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Prime nurses in three states give notice they plan to hold one-day strikes for fair contracts that support patient safety
Commonwealth Fusion Systems aims to complete demonstration reactor with $1B funding round
CEO Bob Mumgaard said the reactor, SPARC, is now “about 80% complete.” Experts remain divided over how soon they believe fusion technology could be commercialized.
North Carolina Falls Behind as World Advances in Solar, Renewables — NC WARN News Release
Duke Energy is leading NC in the wrong direction of dirty, expensive power
Durham, N.C. – While the rest of the world makes promising advancements in solar, wind, and battery storage technologies, North Carolina remains a climate laggard instead of a climate leader. Duke Energy’s massive planned expansion of fracked gas-fired and nuclear power plants and its suppression of renewables has caused our state to fall behind in the global clean energy transition.
Technological advancements are happening daily – Chinese scientists just set a world record by developing a new solar cell exceeding 28% efficiency. Solar abundance is now allowing many households in Australia to get three free hours of solar power every afternoon. A dozen nations now generate more electricity with renewable sources than they consume, and they export the excess.
Worldwide, 80% of new energy capacity comes from renewable sources. According to Stanford University Professor Mark Jacobson, this progress reflects a global transition away from dirty and dangerous fossil fuels, enabled by advances in battery technology and rapidly falling costs.
Even in the US, where federal policy aims to hamstring the renewable energy industry, solar and batteries remain the cheapest form of electricity. Utah produced more power from solar than any other source in May for the very first time. South Dakota and Montana now generate more renewable energy than they consume. California, the fourth largest economy in the world, now produces more than 100 percent of its electricity demand from renewable energy most days.
Much of the world is realizing that fossil fuels and risky, expensive nuclear plants are becoming obsolete in the face of faster, cheaper, safer, more reliable renewable power. But Duke Energy seems set on dragging our state backward, against the flow of progress.
“In my international work, I’m inspired by the ever-increasing expansion of solar, wind and other renewable energy across the world,” said Dale Evarts, former head of the Climate and International Group at the US Environmental Protection Agency. “Countries are reducing their reliance on expensive fossil fuels and their vulnerability to blackmail and war. It’s discouraging to see North Carolina miss out on this enormous clean energy transition that creates jobs, inspires innovation, and makes electricity more affordable.”
Duke Energy has the largest planned expansion of fracked gas-fired power plants and failure-prone nuclear plants in the nation. Duke’s top executives recently admitted to aggressively recruiting data centers, which harm communities and drive Duke’s fossil fuel buildout.
While solar and batteries become cheaper and more accessible globally, Duke Energy repeatedly attacks North Carolina’s solar industry. In 2024, the NC Court of Appeals ruled to uphold a Duke rule change that slashed the economic benefits of installing rooftop solar.
Solar energy is available everywhere, free from volatile fuel costs, cheap and reliable, and readily available to us at a time when scientists demand that we change course as soon as possible to avert climate chaos. In the words of journalist and environmental scholar Bill McKibben, “[the sun] is willing to provide us with all the power we could ever need. This gift has come at the last possible moment. It would be an extraordinary sin to waste it.”
Why would Duke Energy hold North Carolina back by investing in dirty, failure-prone energy instead? Governor Josh Stein must ensure that North Carolina benefits from the global clean energy revolution by investing our future in clean, cheap solar power.
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Now in its 38th year, NC WARN is building people power in the climate and energy justice movement to persuade or require Charlotte-based Duke Energy – one of the world’s largest climate polluters – to make a quick transition to renewable, affordable power generation and energy efficiency in order to avert climate tipping points and ongoing rate hikes.
The post North Carolina Falls Behind as World Advances in Solar, Renewables — NC WARN News Release appeared first on NC WARN.
Climate Adam - Emissions are Flatlining. So Why’s CO2 Rising at Record Speed?
This video includes personal musings and conclusions of the creator and climate scientist Dr. Adam Levy. It is presented to our readers as an informed perspective. Please see video description for references (if any).
Video descriptionIn the fight against climate change, the world has made immense progress on renewable power - with wind and solar growing faster than ever. And finally carbon dioxide emissions are flatlining. But if we've made so much progress, why is CO2 building up in our atmosphere faster than ever before? And what can we do to finally protect our climate and ourselves?
Support ClimateAdam on patreon: https://patreon.com/climateadam
Educators, Parents, and Meteorologists Call for Action as Students Return to School in a Warming Climate
PHILADELPHIA, PA (August 22, 2026) – Today, local leaders and advocates rallied at Philadelphia City Hall to confront a new reality: climate change is making summers hotter and longer. As students head back to school this year, families should be focused on buying notebooks, meeting teachers, and preparing for a successful school year—not worrying whether classrooms are too hot for learning.
“Today, students are experiencing longer stretches of extreme heat, unpredictable weather, heavy rainfall, and changing seasonal patterns. And while we might assume that modern schools are equipped with reliable heating and air-conditioning systems, the reality is that many school buildings struggle to maintain comfortable learning environments. And here’s the reality that educators face: the students who are usually engaged, motivated, and eager to learn can become disengaged when their basic environmental needs aren’t being met,” said Austin Minor, Founder/Executive Program Director of the Jacob’s Puzzle Foundation and Secondary Special Education Math Interventionist with Mastery Charter Schools.
Climate change is exacerbating extreme heat. Summer temperatures now extend well into the fall months, putting children in classrooms without air conditioning at risk. Students and teachers are having to learn and teach in sweltering classrooms and, at times, schools are forced to dismiss early because of extreme heat. Furthermore, federal attacks on clean energy and climate protections are moving us in the wrong direction.
“Our current climate is NOT ‘the new normal.’ It’s the normal – for now. Unless we reduce greenhouse gases, extreme heat will keep coming earlier in the spring and last into fall. There will be more and more school days cancelled because it’s too hot,” said Glenn “Hurricane” Schwartz, meteorologist for 50+ years.
Students deserve safe schools. Teachers and school staff deserve safe workplaces. Parents deserve the confidence that their children can learn without interruption. Speakers at the press conference called on our leaders in Washington to stand up for students and make classrooms better for learning. It’s time to defend environmental protections that tackle climate change and clean energy investments that reduce climate pollution and, in turn, the extreme heat conditions it fuels.
“As a teacher at my state-funded summer program in a district building, we went virtual three times this summer. Part of the reason was due to the sweltering heat, but the other reason was due to the air being too dangerous to breathe. These conditions can extend into the school year, so it is far past due to invest in sustainable, clean energy,” said Emmie Ledesma, Educator, George Washington High School.
“As my children head back to school, climate change is turning their classrooms into health hazards. Research has shown that without adequate air conditioning, children can’t concentrate, retain information, or perform well on tests. In the most extreme cases, heat can cause illness or even death. As an environmental attorney, we must take meaningful action on climate change with strong environmental policies that invest in clean energy and cut climate pollution before it’s too late,” said Lauren Otero, Clean Air Council Staff Attorney.
At the event, Philly-area residents gathered for a rally to send the message to their elected officials to act on climate now. The gathering was part of a national movement of communities coming together and demanding strong climate action of their elected officials while they’re back in their home states during the August recess. At the press conference, volunteers also handed out “back to school kits” that highlighted what tools are needed to keep a child safe on hot school days.
Should ‘city slickers’ receive farm subsidies?
Farm subsidies should go only to people living or working on a farm.
That’s what Senate Agriculture Committee members Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) and Peter Welch (D-Vt.) agreed on when the panel debated the farm bill earlier this month. Grassley, a long-time advocate for ensuring farm subsidy recipients are “actively engaged” on a farm, and Welch both said subsidies for people living in the country’s largest cities makes little sense.
EWG has long held the same position.
For years we’ve tracked the billions of dollars paid out in farm subsidies to people who don’t live or work on farms. We recently found that more than 92,000 “city slickers” living in some of the biggest metropolitan areas in the U.S. took in more than $2.6 billion in farm subsidies between 2020 and 2025.
Although it seems no one believes paying these city slickers makes sense, Republicans at the recent Senate farm bill hearing voted against doing anything about it.
‘Actively engaged’Welch proposed a series of amendments to the pending farm bill that would ensure that people who collect subsidies live or work on a farm. They would also lower payment limits on those subsidies and address fraud in two of the largest farm subsidy programs.
If adopted and enacted, these changes would help taxpayers and family farmers.
One of his amendments would have simply required an audit of some farm subsidy recipients when a subsidy program has a high “error rate,” which indicates farmers may have been paid too much.
Welch suggested subsidies should go to people “on tractors” and offered the amendment to audit certain farms.
Grassley agreed, saying, “You and I believe that people who are actively engaged are the only ones who should be receiving farm payments.”
Grassley also said runaway farm subsidies are driving up the cost of farming, making it harder for family farmers to compete with their larger, more heavily subsidized neighbors. “We should be helping those farmers who can’t help themselves,” not the biggest corporate farms collecting the lion’s share of farm subsidies, he said.
When Congress passed the One Big Beautiful Bill Act, in 2025, lawmakers enlarged loopholes that make it easier for the largest farm operations to get more money.
The bill allowed every member of a farm partnership to collect up to $155,000, so long as the farm is organized as a pass-through entity, such as a joint venture, S corporation, or limited liability corporation.
Since the new law was enacted, the number of “city slickers” collecting farm subsidies has increased by 13,000 – even if some of those recipients never step foot on a farm.
One of Welch’s amendments would have only required an audit when the “error rate” for two farm subsidy programs exceeded 6%. Agriculture Department studies show that the error rate for the two programs topped 6% in 2022 and 8% in 2023, resulting in more than $567 million in improper payments.
Republicans have insisted that states should share more of the cost of anti-hunger programs when the error rate exceeds 6 percent, so simply requiring an audit when farm subsidy program error rates exceed 6 percent seems reasonable, right?
Wrong.
Grassley and other committee Republicans voted against Welch’s audit amendment. Democrats refuse to support the GOP farm bill in part because it fails to address deep funding cuts to anti-hunger programs, including the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as SNAP.
So Grassley said he would not be able to support any amendments Democrats offer.
Dairy farm subsidiesEven Senate Agriculture Committee Chairman John Boozman (R-Ark.) seemed to agree that farmers – or at least Welch’s dairy farmers – should have to live or work on farms if they receive farm subsidies.
Unlike other farm subsidy programs – which can make a payment regardless of whether the “farmer” actually harvests a crop – dairy subsidies are automatically terminated if a dairy receiving them stops producing milk.
Welch said that the principle – of subsidies going only to people who truly live and work on farms – should apply to all farmers, no matter what they produce.
He said, “Whether it’s the SNAP program or it’s a [farm] support program, the intention of Congress is that the actual farmer that gets the money or the actual person who is in need of nutrition gets the nutrition aid.”
Areas of Focus Farming & Agriculture Farm Subsidies Authors Geoff Horsfield August 24, 2026Feds release 2-year Colorado River plan requiring Lower Basin cuts
On Friday, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation released a two-year plan for the Colorado River, requiring the Lower Basin states of Nevada, Arizona, and California to cut their use of water. The seven states that share water from the Colorado River failed to reach a consensus agreement earlier this year, prompting the federal government to step in.
Under the Bureau of Reclamation’s operating plan, the three Lower Basin states will be required to cut their Colorado River water use by 1.25 million acre-feet, with Arizona bearing the brunt of the required cuts. The Upper Basin states of Wyoming, Colorado, Utah, and New Mexico are also encouraged to undertake voluntary water conservation measures, but are not yet forced to make cuts in Colorado River water use under the two-year operating plan.
“What’s clear after seeing the projections for reservoir elevations over the next couple of years is that the buffer the Colorado River reservoirs provided over the last many decades is gone,” Jennifer Pitt, Colorado River program director for the Audubon Society, told the Colorado Sun. “There is real risk for the cities, farmers and ranchers, Tribes, and the entire natural world that depends on the Colorado River.”
Quick hits The BLM may stop notifying landowners about drilling under private land. Ranchers are alarmed National park maintenance work sidelined as Trump’s Freedom 250 takes precedence A White House official helped an oil company advance its projects. Now she’ll lead its DC office Bigger, hotter fires are slowly erasing America’s great forests Developers now targeting public lands to build huge AI data centers Drive for nuclear power boosts uranium industry—and Tribal health concerns in Utah Inside the struggle to dismantle America’s greenhouse gas data Editorial: A simple concept lawmakers should be able to get behind Quote of the dayI’ve worked with really incredible federal personnel with the BLM who take every single comment to heart, and they have improved applications immensely based on public feedback, because no one knows their land better than those people who are being directly drilled on.”
—Gwen Lachelt, Western Leaders Network, High Country News
Picture This @usinterior
National Park Week is back!
From August 22-30, we’re celebrating the incredible places that protect America’s landscapes, history and stories.
If you love hiking, walking across a historic battlefields, watching wildlife, or standing in the places where history was made, this week is for you.
And mark your calendar: August 25 is the National Park Service’s 110th birthday. In celebration, entrance fees will be waived at NPS sites that normally charge them.
This National Park Week, get out there and find your park.
Photo of Lehman Caves at Great Basin National Park by David Caldwell
Featured image: Lake Mead, Kumar Appaiah via Wikimedia Commons/CC BY-SA 2.0The post Feds release 2-year Colorado River plan requiring Lower Basin cuts appeared first on Center for Western Priorities.
Turn Off Lights at Night to Reduce Risk for Migrating Birds
Microsoft, PowerHouse Hillwood dispute data center service agreements
Data center agreements in Wisconsin fail to protect ratepayers, Microsoft says. Separately, PowerHouse Hillwood has accused Exelon’s ComEd of using monopoly power to quash an agreement for an Illinois data center.
The Cost of a Single Step: Protecting Florida’s Nesting Shorebirds
One of the World's ‘Most Wanted’ Lost Fish Is Rediscovered
On a vast network of rivers flowing through the jungles of Papua New Guinea, researchers have rediscovered the spinach pipefish, a relative of the seahorse, which had not been recorded in more than 40 years. The fish has long been sought after by conservationists, who feared it had gone extinct.
New Zealand moves to protect business with law curtailing climate litigation
New Zealand’s parliament has adopted a controversial new law blocking a whole avenue of climate litigation and shutting down its most advanced corporate lawsuit, which has been blamed by the government for shaking business confidence and investment.
The Climate Change Response (Tort Liability) Amendment Bill, expected to take effect in the coming days after it is formally signed by the Governor-General, prevents all current and future civil claims for climate loss or harm under tort law.
Justice minister Paul Goldsmith said last week that the aim was to give businesses “certainty around their climate change obligations”, noting it would not alter the government’s responsibilities under the Climate Change Response Act 2002 nor business obligations under the Emissions Trading Scheme.
“Our response to climate change is best managed by the Government at a national level and not through piece-meal litigation in the courts,” he added in a statement.
Such litigation, he said, “risks developing a new regime that contradicts the framework Parliament has already enacted” to tackle climate change.
Goldsmith singled out a key domestic climate lawsuit brought by Northland iwi leader and activist Mike Smith against six big companies: dairy firms Fonterra and Dairy Holdings, energy firms Genesis Energy and Z Energy, New Zealand Steel and coal mining firm BT Mining. A seventh original defendant, Channel Infrastructure, was dropped after it permanently decommissioned its Marsden Point oil refinery.
Smith argued that these companies had caused him harm under public nuisance and negligence law, as well as a third breach of a duty to cease contributing to climate change that has yet to be tested domestically. He did not seek financial compensation, instead asking for the companies to immediately stop emitting or contributing to net greenhouse gas emissions.
In one of the most advanced corporate climate accountability lawsuits in the world, a trial had been scheduled for April 2027 after the Supreme Court unanimously allowed the case to continue.
Corporate lobbying in the shadowsSmith described the passing of the bill as “deeply concerning”, particularly as it coincided with the Supreme Court hearing another of his climate lawsuits. In that case, Smith v Attorney-General, he argues that the government’s response to climate change and its impacts on Māori communities in particular breaches rights to life and culture.
“That timing raises profound questions about the separation of powers and the rule of law,” said Smith. “Whatever one’s view of the merits of these cases, it is deeply troubling when parliament intervenes to remove a legal pathway while the courts are actively considering fundamental questions about climate responsibility, rights and the crown’s obligations.”
The bill – which says that no person (including the government) can be found liable in tort for emissions-related climate change effects – followed major lobbying efforts by the companies defending themselves in Smith’s lawsuit. They outlined a proposed legal amendment in a briefing note to the government in 2024.
The centre-right government has been fiercely criticised over its lack of transparency in relation to this lobbying activity. The national ombudsman recently found that the Prime Minister’s Office effectively withheld information requested by the Environmental Law Initiative about meetings, discussions and conversations regarding Smith’s case.
Green groups fail to stop billThe bill sparked huge concern among environmental campaigners in New Zealand and elsewhere. Greenpeace Aotearoa called it a “shocking abuse of executive power” and the vast majority of submissions to a parliamentary inquiry said it should be rejected.
But in the end, it was adopted with little resistance, moving relatively smoothly through parliament, passing its third reading by 67 votes to 53. Sam Bookman, climate law lecturer at Melbourne Law School, told Climate Home News he was not surprised by this, given that the coalition government has a secure majority.
A complaint has been made to the UN special rapporteur on climate change and human rights by Smith, the National Iwi Chairs Forum Pou Tikanga and youth coalition Climate Clinic Aotearoa over what they see as the government’s heavy-handed approach. Smith is also challenging the new law in yet another lawsuit.
“Pathetic”: New Zealand plans to barely cut emissions between 2030 and 2035
Bookman thinks it “very unlikely” that such a challenge will succeed, noting that New Zealand’s constitution is firmly anchored in parliamentary sovereignty.
But the expert in climate law does not see the bill as the end of legal action in the country, noting that New Zealand has a “sophisticated climate litigation landscape with a growing number of specialist and experienced lawyers and NGOs”.
The country is also approaching its next general election in November, and some opposition parties have pledged to restore access to the courts if elected.
Amanda Larsson, global project lead on agriculture for Greenpeace International, said: “This law deserves to be tested, and I strongly encourage the international climate litigation community to unite and help defend New Zealanders’ fundamental right to hold polluters accountable before this becomes a global blueprint.”
Copycat legislation on the riseNew Zealand’s move is part of a small but growing legislative effort to shut down climate litigation around the world.
In the US, Republican politicians introduced legislation in the House and Senate in April that would shield fossil fuel firms from climate liability lawsuits. Similar laws have already been passed at state level in Tennessee, Utah, Iowa and Louisiana.
The German state of Bavaria has put forward a similar proposal to the Federal Council, aiming to block private climate claims as well as the recognition and enforcement of foreign judgments imposing such liability. There are also proposals to limit available remedies and actions in the Netherlands and Belgium.
UN General Assembly backs “climate obligations” set by world’s top court
Bookman said he expects more efforts to counter climate damages litigation and advised plaintiffs to think about how to respond, including drawing on broader support in opposing them.
“Even though it’s very hard for plaintiffs to win these types of cases, companies are very eager to avoid the expense, embarrassment and political accountability that come even with unsuccessful lawsuits,” he said.
The post New Zealand moves to protect business with law curtailing climate litigation appeared first on Climate Home News.
August 24 Green Energy News
Headline News:
- “Indonesian Police Arrest 72 People Suspected Of Starting Forest Fires” • Indonesian police arrested 72 people suspected of starting recent forest and peatland fires as blazes in central and western parts of the country triggered a harmful cloud known as a choking haze. Plantation owners and traditional farmers often start fires to clear land for farming. [ABC News]
Farmland in Sumatra (ahmad hidayat, Unsplash, cropped)
- “BYD Da Han Claims Global Flagship Status” • BYD launched the new Da Han last week as a global flagship-level sedan. This is not just an evolution of the Han and BYD brand. It challenges and, in many ways, beats top models from the global premium automakers. BYD clearly has its sights set on taking the lead from legacy flagship-level sedans. [CleanTechnica]
- “Ireland Hits Solar Record As Renewables Top 30% Of July Electricity Supply” • Ireland’s power mix reached a milestone in July, with solar delivering its strongest monthly showing yet and helping renewable sources supply over 30% of the Irish electric energy. This signals a broader shift toward cleaner power that could reduce reliance on fossil fuels. [The Cool Down]
- “Maryland Announces Major Solar Energy PPA Expected To Save $300 Million” • Maryland approved a 20-year solar PPA expected to save the state hundreds of millions of dollars while expanding use of locally generated renewable energy. Governor Wes Moore and the Maryland Department of General Services announced the agreement. [fundsforNGOs News]
- “In The American Southwest, The Water Crisis Threatens Existential Harm To Millions” • Seven US states rely on the water in the Colorado River. In 1922, those seven states agreed on how to divide up the water in the Colorado River. A lot has changed since that time, and they are drawing more water now than the river can provide. [CleanTechnica]
For more news, please visit geoharvey – Daily News about Energy and Climate Change.
O‘ahu Government Launches First Food Systems Plan
O‘ahu is building its first comprehensive plan focused on food systems. It is the local government’s first attempt at formalizing its role in identifying and addressing food and agriculture issues on the Hawaiian island.
The five-year Oʻahu Food Systems Plan—led by the City and County of Honolulu’s Office of Climate Change, Sustainability and Resiliency (CCSR)—outlines 10 broad strategies for the island’s government agencies. Following the release of the draft plan in May, CCSR received hundreds of comments during its public comment phase, ranging from calls for more accountability mechanisms to clarification on the plan’s integration of Hawaiian values. The office now works to incorporate suggestions and get a final draft adopted by the Honolulu City Council by the end of the year, according to CCSR’s Food Systems Fellow Kaitlyn Judd.
The plan’s strategies primarily focus on reducing food insecurity, promoting food sovereignty, and ensuring the long-term resilience of Oʻahu’s natural resources and small food producers. One of CCSR’s first priorities is the creation of a working group across numerous Oʻahu public agencies, which would help the government avoid redundant or conflicting programs as well as compile resources, knowledge, and funding.
“A key goal is building the capacity needed to effectively coordinate and implement these actions,” Judd tells Food Tank. “The collaborative process used to develop the draft plan has already helped to establish connections between departments and provide a solid foundation for this ongoing coordination.”
The draft plan contains around 70 actions for local government, each of which belongs to one of the 10 strategies. Many proposals build on existing government and nonprofit work to address gaps in the island’s food system.
One action under the strategy to “enhance market opportunities and value chain coordination for local food,” for example, would expand the O‘ahu Good Food Program, which aims to support local business by making it easier for institutions to buy food from O‘ahu’s small and medium-sized producers at scale. In Hawaiʻi, where around 90 percent of food is imported, according to the University of Hawaiʻi at Hilo, local institutional purchasing offers a unique opportunity to boost the state’s economy and build food system resilience.
Every year, food producers brace for the impacts of seasonal Kona low storms, which can cause massive structural damage and financial losses. Farmers in Hawaiʻi also pay higher labor costs than those on the U.S. mainland due to the smaller scale of their agriculture operations and struggle to compete with lower prices from producers in states like California, according to Albie Miles—a sustainable food systems professor at the University of Hawaiʻi at West O‘ahu and the Director of its Transforming Hawaiʻi’s Food System Together initiative.
“You start to combine these things—high rates of household food insecurity, low rates of emergency and commercial food storage, critical points of vulnerability on the south shore of O‘ahu,” Miles tells Food Tank. “If any of that is disturbed as a result of a hurricane, for example, then the structural bottleneck—the port of Honolulu—is disrupted, and that interferes with our ability to import and distribute food across the entire state.”
Other non-governmental organizations, including the Hawai‘i Good Food Alliance (HGFA), are partnering directly with CCSR to carry out the plan’s action items. Around one in three households in Hawaiʻi experience food insecurity—nearly triple the national average, per the Hawaiʻi Food Bank’s most recent data. As part of its strategy on food security, CCSR is leveraging services provided by the HGFA to reduce administrative and logistical barriers that might prevent farmers markets and other food hubs from accepting federal food assistance benefits.
Another action item in the strategy details how local government will continue to explore subway stations as “visible demonstrations of sustainable food practices,” like hosting food distribution events and growing culturally significant plants. In its strategy focused on food-producing gardens, the plan also identifies public housing as a crucial site for community gardening, and suggests that Honolulu pursue public and private funding for growing spaces. Proposals like these identify elements of the built environment as potential places for food systems change.
If adopted by Honolulu City Council, the Oʻahu Food Systems Plan will likely become the island’s primary outline for addressing a range of agriculture and food issues over the next five years. Though its action items would remain as guidance, not requirements, Judd says the plan can serve as a long-term framework and path toward idea-sharing across disciplines and sectors.
“Unless there are planning processes like the Oʻahu Food Systems Plan or other state and regional food system planning initiatives to implement policy recommendations, all this research that happens in higher education just sits there and it’s never implemented into actionable strategies,” Miles says.
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 the City and County of Honolulu’s Office of Climate Change, Sustainability and Resiliency
The post O‘ahu Government Launches First Food Systems Plan appeared first on Food Tank.
Indonesia’s nickel production cuts are not enough to create a sustainable industry
Bhima Yudhistira Adhinegara is the Executive Director of the Center of Economic and Law Studies (CELIOS), an Indonesia-based economic think tank. Muhammad Zulfikar Rakhmat is the Director of the China-Indonesia desk at CELIOS.
Indonesia produces around 60% of the world’s nickel, a metal used to manufacture batteries for electric vehicles (EVs) – more than any other country in the world. But in 2026, the government sharply reduced how much of its nickel can be extracted from the ground.
Production quotas were reduced by around 40% this year compared to 2025. Weda Bay, the largest nickel mine on Earth, had its allowance cut by more than 70% and exhausted its full-year quota by the end of May, halting mining entirely; it cannot resume large-scale extraction until next year unless regulators grant an extension.
The policy has sparked a vivid debate in Indonesian policy circles: how can the country shift its strategy from a decade of mining vast quantities of cheap nickel to producing a high-value and low-carbon material that the rest of the world wants for EV batteries.
The cuts aren’t a silver bullet to clean up Indonesia’s nickel industry, whose smelters are powered by coal – the most polluting fossil fuels. But alongside stricter enforcement of environmental rules, it is one side of efforts to produce more sustainable nickel for a premium.
Restricting Indonesia’s nickel outputProduction quotas were introduced to stop the collapse of nickel prices because of oversupply in the market. Prices had fallen more than 40% in 2023 alone and kept sliding as Indonesian supply kept growing, hitting a four-year low of around $13,900 a ton in late 2025.
Critics called the recent tightening of production quotas proof that Indonesia’s nickel strategy has failed, arguing that the industry shouldn’t need to throttle its own output to survive. But when assessed against what the policy was supposed to do – push up nickel prices – it has worked. Prices jumped to $20,000 a ton in May, the highest since 2024.
Chinese industry groups representing companies that have invested billions to mine and refine the country’s nickel were furious, warning Indonesia’s president Prabowo Subianto that the cuts put $50 billion worth of investment at risk. But much of that Chinese capital is sunk into smelters and processing plants built specifically to run on Indonesian ore, and cannot simply be moved elsewhere. That gives Jakarta more room to hold its ground than the warning suggests.
Stronger environmental enforcementSince the start of the year, Indonesia’s forestry task force has seized more than four million hectares of land from mines and plantations operating illegally in protected forests, collecting over two trillion rupiah ($113 million) in fines.
This included 148 hectares seized from Weda Bay for lacking a forestry permit. The share of nickel produced from illegal small-scale mining also fell from about a quarter in 2022 to roughly 10% by 2024.
The crackdown responds to serious environmental damages in the nickel industry. On Obi Island, a waste pond collapsed after heavy rain in June 2025, flooding three villages and killing a resident. Internal company tests found chromium-6 – a carcinogen – in the water, in quantities far above the legal limit. The footprint of another mine near Raja Ampat, which is home to some of the world’s richest coral reefs, grew 60-fold in just eight years.
The fishing villages of Tapunggaya in Sulawesi, Indonesia, are squeezed between the sea and an expanding nickel mine (Photo by Garry Lotulung/NurPhoto)The market is responding to early cleanup efforts. Low-carbon nickel now sells for a real premium, roughly $18,800 to $19,300 a ton compared with $17,900 to $18,300 otherwise, as carmakers seek to source cleaner materials to comply with the European Union’s new emissions rules for imports.
In turn, this is incentivising the industry to do more to green its operations. Vale Indonesia’s smelter in South Sulawesi now runs almost entirely on hydropower, for example.
None of this addresses coal use, however. Major Indonesian nickel producers still emitted an estimated 15 million metric tons of greenhouse gases in 2023. Indonesia may be cracking down on illegal mining and rewarding cleaner producers but it is still running its mines on the dirtiest fuel available.
Unequal benefitsFor Indonesia to truly benefit from producing cleaner and high-value nickel, it needs to reap the economic benefits too. Although the industry has boosted the country’s economic growth, the reality on the ground tells a different story.
Konawe in Southeast Sulawesi is home to a major smelting complex. Growth in the district jumped from 6% to 22% between 2015 and 2023, driven almost entirely by the nickel industry, according to a study by the Lowy Institute study. At the same time, poverty levels increased slightly and unemployment remained unchanged.
In Halmahera, another epicentre of the nickel industry, spending by the poorest fifth grew just 5% between 2019 and 2022, compared with 28% for the wealthiest fifth, according to a separate study.
Part of the reason for this inequality is the system for transferring mining royalties to district authorities where the mines are located. In theory, they are entitled to the largest share. But in practice, payments are delayed, companies routinely dispute what they owe and royalties are pooled and distributed across a larger area.
The Natural Resource Governance Institute has found that decentralisation handed local governments power to approve new mines faster than they could build their capacity to manage them. Higher output raises national income on paper, but local governments remain constrained by fiscal rules and infrastructure costs that scale with mining.
None of this makes the 2026 quota cuts a mistake. Indonesia has every right to defend its pricing power over a resource it controls. But limiting extraction isn’t going to fix underlying issues around environmental enforcement and revenue-sharing. That requires rules that are consistently enforced, royalties that reach communities living by the mines, and a plan to wean smelters off coal.
The post Indonesia’s nickel production cuts are not enough to create a sustainable industry appeared first on Climate Home News.
When the waitlist becomes the crisis
Across Ontario, thousands of people with intellectual and developmental disabilities (IDD) and their families are waiting for services they need to live safely and participate...
The post When the waitlist becomes the crisis first appeared on Spring.
URGENT ACTION ALERT: Voice your Opposition to the CA Forever Trailer Bill and Support AB 2218
Dear friends,
The 2026 legislative session comes to an end on August 31, and we need your help.
Right now, we are urging legislators to ensure that harmful trailer legislation, such as the California Forever Trailer Bill targeting Solano County, does not move forward, while supporting inclusive and equitable legislation like AB 2218, the Indigenous Water Rights Bill.
Keep reading to learn how you can take action and advocate for the ecosystems and communities we all depend on.
Oppose the California Forever Trailer Bill
California Forever, a proposed development project in Solano County that would have devastating impacts on the Delta, is once again trying to circumvent legislative processes to gain preferential treatment. Similar to our Delta Tunnel Trailer Bill fight last year, California Forever proposes sweeping exemptions from environmental review to move parts of its project forward.
The exact language of the legislation has not been publicly released, but we have good confirmation that the legislation will:
- Eliminate environmental review for a large new industrial site in Collinsville for shipbuilding and other undisclosed industrial uses.
- Override the vote of the people of Solano County who have, since 1984, preserved the right to weigh in on land use changes through the Orderly Growth Initiative.
On Tuesday, August 25, the Solano County Board of Supervisors will vote on whether they support or oppose this legislation as it moves through the final week of the State Legislature.
We need them to say NO.
This will send a sign to Sacramento lawmakers that local decision-makers and residents are against this last-minute legislation.
HOW YOU CAN HELP:
1. Attend the upcoming Solano County Board of Supervisors meeting on Tuesday, August 25 to tell our Supervisors not to support legislation. We recommend arriving at 1:00 PM to fill out your comment card prior to the start of the Board Meeting.
- When: Tuesday, August 25 at 2:00 PM
- Where: 675 Texas St, 1st Floor, Board Chambers, Fairfield, CA 94533
- What: Item 29 of the Agenda, proposing Trailer Bill language to fast-track elements of the CA Forever Project
2. Sign the NEW petition calling on State Lawmakers not to pursue this legislation.
3. Call Sen. Cabaldon and Asm. Wilson and tell them:
- You oppose any attempts to streamline the controversial California Forever Project, which would have a direct and detrimental impact on Delta communities and ecosystems; and
- Trailer Bills that circumvent the policy process undermine our democratic process and should not be entertained
Support AB 2218
On February 19, 2026, Assemblymember Kalra introduced AB 2218, the Indigenous Water Rights Bill sponsored by the Shingle Springs Band of Miwok Indians and the Karuk Tribe.
AB 2218 would establish a clear statewide policy directive acknowledging and seeking to remedy the inequities inflicted upon Tribes in California through historical state-sanctioned acts of termination, removal, and forced assimilation.
The bill directs relevant state agencies, including the Department of Water Resources and the State Water Board, to incorporate this policy into water rights decisions, regulatory actions, permitting, and grantmaking to address identified inequities. Recognizing historic harms and directing state agencies to center Tribal equity in water policy is not simply a symbolic act; it is a pathway toward stronger relationships, more inclusive decision-making, and better outcomes for the ecosystems we all depend on.
We need your help! AB 2218 will soon be heard on the Senate floor and we need your help getting it past the finish line.
Two Easy Ways You Can Take Action:
1. Call your Senator urging them to support AB 2218. You can find your representative here.
Please call your Senator and tell them:
- As a constituent, I urge you to support AB 2218 when it comes before the Senate floor.
- AB 2218 supports the State’s progress towards equitable water management.
- AB 2218 is an important step toward addressing inequities affecting California Native American Tribes in state water policy and ensuring Tribal interests are meaningfully considered in decisions affecting water.
2. Alternatively, you can also write to your Senator, asking for their support on AB 2218.
- Click this link to send a pre-written letter urging your Senator to support AB 2218.
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Tennessee helped usher in the nuclear age. It wants to lead the way again.
Luther “Sunny” Miller is nearly 80, but in his younger days, he worked at Aerojet, a rocket and missile manufacturer located quite literally in his backyard. He can’t prove it, but he worries that his thyroid and bladder problems, and his wife’s kidney disease, can be traced to the plant.
Last year, national nuclear supplier BWX Technologies purchased the factory in Jonesborough, Tennessee, and announced plans for a significant expansion. The new facility will convert depleted uranium oxide supplied by the Department of Energy into high-purity depleted uranium. The 10-year, $1.6-billion contract will supply the Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, with the material needed to maintain the nation’s nuclear weapons arsenal. Despite the company’s promise to bring 175 permanent jobs to the area, Miller and many neighbors were left irate.
“They’re going to turn over the most beautiful parts of Tennessee into a nuclear waste area,” Miller said.
But for others, the promise of jobs is what makes a nuclear “renaissance” centered around the nearby city of Oak Ridge in East Tennessee so promising. BWXT’s planned buildout is part of what state officials hope will be an economic revival driven by a renewal of the Manhattan Project’s legacy. Billions of dollars are already flowing into a region whose experience and expertise in nuclear energy and weapons development make it especially attractive to the industry.
Now Tennessee is among five finalists for a Department of Energy “nuclear lifecycle innovation campus” that could make it the centerpiece of a federal plan to finally deal with what’s left behind after splitting atoms to generate electricity. But the history that makes the Volunteer State so attractive a contender is marked by contamination, illnesses, and accidents, leaving some wary of what a renaissance might bring.
Nuclear waste is a logistical and public relations nightmare. Spent fuel, which remains radioactive for millennia, eventually finds its way into secure concrete containers. It remains there indefinitely because there is nowhere else to put it. The federal government has long wanted to build a permanent repository deep underground, but the only serious candidate, Yucca Mountain in Nevada, stalled amid political and public opposition. With the Trump administration hoping to quadruple nuclear energy output, solving this problem is increasingly urgent given that the nation’s 85 interim storage sites already hold more than 86,000 tons of radioactive waste, or just about enough to fill a football field nearly 10 yards deep.
The nuclear lifecycle innovation campuses are the latest attempt to address that problem. Rather than foist a site on an unwilling community, the Department of Energy invited states to volunteer as potential hosts. These industrial centers would support far more than waste storage. They would include uranium enrichment and fuel fabrication, reprocessing and recycling of spent fuel, and even energy generation. But federal officials said waste management would anchor the project. In July, Tennessee joined Utah, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Idaho as the five states selected to continue discussions with DOE.
Tennessee’s advantage in that competition dates back more than 80 years to the end of World War II and the dawn of the nuclear age. The federal government chose Oak Ridge, at the time a remote southern Appalachian farming community, as a key site for the Manhattan Project. The town grew to encompass an array of separate sites related to the nuclear weapons development program, including a nuclear reactor.
BWXT president of operations Ronald Daily said that the company, and others like it, is building on the region’s history of contributing to national energy security and defense. “Appalachia was key to the U.S. developing a defense power in a time frame like no other because of the industrious nature of the people of Appalachia,” he said.
The Y-12 National Security Complex in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, produces materials for nuclear weapons. Jim West/UCG/Universal Images Group via Getty ImagesOak Ridge’s rural feel has given way to a concrete sprawl hosting a mismatched array of museums, highway-exit chains, and top-secret facilities. Today, the federally managed Y-12 Security Complex and the laboratory, now a federally funded research institution, remain, sitting alongside private companies of all kinds hoping to get a little shine from the area’s legion of talented engineers. All of it is dotted by verdant public lands.
For those at Oak Ridge National Laboratory, this moment is a chance to leverage its expertise for the continued local and national public good.
“Part of Oak Ridge’s role is that we have expertise in all parts of that fuel cycle,” said Joe Hoagland, a physical chemist and associate laboratory director of the laboratory’s Fusion and Fission Energy and Science Directorate. “We know how to enrich it. We know how to use it. We know how to store it. We know how to transport it, and we understand the chemistries around how to recycle it.”
For many years, Hoagland said, East Tennessee was home to a handful of legacy companies like GE and Westinghouse, which created technologies for traditional utilities. But these days, it looks a lot more like startup culture, he said, because growing demand for electricity “creates an opportunity for others to get in the energy game.”
Hopes for local benefit are lofty. In the past 10 years, the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development has secured $10 billion in investment to recruit new companies and bring the region 3,000 new jobs, said the agency’s nuclear advisor, Braden Stover. They include companies like BWXT, Orano, and Centrus, which are involved in various aspects of the processes that enrich uranium.
Officials said this growing sector could bring tens of thousands of jobs in everything from construction and manufacturing to engineering and research. They also envision an educational pipeline that prepares local residents for many of those positions. “The second graders of today are going to be the ones that actually are coming in to work at these facilities,” Stover said. “We need to get to them and just let them know, Hey, here is what is coming.”
BWX Technologies has announced plans to open a high-purity depleted uranium processing plant in Jonesborough, Tennessee. Jesse Barber / GristBut the region’s long industrial and nuclear history has left another legacy, and opposition to the coming nuclear revival is rooted in memories of the harm already done to the people and the landscape of East Tennessee.
For some, that harm started with the eviction of 3,000 farmers to make way for the Manhattan Project. Wariness has only grown in the years since as the risks of living alongside the facility and those that support it emerged.
Past studies have linked patterns of neurological conditions, cancers, and fatal respiratory ailments to workplace exposures at the now-shuttered K-25 plant that enriched uranium from 1943 until 1985. The federal government continues cleaning up contamination left by decades of nuclear weapons production in Oak Ridge. Nuclear Fuel Services, a uranium processing plant in Erwin and subsidiary of BWXT, has a record of leaks, potentially toxic dust, and groundwater contamination.
The mistrust also arises from incidents beyond the nuclear industry. In 2008, 1.1 billion gallons of coal ash spilled at the Kingston Fossil Plant, originally built to power the Oak Ridge war complex. Coal ash cleanup workers were not informed of the hazards they faced or provided with protective equipment. Over the past decade, many workers exposed to the toxic waste have fallen ill, and some have died of rare cancers.
Those histories have contributed to skepticism and fear as the Trump administration has streamlined and overhauled radioactive waste storage and siting requirements. Valerie Thomas, who studies nuclear engineering and environmental impacts at the Georgia Institute of Technology, called those changes concerning.
“There are two reasons we want nuclear regulations to be very strong. One is, no, you don’t want to have errors,” Thomas said. “The second is if people think the regulations aren’t very strong, they’re not going to want nuclear power and nuclear facilities.”
That distrust has already shaped fights over the nuclear industry’s expansion in East Tennessee. In early March, hundreds of residents in Claiborne County packed a town hall to oppose a proposed nuclear graphite facility. Their efforts stopped the proposal in its tracks.
This history wasn’t far from the minds of many in Jonesborough, where residents expressed concerns about waste storage and uranium dust. Many filled local county commission meetings to oppose BWXT’s proposal and fought zoning rules that would clear its path. BWXT responded to community questions about the plant’s waste storage plans, but the answers weren’t satisfactory for many local residents. A late March meeting at the Washington County courthouse left many residents angry and hurt. Will Manning, a 42-year-old knifemaker and father, had spent the winter knocking on doors in Jonesborough, urging neighbors to turn out to oppose final zoning approval for the facility. Ultimately, however, the measure passed, clearing a path for the plant.
Some residents of Jonesborough, Tennessee, are wary of nuclear and defense industries and oppose efforts to lure them to East Tennessee. Jesse Barber / Grist“I honestly don’t know what was more disgusting, disappointing, depressing: the outcome of the vote or the dog-and pony show they put on and blatant disregard for the strong voice of this community,” Manning later told Grist.
Jonesborough residents remain active in a Facebook group created to organize opposition to BWXT, monitoring any news about the nuclear industry’s moves in Tennessee. Some participants have followed local elections closely, vowing to vote out officials who supported the zoning change.
As for the DOE’s nuclear lifecycle innovation campus, most of it would likely be located in Oak Ridge, but waste disposal might happen elsewhere, and that location remains undecided. Federal officials familiar with the process told Grist the selection process will include extensive discussions with the communities that might be considered, although they did not say what those conversations might look like. They also said any waste storage decisions would be preceded by years of environmental analysis to rule out locations with fatal flaws like streams, aquifers, or geologic instability. The initial Tennessee project application sought letters of support from officials in adjoining counties, and suggests that campus funding could support infrastructural improvements locally.
Sunny Miller concedes East Tennessee needs the jobs a nuclear revival would bring. Many residents are poor, he said, and employers would offer good pay. What troubles him is being asked to weigh those benefits against risks he doesn’t feel he fully understands.
“You can’t live on car washes and chicken places alone, that’s a real feeling,” Miller said. “But let me make this decision based on facts.”
This piece has been updated to clarify the role and origin of Oak Ridge National Laboratory and Y-12 Security Complex.
This story was originally published by Grist with the headline Tennessee helped usher in the nuclear age. It wants to lead the way again. on Aug 24, 2026.
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