Resilience
States and localities are having to adjust to a changing climate, establishing new policies, rules and guidelines relating to energy, land use and water rights, as well as responding to emergencies triggered by more intense storms, floods and wildfires.
The robot's agility makes it valuable in standoffs and hazardous incidents, but civil liberties groups warn that semi-autonomous robots could reshape policing in troubling ways.
Hurricane season begins in earnest in August. The devastating floods in Texas earlier this summer underscored the importance of state and local readiness as the federal government rethinks its role in disaster response.
The Trump administration is trying to stop wind projects, but the Great Lakes states have a powerful say in what happens on the lakes, where turbines could power the entire region and beyond. They should lay the groundwork now.
By combining skills training, mental health support, and guaranteed job placement, the R.I.S.E. program offers a rare promise of post-release stability in Oklahoma.
Revoking the 2009 endangerment finding would weaken regulation of greenhouse gases and shift more responsibility to states already bracing for climate impacts.
Despite all the rhetoric about an environmental "war on coal," what drove its decline were falling prices for natural gas.
With scorching temperatures blanketing nearly half the country, power providers brace for peak demand as cities issue health warnings and transit systems slow under the strain.
Subsidies distort fair competition. If these technologies are the future of America’s energy sector, they should compete without the crutch of federal aid.
The state is the nation’s electric-vehicle leader. It could step in to keep America’s industry — and the jobs it supports — competitive.
The state agriculture department has banned the sale or purchase of English ivy, a fast-growing vine that can kill trees and harm native plants.
We need competent responders every hour of the day, every day of the week. But we often don’t have them.
The nation’s warmest large city can’t turn down the temperature, but it is finding ways to address factors that make heat dangerous for residents.
Nitrate pollution is likely to force more water-use restrictions. Iowa’s problems are uniquely severe: It has plenty of water, but bans on car washing and lawn watering underscore the state’s long struggle with high nitrate levels.
Flood events are bigger and more frequent. Governments can’t change the weather, but they can invest in infrastructure that is better able to handle it.
Even where abundantly available, the costs of clean water are rising faster than the CPI. Where it’s scarce, there’s double trouble. Ultimately, securing enough clean and affordable water will require state laws mandating realistic long-term pricing.
The Lone Star State accounts for roughly a third of all damages caused by extreme weather in the U.S. during the last 10 years.
A slew of measures that passed the Senate failed to come up for a vote in the Assembly. Advocates blame Speaker Carl Heastie, who says they’ve failed to build up support for legislation.
It won’t be easy, but former mayors Michael Tubbs and Aja Brown hope to prevent displaced lower income Altadena residents from being displaced for good.
The incinerated town of Lahaina has barely begun to recover. Policymakers have scrambled to ease inflexible laws and regulations but rebuilding would be happening much more quickly if that had happened before the fires.
House Republicans want to repeal tax credits for clean-energy projects, and the industry is already slowing. But the jobs and benefits would boost GOP-leaning states and congressional districts.
It could slow growth in crucial sectors and cost states jobs across industries, according to a new report.
There are places we shouldn’t be living. With federal disaster aid uncertain, states and localities should build voluntary buyout programs to relocate residents from floodplains.
Because reporting practices and requirements vary so much, extreme weather’s true damage cost is often a mystery. There are several ways to get better numbers.
While efforts to address climate change have faced a setback in Congress, state agencies, communities and citizens continue to plan and initiate projects that implement the state’s Climate Action Framework.
The administration will end protections for roughly half the 23-million-acre reserve, reopening the area for possible oil and gas drilling.
The plan is to provide more public transportation to move people out of private vehicles to reduce carbon emissions. Critics call the approach heavily restrictive.
Texas property owners can use nearly as much water under their land as they want. That’s unlikely to change even as the state approaches a crisis.
Decatur, Ill., has been losing factory jobs for years. A training program at a local community college promises renewal and provides training for students from disenfranchised communities.
They’re tearing through communities just about everywhere between the Rockies and the Appalachians. The U.S. has seen a broad shift in tornadoes to the east, to earlier in the year and clustered into larger outbreaks.
Climate models aren't generally specific enough to capture the reasons some urban neighborhoods are prone to flooding. A study in Chicago is examining both causes and remedies.
The Yorba Linda, Calif., water district has the country’s largest PFAS treatment facility of its kind. The drinking water it delivers to customers is free of these unwanted “forever chemicals.”
