climate

Flip flop sandals are left behind as visitors make their way into the water for relief from the heat at the Wet-N-Wild Water Park on June 20, 2017, in Phoenix, Arizona. (Ralph Freso/Getty Images)

With summer coming fast, regulator issues electric reliability warning

BY: - May 19, 2023

As much as two thirds of North America could face shortages of electricity this summer in the event of severe and protracted heat, according to the regulator in charge of setting and enforcing standards for the electric grid.  “Increased, rapid deployment of wind, solar and batteries have made a positive impact,” said Mark Olson, manager […]

COMMENTARY
Sioux Falls as seen from Falls Park, on the Big Sioux River. (Seth Tupper/South Dakota Searchlight)

Will the state’s biggest city be small-thinking or visionary on the climate?

BY: - April 8, 2023

Have Sioux Falls voters elected leaders with narrow minds and small thinking, or visionaries with strategic plans and goals for a better Sioux Falls?   In February, Mayor Paul TenHaken announced that the detailed, carefully considered, and widely vetted city Sustainability Plan with clear goals and objective measures was being replaced by a framework of phony […]

A fall 2022 view of Rapid City from the hills above the South Dakota Mines campus. (Seth Tupper/South Dakota Searchlight)

Rapid City seeks climate funding after state turns it down; Sioux Falls undecided

BY: - April 4, 2023

After the state declined to seek federal grant money to reduce greenhouse gases and other air pollution, Rapid City has decided to apply and Sioux Falls is considering it. South Dakota is one of four states that have not applied to participate in the Climate Pollution Reduction Grant program. It would have provided state government […]

COMMENTARY
The South Dakota Capitol building in Pierre. (Getty Images)

$3 million is on the table for climate action, with only days left for SD to act

BY: - March 24, 2023

A new federal program has the potential to transform South Dakota’s approach to climate change — should the state be smart enough to take it. Earlier this month, the U.S. EPA launched the first phase of the Climate Pollution Reduction Grant (CPRG) program, an initiative created by last year’s Inflation Reduction Act to fund local- […]

A farmer harvests corn near Slater, Iowa. on Oct. 17, 2020.

Climate funding could suffer in the farm bill under GOP control of Congress

BY: - November 7, 2022

WASHINGTON — Republicans who may be taking control of Congress in this week’s midterm elections have not been very specific about many policy goals—but the farm bill is an exception. Members of the GOP in the U.S. House and Senate are sending strong signals they want to strip climate funding from the massive legislation in […]