A proposal to spur intense development in some of the most rural areas of the state died in the final days of the regular legislative session, due largely to strong opposition from Republican senators who declared that their constituents didn’t want any part of it.

While its critics cheered the idea’s failure, they remain concerned it

it will be revived next year.

The bill (SB 354) would have established so-called “Blue Ribbon” projects for landowners who control 15,000 or more contiguous acres. That’s comparable in size to the Broward County City of Weston, and would apply only to a select number of landowners in the state.

It would require that 60% of that land be set aside as “reserve areas” and the remainder developed over 50 years into cities and towns regardless of the underlying comprehensive planning and land use allocations.

Global carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from fossil fuels and industry totaled 38.11 billion metric tons (GtCO₂) in 2025, hitting a record high, versus 25.51 GtCO2 in 2000. Moreover, the rate of global warming more than doubled for the first time in human history, in only one decade.

Scientists are stunned: The Rate of Global Warming has Accelerated More in the Past Decade Than Ever Before, LiveScience, d/d March 7, 2026. According to NASA, 97% of publishing scientists in the world agree that excessive CO2 emissions cause excessive global warming as well as aberrant climate change.

A coalition of environmental groups filed a lawsuit Thursday against the Trump administration over its decision this week to remove Endangered Species Act protections from species threatened by oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico.

On Tuesday, a group of administration officials called the Endangered Species Committee met for only the fourth time in its history. Also known as “the God Squad, it’s made up of six high ranking federal officials, led by the interior secretary.

The group voted unanimously to exempt oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico from environmental safeguards that have been put in place to protect the endangered wildlife in its waters. The decision came after Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth told Interior Secretary Doug Burgum on March 13 that it “was a matter of national security” and a reaction to pending litigation “that threatened to halt oil and gas production” in the Gulf.

Republicans at the state and federal levels are working to shield fossil fuel companies from laws and legal claims that aim to make them pay for some of the damage caused by climate change.

Lawmakers and oil industry advocates are running a two-track campaign, in statehouses and in Congress, to pass laws to protect companies from paying some of the costs of intensified wildfires, storms, floods and other effects of global warming. The goal is broad immunity, similar to what Congress granted to gun manufacturers two decades ago.

The effort comes as major fossil fuel companies including Exxon, Chevron and ConocoPhillips face a wave of lawsuits from cities, states and individuals who say the companies knew their products would dangerously warm the planet.

Dealerships say they’re getting busier as the Iran war and the shipping crisis at the Strait of Hormuz drag on. 

Buying inquiries are way up at iDrive1 Motors in Carrollton, Texas, where owner Dink Davis has specialized in used electric vehicles for a decade. Gas prices aren’t nearly as high in the Lone Star State as they are in other parts of the US, after the Iran war and the ensuing crisis in the Strait of Hormuz spiked global oil costs in late February. Compare the average $3.68 per gallon in Texas to California’s $5.89. But AAA says prices are up nationally more than a third since the start of the conflict. Davis and his three employees—in the business of selling cars that run on batteries, not gas—are very, very busy.

“The last three weeks, it’s gotten stupid,” Davis says. “We can barely keep up with the stuff that’s coming in.” On Tuesday, he says, a customer traded in a diesel-eating Jeep, which costs more than $100 to fill up, for a used EV.

If the utility had to pay a fraction of rising fuel prices, it might rethink its gas buildout and save North Carolinians tens of millions of dollars, a study finds.

As the climate crisis intensifies the storms lashing south Florida, it is imperative to design spaces that soak up the water. The 19.4-acre Bayshore Park is an example of how to design spaces that protect from and connect residents to nature.

Masterminded by the Savino & Miller Design Studio, a local landscape architecture firm, the 19.4-acre green space replaces a golf course.The designers and community groups sought a variety of experiences in the park, from immersion in nature and a playground for children to tennis courts. ‘We thought, How can we save this land for community benefit and ecological benefit as well?’ said Barry Miller, a landscape architect and principal at the firm.

Aurora, May Mobility, Motional, Nuro, Tesla, Waymo, and Zoox all refused to cough up a number during Senator Ed Markey's recent investigation.

That’s good news, since the forecast is sunshine for the next 5 billion years.

There’s a whole menu of different energy sources to choose from in generating electric power—coal, gas, wind, and so on—and some are worse for the planet than others. But regardless of where we gather it, the energy itself almost always comes from the sun. Don’t believe me? Let’s think about it:

When you burn coal, it reacts with oxygen and releases energy. But where did that energy come from? Prehistoric vegetation. Ancient ferns and weird swamp trees captured energy from sunlight using photosynthesis. Over eons, all that greenstuff got buried, where heat and pressure turned it into coal. That’s right, coal-based power is solar power. You could even call it a renewable resource, if you don’t mind waiting 100 million years.

Climate change costs include higher home insurance bills, disaster recovery costs in the form of higher taxes and health damages from wildfire smoke and extreme weather. "In short, climate inaction isn’t just an environmental failure; it acts like a tax on every American household," write Kimberly Clausing, Christopher Knittel and Catherine Wolfram.

The following is an excerpt from Tori Tsui's fantastic and insightful book, It’s Not Just You: How to Navigate Eco-Anxiety and the Climate Crisis, which will be released by The New Press in the United States this month. Check out our interview with Tori on CounterPunch Radio. – Joshua Frank

It’s Not Just You is a simple yet powerful statement that underpins how I have come to explore some of the intricacies between mental health and climate change. It is a statement that traverses many themes, as neither climate change nor mental health exist in siloes, nor are they limited in scope.

A fundamental motif of this book is ‘eco-anxiety’, more loosely defined as a chronic fear of environmental doom and a popularised catch-all term for those whose mental health is being impacted by climate change. But it would be remiss of me to say this book is strictly about my relationship with eco-anxiety, or the eco-anxious experience as a whole. Nor is it a prescriptive step-by-step guide on how to deal with feelings of eco-anxiety, so if that is what you’re after, it’s best to look elsewhere (better yet, skip to the recommended reading!).

Rather, the titular use of how to is a trojan horse of sorts, inviting us to navigate mental health and climate change through experiences like eco-anxiety by asking big-picture questions and expanding beyond popularised viewpoints. It is a space to explore what we as people fighting for climate justice need in order for our communities and environments to survive, but more importantly, to thrive.

What El Niño Will Do to Earth Next… And Why You’re Not Ready 🌎🌊

Regulators said ending the state’s renewable portfolio standard would save customers money, but the official economic analysis undermines that assertion.

More than 70% of adults in the United States are very or somewhat concerned about their own or their loved ones’ exposure to harmful chemicals in food and drinking water, and a majority is also concerned about chemicals in food packaging, children’s and baby products, farmland, and other sources.

(See Figure 1.) Further, about 5 in 6 want government and business to do more to ensure chemical safety and increase transparency around the use of chemicals.

These are the top takeaways from a national survey conducted by The Pew Charitable Trusts and global market research and public opinion firm Ipsos.

Explore climate change beliefs, risk perceptions, and policy support at every geographic level in the United States.

WASHINGTON, March 30, 2026 – Tech trade group INCOMPAS is backing a Maryland ISP’s bid to preempt state permitting rules.

FCC preemption extends to networks providing both broadband and telecom services, the trade group argued.

The outcome will “affect every INCOMPAS member deploying modern multi-use networks,” wrote the group, which represents broadband providers like WOW and Gonetspeed as well as tech giants like Meta and Amazon.