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Environment

The Tension Between Humans and Nature

Donald Trump’s No. 2 Pick for the EPA Represented Companies Accused of Pollution Harm

David Fotouhi, a lawyer who recently challenged a ban on asbestos, worked to roll back climate regulations and water protections while serving in the Environmental Protection Agency during Trump’s first administration.

by Sharon Lerner,

This Storm-Battered Town Voted for Trump. He Has Vowed to Overturn the Law That Could Fix Its Homes.

Donald Trump has said he will overturn a law that helps communities better weather the effects of climate change. If he follows through, he’ll be reversing an initiative that has disproportionately benefited areas that make up his base.

by Sharon Lerner, photography by Annie Flanagan for ProPublica,

After the Palisades Fire, What Can We Really Rebuild?

As the community of Pacific Palisades, California, burns, ProPublica’s Tim Golden reflects on how the blaze will transform his hometown.

by Tim Golden,

Elon Musk’s Boring Company Is Tunneling Beneath Las Vegas With Little Oversight

Given Musk’s role advising President-elect Donald Trump on ways to slash regulations and government oversight, Boring and the Vegas Loop project might be a harbinger for the country.

by Daniel Rothberg for ProPublica and Dayvid Figler, City Cast Las Vegas,

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Broken Promises

Hydroelectric Dams on Oregon’s Willamette River Kill Salmon. Congress Says It’s Time to Consider Shutting Them Down.

The newly signed legislation follows reporting from Oregon Public Broadcasting and ProPublica that underscored the risks and costs associated with a plan to migrate salmon past hydroelectric dams using a giant fish collector and tanker trucks.

by Tony Schick, Oregon Public Broadcasting,

Local Reporting Network

U.S. Senator Urges EPA to Release “Science-Based” Report on Formaldehyde Health Risks

Citing a ProPublica investigation that found formaldehyde causes far more cancer than any other toxic air pollutant, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., said in a letter that “the agency has an obligation to protect the public from the chemical.”

by Sharon Lerner,

EPA Says It Plans to Withdraw Approval for Chevron’s Plastic-Based Fuels That Are Likely to Cause Cancer

The decision comes after a ProPublica investigation revealed that the EPA had found that one of the fuels had a cancer risk more than 1 million times higher than the agency usually considers acceptable.

by Sharon Lerner,

Series

Series: Power Grab: How Green Energy Hurts Washington’s Tribes

Series: Selling a Mirage: The Deception Behind Plastic Recycling

Series: Unplugged: Will Taxpayers Foot the Oil Industry’s Cleanup Bill?

Series: Waiting for Water: Tribes’ Fight for a Promised Resource

Series: Roots of an Outbreak: How the Next Pandemic Could Start

Series: Disaster After Disaster: Growing Storms, Faltering Aid

Series: Broken Promises: Salmon Disappear From the Pacific Northwest

Series: Sacrifice Zones: Mapping Cancer-Causing Industrial Air Pollution

Series: Black Snow: Big Sugar’s Burning Problem

Series: Sunken Costs: Coal Ash in Georgia

Firefighters battle the Creek Fire in the Shaver Lake community of Fresno County, California, on Sept. 7.

Series: California Burning: The Climate Crisis is Setting the State on Fire

Series: The Great Climate Migration: A Warming Planet and a Shifting Population

Series: Paradise Lost: Hawaii’s Disappearing Beaches

Series: Pollution Profiteers: Inside California’s Toxic Hauling Industry

Series: The Cutting: Investigating Industrial Logging in Oregon

Series: Polluter’s Paradise: Environmental Impact in Louisiana

Series: The New Power Brokers: West Virginia’s Natural Gas Industry

Series: Bombs in Our Backyard: Investigating One of America’s Greatest Polluters

Series: Killing the Colorado: The Water Crisis in the West

Series: Losing Ground: Southeast Louisiana is Disappearing, Quickly

Series: After the Flood: The Challenge of Rebuilding as the Climate Changes

Series: Injection Wells: The Hidden Risks of Pumping Waste Underground

Series: Nuclear Safety: After Fukushima

Series: Gulf Oil Spill: Investigating the Impact of the BP Spill

Series: Fracking: Gas Drilling’s Environmental Threat

387 stories published since 2009

Hydroelectric Dams on Oregon’s Willamette River Kill Salmon. Congress Says It’s Time to Consider Shutting Them Down.

by Tony Schick, Oregon Public Broadcasting,

EPA Report Finds That Formaldehyde Presents an “Unreasonable Risk” to Public Health

by Sharon Lerner,

The American Oil Industry’s Playbook, Illustrated: How Drillers Offload Costly Cleanup Onto the Public

by Mark Olalde, illustrations by Peter Arkle, special to ProPublica,

U.S. Senator Urges EPA to Release “Science-Based” Report on Formaldehyde Health Risks

by Sharon Lerner,

How to Reduce Formaldehyde Exposure in Your Home

by Topher Sanders,

How Much Formaldehyde Is in Your Car, Your Kitchen or Your Furniture? Here’s What Our Testing Found.

by Topher Sanders, with additional reporting by Sharon Lerner and Al Shaw,

Check the Formaldehyde Cancer Risk in Your Neighborhood

by Al Shaw and Sharon Lerner,

Formaldehyde Causes More Cancer Than Any Other Toxic Air Pollutant. Little Is Being Done to Curb the Risk.

by Sharon Lerner and Al Shaw,

Despite Biden’s Promise to Protect Old Forests, His Administration Keeps Approving Plans to Cut Them Down

by April Ehrlich, Oregon Public Broadcasting, McKenzie Funk, ProPublica, and Tony Schick, Oregon Public Broadcasting,

The Ghosts of John Tanton

by Abrahm Lustgarten,

FEMA Told Victims of New Mexico’s Largest Wildfire It Can’t Pay for Emotional Harm. A Judge Will Likely Rule It Must.

by Patrick Lohmann, Source New Mexico,

Fossil Fuel Interests Are Working to Kill Solar in One Ohio County. The Hometown Newspaper Is Helping.

by Miranda Green, Floodlight, Jennifer Smith Richards, ProPublica, and Priyanjana Bengani, Tow Center for Digital Journalism, and photography by Sarahbeth Maney, ProPublica,

Who Will Care for Americans Left Behind by Climate Migration?

by Abrahm Lustgarten,

EPA Says It Plans to Withdraw Approval for Chevron’s Plastic-Based Fuels That Are Likely to Cause Cancer

by Sharon Lerner,

ExxonMobil Accused of “Deceptively” Promoting Chemical Recycling as a Solution for the Plastics Crisis

by Lisa Song,

At Indigenous Sacred Sites, Seeing Things I’m Not Supposed to See

by B. “Toastie” Oaster, High Country News,

The Department of Energy Promised This Tribal Nation a $32 Million Solar Grant. It’s Nearly Impossible to Access.

by Tony Schick, Oregon Public Broadcasting,

EPA Scientists Said They Were Pressured to Downplay Harms From Chemicals. A Watchdog Found They Were Retaliated Against.

by Sharon Lerner,

Oregon’s Largest Natural Gas Company Said It Was Going Green. It Sells as Much Fossil Fuel as Before.

by McKenzie Funk,

These Household Brands Want to Redefine What Counts as “Recyclable”

by Lisa Song,

Nike Shareholders Want to Force Actions on Environmental and Worker Protections. They Face Long Odds.

by Rob Davis, ProPublica, and Matthew Kish, The Oregonian/OregonLive,

Biden EPA Rejects Plastics Industry’s Fuzzy Math That Misleads Customers About Recycled Content

by Lisa Song,

When Is “Recyclable” Not Really Recyclable? When the Plastics Industry Gets to Define What the Word Means.

by Lisa Song,

As Millions of Acres Burn, Firefighters Say the U.S. Forest Service Has Left Them With Critical Shortages

by Abe Streep for ProPublica,

After Nike Leaders Promised Climate Action, Their Corporate Jets Kept Flying — and Polluting

by Rob Davis, Agnel Philip and Alex Mierjeski, ProPublica, and Matthew Kish, The Oregonian/OregonLive,

Washington State Solar Project Paused Amid Concern About Native Cultural Sites

by B. “Toastie” Oaster, High Country News,

How a Green Tech Startup With No Climate Experience Secured Millions of Dollars in Government Contracts

by Anjeanette Damon,

Oklahoma’s Oil Industry Touts a Voluntary Fund to Clean Up Oil Wells. Major Drillers Want Their Contributions Refunded.

by Mark Olalde, ProPublica, and Nick Bowlin, Capital & Main,

Data Centers Demand a Massive Amount of Energy. Here’s How Some States Are Tackling the Industry’s Impact.

by Lulu Ramadan and Sydney Brownstone, The Seattle Times,

Washington Is Giving Tax Breaks to Data Centers That Threaten the State’s Green Energy Push

by Lulu Ramadan and Sydney Brownstone, The Seattle Times, photography by Karen Ducey, The Seattle Times,

California Isn’t Enforcing Its Strongest-in-the-Nation Oil Well Cleanup Law on Its Largest Oil Company

by Mark Olalde,

Nike Pledged to Shrink Its Carbon Footprint. It Just Slashed the Staff Charged With Making That Happen.

by Rob Davis, ProPublica, and Matthew Kish, The Oregonian/OregonLive,

The Federal Government Just Acknowledged the Harm Its Dams Have Caused Tribes. Here’s What It Left Out.

by Tony Schick, Oregon Public Broadcasting,

How America’s “Most Powerful Lobby” Is Stifling Efforts to Reform Oil Well Cleanup in State After State

by Mark Olalde,

The Delusion of “Advanced” Plastic Recycling

by Lisa Song, illustrations by Max Guther, special to ProPublica,

A Bottled Water Company in Michigan Is Still Extracting Millions of Gallons of Water for Free

by Anna Clark, photography by Sarahbeth Maney,

Nine Takeaways From Our Investigation Into 3M’s Forever Chemicals

by ProPublica,

How 3M Executives Convinced a Scientist the Forever Chemicals She Found in Human Blood Were Safe

by Sharon Lerner, photography by Haruka Sakaguchi, special to ProPublica,

Plastic, Plastic Everywhere — Even at the UN’s “Plastic Free” Conference

by Lisa Song,

Oil Companies Contaminated a Family Farm. The Courts and Regulators Let the Drillers Walk Away.

by Mark Olalde, ProPublica, and Nick Bowlin, Capital & Main,

Ten Years After the Flint Water Crisis, Distrust and Anger Linger

by Anna Clark and Sarahbeth Maney, Photography by Sarahbeth Maney,

EPA Proposes Ban on Pesticide Widely Used on Fruits and Vegetables

by Sharon Lerner,

10 Times as Much of This Toxic Pesticide Could End Up on Your Tomatoes and Celery Under a New EPA Proposal

by Sharon Lerner,

Oil Companies Must Set Aside More Money to Plug Wells, a New Rule Says. But It Won’t Be Enough.

by Mark Olalde, ProPublica, and Nick Bowlin, Capital & Main,

The Big Burnout: Life on the Front Lines of America’s Wildfires

by Connor Goodwin,

EPA Finalizes New Standards for Cancer-Causing Chemicals

by Ava Kofman,

The EPA Has Done Nearly Everything It Can to Clean Up This Town. It Hasn’t Worked.

by Lisa Song,

The Flooding Will Come “No Matter What”

by Abrahm Lustgarten,

Chevron Will Pay Record Fines for Oil Spills in California

by Janet Wilson, The Desert Sun,

An Oregon Bill to Cut Millions in Timber Taxes Is Dead, Despite Backing by the Industry, the Governor and a Top Lawmaker

by Rob Davis,