Consumer

"Florida Power & Light’s profit margins consistently ranked among the highest in the nation over the past five years and topped other utilities’ in 2024 and 2025, with 27 cents of every dollar in revenue last year retained as profit, according to a new report." "Utility profit margins are one reason why electricity bills are rising, the report says. Advocates say low-income communities are hardest-hit by the costs."

"Advocates warn that what’s left of the industry could be lost if companies choose to invest in dirty blast furnaces instead of modernizing with cleaner steelmaking."

"Thousands of protesters gathered at the steps of the Texas Capitol Saturday to protest against the construction of a border wall through Big Bend, in a show of bipartisan opposition to the White House’s plans."

"Animosity from the White House has taken on new meaning amid an imminent sale to David Ellison’s Paramount Skydance, fueling anxiety among journalists."

"The Trump administration said Friday it is combining two agencies that were separated in the aftermath of the 2010 Gulf oil spill. The Interior Department said the overhaul would increase efficiency and speed up permitting for offshore oil and gas drilling."

"The Environmental Protection Agency proposed Thursday to include microplastics and pharmaceuticals on a list of contaminants in drinking water for the first time, a step that could lead to new limits on those substances for water utilities."

"When pollution gets bad enough in the rivers supplying Iowa’s largest city with drinking water, it costs Des Moines around $16,000 a day to run a special system to filter out dangerous nitrates. It’s a fact of life in the agriculture-dependent state — and climate change is making the water quality problem even worse."

"When former top Environmental Protection Agency official Judith Enck noticed a cavalcade of chemical and plastics industry lobbyists visiting the agency’s Washington headquarters in February, she wondered what could be up."

"A new study of pesticide exposure in Peru finds a mechanistic association between exposure and cancer, and shows how “complex pesticide mixtures” can contribute to the development of cancer in people, even at exposure levels currently deemed safe."

"Work to get lead out of Garden State homes has surged in recent years, fueled by an influx of federal pandemic relief money and urgency from Newark’s drinking water crisis. But it’s been years since Newark largely dealt with its water problems, with the subsequent calm taking attention away from lead issues."