I recently told a friend I needed to start work planning for next year, and this friend, an office person with a highly technical job, asked, "Well, what does that look like for you?"

It was a pretty difficult question to answer, in part because I was waiting to hear back on a large project for the first months of next year; in part because I've felt frustrated at my output this year, and there's little evidence that 2026 will be a better year for journalism.

Part of planning is looking back, and being honest about what worked and didn't. This year, I had the great joy of working with reporters at ProPublica, and talking to them about investigative stories in all corners of America. I wrote for ProPublica about the oil and water relationship that Elon Musk's businesses have with environmental regulations. I also had some really exciting indie writers as newsletter consulting clients.

But there's also a metaphorical garbage bin of declined pitches and stories that just didn't make it, whether because their time is not yet ripe or I hit some sort of roadblock.

Consider this a look into my story notes, a vast rhizome of links, quotes, data resources, writing and tags.

(An explosion of flower petals in a recently cut tree; spring 2025)

The pipeline back from the dead

“It’s like time warp,” says Ron Waetzman, a resident of Princeton Manor, a 55+ community in the New Jersey suburbs dealing again with an unwanted neighbor. But it's not a person, or a new housing development. For the second time in a decade, Princeton Manor was mobilizing against a gas compressor station for a lengthy pipeline being built in the forested space next to the community.

The Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE), a pipeline project to bring methane gas from Pennsylvania to the western edge of Long Island, was regulatorily-dead enough by 2021 to be the lead example of the difficulty its owner, the Williams Companies, was having building anything in the Northeast in my story about the pipeline-industry funded group Natural Allies.

So it caught my attention when in the middle of this year, Williams started talking about bringing back the Northeast Supply Enhancement (NESE) project. The particulars of why are wrapped up in New York and New Jersey state politics that I don't 100% understand, but it's safe to say NESE would not be back without the Trump administration.

Those who opposed NESE last time — environmental groups, utility cost watchdogs and local governments in New Jersey — spun up another round of objection when Williams reapplied to federal regulators. They've filed lawsuits and held protests and are currently appealing federal approval. While it's not the end of the road for their efforts, the pipeline, within several months of its resurrection, is now further along than it ever was several years ago.

The federal climate project that survived the Trump administration cull (so far)

I've been curious about district geothermal every since reading about a novelist's work replacing gas heating systems in Massachusetts. The technology is both fascinating and broadly not new (although it has been significantly improved). But district geothermal systems require collaboration, lots of coordination and a raft of local permitting. As a result, these systems look a lot more like a utility than an individual household solution, and such infrastructure often directly replaces local gas pipelines.

As part of the 2021 infrastructure law, the Biden administration had made grants to 11 different communities to design their own district geothermal systems, in places as different as New York City to Nome, Alaska. Of those, five received full grants to actually build out the systems.

This wasn't a massive program, but a really interesting and practical idea. It's the kind of geothermal energy that isn't bound to a specific geology or extremely large amounts of capital. It has a potential win-win for both cutting carbon emissions from home heating and a future for gas utilities for whom the push towards electrification is an existential threat.

So when the Trump administration cancelled the first wave of climate related projects at the Department of Energy earlier this year, I was convinced these grants, some of which are specifically focused on equity, would be among them.

While the projects were absolutely delayed because of the Trump administration, they appear to be moving forward: at least two communities have finished negotiations. And some states are starting their own district geothermal pilots as well.

All quiet on the Omnis front

I spent a few months last year following the story of a coal plant purchased by serial entrepreneurs with big promises to the local community in Pleasants County, West Virginia. The story continues to unfold, albeit extremely slowly and mostly through competing legal filings.

But the most striking thing is how little publicly has happened at the Pleasants Power station since my story was published in October 2024. The plant is occasionally burning coal, but in relatively small amounts. Follow up reporting from the Charleston Gazette-Mail has focused on the ongoing lawsuit against Omnis by one of its former senior employees, accusations from other companies that the Pleasants project is "financially struggling" and the extended history of West Virginia officials offering financial incentives and support to other projects the company has started in the state that are also heavily delayed.

One of the things Sarah Elbeshbishi and I tried to get across in the original story is the stakes for the local community around Pleasants Power: There's little other options for tax revenue, and local leaders had been especially excited for Omnis' plan to re-imagine the coal plant because otherwise, it was shutting down for good.

Reading

• How Alabama Power Kept Bills Up and Opposition Out to Become One of the Most Powerful Utilities in the Country
• Why Big Oil Is Asking EPA Not to Cut its Polluter Reporting Program
• US Judge: Trump administration "arbitrary and capricious" freeze on wind energy permits is unlawful.
• So, so, so many lawsuits: FEMA can't cancel climate resiliency grants
• Why you won't find climate risk data on Zillow anymore — household level climate risk data is so tricky
• "In landmark rulings last month, the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio ordered FirstEnergy’s three regulated companies to pay roughly $250 million for violations linked to the state’s largest-ever utility corruption scandal. More than $186 million of that will be refunded or credited to consumers."

Listening

I don’t often think about it, but nothing reminds me more of my lack-of-use of Spotify than when people shared their yearly Wrapped data. The feature smartly hijacks our need to quantify our time and our taste. Make it quickly legible to others. It’s fun, right?

I wish I could tell how little data I've given Spotify is out of a principled stand for how poorly artists get paid from streams, how unimaginative its discovery algorithms are, and the other investments of its leadership. But mostly, it's just not something I reach for, even while I'm sitting at my desk working.

What do I do for listening instead? I’ll admit to returning, perhaps too much, to the same songs in my existing media library: a mishmash of ripped CDs I bought, first gen Napster downloads, 2010s music blog discovery and one-off Apple Music purchases. If something catches my ear, I’ll play it on YouTube, dealing with the ads. I listen to KEXP. I sometimes peruse the playlists on Bandcamp (which just released their "best of" the year in a wide variety of genres).

I take note of what’s on the monopoly-owned pop station in my car. I use the odd but generous streaming service DC Public Library offers free access to. I take notes from the wide-genre listening recommendations of the writer Hanif Abdurraquib on what feels like like the last truly enjoyable Instagram account.

But what have I actually been listening to lately? The new Florence and the Machine album has been on repeat in this household, but we're superfans and grabbed quickly sold out seats on her tour next year (Florence concert number five, I believe).

You want understated (for Florence) about being a woman rock star? Try "One of the Greats"

You want classic, here-comes-the-drums, wait-is-that-a-harp Florence? Have this live version of "Sympathy Magic"

Thinking

Thank you for reading The Planet We Save. I always want to make sure this newsletter is worth your time and your interest, and is something I’m proud to publish to my corner of the web. In an internet and a world that feels hellbent on more isolation, knowing that people are on this list, and at the very least opening the newsletter, is something I can take pride in.

As always, I'd love to hear from you about questions you have about climate change, journalism or my reading and listening picks. Or if you're looking for a good local news source, I'm always up for making recommendations. You can reach me by replying to this email.