Yale is drilling 263 new wells for geothermal energy

By Michelle So, Staff Reporter, Yale Daily News

Maia Wilson, Staff Illustrator

Natural gas provides roughly half of Connecticut’s energy, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. While burning natural gas produces half as many emissions as burning coal, it is not as green as one might think.

Any carbon-based fuel produces carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases when burned. Greenhouse gas emissions are responsible for trapping heat in Earth’s atmosphere, which contributes to global warming.

Yale has committed to achieving zero emissions by 2050, a goal the University has been slowly advancing towards. Alternative energy sources, including geothermal technologies, may be the ticket there.

“Yale is moving toward geothermal energy as part of the university’s commitment to achieve a zero‑emissions (zero‑carbon) campus by 2050,” Andy Bromage, the sustainability communications officer for the Yale Office of Facilities, wrote in an email to the News.

To achieve that goal, Bromage said drilling is underway to install 263 geothermal wells on Upper Science Hill. The new plant will support buildings including the Yale Science Building, the Sloane Physics Laboratory, the Sterling Chemistry Laboratory, the Kline Chemistry Laboratory, the Chemistry Research Building, and the Bass Center. 

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Another offshore wind firm is seeking a Trump payout

Engie is talking to the Trump administration about canceling its U.S. offshore wind leases, even as a similar $1 billion deal with TotalEnergies sparks legal concerns.

A woman in a white jacket holds her hand against her face and stares into the distance.
Engie CEO Catherine MacGregor (Laurent Coust/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

By Maria Gallucci, Canary Media, 24 April 2026

A second French energy firm is pursuing a refund on its U.S. offshore wind leases — and analysts say the trend could spread further, despite major legal questions about the Trump administration’s approach.

Engie, which had been planning three U.S. projects, is in talks with the administration about forfeiting the company’s offshore wind leases in exchange for reimbursement. Engie CEO Catherine MacGregor disclosed the development on April 21, a month after the French oil giant TotalEnergies struck a similar deal with the U.S. Department of the Interior for nearly $1 billion.

“Discussions are ongoing, and we’ll see if an agreement is possible,” MacGregor told reporters at a press meeting in Paris.

“Economically and also in terms of public acceptance, I strongly believe in offshore wind power,” she added. However, ​“One must be able to say that energy policy is stable enough, whatever the political color of the government,” to continue investing in the clean energy resource.

Engie builds offshore wind farms through Ocean Winds, its joint venture with the Portuguese developer EDP Renewables. The entity previously bid roughly $1 billion for three lease areas off the coasts of California, Massachusetts, and New York, where it planned to build projects totaling 6.8 gigawatts. That power capacity would go a long way in helping those regions cut planet-warming pollution and meet rising electricity demand.

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Supreme Court to Hear Arguments today in Landmark Roundup Weedkiller Case

A victory for the manufacturer, Bayer, could end thousands of lawsuits against the company claiming that the herbicide causes cancer.

The front facade of the Supreme Court Building against a blue sky, with a cherry blossom tree blooming in the foreground.
The Supreme Court in Washington. The Trump administration has formally backed Bayer in the case. Credit…Eric Lee for The New York Times

By Hiroko Tabuchi, The New York Times

The Supreme Court is set to hear arguments today in a case that could lead to the dismissal of tens of thousands of lawsuits against Bayer, the pharmaceutical and biotech giant, that claim the weedkiller Roundup caused non-Hodgkin lymphoma.

Developed by Monsanto in the 1970s, Roundup is one of the best-selling weedkillers in the world, but it has been dogged by controversy over its effects on human health. The company, which was acquired by the German conglomerate Bayer in 2018, has faced thousands of lawsuits, amounting to one of the largest waves of such litigation in U.S. history.

Evidence in lab animals, and more limited evidence in humans, has indicated a link between Roundup’s active ingredient, glyphosate, and cancer. The World Health Organization’s International Agency for Research on Cancer in 2015 classified glyphosate as “probably carcinogenic to humans.”

The Environmental Protection Agency considers the herbicide to be safe. The E.P.A. is responsible for pesticide labeling nationwide, and Bayer argues that the federal agency’s decision overrides state-level legal claims, effectively insulating it from lawsuits. The federal government faces an Oct. 1 deadline to re-examine the effects of glyphosate.

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Two massive wildfires in south Georgia have scorched more than 40,000 acres and destroyed over 120 homes.

By The Associated Press

Extreme drought has turned the region into a tinderbox, allowing flames to spread. Overnight, new fires broke out in rural South Georgia. High winds have made efforts to contain the fires difficult, officials said in a news conference Saturday afternoon.

Brantley County Manager Joey Cason called the wildfires a “dynamic situation” in a Saturday-morning video posted on social media and begged residents to “please evacuate” if they are ordered to do so. New evacuation orders were issued as the fire spread.

“Leave the scene. This fire is moving quickly, and we do not have much control over where it’s headed. Please leave,” Cason said Saturday afternoon at a news conference, addressing Georgia residents facing evacuation orders.

One woman — who saw flames coming and fled with four kids and 10 dogs to Florida — said she watched her family’s home burn on her phone, through Ring cameras.

“When both of my devices were offline, and it was black, and I couldn’t see more, it was so gut-wrenching because then I knew, like, they got … what I call home,” Anna Dudek told CBS News’ Mark Strassmann.

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EPA releases PFAS destruction and disposal guidance 

The guidance, now updated once a year, maintains that landfills are likely emitting more PFAS than previously thought. Newer data shows promise for some incineration, but more research is needed.

By Megan Quinn, Waste Dive

Updated PFAS destruction and disposal guidance, released by the U.S. EPA on Thursday, notes “promising” new research into the effectiveness of certain methods for destroying per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, along with ongoing research gaps and areas of concern.

The EPA’s destruction and disposal guidance document, first published in 2021, summarizes the available research on three “widely used and commercially available” types of technologies: deep-well injection, landfilling and thermal treatments such as incineration. The document isn’t meant to endorse one method over another, the agency says, and it doesn’t establish regulations or requirements. 

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In 2025, EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the agency would update the document annually instead of every three years, saying “we need to continue to research PFAS” both within the agency and outside EPA’s jurisdiction.

The newly published guidance says certain hazardous waste combustors could effectively destroy some types of PFAS. Yet it also highlights “unknowns” over emission control efficiency and other elements that need further study.      

Meanwhile, landfills are likely releasing more PFAS to the environment than researchers previously thought in 2024, the document states. The agency recommends operators choose a hazardous waste landfill when “PFAS concentration of the waste is relatively high,” but notes that more research is needed into the possible pathways PFAS can take once inside any kind of landfill, such as through leachate or air emissions.

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Mexico pulls a “land-based Panama Canal” out of its hat

Trains idle at what is set to become the country’s largest railway complex in Matías Romero, Oaxaca, a city of under 40,000 people, according to Mexico’s 2020 census. When construction is completed, by the end of 2025, the complex will comprise a range of facilities, including dispatch and education centers that will train personnel from across the region.
Trains idle at what is set to become the country’s largest railway complex in Matías Romero, Oaxaca, a city of under 40,000 people, according to Mexico’s 2020 census. When construction is completed, by the end of 2025, the complex will comprise a range of facilities, including dispatch and education centers that will train personnel from across the region.

By Sonia Ramírez, EcoNews

In southern Mexico, bulldozers and rail crews are reshaping one of the narrowest slices of land on the continent. Millions of tons of earth are being moved to finish the Interoceanic Corridor of the Isthmus of Tehuantepec, a 303 km rail bridge that links the Pacific and the Gulf of Mexico.

Officials present it as a modern dry canal that can rival the historic Panama Canal and help keep global trade moving even when water runs short.

A rail bridge across a biodiversity hotspot

The corridor connects the ports of Salina Cruz on the Pacific and Coatzacoalcos on the Gulf through upgraded tracks, highways, and a string of industrial parks.

Official planning documents describe a logistics platform designed for heavy container trains, with the main rail line stretching a little over 300 kilometers and engineered for port-to-port journeys in under six hours. Planners say the system could eventually move around 1.4 million containers per year.

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On paper, that sounds like efficiency. Trains move large volumes of freight using far less fuel per ton mile than trucks, and several studies suggest rail can cut freight-related greenhouse gas emissions by roughly three quarters when it replaces long-haul road transport.

For shippers tired of watching vessels queue for canal slots, the idea of loading goods onto a train for a same day crossing has obvious appeal.

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