While winds and flames continued to ravage Los Angeles, small teams began creeping onto the charred soils left in their wake. Roughly a dozen members of the California Watershed Emergency Response Teams and the United States Forest Service are studying the edges of the Eaton and Palisades fires to determine what patches of land burned…
The Biden administration announced new protections for 1.3 million acres in the North Slope of Alaska, a final effort to shield it from oil companies eager to drill in the ecologically sensitive Arctic environment. President-elect Donald J. Trump returns to the White House on Monday, and he has pledged to grant fossil fuel companies broad…
It’s not exactly the best moment to pitch ultraprocessed foods as healthy and delicious, but that’s exactly what two major producers of plant-based meat are trying to do. Beyond Meat wants to convince people that its vegan versions of meat products are good for you. So does its competitor, Impossible Foods, which recently changed its…
Doug Burgum, President-elect Donald J. Trump’s choice to lead the Interior Department, said on Thursday he viewed America’s public lands and waters as part of the country’s financial “balance sheet,” with potentially trillions of dollars worth of oil, gas and minerals waiting to be extracted beneath the surface. Mr. Burgum, who served two terms as…
The Energy Department said on Thursday that it planned to offer $22.9 billion in loan guarantees to help eight electric utilities around the country modernize their power grids, add large amounts of renewable energy — and pass along any resulting savings to customers. The deals amount to one of the biggest commitments ever made by…
Of all the government agencies that President-elect Donald J. Trump has threatened to shrink or eliminate, perhaps none has been a greater target than the Environmental Protection Agency. During the first Trump administration, the nation’s top regulator of air and water pollution and industrial chemicals saw its budget slashed, leading to an exodus of employees…
Sales of electric vehicles have been rising steadily over the past few years, in part because of a federal tax credit of up to $7,500 that makes buying such cars and trucks more affordable. But understanding which cars it applies to and under what circumstances can be confusing. And all of those rules could change…
President Biden ran for the White House promising to be a transitional figure, then once he got there began thinking of himself as a transformational one. But after a tumultuous four years in office, it turns out he was really neither. Instead, Mr. Biden will end up in the history books as an interregnum between…
Armed with two garden hoses hooked up to a sputtering tap, Matthew Craig battled fire and smoke to save his house from the onslaught of flames that devastated much of Altadena, a once leafy corner of Los Angeles County. The wind felt like dragon’s breath, he said, and “we were all eating smoke.” But even…
After disasters like the Los Angeles wildfires, the Federal Emergency Management Agency offers different types of financial assistance. The fastest is what FEMA calls “serious needs assistance,” which is a one-time payment of $770. That money is meant to be used for immediate needs, such as food or other supplies, for people who had to…
