Phil McKenna
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mckennapr.bsky.social
Phil McKenna
@mckennapr.bsky.social
@insideclimatenews.org reporter. He/Him phil.mckenna@insideclimatenews.org
“The 2030s are going to be a tough time for Boston.” apps.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/metr... @erinmdouglas23.bsky.social — and @cehumphries.bsky.social — on "sunny-day flooding" in Boston and ongoing failures to address it. #WhenTheFloodsCome
Morrissey Blvd. floods multiple times a year. It's a symptom of a statewide problem.
The Dorchester parkway, one of Boston’s starkest examples of climate impacts, is inundated multiple times a year.
apps.bostonglobe.com
November 2, 2025 at 6:31 PM
“They do protect people and infrastructure — until they don’t." apps.bostonglobe.com/2025/10/metr... Great reporting by @shankman.bsky.social on a potential looming disaster posed by aging levies and climate-change-fueled storms in Massachusetts. #WhenTheFloodsComeHome
What are levees doing to protect Chicopee? What happens if they fail?
Far from the rising seas that threaten the coast, people living behind inland levees are facing a climate-fueled risk that is often overlooked, but which could soon bring disaster to their doorstep.
apps.bostonglobe.com
November 1, 2025 at 6:06 PM
Climate change fuels more destructive and rapidly intensifying tropical cyclones, as a Category 5 hurricane makes landfall in Jamaica insideclimatenews.org/news/2810202...
‘Catastrophic’ Hurricane Hits Jamaica as Risk of Climate Change-Fueled Tropical Storms Rises - Inside Climate News
Environmental advocates call for fossil fuel companies to pay for damages as climate change fuels more destructive hurricanes.
insideclimatenews.org
October 29, 2025 at 2:12 PM
My latest; A Category 5 hurricane slams into Jamaica as climate change fuels stronger storms and environmental advocates call for fossil fuel companies to pay for damages insideclimatenews.org/news/2810202... @insideclimatenews.org
‘Catastrophic’ Hurricane Hits Jamaica as Risk of Climate Change-Fueled Tropical Storms Rises - Inside Climate News
Environmental advocates call for fossil fuel companies to pay for damages as climate change fuels more destructive hurricanes.
insideclimatenews.org
October 28, 2025 at 10:12 PM
My latest: A fantasy-themed corporate headquarters uses thousands of boreholes to heat and cool its buildings with high-efficiency geothermal energy that uses a fraction of the energy of other buildings insideclimatenews.org/news/1110202...
@insideclimatenews.org
One of the World’s Largest Geothermal Networks Is Buried Beneath a Corporate Campus in Rural Wisconsin - Inside Climate News
Tech company Epic Systems uses thousands of boreholes to help heat and cool its office buildings, a “marquee” clean energy project that gas utilities may try to replicate.
insideclimatenews.org
October 14, 2025 at 1:40 PM
Epic Geothermal: One of the largest geothermal networks in the world is operated by tech company Epic Systems to heat and cool its corporate campus in rural Wisconsin. insideclimatenews.org/news/1110202... My latest, for @insideclimatenews.org
One of the World’s Largest Geothermal Networks Is Buried Beneath a Corporate Campus in Rural Wisconsin - Inside Climate News
Tech company Epic Systems uses thousands of boreholes to help heat and cool its office buildings, a “marquee” clean energy project that gas utilities may try to replicate.
insideclimatenews.org
October 11, 2025 at 2:18 PM
Want a new gas line to your home? In Massachusetts, you're gonna have to pay for it.
Great to be back on @livingonearth.bsky.social to talk about the state's latest carrots and sticks to drive decarbonization www.loe.org/shows/segmen...
Living on Earth: Massachusetts Ends Gas Subsidy
Many gas bills include a surcharge to help pay for gas connections to new homes. As Massachusetts seeks to phase out fossil fuels the state is now requiring developers to pay for new homes to be conne...
www.loe.org
September 27, 2025 at 12:49 PM
Reposted by Phil McKenna
"It saves us money, and will continue to save us money,” Steve Fate, president of the West Union District Energy geothermal network in downtown West Union, Iowa, told @mckennapr.bsky.social: insideclimatenews.org/news/2009202... 🔌💡
This Town Was One of the First in the Nation to Install a Geothermal Network. Now Others Are Warming Up to the Idea. - Inside Climate News
More than a decade after West Union, Iowa, tapped geothermal energy, the town’s heating and cooling network is a “celebrity” among clean energy advocates.
insideclimatenews.org
September 24, 2025 at 10:46 PM
Trend setter: A small town installed a geothermal network that provides heating and cooling to much of its downtown in 2014. More than a decade later, dozens of communities, states and utility companies look to follow its lead. insideclimatenews.org/news/2009202... My latest @insideclimatenews.org
This Town Was One of the First in the Nation to Install a Geothermal Network. Now Others Are Warming Up to the Idea. - Inside Climate News
More than a decade after West Union, Iowa, tapped geothermal energy, the town’s heating and cooling network is a “celebrity” among clean energy advocates.
insideclimatenews.org
September 20, 2025 at 3:22 PM
"Fossil Fuels Out of Harvard”: Activists disrupt panel with Occidental Petroleum CEO Vicki Hollub at Harvard Climate Symposium
insideclimatenews.org/news/1909202...
Climate Activists Disrupt Fossil Fuel Executive at Harvard University Symposium - Inside Climate News
Protesters condemned Harvard’s decision to host Occidental Petroleum’s CEO during the school’s Climate Action Week.
insideclimatenews.org
September 20, 2025 at 3:16 PM
The health impacts of climate-driven wildfire smoke could be among the most costly consequences of global warming in the U.S. by mid-century, a new study concludes
insideclimatenews.org/news/1809202...
Smoke From Wildfires Caused by Climate Change Will Fuel Many More Premature Deaths in the U.S., a New Study Warns - Inside Climate News
This would represent some of the country’s most costly consequences of a warming climate by mid-century, researchers say.
insideclimatenews.org
September 19, 2025 at 1:23 PM
Smoke from climate-driven wildfires will kill nearly 2 million Americans by 2055, a new study concludes insideclimatenews.org/news/1809202... My latest for @insideclimatenews.org
Smoke From Wildfires Caused by Climate Change Will Fuel Many More Premature Deaths in the U.S., a New Study Warns - Inside Climate News
This would represent some of the country’s most costly consequences of a warming climate by mid-century, researchers say.
insideclimatenews.org
September 18, 2025 at 4:06 PM
Reposted by Phil McKenna
Really great piece from Phil on impacts of LNG to southwest Louisiana fishing. Really comprehensive.

I took a look recently at the dredge spill at CP2
gasoutlook.com/analysis/dre...
September 8, 2025 at 6:15 PM
“Each year we’re getting less and less.” Commercial fishermen in southwest Louisiana say LNG export terminals at the entrance to a once-thriving fishery are to blame for declining shrimp harvests. insideclimatenews.org/news/0709202... My latest, for @insideclimatenews.org
Fishermen in Southwest Louisiana Say LNG Terminals Are to Blame for Shrimp Harvest Decline - Inside Climate News
Commercial fishermen are leaving what was once the seafood capital of America in search of shrimp as LNG export terminals move in.
insideclimatenews.org
September 8, 2025 at 5:55 PM
Shrimp harvests in southwest Louisiana, once the seafood capital of America, were down 50 percent in 2024. Local fishermen say a new LNG export terminal is to blame. insideclimatenews.org/news/0709202... My latest, for @insideclimatenews.org
‘Because of the Goddarn Plant.’ Fishermen in Southwest Louisiana Say LNG Terminals Are to Blame for Shrimp Harvest Decline - Inside Climate News
Commercial fishermen are leaving what was once the seafood capital of America in search of shrimp as LNG export terminals move in.
insideclimatenews.org
September 7, 2025 at 6:40 PM
A 1st-of-its-kind analysis of permit applications to Texas's Railroad Commission, the state’s oil and gas regulator, reveals a rubber-stamp system that allows drillers to emit vast amounts of methane into the atmosphere. @psskow.bsky.social & Mark Olalde report insideclimatenews.org/news/0309202...
Texas Says It’s Strict on Oil Field Emissions. New Data Shows It’s Not.
The oil industry touts Texas as a success story in controlling climate-warming methane emissions. The state’s regulator, however, grants nearly every request to burn or vent gas into the atmosphere.
insideclimatenews.org
September 6, 2025 at 12:49 PM
"I decided that if we die, we’d die together." A harrowing first person account of surviving Hurricane Katrina by @insideclimatenews.org's @leehedgepeth.bsky.social insideclimatenews.org/news/2808202...
Children of the Storm - Inside Climate News
As 11-year-olds weathering poverty, we survived the winds and water of Hurricane Katrina along Alabama’s Gulf Coast. Twenty years later, we’re still wading through its wake.
insideclimatenews.org
September 1, 2025 at 9:25 PM
👀 "California is far behind Texas when it comes to requiring the public disclosure of gas composition data." insideclimatenews.org/news/2608202... @lizagross.bsky.social on the health impacts of methane + "chemical soup" super emitter events.
New Tool Maps the Health Impacts of Toxic Air Pollutants Released With Methane in Super-Emitter Events - Inside Climate News
When oil and gas infrastructure leaks the potent greenhouse gas methane, it also releases toxic air contaminants that have escaped notice, until now.
insideclimatenews.org
August 31, 2025 at 11:58 AM
Must Read: A new species of orangutan was discovered in the mountains of Sumatra in 2017. A dam currently being built and financed by China may drive the endangered ape to extinction. My colleague @nkus.bsky.social recently traveled to Indonesia to investigate. insideclimatenews.org/news/1708202...
The Chinese Dam Threatening the World’s Most Endangered Ape - Inside Climate News
When a new orangutan species was found near a Chinese-owned hydrodam in Indonesia, scientists and advocates launched a campaign to block the project. Then some who spoke against it lost their jobs and...
insideclimatenews.org
August 30, 2025 at 1:03 PM
Reposted by Phil McKenna
Another example of an energy community hoping renewables will help them diversify their economy. Town officials are buzzing about providing businesses with “reliable, cost-effective heating and cooling.” Always fun to collaborate, and glad to get to work with @mckennapr.bsky.social on this one.
August 20, 2025 at 6:19 PM
“Geothermal works at night, it works in the day, it works whenever you want it to work,” officials in a rural Colorado town embrace geothermal heating and cooling for a new business park. insideclimatenews.org/news/2008202... My latest, with ICN Mountain West reporter @jakebolster.bsky.social
A Geothermal Network in Colorado Could Help A Rural Town Diversify Its Economy - Inside Climate News
Hayden, a long-established coal community, is pitching companies to come take advantage of “reliable, cost-effective heating and cooling” at its light industrial park once its new geothermal network i...
insideclimatenews.org
August 20, 2025 at 6:16 PM
Gas utility ratepayers in Massachusetts paid $160 million in 2023 for others to connect to the gas network. New state regulations would have new users pay the costs themselves.
insideclimatenews.org/news/1508202...
Massachusetts Seeks to End Ratepayer-Funded Subsidy for New Natural Gas Connections - Inside Climate News
A growing number of states look to end the incentives that regulators say lock in continued fossil fuel growth.
insideclimatenews.org
August 18, 2025 at 1:47 PM
Want new gas service? In Massachusetts, and a growing number of states seeking to end fossil fuel subsidies, you're going to have to pay for it. insideclimatenews.org/news/1508202... My latest, for @insideclimatenews.org
Massachusetts Seeks to End Ratepayer-Funded Subsidy for New Natural Gas Connections - Inside Climate News
A growing number of states look to end the incentives that regulators say lock in continued fossil fuel growth.
insideclimatenews.org
August 16, 2025 at 11:18 AM
Reposted by Phil McKenna
Our @insideclimatenews.org story on Cheniere's controversial claim for "alternative" fuel tax credits, republished @motherjones.com. With @mckennapr.bsky.social
www.motherjones.com/politics/202...
America's top gas exporter claims massive tax credit for "alternative" fuels
Cheniere Energy's potential windfall is based on a dubious interpretation of the law.
www.motherjones.com
August 6, 2025 at 12:49 AM