Justine Calma

Workers suffered chemical burns while digging a tunnel in Las Vegas for Elon Musk’s Boring Company, according to a state OSHA investigation. “You’d be like, ‘Why am I on fire?’” one worker told Bloomberg Businessweek.

The largely conservative Supreme Court heard arguments yesterday for Ohio v. EPA, and it sounds like SCOTUS is sympathetic to plaintiffs fighting the agency’s Good Neighbor Plan. The plan would force states, including Ohio, to prevent smog-forming pollution from drifting downwind to other states. More than a dozen states are fighting the plan in lower courts, and Ohio wants SCOTUS to force the EPA to pause the plan entirely while those legal battles are ongoing. Whether SCOTUS sides with Ohio now likely points to how it would rule later if any of those cases in lower courts ultimately make their way to SCOTUS.

Not yet, but there have been some gains since Joe Biden signed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Act and Inflation Reduction Act into law — two huge investments in clean energy and transportation. EV sales and clean energy additions to the power grid hit record highs last year, according to an analysis by researchers from Princeton, MIT, and Rhodium Group. But progress is expected to slow down unless the US can get rid of red tape that’s getting in the way.

The Supreme Court of the US will hear arguments today over an Environmental Protection Agency plan that would force states to curb smog-forming pollution before it can drift over to their neighbors. Ohio and other plaintiffs want SCOTUS to stay the EPA’s ‘Good Neighbor Plan’ while their case challenging the agency’s legal authority to impose the plan works through lower courts. You can listen in on oral arguments in Ohio v. EPA at 10 AM EST.

Rooftop gardens are really cool — literally, they help keep indoor temperatures down because evaporation from plants has a cooling effect. Asphalt rooftops in comparison, absorb and trap heat. New research in Seoul now shows that green roofs actually reduced the energy intensity of buildings by close to 8 percent. That boost in energy efficiency means green roofs are helping to keep the planet cool, too.