenders of Wildlife, a conservation nonprofit that helps protect panthers. Because most Floridians haven’t lived with panthers for more than a century, recovery depends on helping people coexist with them as they spread, often through educational programs or compensating ranchers who lose livestock to panthers. Without public acceptance, “we can kiss panthers goodbye,” she said. 

But now, nearly 60 years after panthers were first federally protected, the Trump administration’s new interpretation of the law could undermine this progress.

Florida panther kittens as seen in their den. David Shindle / Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission

This is particularly worrisome for Florida panthers, which were listed in the law’s early days and don’t have the additional habitat protections that became mandatory later on. Florida’s population is also booming faster than nearly any other state. That means more housing developments and highways that fragment panther habitat, and more traffic that can kill them. Vehicle collisions are the leading cause of panther deaths, Fleming said. One of the most quickly developing parts of the state directly abuts its only panther refuge. Under the new federal rules, developers may no longer need to contend with how their projects could harm panthers. 

“People don’t understand that these animals need so much more,” Fleming said. “They need a connected system in which to travel and live their lives, and with every single instance of weakened laws, regulations, and protections, it’s just another thing going against them.”

— Sachi Mulkey

Southern sea otters play and groom at Moss Landing, Monterey, California. Lilian Carswell / USFWS California sea otter

Thousands of sea otters spend their lives weaving through the towering emerald ribbons of kelp forest found around California’s central coast. Lucky kayakers might spot one taking a moment to float belly-up, perhaps cracking open a tasty sea urchin with its favorite rock. They also rest this way when they sleep, sometimes holding hands to stay together while trusting their ultra-buoyant and water-resistant fur to keep them above the waves.

These lovable marine mammals were once thought to be extinct in California, after intensive pelt hunting in the 19th and 18th centuries culled their population down from some 16,000 individuals. But a small number of otters survived and repopulated. Today, some 3,000 otters live in the Big Sur region, just south of San Francisco.

That recovery was largely possible through Endangered Species Act protections that the Trump administration has repeatedly weakened. The latest changes, which gut habitat protections, could leave sea otters especially at risk. Much like the Florida panther, they also do not have a “critical habitat designation,” an additional safeguard that only became mandatory after sea otters were already added to the list. 

When it comes to protecting otters, habitat is everything, said Sean Bothwell, the executive director of the California Coastkeeper Alliance. In the past, conservationists rallied to fight against oil spills in otter habitat. Today, they’re turning their attention to fertilizers used for farming, which can cause algae blooms and make the shellfish that otters eat toxic. “We’re so concerned about otters because they live in the tidal zone; they are directly impacted by anything that runs off of the land,” he said. 

A raft of sea otters feeds near Pleasure Point in Santa Cruz, California, in 2023. Nic Coury / AFP via Getty Images

The Trump administration’s changes to habitat protections will make it much harder to hold companies accountable for this kind of pollution, Bothwell said. His organization recently decided to pause a lawsuit against a dam that was threatening a number of endangered species, like fish and toads, because the case partly rested on the legal definition of “harming” an animal that the administration rescinded this summer.

Without these safeguards, he said, lawsuits that focus on habitat protections could lose their teeth. “We are worried there will be some kind of backsliding,” Bothwell said. 

— Sachi Mulkey

The rusty patched bumble bee was listed as an endangered species in 2017, making it the first bumble bee to receive federal protection. Native wildflowers are the best sources of pollen and nectar, like this bergamot flower. Mara Koenig / USFWS Rusty patched bumble bee

Like the nearly 50 other bumble bees native to North America, the rusty patched bumble bee is a fuzzy, mostly yellow-and-black insect that buzzes between plants gathering nectar and pollen. Unlike its cousins, and as its name suggests, the rare bee sports a distinctive amber spot near the middle of its back. 

When Libby Shafer, now an urban ecologist and PhD Candidate in plant biology at Northwestern University, was a biological technician with the United States Geological Survey and tried to track down the bee over the course of a three-month search that spanned Illinois, Indiana, and Wisconsin, she had very little luck. “I personally only saw one,” she said. 

The bee, once common in 28 states including Illinois and the Canadian provinces of Ontario and Quebec, has declined by nearly 90 percent over the past 30 years. Today, it occupies just 0.1 percent of its historic range.

The pollinator was listed as federally endangered in 2017, becoming the first bee species listed under the Endangered Species Act. Experts have pointed to a number of stressors that explain the bees’ dramatic decline, including habitat loss, pesticide use, disease, and climate change. For example, warmer temperatures can set off a mismatch between when bees emerge from hibernation and when native plants bloom and provide food.  

This past summer, conservationists celebrated the Fish and Wildlife Service’s designation of approximately 1.5 million acres of occupied critical habitat for the rusty patched bumble bee, which protects it from projects funded or permitted by federal agencies but not from private landowners — approximately 83 percent of the bees’ critical habitat is privately held.  

“The rusty patched bumble bee is better positioned than many listed species since critical habitat has finally been designated,” said Delcianna Winders, of the Animal Law and Policy Institute at Vermont Law and Graduate School. But she added that the Trump administration’s rescission of the regulatory definition of “harm” to exclude habitat destruction and reinterpretation of “take” pose serious threats to the species. Bumblebees are small, can easily go unnoticed, and spend about half the year in the soil, making them difficult to spot for an expert, let alone a developer building a service road over a prairie. 

“This is bad news for the rusty patched bumble bee,” Schafer said. 

— Juanpablo Ramirez-Franco

A biologist holds an Eastern hellbender, which can grow up to two and a half feet. USFWS Eastern hellbender

Wildlife advocates with the Center for Biological Diversity and other organizations have been trying to get the eastern hellbender listed for more than a decade. In 2024, they came close. After Hurricane Helene felled trees and kicked up sediment, disturbing the sensitive salamander’s habitat, the Fish and Wildlife Service finally proposed the hellbender for protection, with a decision expected at the end of 2025. But the decision never came. In fact, not a single endangered species has been listed since Trump took office. 

The eastern hellbender has enjoyed state protection in places like New York and North Carolina. However, unlike other species that have been federally designated as “endangered” or “threatened,” the hellbender has had no federal protection, even as its population has dwindled dramatically. The salamander is a homebody — once it finds a place it likes to live, it often stays there its entire life. An ancient remnant of the Ice Age, it has lived in the same streams and rivers for just about 160 million years and has been called a living fossil.

According to the Fish and Wildlife Service, its roughly 600 known historical populations have endured narrowing margins over the past few decades. More than 40 percent of those populations have vanished, and another 36 percent are in active decline. The hellbender breathes through its skin, meaning water pollution and sedimentation can cause disease and death. It thrives best in the cold, clear streams of the higher mountains in the Appalachian region, and shade cover is vital.  

Read Next Appalachia’s iconic salamander was slated for federal protection. It’s still in limbo. Katie Myers

The Center for Biological Diversity filed a lawsuit in February, demanding the Fish and Wildlife Service complete its decisionmaking process. Since then, though, there’s been no movement, with the next regulatory step listed as “to be determined,” along with hundreds of other endangered species whose protections have been similarly delayed.

According to Michael Gangloff, who studies freshwater life at Appalachian State University, human development is the biggest threat to hellbenders. But, he said, they’re also fighters. 

“These things are tough, and the fact that they’re still here attests to their toughness,” he said. “They’re an ancient, ancient group of salamanders.”

— Katie Myers

A red-cockaded woodpecker feasts on a bug. USFWS Red-cockaded woodpecker

The southeastern United States used to be a red-cockaded woodpecker’s paradise, with longleaf pine forest stretching across much of the region. Unlike many other woodpeckers that hollow out dead trees to nest, these black-and-white-spotted birds live exclusively in the trunks of living pine trees. They spend months or years hollowing out a suitable cavity, and they prefer to do it in mature trees. 

But finding suitable trees has become much harder than it was a century ago. Much of the South’s longleaf pine forest was clear-cut for timber and replaced by faster-growing species of pine. Management practices vary, but commercial timber operations often cut and replant pines before the trees are mature enough for a red-cockaded woodpecker’s liking, according to Joe Burnham, a wildlife biologist with the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. 

“They have pretty specific habitat requirements,” Burnham said. “There are a whole suite of species, both plant and animal, that evolved with this ecosystem over time that really have a hard time surviving elsewhere.”

Development is booming in Georgia, with much of the state’s forested land at risk of conversion to housing or more profitable forms of agriculture. The Trump administration’s policy changes, particularly its new definition of “harm,” could put red-cockaded woodpeckers at greater risk by removing protections for their habitat. As a result, more forests could become vulnerable to conversion, further shrinking the mature pine forests they rely on. 

Still, red-cockaded woodpeckers have made substantial strides since their 1973 Endangered Species Act listing, thanks in large part to efforts to restore longleaf pine habitat and transplant birds to suitable forests so they can reestablish themselves. In 2024, the federal Fish and Wildlife Service downlisted them from endangered to threatened. Despite the change, state- and region-level restoration efforts continue, Burnham said, because the woodpeckers need them — as do the long list of other endangered and threatened species that rely on the same habitat, including gopher tortoises and indigo snakes.

“We’re managing these stands for a multitude of species,” he said. “We’ve invested a lot of conservation effort into these species.”

— Emily Jones

The palila, seen here at the Maui Bird Recovery Project, is endangered and endemic to Hawaiʻi, found only in the wild on the slopes of the Mauna Kea volcano. Eric J. Franke / The Washington Post via Getty Images Palila

Hawaiʻi is losing its lush and unique biodiversity at a rate seen hardly anywhere else, earning it the depressing distinction of being known as the “extinction capital of the world.” It may be no surprise, then, that the palila — a small, yellow-capped parrot native to the Big Island — is a poster child of the Endangered Species Act. 

The palila was on the very first list of animals that the federal law protected. But conservationists soon discovered that protecting the bird itself was not enough; goats and sheep released on the island were denuding the high-elevation māmane forest that the parrot lives in. When they took the issue to court in 1979, federal courts agreed that allowing the palila’s habitat to be damaged was a violation of the Endangered Species Act and ordered the state to protect the forest from sheep and goats. The decision set a historic precedent and led to habitat protections for listed animals from industries — like mining, logging, and farming — across the United States. (The Supreme Court later cemented these protections.)

A biologist with the Fish and Wildlife Service conducts a palila survey on Mauna Kea, Hawaiʻi. Emily Long / Mauna Kea Forest Restoration Project / USFWS

But the Trump administration is now upending the legal precedent that the palila once set. The court decisions meant that the Hawaiʻi government had an obligation to continually remove the feral sheep and goats that still roam in palila habitat. When a company or the state wants to build through these areas, it is often required to help offset that lost habitat by reforesting old ranch land with māmane trees. Under the Trump administration’s interpretations, however, damaging an animal’s habitat no longer counts as harming it. And killing an animal no longer counts as violating the law unless it was done on purpose. 

That means, in the administration’s view, it may now be legal to build a road through māmane forest without considering how it affects palilas. And the state may no longer be required to continue eradicating the remaining feral sheep and goats, which would hasten the bird’s demise. 

Only 600 palila still remain on the island. For a bird on the brink, the latest policy changes may accelerate its decline.

— Sachi Mulkey

A Chinook salmon migrates up Alaska’s Ship Creek in the company of pink, chum and silver salmon. Katrina Mueller / USFWS Chinook salmon

Every year, across Washington’s rivers and tributaries, hundreds of thousands of Chinook salmon sacrifice their lives for the next generation. They swim upstream for weeks, battling currents, starvation, and a flood of hormones that wreck their organs. Then they spawn — often in the river where they were born — and die. 

The completion of this journey is critical for tribal communities, commercial fisheries, and the wildlife of the Pacific Northwest that depend on salmon. But in the last century, salmon populations have plummeted. Humans have built dams and developed the land, degrading river ecosystems and blocking salmon from migrating. And recently, Washington has become the epicenter of another threat: 6PPD, a chemical used in vehicle tires that washes off roads into waterways and harms several fish species, including Chinook salmon.

The Endangered Species Act protects several area-specific populations of salmon found in Washington’s rivers, like Chinook, coho, sockeye, and chum. Environmental advocates have had success leveraging the law to protect these habitats. Dozens of dams in Washington and other Pacific Northwest states have recently been removed, and salmon populations seem to be bouncing back quickly as a result.  

But this recovery is still nascent and, as the Trump administration upends federal protections, it may be cut short. The government recently rescinded the law’s “harm” rule, which previously said modifying a habitat could be considered harming a species. Now, it only prohibits activities that kill salmon on purpose.

Read Next Salmon are vanishing from the Yukon River — and so is a way of life Max Graham

The change could devastate efforts to protect salmon, said Sean Bothwell, the executive director of the California Coastkeeper Alliance. His organization recently began tackling 6PPD contamination in Northern California, but has had to pause these efforts because their legal strategy relied on the rescinded “harm” rule. The change may also mean dam operators can no longer be pressured to maintain adequate flows for salmon, a particular concern as climate change makes downstream areas too warm for spawning. 

“People aren’t going out there and stabbing salmon, but they are putting a chemical into the habitat that is directly killing them” or modifying their habitat by blocking the flow of rivers, Bothwell said. “That’s why this rule was so important.” 

— Sachi Mulkey

Editor’s note: Earthjustice is an advertiser with Grist. Advertisers have no role in Grist’s editorial decisions.

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Trump is gutting the Endangered Species Act. These 10 species show what’s at stake. on Oct 8, 2026.

Like many big cities, New York teems with delivery workers who bring takeout, groceries, and any number of other things to anyone with a cellphone. They work at all hours and in all conditions, often without job security, health insurance, or even access to safe restrooms. They are often hit by cars, assaulted, or robbed. Many of them are Indigenous people from Guatemala and Mexico who left home to escape violence and the impacts of climate change.

The worst impacts of that global crisis add to the risks those workers face.

“When the city is hit with with massive snowstorms, floodings, or the recent smoke fires, many deliveristas are the ones who are on the front lines doing this work and responding to the climate crisis in order to take care of New Yorkers,” said Ligia Guallpa, who is Kichwa and the co-founder and executive director of the Worker’s Justice Project and Los Deliveristas Unidos. The organization organizes app-based delivery workers and advocates on their behalf. “But the reality is that often they cannot even take care of themselves.”

A report released Monday says that exploitation is deeply embedded in the global food system, leaving many of the 1.4 billion people who produce, process, distribute, and deliver food poorly paid, inadequately protected, and vulnerable to abuse. Climate change and a global affordability crisis are intensifying those pressures, according to the International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems, or IPES-Food, an international food policy research organization.

Although the document does not specifically focus on Indigenous peoples, it finds that many of the forces driving that exploitation have roots in the colonialism, land dispossession, forced labor, and racialized labor systems that have long harmed Indigenous communities worldwide. 

“Here we are in the United States, a country that’s founded on stealing land and the import of enslaved people to be able to make agriculture and agricultural labor possible and cheap,” said Raj Patel, an IPES-Food expert and a professor at the University of Texas at Austin. “And the legacy of that is still with us.”

The report notes that Indigenous peoples remain particularly vulnerable to displacement, and pressures from industrial agriculture and climate change that can undermine traditional livelihoods. For people who have been forced off their land and are disconnected from those livelihoods, exploitative, low-paying work is often the only option. 

“If you put yourself in a situation of a woman who needs to feed her children, they can go to any extreme,” said Teresa Chemosop, who is Ogiek from Mount Elgon, Kenya, and the coordinator for the East Africa Indigenous Women-Led Assembly, which advocates for Indigenous women across the region. 

Read Next The people who feed America are going hungry Ayurella Horn-Muller

Chemosop said that Indigenous workers face severe discrimination and abuse, such as being compared to baboons and not being given utensils to eat with while working. That’s on top of low wages and long, difficult hours. 

Indigenous and intergenerational agricultural knowledge is routinely minimized or dismissed as “unskilled,” the report notes, obscuring valuable expertise and helping to justify lower wages. That knowledge, which often goes back millenia, includes skills like cultivating plant medicines and drought-resistant crops. The authors call for formally recognizing that expertise alongside broader efforts to strengthen worker rights and protections.

The people who keep the global food system running do far more than grow and harvest food. They distribute it to markets and restaurants, deliver it to homes and offices, and provide care work like cooking and feeding families, often in seasonal or subcontracted jobs. Between 60 and 80 percent of food workers are informally employed — a higher share than in any other industry — and they earn about half as much as those with conventional employment. About 30 percent of food system workers, or more than 400 million people, earn less than a living wage.

An estimated 2.1 million people in agriculture work under forced-labor conditions, the report estimates. Migrants, who account for about a quarter of all farmworkers worldwide, are three times as likely to experience such conditions and are more likely than their peers to die on the job.

Despite their importance in feeding the world, these workers do not receive the respect or protection other essential workers enjoy. Guallpa pointed to the pandemic, when nurses and doctors were widely praised even as food service workers remained largely anonymous. “Immigrant workers, who do some of the most dangerous, dirtiest jobs, often go unseen and often are invisibilized,” she said.

The report argues that valuing food work in all its forms, from the field to the table, is just one part of building a more just system. It also calls for building worker power, establishing and sustaining workplace protections, ensuring equal rights for migrant workers, and reining in corporate power. And it makes clear that there is a false choice between affordability and worker rights, arguing that better working conditions do not have to mean higher food prices.

“We can manage all of this, and we will have to manage all of this because climate change isn’t getting better,” Patel said. “But we have choices about protecting workers, and we’re choosing not to do any of those things.”

In New York, Los Deliveristas Unidos’ organizing provides a glimpse of what workers can accomplish. It has established mutual aid chat groups and helped win minimum wages and other protections. “It is possible to give gig workers or independent contractors the ability to earn better pay, to ensure that workers have better working conditions. It is possible to regulate multi-billion-dollar corporations,” Guallpa said. “There’s a lot more to do, but I think it can be applied in every city.”

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline From the farm to your door: How our global food system exploits workers on Oct 8, 2026.

With the help of RAFI’s Beginning Farmer Stipend, Aronson will purchase a small 4x6 enclosed trailer to hitch it to the farm’s SUV in order to transport more product to markets, which will make farmers market participation much more financially viable.

The post Ida Aronson appeared first on RAFI.

Cameron and his wife Terris now operate Brownstone Family Farms in Scranton, South Carolina, growing produce for their local farmers market.

The post Jason Cameron appeared first on RAFI.

Class’s Beginning Farmer Stipend will be used to rehabilitate and convert a stall in the property’s 60-year-old pole barn into a drying area for seed saving.

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With the help of RAFI’s Beginning Farmer Stipend, Hunt will invest in improving housing for the homestead’s animals to support healthier living conditions and increase productivity.

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With the help of the Beginning Farmer Stipend, Johnson is building a new cold storage room to help store more produce and keep it fresher for longer.

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Lawrence is harnessing this Beginning Farmer Stipend to improve infrastructure and prepare for late summer and fall planting.

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The couple is excited to expand their production to include reishi and lion’s mane mushrooms for culinary, health, and wellness purposes.

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Snow is harnessing RAFI’s Beginning Farmer Stipend to install a drip irrigation system, purchase planting and harvesting tools, and expand the farmstand stall and parking lot.

The post Cody Snow appeared first on RAFI.

Stachowicz will use the Beginning Farmer Stipend to purchase tools that will help increase efficiency of the market garden operation.

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Wallace began farming to provide fresh, organic food in order to help address health challenges in his community.

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An investigation by ABC News has shed new light on the problem of abandoned mines in the Western U.S. and across the country. The investigation compiled records from the Office of Surface Mine Reclamation and Enforcement (OSMRE), part of the Department of the Interior, to create an interactive map of more than 230,000 documented abandoned mine sites.

Many of the documented abandoned mines are in coal-producing regions in the eastern U.S. The investigation points out that since the 1970s, coal mining companies have been required to develop and execute remediation plans to restore the land after coal mining operations have ended, and OSMRE’s Abandoned Mine Land Reclamation Program, established in 1977, addresses legacy coal mines using fees on current coal production. However, there is not a similar funding source for reclaiming hardrock mines, which are much more common in the West. The ABC News map shows just how many documented abandoned mines are concentrated across Western states.

OSMRE officials also acknowledge that there may be many more abandoned mine sites that are not documented or identified. “Mining back in 1865 or 1880 or 1890, there are no records of that. No one kept records,” Lanny Erdos, an OSMRE official, told ABC News. “There potentially can be mines out there that we would have no idea that they are there until they express themselves in some adverse way.”

Quick hits As Pitkin County looks toward management of the Maroon Bells, what does it mean for the iconic place?

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Quote of the day

What’s it going to be? ‘The Maroon Bells brought to you by Budweiser’?”

—Victor Valinskas, visitor to the Maroon Bells Scenic Area, CPR News

Picture This @greatbasinnp

On a cool September evening, sundown reveals the Great Basin one layer at a time: rock and rabbitbrush, sagebrush and pinyon-juniper, the broad basin below, and distant mountain ranges rising beyond it.

These isolated ranges are sometimes described as “sky islands”—higher, cooler habitats surrounded by lower, drier country. Each change in elevation brings changes in temperature, moisture, plants, and wildlife.

But this landscape offers something that cannot be measured by elevation alone.

Quiet. Distance. Room to breathe.

Great Basin National Park preserves not only mountains, caves, ancient trees, and dark night skies, but also opportunities to experience solitude. Sometimes the landscape’s quietest moments tell its story best.

What do you notice first when you look across the Great Basin?

Photo Credit: NPS/G. Zierdt

 

Featured image: An abandoned mine in Colorado’s San Juan Mountains, D&RG Railfan via Wikimedia Commons/CC BY 3.0

The post Abandoned mines ‘a constant problem’ across the West appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.

This article is part of Food Tank’s primer series, “Food Tank Explains.” Each installment unpacks the ideas, innovations, and challenges shaping today’s food and agriculture systems, offering clear insights into complex topics. To explore more articles in the series, click here.

Food labels provide information about food products and their contents. Most identify the product and list its ingredients and net quantity. Labeling requirements generally apply to packaged and prepared foods, although the information required—and how manufacturers must present it—varies across countries and food categories.

Food labeling has expanded beyond identifying a package’s contents. Today, labels communicate information about nutrition, allergens, food safety, preparation and storage, production practices, and other product characteristics.

The U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) identifies nutritional information as a central feature of food labels. Nutrition labels typically provide a product’s energy content and levels of nutrients including carbohydrates, protein, fat, sugars, sodium, vitamins, and minerals, typically reported per serving or specified quantity.

Labels also communicate food safety information. Allergen disclosures identify ingredients that may trigger reactions, while storage, preparation, and handling instructions help consumers use foods safely. Date markings such as ‘sell by’ and ‘best before’ can provide information about a product’s safety or quality over time. But date labeling can also be confusing to consumers, leading to safe food going to waste.

According to the European Commission and the FDA, food labels are intended to help consumers make informed choices by explaining what a product contains and allowing them to assess dietary needs and compare products.

They aim to provide clear comprehensible information to enable efficient decision-making at the point of sale, describes the World Health Organization (WHO). Data from the Ehrenberg-Bass Institute shows that the majority of in-store shoppers spend an average of 13 seconds evaluating a brand before purchasing, with most decisions taking less than 10 seconds.

Food-labeling requirements vary globally. Research published in Frontiers in Public Health has identified mandatory nutrient-declaration policies for processed foods in at least 95 countries, with differing requirements for front-of-package labels and health and nutrition claims.

The FAO and WHO develop international standards through the Codex Alimentarius Commission, including baseline principles for labeling prepackaged foods that can inform national regulations.

In the United States, the FDA and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) share primary responsibility for food labeling. Federal regulation dates to the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906, which targeted adulterated and misbranded foods. The Federal Food, Drug, and Cosmetic Act of 1938 expanded labeling requirements, while the Nutrition Labeling and Education Act of 1990 established mandatory nutrition labeling for most FDA-regulated foods.

The European Union takes a more centralized approach, establishing common labeling requirements across its member states. The United Kingdom’s voluntary ‘traffic light’ system uses green, amber, and red to identify nutrient levels, while Chile requires black, octagonal ‘high in’ warnings on products exceeding thresholds for calories, sugar, sodium, or saturated fat.

As food labels communicate more information, they can also become more difficult to interpret. Consumers must navigate nutrition and ingredient information alongside claims, certifications, warnings, and other disclosures, making relevant information harder to identify and understand.

Government labeling resources often target producers and use technical language that consumers may struggle to interpret, Laurie Beyranevand, Director of Vermont Law School’s Center for Agriculture and Food Systems and Professor of Law, tells Food Tank.

And because the pages contain technical jargon, consumers may not always understand what they read.

A study published in the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior finds that 89 percent of respondents believed they understood date labels, but just 24 percent correctly identified their meaning.

“I think there are real trust issues with our food supply. Having access to information and having clarification of what those things mean is really important,” Dr. Roni Neff, Professor at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health Center for a Livable Future, tells Food Tank.

Confusion around date labels can also contribute to food waste. A European Commission study estimated that confusion and other practices surrounding date marking contribute to approximately 10 percent of food waste in the EU. Consumers may discard food that remains safe to eat after misinterpreting ‘best by,’ ‘sell by,’ or ‘use by’ dates.”

Public health organizations increasingly identify food labels as a potential policy tool. The World Health Organization (WHO) identifies nutrition labeling as one approach to helping consumers make healthier food choices, while UNICEF reports growing evidence that nutrition labels can improve consumers’ understanding of nutritional quality.

But labels can only serve that purpose if consumers can understand and use the information they provide. WHO recommends that front-of-package labels present nutrition information in a convenient and readily understood format, while the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) emphasizes the need for clear, reliable labeling as global food supply chains increase the distance between consumers and producers. For policymakers, Beyranevand says, that means prioritizing accessibility and comprehensibility when developing labeling requirements.

Articles like the one you just read are made possible through the generosity of Food Tank members. Can we please count on you to be part of our growing movement? Become a member today by clicking here.

Photo courtesy of Wikimedia

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Headline News:

• “Invasive Plant Spreads Across Portugal And Lengthens Allergy Season” • Pampas grass, Cortaderia selloana, has large feathery plumes that make it a familiar in decorative arrangements in gardens. But what many regard as a showy plant is, in Portugal, an invasive alien species that can spread rapidly with potential consequences for health. [Euronews]

Pampas grass (Arnim Littek, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped)

• “Physicist Raises Alarm Over Proposed Massive Nuclear Power Project” • A proposal for a huge industrial project in Utah would be powered by over 450 nuclear reactors. Dr Robert Davies, a professor of physics at Utah State University, worries that current regulations do not consider the massive thermal footprints that facilities like this can leave behind. [KSL News]
• “Von Der Leyen Turns To Europe’s Refineries As Shrinking Capacity Raises Energy Security Concerns” • President Ursula von der Leyen of the European Commission announced a new “strategic dialogue” on European refineries, drawing attention to a growing vulnerability for the EU: Its refining capacity has been declining since 2009. [Euronews]
• “GWEC Alliance Unveils Floating Wind Action Plan” • The Global Wind Energy Council and more than fifty companies and organizations have set out an industry action plan aimed at commercializing floating wind. The plan focuses on reducing costs and demonstrating value, scaling the supply chain and expanding access to finance and insurance. [reNews]
• “Heart’s Electric Airliner Still Needs Fuel” • For 27 minutes, batteries flew a machine roughly the size of the regional aircraft Heart Aerospace eventually wants airlines to operate. There was no engine aboard aside from the electric motors, but by adding a turbogenerator, the airplane can fly as a hybrid aircraft. Further development will doubtless come. [CleanTechnica]

For more news, please visit geoharvey – Daily News about Energy and Climate Change.

Cindy O’Neil understands the boom-and-bust cycles of industry. Her husband spent years working in Carbon County’s namesake coal mines. In this pocket of central Utah, energy and the economy have long been intrinsically linked, at great sacrifice to county residents.

“We’ve had the coal. We’ve dealt, the whole community, with black lung,” O’Neil said. “The explosions, the fires, and all the things that came along with it.”

But a new industry and type of energy production is about to move near her rural home. And she says it has her and her neighbors even more worried than they were about the dangers that came from their long history with coal. 

“It’s all descending, these data centers,” said O’Neil, who tracks mysterious new projects in the works and shares updates on Facebook community pages. “They’re setting these things within a couple of miles of homes.”

Her latest updates involve a lot of chatter about Valar Atomics, a nuclear startup. The company plans to build a mega-complex of 456 small modular reactors — a still largely untested and unproven technology in the United States — on the vast tracts of Bureau of Land Management land in the county. The project will store radioactive waste, according to a report from National Public Radio, and power an array of industrial activities, including data centers. “Project Beehive” has support from the state of Utah, and will include a square mile of state-owned trust lands.

Another data center complex planned for the county, Altigen Energy’s “Jurassic Spark,” will cover hundreds of acres and include a massive natural gas plant. 

It’s an abrupt shift. Carbon County’s coal mines produced nearly 10 million tons of coal in 2006. But a shift to cheaper energy sources, like renewables and natural gas, along with depleted supplies in the coal seams, sank the region’s main economic engine in just a few decades. Since 2023, not a single pound of coal has been mined in Carbon County.

“They say everything’s left us, and if we don’t grab these table scraps we’re not going to get anything,” said O’Neil. “I don’t think our county has to take the table scraps.”

Empty coal cars sit idle along U.S. Highway 6 near Wellington in Carbon County, Utah, in 2022.
Francisco Kjolseth / The Salt Lake Tribune

None of Carbon County’s new data center plans call for coal. The Utah Trust Lands Administration recently agreed to lease a square mile of its state-owned land for up to 100 years to Valar Atomics. The nuclear startup intends to use that lease to run some of its small modular reactors, process its uranium TRISO-fuel to feed the reactors, build water desalination, manufacture steel, refine critical minerals — and support data centers.

The Valar site is expected to generate $35 million in lease rents over 50 years, according to information the Trust Lands Administration staff presented to its board last month. Revenue collected from the project benefits Utah schools. (The state agency declined to comment on the Valar project.)

During that September board meeting, three Carbon County residents who are employed or expected to be employed by Valar spoke in favor of the project. All three of the Carbon County commissioners also voiced their support.

“[We] realize that this topic is a hot button now, along with data centers,” said Larry Jensen, one of the commissioners. “It’s important that you understand that the Carbon County commissioners are committed to allowing these things to move forward. Even with the pushback — we realize that there are a few in our community who will push back — but the silent majority are the ones that we really represent.”

Cheryl Lupo, a longtime resident of the county, balked at that assertion. She is running for a seat on the county commission this year. As an unaffiliated candidate, she had to collect 300 signatures to land on the ballot. She said the opinions she heard during that process were overwhelmingly opposed to data centers and nuclear plants.

“People are up in arms,” Lupo said. “Torches and pitchforks. Because they’re not being heard.”

Governor Spencer Cox, U.S. Senator John Curtis, and other high-ranking Utah officials welcomed Valar to the state earlier this year, allowing it to test its “Ward250” microreactor at the San Rafael Energy Lab in neighboring Emery County. Valar announced it had achieved “self-sustaining criticality” in June — a process where atoms split and maintain a steady fission chain reaction without being fed more neutrons. The company has plans to power a 30-megawatt nuclear-powered AI data center in Emery County, too, in partnership with the computer-chip giant Nvidia.

Small modular reactors have yet to be deployed for commercial use in the United States. During last week’s Trust Lands Administration meeting, Mike Nelson, the board’s chair, seemed to acknowledge that the deal with Valar came with some unknowns. “We weren’t always sure what to ask about,” Nelson said, while offering praise for the nuclear startup, “and probably still aren’t sure of everything to ask about because this is a first, right?”

Utah has a troubled history with nuclear testing. Lupo’s mother was 38 years old when she died, and Lupo believes the cause was downwind effects from radioactive weapons testing in nearby Nevada during the 1950s. Her mother lived in Carbon County at the time. She believes the fallout caused her grandfather’s death, too.

“I will never, ever be a proponent of nuclear,” Lupo said.

Empty coal cars sit idle along U.S. Highway 6 near Wellington in Carbon County, Utah, in 2022.
Francisco Kjolseth / The Salt Lake Tribune

Even before the proposal to build Valar’s complex started causing a stir, rumors swirled about the possibility of another data center campus in Carbon County.

Altigen, a company that builds natural gas power plants for data centers, has selected an area east of Wellington for its 1,200-acre “Jurassic Spark” project — nearly double the size of the Valar campus, according to meeting minutes from the local Community Economic Development Board. Plans call for building a 250-megawatt gas plant to power the complex initially, but it could eventually produce 3 gigawatts of electricity, according to Jensen. For the sake of comparison, the entire state of Utah uses about 4 gigawatts. (Altigen did not respond to a request for comment.)

Data center developers are increasingly turning to natural gas to power their projects since utilities have struggled to supply the intense electricity demands of AI servers.

Last year, the Utah Legislature passed SB 132, allowing private companies with energy demands of 100 megawatts or more to build their own self-contained generating stations. The idea was to support business development, including data centers, without putting a strain on the grid used by nearly everyone else. The result was a surge of builders issuing plans and applying for permits to build gas-fired power plants.

Natural gas, however, is a potent greenhouse pollutant mostly composed of methane. It helps fuel climate change and pollutes the air in surrounding communities. And natural gas plants can produce immense amounts of heat.

But nuclear plants can produce even more heat than natural gas plants because they are less efficient, according to Robert Davies, a professor of physics at Utah State University. “If you’re in a contained valley, it concentrates the problem,” he said.

As it happens, the Wellington area sits in a valley, hemmed in by the Wasatch Range to the west and the Book Cliffs to the north and east.

“The heat island that the data centers produce, that concerns me,” said Aspen Westenskow, who has lived in Carbon and Emery counties all her life. “They go clear all this land, the brush, the trees. What helps cool the planet down? Not flat dirt.”

Westenskow said water remains her biggest source of distress. The region is water-strapped, with every drop spoken for.

Valar says its reactors use closed-loop helium cooling which requires little water, and data developers have asserted they will also use closed-loop cooling systems with low water demands.

On July 3, Carbon County issued a statement responding to their residents’ concerns. The region faces a difficult economic reality due to the decline of the coal industry, the statement said. That has shifted more of the county’s property tax burden to homeowners and remaining businesses. Data centers have earned the commissioners’ support because of their potential to infuse tax rolls with much-needed revenue.

The statement also addressed concerns over the non-disclosure agreements that some residents have questioned. “Without these agreements,” the statement reads, “some companies would choose not to explore projects in Carbon County.”

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It’s not clear whether the county had nondisclosure agreements with Altigen or Valar. But they’re common for companies looking to do business in Carbon County. Oran Stainbrook, one resident, said he was aware of several when he served on the county planning commission and economic development board. He resigned from those positions a few months ago to take a job in Colorado, he said.

Although he wasn’t aware of any agreements involving the data center projects, Stainbrook said he believed the commissioners were looking out for the county’s best interests, trying to lure jobs and investment.

O’Neil, from her home on U.S. Highway 6, sees things differently.

“You shouldn’t be hiding what you and the company are going to bring to a community,” O’Neil said, “and not tell the community until it’s too late and a done deal.”

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This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Powering data centers on nuclear? That’s a tough sell in Utah’s coal country. on Oct 7, 2026.

There are many markers of fall: vibrant foliage, apple picking, and pumpkin-spiced everything, to name a few. Cranking up the heat is another. With record-setting energy prices, everyone is bracing for higher bills. For the more than 4 million households that rely on heating oil, this winter could be particularly devastating.

The war with Iran has pushed the cost of heating oil, which is essentially diesel, higher than it ever has been. It is hovering around $6 a gallon across much of the Northeast, where about 82 percent of homes that burn the fuel are located. That’s compared to the mid-$3 range in February. The National Energy Assistance Directors Association, or NEADA, projects that the cost of warming a home with that fossil fuel will go up 50 percent across those states. That amounts to $878 per household, or some $3.8 billion overall. 

“The volatility of this product right before winter is scary,” said Mark Wolfe, executive director of the organization, which had projected a lower increase just weeks earlier. “This is part of the cost of the war.” 

The stalemate in the Mideast has curtailed ship traffic in the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly a tenth of the world’s water-borne diesel once flowed. Ukrainian strikes on Russian oil refineries, another major source of diesel, have further curbed the global supply. That has sent prices up, with colder states expected to see heating oil hikes well above the NEADA average. Vermont and Maine, for example, face the prospect of a 76-percent jump. 

These increases threaten to overwhelm the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, a federal safety net for those who cannot afford to heat or cool their homes. With existing aid buying far less fuel than it did before the war, Republicans and Democrats alike are pressing the Trump administration to release assistance quickly while Congress weighs whether to put billions more into the program. The situation is so dire that the governor of Massachusetts declared a state of emergency on Monday.

For people with oil furnaces, there are few easy alternatives. They could turn to space heaters because electricity rates haven’t climbed as fast as heating oil, but the devices are inefficient and could lead to higher bills. Burning wood is another option for those with a fireplace or stove. Although natural gas prices have remained relatively low, installing a new furnace is costly and it could take years for any savings in energy costs to recoup the investment.

Another route is to invest in weatherizing a home by adding insulation or sealing windows, for example, which can help lower bills, and many states have funding available to help with energy-saving projects. 

The EI Niño weather pattern could bring a relatively warm winter to the Northeast, which would help ease the burden of higher prices. Still, as winter approaches, people who rely on it are concerned.

“I just had my boiler cleaned/serviced for the coming season and honestly I’m terrified of the oil bill,” one person noted on Reddit. Others are weighing whether to pre-buy fuel to lock in current prices, though some are finding that dealers aren’t offering that option given the uncertainty. An especially dejected person simply said, “I have no plan and I’m all out of ideas.”

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Wolfe is especially worried about the more than 1 million low-income households that rely upon heating oil. Those families may end up having to choose between filling the tank and buying necessities like food and medication. “This could be a public health crisis,” he said. “The problem is that the administration has said nothing.” 

President Donald Trump has repeatedly targeted the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, or LIHEAP, for elimination. It has survived so far, though the administration did temporarily hold back payments last spring. Some lawmakers worry fall funds could move slowly, too. 

“A quick release of funding will ensure no gaps in assistance,” a bipartisan group of 31 senators wrote in a letter last month to Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. The program currently has roughly $4 billion, and the agency has until November 1 to release at least 90 percent of that money to states, with the rest coming in the spring. But the legislators want the payments to reach people as soon as possible. “Given the extraordinary pressure consumers will face this winter,” they wrote, “we ask that you make this distribution well before the deadline.”

The White House referred a request for comment to the Department of Health and Human Services, which told Grist that it will meet the deadline. “HHS has staff and capacity to distribute these funds in a timely manner,” the agency wrote in an email. 

Even if that money arrives quickly, it won’t go as far with fuel prices this high. Increasing the program’s funding would require congressional approval — a step legislators have taken in the past, including during President Trump’s first term. A House bill introduced last week would add $1 billion to the LIHEAP budget, though any action on the legislation won’t happen before midterms. Without more of a buffer, families may not have enough heating oil to last the winter.

“People’s benefit would have less purchasing power,” Miranda Gray, the deputy commissioner at the Vermont Department for Children and Families, told Grist. Her agency distributes the state’s LIHEAP distribution. If assistance were to run out, she said people might have to turn to other options, like community nonprofits. 

On Monday, Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey declared a state of emergency to prepare for a rough winter ahead. Her executive order boosts assistance to 156,000 low-income households and expands access to 50,000 middle-class families. It also activates legal protections against price gouging, the state said in its press release. Healey also called on Congress to pass an additional $3 billion in funding for LIHEAP. For now, both officials and consumers are hoping for the best. 

“I try to have an optimistic attitude that things could change,” Gray told state legislators at a hearing last month. One Reddit user put it more bluntly: “I feel like I’m playing chicken with fuel prices and the impending cold weather.”

This story was originally published by Grist with the headline The Northeast’s reliance on heating oil is turning into a crisis on Oct 7, 2026.