Tag: Politics
Chevron owns this city’s news site. Many stories aren’t told
RICHMOND, Calif. — Open flames shot upward from four smokestacks at the Chevron refinery on the western edge of Richmond, Calif. Soon, black smoke blanketed the sky. News spread quickly that day last November, but by word of mouth, says Denny Khamphanthong, a 29-year-old Richmond resident. “We don’t know the full story, but we know […]
Continue Reading
‘Control the narrative’: how an Alabama utility wields influence by financing news
In the more than a decade since Alabama regulators allowed a landfill to take in tons of waste from coal-burning power plants around the US, neighbors in the majority-Black community of Uniontown frequently complain of thick air so pungent it makes their eyes burn. On some days, it can look like an eerily white Christmas in a […]
Continue Reading
Politicians say this Florida news site lets them buy coverage. Is your state next?
Read the story on NPR Political strategist Eunic Epstein-Ortiz arrived in Florida from New York in 2017 to help a major labor union turn out voters for the following year. She recalls being pleasantly surprised by the positive coverage the campaign received from Florida Politics. The website is Florida’s answer to Politico: It illuminates developments […]
Continue Reading
A group is spreading misinformation to stop solar projects in rural America
Read the story at NPR Roger Houser’s ranching business was getting squeezed. The calves he raises in Virginia’s Shenandoah Valley were selling for about the same price they had a few years earlier, while costs for essentials like fuel and fertilizer kept going up. But Houser found another use for his 500 acres. An energy […]
Continue Reading
Southeast power company money flows to news sites that attack their critics
Read the story on NPR Terry Dunn couldn’t fathom why Alabama’s residents — among the poorest in the U.S. — pay some of the nation’s most expensive electricity bills. So in 2010, Dunn ran for a seat on the state commission that sets energy prices. He promised to hold a formal rate hearing at which […]
Continue Reading
Leaked: US power companies secretly spending millions to protect profits and fight clean energy
Read the story at The Guardian The CEO of the biggest power company in the US had a problem. A Democratic state senator was proposing a law that could cut into Florida Power & Light’s (FPL) profits. Landlords would be able to sell cheap rooftop solar power directly to their tenants – bypassing FPL and […]
Continue Reading
Why is eco-conscious California spending millions to support natural gas?
Read the story at The Guardian In the course of an hour, more than a hundred big rig trucks chug through the aptly named city of Commerce. The heavily Latino community in Los Angeles intersects Interstate 710 – the main highway that moves cargo shipments from the nearby ports to their final destinations. Along with the merchandise […]
Continue Reading
U.S. Allows Hunters to Import Some Elephant Trophies From Africa
After settling a lawsuit filed during the Trump administration, the Fish and Wildlife Service granted six permits to bring elephant parts into the country. It may approve more in the coming months. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service informed some hunters last month that it would allow the import of six elephant trophies into the United States […]
Continue Reading
Winter gas bill from hell: Oklahomans face paying $1.4bn over snowstorm
Customers saddled with paying 600 times the usual price for energy as regulators are accused of being too close to the industry they monitor hen Neil Crittenden heard that an extreme winter storm was about to hit Oklahoma last winter, he did what officials advised him to do and kept his heat on and water running so […]
Continue Reading