Environment

Environment

Trump tried to make an ally out of fishermen. Some have started to turn on him

Patrick Whittle, The Associated Press 6 minute read 11:09 PM CDT

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — John Evich, a commercial fisherman in Washington and Alaska, has voted for President Donald Trump three times, viewing him as someone who would fight for his industry.

But these days, Evich is weary of the high cost of doing business at sea, with fuel prices rising and trade hostilities with Canada jeopardizing markets for the crabs that he pulls off the ocean floor.

“If somebody came along that was going to do a better job, I would vote for them in a heartbeat,” he said.

Evich's sentiment, echoed throughout the U.S. seafood industry, is another piece of a political puzzle that is working against Trump in the midterm elections. Dissatisfaction among commercial fishermen could cause collateral damage for Republicans in competitive races in Washington, Alaska and Maine.

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FILE - A natural gas meter operates Jan. 22, 2025, in Portland, Ore. (AP Photo/Jenny Kane, File)

Households will pay more for energy because of Trump’s policy changes, think tank says

Jennifer Mcdermott, The Associated Press 6 minute read Preview

Households will pay more for energy because of Trump’s policy changes, think tank says

Jennifer Mcdermott, The Associated Press 6 minute read 11:02 PM CDT

Households in the contiguous United States will pay thousands of dollars more for energy through 2040 because of federal policy changes since President Donald Trump returned to office, according to modeling released Friday by a nonpartisan think tank.

The Energy Innovation analysis found that households will pay an average of $6,500 more for energy, cumulatively through 2040. In five states, households will pay roughly $9,000 more: Oregon, Mississippi, South Dakota, Virginia and Wyoming.

The California-based think tank said there will be more demand for natural gas for electricity because the administration is canceling new clean energy projects and there will be more demand for gasoline for transportation because Trump and Congress are revoking policies that encouraged or created incentives for more efficient and lower-emissions vehicles. Higher demand drives prices up.

Electricity bills are already rising faster than inflation in much of the U.S., which is being blamed in some areas on demand from data centers. The Iran war has sent oil and gasoline prices sharply higher, too.

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11:02 PM CDT

Environment

A resident fills their container with clean water as others wait for their turn from a tanker truck amid a drought in Sanggau, West Kalimantan, Indonesia, Friday, Sept. 11, 2026. (AP Photo/Tatan Syuflana)

Indonesian villagers on Borneo struggle for water as El Niño intensifies peatland fires

Edna Tarigan And Victoria Milko, The Associated Press 5 minute read Preview

Indonesian villagers on Borneo struggle for water as El Niño intensifies peatland fires

Edna Tarigan And Victoria Milko, The Associated Press 5 minute read 8:07 PM CDT

PENYELADI, Indonesia (AP) — After three months with no rain, Sriwati, a shopkeeper and mother of three children living in Penyeladi village on the tropical island of Borneo, can no longer depend on the river for her needs.

Experts say communities like Sriwati’s are facing a severe water crisis as this year’s super El Niño, combined with decades of degradation of the island’s ecologically vital peatlands — ancient wetlands that are critical for carbon storage, water regulation and pollution control — has created the perfect storm exacerbating human-caused climate change.

The Kapuas, Indonesia’s longest river that over 3 million people rely on, has extremely receded in the area near her home. All that’s left is a shallow stream of muddy water that's not safe to drink or wash the rice she cooks to feed her children. She now has to buy water, adding to her monthly expenses.

“The water shortage affects us, especially when it comes to drinking water,” Sriwati, who like many Indonesians uses only one name, told The Associated Press from her small, concrete home.

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8:07 PM CDT

Environment

FILE - The Teton mountains reflect on Oxbow Bend in Grand Teton National Park in Moran, Wyo., Aug. 22, 2025. (AP Photo/Amber Baesler, File)

MLB won’t consider game at Grand Teton National Park, says was only conducting initial due diligence

The Associated Press 2 minute read Preview

MLB won’t consider game at Grand Teton National Park, says was only conducting initial due diligence

The Associated Press 2 minute read 6:52 PM CDT

NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Baseball won't consider staging a game in western Wyoming’s Grand Teton National Park.

Baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred sent a letter Thursday to Teton County Commissioner Chair Mark Newcomb, Jackson Mayor Arne Jorgensen and Jackson Hole Chamber of Commerce President Rick Howe, who wrote to Manfred voicing objections on Monday following a report in The Washington Post that Grand Teton was under consideration.

Manfred sent a similar letter to U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich of New Mexico.

“MLB has no formal plan to play a game in Grand Teton National Park,” Manfred wrote. “Our team was conducting initial due diligence on many potential sites when this story was reported and we had made no decision of the feasibility of staging a game in Grand Teton National Park. We also had not reached the stage in our due diligence in which we evaluated the environmental impact or spoke to members of the community to solicit their views — steps that would have certainly been a part of any process should it have moved forward.”

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6:52 PM CDT

Environment

FILE - A barge on the Ohio River moves past the Mountaineer Power Plant, a coal-fired power plant near New Haven, W.Va., March 13, 2026. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster, File)

States and cities sue over Trump’s EPA eliminating rule that limits emissions from power plants

Matthew Daly And Jennifer Mcdermott, The Associated Press 4 minute read Preview

States and cities sue over Trump’s EPA eliminating rule that limits emissions from power plants

Matthew Daly And Jennifer Mcdermott, The Associated Press 4 minute read Updated: 4:52 PM CDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — States and cities sued the Trump administration Thursday for repealing rules that limit planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions from power plants fueled by coal and natural gas.

Twenty-one states, led by New York, are challenging the Environmental Protection Agency's power plant rule. The Democratic-led coalition also includes Pennsylvania's governor, the District of Columbia, New York City, Chicago and the city and county of Denver. They argue that “gutting one of the country’s most significant climate protections” will set the nation back decades and worsen the climate crisis.

The EPA announced last month it's revoking the Biden-era rule, and said it is taking a separate but related step to prevent future administrations from regulating climate pollution from power plants.

New York Attorney General Letitia James said the federal government is showing “callous disregard” for Americans’ health and the environment, and future generations will pay the price. Power plants that burn fossil fuels are a major source of planet-warming pollution.

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Updated: 4:52 PM CDT

Environment

A man carries items through floodwater past downed electric lines after the passing of Hurricane Polo in Puerto San Carlos, Baja California Sur state, Mexico, Tuesday, Sept. 29, 2026. (AP Photo/Eduardo Verdugo)

Hurricane Rachel strengthens to a Category 3 storm off Mexico’s Pacific coast

Fabiola Sánchez, Jonathan Castellón And Sarah Raza, The Associated Press 4 minute read Preview

Hurricane Rachel strengthens to a Category 3 storm off Mexico’s Pacific coast

Fabiola Sánchez, Jonathan Castellón And Sarah Raza, The Associated Press 4 minute read Updated: 7:46 PM CDT

MEXICO CITY (AP) — Hurricane Rachel has been upgraded to a Category 3 storm off Mexico’s Pacific coast as northern Mexico and parts of the U.S. Southwest were reeling from flooding and damage from the remnants of Hurricane Polo earlier this week.

The storm, located about 245 miles (390 kilometers) off the southern tip of Baja California, is slowly continuing westward at 3 miles per hour (4.8 kph) and expected to strengthen in the next day before weakening this weekend, according to the National Hurricane Center.

The maximum sustained winds were 120 miles per hour (193 kph) as of Thursday afternoon. Rachel’s swells are expected to generate life-threatening surf and rip-current conditions off Mexico’s coast, the NHC warned.

Mexican authorities said Thursday they remain on alert because of forecasts of very heavy rain in the states of Baja California Sur, Sinaloa, and Jalisco, and the possibility of landslides, rising river levels, overflowing rivers and flooding in low-lying areas.

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Updated: 7:46 PM CDT

Environment

FILE - Permafrost melts on the coast in Newtok, Alaska, Aug. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

Heat-trapping gas once frozen in Arctic ground is slowly leaking and warming the planet

Seth Borenstein, The Associated Press 6 minute read Preview

Heat-trapping gas once frozen in Arctic ground is slowly leaking and warming the planet

Seth Borenstein, The Associated Press 6 minute read 8:01 AM CDT

FAIRBANKS, Alaska (AP) — As Ted Schuur stepped along the edges of Smith Lake, a bubble surfaced from the muck underfoot. And then another.

They're bubbles of methane, a potent heat-trapping gas made from decomposing plants and animals that had once been stuck in Alaska's frigid permafrost. But that frozen ground is thawing because the Arctic is warming four times faster than the rest of the globe. For thousands of years that frozen ground stored dead plants and animals, but the accelerating thaw is allowing them to decay into methane and carbon dioxide.

“Once you start leaking this carbon out, there’s so much in the ground that it’s not going to shut off,” said Schuur, an ecologist at Northern Arizona University, calling it one of climate change's scary tipping points. “Essentially every year is setting a permafrost record.”

There’s three times as much carbon still frozen in permafrost than what’s now in the air, but all over the Arctic those heat-trapping gases are escaping into the atmosphere. Their release adds to what's already in the air from humanity's burning coal, oil and natural gas, changing the delicate balance of how a warming world deals with the buildup of heat-trapping carbon, Schuur said.

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8:01 AM CDT

Environment

The Ghost from Ghost Opera produced by Old Trout Puppet Workshop seen in this undated photo. - THE CANADIAN PRESS/Handout - A D Zyne (Mandatory Credit)

Calgary puppeteer collective among finalists for $100K Siminovitch theatre prize

Nicole Thompson, The Canadian Press 2 minute read Preview

Calgary puppeteer collective among finalists for $100K Siminovitch theatre prize

Nicole Thompson, The Canadian Press 2 minute read 8:00 AM CDT

TORONTO - A collective of puppeteers is once again among the finalists for Canada's richest theatre award. 

The Siminovitch Prize announced the four finalists Thursday for the $100,000 award that goes to a mid-career theatre artist or ensemble. 

They include the Calgary-based Old Trout Puppet Workshop, which is known for intricately carved wooden puppets and was also in the running for the prize in 2024.

The Trouts, as they are known, have toured their work internationally — including "Famous Puppet Death Scenes" — and designed shows for other theatre companies, including a 2016 production of "Twelfth Night" at the National Arts Centre. 

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8:00 AM CDT

Environment

A newly constructed wind turbine, whose rotor tips reach a maximum height of 365 meters (1,198 feet), stands in Schipkau, Germany, Thursday, Oct. 1, 2026. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber)

Wind turbine taller than the Eiffel Tower aims to boost German electricity production

Pietro De Cristofaro, The Associated Press 3 minute read Preview

Wind turbine taller than the Eiffel Tower aims to boost German electricity production

Pietro De Cristofaro, The Associated Press 3 minute read Updated: 8:55 AM CDT

SCHIPKAU, Germany (AP) — A wind turbine described by its developer as the world’s tallest now rises 365 meters (1,197 feet) above the sparsely populated landscape of eastern Germany, surpassing the height of the Eiffel Tower.

The colossal turbine has been built at an existing wind farm in Lusatia, southeast of Berlin. Once a major center of lignite mining, the region has increasingly turned to renewable energy in recent years. The prototype reached its full height this week and is due to be inaugurated in mid-November.

Jochen Grossmann, chief executive of Gicon, the Dresden-based engineering company that built the tower, said the structure would harness the stronger, more reliable winds found at greater heights. Conventional wind turbines typically have a hub height — the distance from the ground to the center of the rotor — of well below 200 meters (656 feet).

“At 300 meters, we have such constant and strong wind that we can produce more than twice as much electrical energy as with the same facility at today's heights,” Grossmann said on Thursday. He added that it would also be possible to produce electricity for much more of the year than with existing turbines.

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Updated: 8:55 AM CDT

Environment

Dew droplets cling to a flower among a carpet of blooms covering the Atacama Desert near Copiapo, Chile, Friday, Sept. 25, 2026. (AP Photo/Esteban Felix)

Earth’s driest desert is covered in wildflowers right now

Nayara Batschke, The Associated Press 4 minute read Preview

Earth’s driest desert is covered in wildflowers right now

Nayara Batschke, The Associated Press 4 minute read Updated: 1:22 PM CDT

THE ATACAMA DESERT, Chile (AP) — Spring has finally arrived in the Southern Hemisphere and, in Chile, even the desert is blossoming.

Known as the driest nonpolar desert on Earth, a massive portion of the Atacama Desert has been covered in flowers after the El Niño weather pattern brought heavy rains to the region earlier this year. The unusually large amount of water allowed millions of seeds and bulbs to sprout and bloom, many of them after remaining dormant for decades.

“It is a unique phenomenon; there are more than 200 plant species,” Jorge Carabantes, head of the Protected Areas Department at the National Forest Corporation (CONAF), told The Associated Press. “This is a flowering event that is obviously extraordinary and unusual, very different from other blooms that occur elsewhere on the globe.”

The Atacama lies between the Pacific Ocean and the Andes Mountains, stretching some 1,600 kilometers (1,000 miles) all the way down the northern coast of Chile.

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Updated: 1:22 PM CDT

Environment

Hydro-Québec headquarters in Montreal, Thursday, Nov. 14, 2024. THE CANADIAN PRESS/Graham Hughes

Hydro-Québec wants to double data centre costs, Google and others prepare rebuttal

Marieke Glorieux-Stryckman, The Canadian Press 4 minute read Preview

Hydro-Québec wants to double data centre costs, Google and others prepare rebuttal

Marieke Glorieux-Stryckman, The Canadian Press 4 minute read Updated: 4:44 PM CDT

MONTREAL - Analysts for Hydro-Québec made the case Thursday morning that the utility needs to act urgently to limit the impact of the growing data centre industry on energy costs for Quebecers. 

In a public hearing in Montreal, the provincial utility called for a new rate that could double the cost of energy for data centres.

“I don't think I will surprise anyone by saying that the context has changed deeply and that the era of energy surpluses is now behind us,” Sarah Trabelsi, chief of costs and pricing at Hydro-Québec. 

This was part of the utility’s first presentation at a provincial energy regulator hearing. It is pitting Hydro-Québec against tech industry actors like Google as well as environmental advocates like Greenpeace.

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Updated: 4:44 PM CDT

Environment

People ride motorbikes through floodwater caused by rain and high tide, on Pham Huu Lau Street in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Thanh Hue)

Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City is learning to live with floods but climate change has raised the stakes

Thanh Hue And Aniruddha Ghosal, The Associated Press 5 minute read Preview

Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City is learning to live with floods but climate change has raised the stakes

Thanh Hue And Aniruddha Ghosal, The Associated Press 5 minute read 2:05 AM CDT

HO CHI MINH CITY, Vietnam (AP) — It is the flood Vietnam's Ho Chi Minh City has learned to expect.

Forecasters warned on Sept. 27 that high tides could combine with heavy rain to increase the risk of flooding in Ho Chi Minh City, one of the world’s most climate-vulnerable cities. As heavy rain combined with the tide on the evening of Sept. 30, the Saigon river and smaller waterways spilled onto the roads of Vietnam's commercial capital.

Life went on. Floodwater lapped at diners’ feet as they ate their food at roadside shops. Street vendors sat under plastic raincoats beside their wares, while customers in ponchos rode up, bought what they needed and headed back into the water.

Residents of low-lying neighborhoods in the city have long learned to live with the water. Some, like 63-year-old Vo Dang Thi, have raised the floors of their homes to keep the water out. But familiarity does not make the flooding less disruptive, and climate change is making the city’s exposure worse.

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2:05 AM CDT

Environment

FILE — A lake of meltwater has formed on the tongue of the Rhone glacier near Goms, Switzerland, June 13, 2023. (AP Photo/Matthias Schrader, File)

Swiss glaciers lose over 5% of ice volume in 2026 as heat waves, low winter snow accelerate thaw

Jamey Keaten, The Associated Press 4 minute read Preview

Swiss glaciers lose over 5% of ice volume in 2026 as heat waves, low winter snow accelerate thaw

Jamey Keaten, The Associated Press 4 minute read Updated: 3:22 AM CDT

ZURICH, Switzerland (AP) — Glaciers in Switzerland – the home to the most in the Alps – lost 5.5% of their ice volume this year, the second-biggest percentage drop on record due to heat waves and low winter snowfall, experts report.

“Alpine glaciers have no chance of surviving in the long term under such conditions,” the GLAMOS Swiss glacier monitoring service and Swiss Academy of Sciences said in a statement released Thursday.

The trend has worsened in recent years: Over the past five years alone, the volume of ice in Switzerland has declined by nearly a fifth, the experts say.

The report testifies to the latest concerns that global warming is wreaking havoc on Europe, the world’s fastest-warming continent.

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Updated: 3:22 AM CDT

Environment

FILE - This Sept. 26, 2018, photo provided by the National Park Service shows a 4-year-old female gray wolf emerging from her cage as she is released at Isle Royale National Park in Michigan. (National Park Service via AP, File)

Isle Royale wolves inbred but likely to survive, study says

Laura Herberg/bridge Michigan, The Associated Press 5 minute read Preview

Isle Royale wolves inbred but likely to survive, study says

Laura Herberg/bridge Michigan, The Associated Press 5 minute read Yesterday at 3:02 PM CDT

Researchers found Isle Royale wolves brought to the island in 2018 are likely to survive but are inbred and increasingly isolated.

In 2016, the island had only a pair of inbred wolves not having babies. So, between 2018 and 2019, Isle Royale National Park officials, with the help of researchers, brought 19 wolves onto the island in hopes of reestablishing the population.

A team of international researchers, including park officials, studied the transported wolves the first five years after their relocation to estimate their likelihood of survival and recently published the results in the journal Conservation Science and Practice.

They found the wolf population has a greater than 80% chance of lasting 20 years but will face complications from inbreeding and an island increasingly cut off from the mainland because of global warming.

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Yesterday at 3:02 PM CDT

Environment

Jennifer Lopez arrives for the Stella McCartney Womenswear Spring Summer 2027 collection presented in Paris, France, Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2026. (AP Photo/Aurelien Morissard)

Jennifer Lopez in the rain, dolphins on T-shirts: Stella McCartney declares war on seafood in Paris

Thomas Adamson, The Associated Press 3 minute read Preview

Jennifer Lopez in the rain, dolphins on T-shirts: Stella McCartney declares war on seafood in Paris

Thomas Adamson, The Associated Press 3 minute read Yesterday at 2:08 PM CDT

PARIS (AP) — Stella McCartney declared war on the fishing industry at Paris Fashion Week on Wednesday, 25 years into a label that has never used leather, fur or feathers — on a rain-soaked runway in the British ambassador's gardens, with Jennifer Lopez under an umbrella in the front row.

Her case began with vocabulary: the same animals are “sea life” when people marvel at them and “seafood” when they order.

“Who makes that decision?” she said backstage.

Of the industry that stocks the menu, she was blunter: “It’s war. We’re at war with the oceans.”

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Yesterday at 2:08 PM CDT

Environment

The U.S. Capitol is seen Friday, Sept. 25, 2026, in Washington. (AP Photo/Mariam Zuhaib)

Senate reaches bipartisan deal on permitting bill to speed approvals of new energy projects

Matthew Daly, The Associated Press 5 minute read Preview

Senate reaches bipartisan deal on permitting bill to speed approvals of new energy projects

Matthew Daly, The Associated Press 5 minute read Updated: Yesterday at 4:50 PM CDT

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senators from both parties said Wednesday they have reached a deal on legislation aimed at speeding up permitting reviews for new energy and infrastructure projects that now face yearslong delays, as lawmakers seek to meet growing demand for electricity and other forms of energy.

The bill, proponents argue, would cut down the arduous timeline for getting big energy projects off the ground at a time when demand is rising because of mushrooming data centers for artificial intelligence. The bill would ensure AI data centers are forced to pay for the increased electricity they use and would mark a significant change to a landmark environmental law that critics say slows the process of building energy projects.

Republican Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia, chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee, called the bill “a major step toward making it faster and more efficient and easier to build infrastructure projects” of all types while maintaining important environmental protections.

Vote on the bill won't happen until after the midterms

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Updated: Yesterday at 4:50 PM CDT

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