Facing mounting scrutiny over data center water consumption, Google on Wednesday released a set of guidelines it says should become the industry standard. Why it matters: Communities across the U.S. are increasingly pushing back against new data centers, often citing concerns about water use alongside rising power prices, local air pollution and noise. Read more in...
Can We Refill the Great Salt Lake?
The Great Salt Lake is drying up. Since the mid-1980s, the lake has dropped 22 feet, and its surface area is 60 percent smaller than it once was. If that doesn’t sound like a lot, consider this: it takes 12 minutes and 13 seconds to walk from where the lake’s shoreline once was to where it is today.
Trade Barriers Threaten Critical Minerals Policy
Last week, the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue, known as the Quad and consisting of the United States, India, Japan, and Australia, met in New Delhi and hammered out, among other things, a Quad Critical Minerals Initiative Framework.
Wildfires Are Reversing Years of US Air Quality Gains, Study Finds
Wildfires have worsened ozone levels across the United States so much over the last decade that they have reversed around four years of progress, a new study has found. Surface ozone levels, or smog concentrations, steadily increased from 2015 to 2024, deteriorating air quality across the Midwest and Western U.S., researchers at the University of...
NRC Finishes TerraPower’s Construction Permit Ahead of Schedule
In a welcoming milestone, TerraPower received approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) for a construction permit for its advanced nuclear power plant in Kemmerer, Wyoming. The review, completed ahead of schedule, provides a hopeful signal that the United States is finally turning the corner on one of the biggest barriers to clean energy innovation: an outdated, slow, and unpredictable licensing and permitting system.
US set to hold latest oil and gas lease sale for Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
The Trump administration’s push to expand oil and gas development in Alaska faces a new test Friday, with the latest lease sale set for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. Opponents of drilling in the refuge’s coastal plain have pointed to a lack of industry interest in the prior two sales held there and ongoing changes in Alaska’s arctic region due to...
This U.S. Company is Putting Metal Manufacturing Back on the Map
Developing and commercializing new metal alloys is a slow and expensive process. As a result, companies in sectors such as aerospace, defense, and energy often rely on established materials, even when they lack the performance required to build next-generation products. To address this challenge, Foundation Alloy is developing a new class of advanced alloys based on metals.
Trump makes changes to steel, aluminum and copper tariffs
President Donald Trump on Monday adjusted tariffs on some steel, aluminum and copper imports, lowering some tariffs on farming equipment and extending the lower rate to other equipment. In an executive order, Trump lowered tariffs on agricultural equipment, including combines and harvesters, and heating, ventilation, and air conditioning (HVAC) systems, to 15% from 25%. Read...
Trump administration in ‘active dialogue’ on strategic petroleum reserve in California
The Trump administration is in “active dialogue” on creating a petroleum reserve in California, Energy Secretary Chris Wright told POLITICO on Friday, a move that would boost oil infrastructure in the state and undermine Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s bid to shrink the state’s fossil fuel footprint. A June 2 document that lawyers for Sable Offshore...
Growing Grid Strategy: Undergrounding Power Lines to Withstand Weather
Electric utilities and power grid operators increasingly are looking at ways to diminish and avoid disruptions from extreme weather. The power sector also has experience with the financial impacts of wildfires, both with damage to assets and losses incurred when equipment is found liable for causing those events. Undergrounding lines, in addition to enhancing safety,...









