ICN Sunday Morning: The Okefenokee’s Bid for International Recognition

ICN Sunday Morning: The Terrible Combined With the Good

Go behind the scenes with executive editor Vernon Loeb and North Carolina reporter Lisa Sorg as they explain how a new N.C. ratepayer bill would put the brakes on data centers while incentivizing the use of fossil fuels. The Ratepayer Protection Act, making its way through the North Carolina legislature, conjoins two opposing ideas. On one side, the bill would rein in data centers and their ravenous power consumption, and shield North Carolinians from paying higher electric bills as a result of data centers’ operations. On the other, the measure would liberate Duke Energy from limits on fossil fuel, upending key aspects of state energy policy and, in some respects, reversing nearly 20 years of painstaking work on climate change. “It’s the terrible combined with the good,” a local advocate explained. “They should be two separate bills.” Lisa, who has been following this legislation, explains how these two ideas got put together in the first place, where the opposing ideas fit in the state’s political landscape, and what’s at stake for North Carolina if the bill passes.

ICN Sunday Morning: The Okefenokee’s Bid for International Recognition

Go behind the scenes with executive editor Vernon Loeb and ICN contributor Ryan Krugman as they discuss the Okefenokee’s bid for recognition as a UNESCO World Heritage site. A vast swamp in southeast Georgia, the Okefenokee National Wildlife Refuge is an environmental wonderland: a protected wilderness of blackwater channels, peat, and dense wetland forests, supporting a rich array of wildlife and plant life. By July, the Okefenokee could be internationally recognized as a United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) World Heritage Site. But this effort to protect the refuge depends partly on another layer of federal and international politics, since President Donald Trump moved to withdraw the United States from UNESCO earlier this year. Ryan, an ICN contributor who recently spent four days paddling the Okefenokee, explains how a U.S. UNESCO withdrawal could affect the bid, how the Okefenokee meets UNESCO’s standard of “outstanding universal value,” and what it’s like to experience the wildlife refuge firsthand.

ICN Sunday Morning: Mining the Metal of the Future

Go behind the scenes with senior editor Michael Kodas, ICN reporter Wyatt Myskow and Columbia Journalism Investigations reporter Johanna Hansel as they discuss the complicated push to build up lithium mining in the United States. Today, just one lithium mine operates in the U.S. By 2030, at least six new projects are expected on American soil, with 13 more close behind, mostly in the dry Southwest. That’s only a sliver of what’s coming. Companies have already staked claims for more than 100 lithium mines, according to a new database from Columbia Journalism Investigations and Inside Climate News. This surge underscores how quickly the U.S. is emerging as a major player in the global lithium market, a metal central to electric vehicle batteries. The Biden administration promoted the boom as a way to bolster U.S. energy independence, and under the banner of “Drill, Baby, Drill,” President Donald Trump has accelerated it—while the costs mount. Socially and economically vulnerable communities, especially Indigenous tribes, are absorbing many of the impacts. Wyatt and Johanna, whose reporting alongside CJI’s Carla Samon Ros has produced a new series on U.S. lithium mining, break down the rush to build these projects, what it means for local communities and fragile ecosystems, and what can be done now to improve the path forward.

ICN Sunday Morning: $370 Million Payout

Go behind the scenes with senior editor Corey Mitchell, reporter Phil McKenna, and data journalist Peter Aldhous as they discuss a new Senate probe over lucrative and questionable tax credits to the country’s largest exporter of liquefied natural gas. Liquefied natural gas vessels are fueled by their cargo—they’re built specifically to make use of the gas boiling off from their tanks. But Cheniere Energy, the largest U.S. exporter of LNG, requested “alternative fuel” tax credits for that. The claim baffled shipping experts, because what Cheniere Energy is doing isn’t, in any real sense, an alternative. It also provides little climate benefit over fueling the vessels with diesel and uses the credit in a way that tax specialists say was never intended. Yet the Internal Revenue Service approved a $370 million payout to the company, a huge windfall that Phil and Peter predicted in an exclusive investigation earlier this year. Now, a group of seven Senate Democrats have launched a probe over the controversial tax credits and financial boon to Cheniere Energy. Phil and Peter explain the debate over the tax credits, the complicated calculations they used to estimate Cheniere’s payout, and how this case fits into their larger investigation into the hidden climate costs of exporting liquefied natural gas.

ICN Sunday Morning: As El Niño Approaches, Scientists Predict Fierce Heatwaves, Wildfires and Floods

Go behind the scenes with senior editor Corey Mitchell and reporter Bob Berwyn as they break down what to expect from the looming El Niño. Scientists said this week that a developing El Niño is likely to amplify heatwaves, droughts and floods this year. But it’s not the biggest culprit of climate extremes. The consequences of a moderate or strong El Niño today are more damaging than those of similar events just a few decades ago because of the long-term warming caused by burning fossil fuels. Bob, who covers climate science and international climate policy for ICN, explains what El Niño is and how it changes weather around the world, whether we’re now entering a period when record-breaking weather becomes normal, and if the impacts of El Niño this year could be permanent.