ArcaMax

Floating about 500 feet offshore of Illinois Beach State Park, Hillary Glandon tightened her scuba goggles, grabbed a small masonite plate from a nearby kayak and dove beneath the Lake Michigan surface.

The masonite plate, called a Hester-Dendy sampler, helps biologists like Glandon scrape algae off underwater rocks. Just a few feet below the ...Read more

SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Invasive beetles might be boring through the valley oaks in your neighborhood.

Mediterranean oak borers were first identified in the city of Sacramento last July. They target oaks native to Sacramento, those trees with arching canopies that line the American and Sacramento rivers, and can kill an 80-foot giant in five ...Read more

Businesses and households served by the largest U.S. power grid will spend a record $16.1 billion to ensure electricity supplies — a result that prompted immediate calls from utilities and energy groups to build more generation amid the AI frenzy.

The payouts to generators and other suppliers topped last year’s record $14.7 billion, ...Read more

Changing ocean hues could bring some environmental blues, according to a new study from researchers at Duke and Georgia Tech.

Using satellite data collected from 2003 to 2022, the researchers looked for changes in chlorophyll concentration, which can signal where large amounts of phytoplankton are, since they reflect green light.

Too much ...Read more

SpaceX got to within 15 seconds of a launch from Cape Canaveral on Monday, but a “hold, hold, hold” call from among the mission control team members forced an abort. They were back for another try Tuesday and pulled it off.

A Falcon 9 rocket on the mPOWER-D mission with two more communication satellites for Luxembourg-based SES lifted off ...Read more

Waves of cyberattacks are hitting a commonly used Microsoft product, compromising dozens of organizations around the world.

The hackers exploited a vulnerability in Microsoft SharePoint, an internet-based app primarily used by government agencies and private companies for internal documents and records. The company alerted customers to the ...Read more

The startup behind Chicago’s more than $1 billion quantum computing deal said operations are expected to start in three years, a win for Illinois Governor JB Pritzker, who backed the investment and is widely seen as a potential presidential candidate.

PsiQuantum Corp. will start construction at the state’s new quantum and microelectronics ...Read more

MONTEREY, Calif. — Located about 3 miles offshore and 5 miles north of the Naval Postgraduate School is a first-of-its-kind ocean-sensing buoy. With 5G technologies and solar panels built in, the buoy has the capabilities to collect oceanographic and meteorological data 24 hours a day, seven days a week for the next three years.

NPS worked to...Read more

SpaceX has lined up an evening launch from Cape Canaveral on Monday, but the threat of thunderstorms could force a delay.

A Falcon 9 rocket on the mPOWER-D mission with two more communication satellites for Luxembourg-based SES is targeting liftoff from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station’s Space Launch Complex 40 during a two-hour launch ...Read more

Water managers and state wildlife officials last year hoped the discovery of a microscopic zebra mussel larva in the Colorado River was a one-time event, not a sign of a larger problem lurking beneath the surface.

It was the first time larvae from the destructive invasive species had been found in the river in Colorado. For nearly a year, ...Read more

Young climate activists from Chicago called on Gov. JB Pritzker to enact legislation that would make the fossil fuel industry — instead of taxpayers — responsible for funding green, resilient infrastructure and disaster response in the face of climate change, following similar bills recently passed in Vermont and New York.

“Illinois can ...Read more

Colorado quietly held its first auction of greenhouse-gas credits last month, with five companies spending $68,000 to compensate for missed pollution-reduction goals.

However, details about how many credits those five companies purchased, and by how much they were allowed to offset emissions reductions through those purchases, remain a secret ...Read more

ALONG THE ELWHA RIVER, Wash. — Hundreds of dead juvenile fish. An oily sheen. The overpowering smell of gasoline.

These are the scenes near where a fuel tanker truck crashed Friday off Highway 101, spilling some 3,000 gallons of fossil fuels into Indian Creek. The creek is a tributary of the Elwha River, which has for years been a model for ...Read more

LOS ANGELES — An unusual alliance of Republican lawmakers and animal rights advocates, together with others, is creating storm clouds for a plan to protect one threatened owl by killing a more common one.

Last August, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service approved a plan to shoot roughly 450,000 barred owls in California, Oregon and Washington ...Read more

California Gov. Gavin Newsom is proposing a bill to streamline permitting for new oil wells that environmental groups say would wipe out scrutiny of the industry.

The bill would establish “plug-to-drill” permitting until 2036 where two wells would have to be plugged and abandoned before a new one is drilled. In addition, drillers no longer ...Read more

Lawyers hired by the Chicago Housing Authority recently cited Illinois Supreme Court case Mack v. Anderson in an effort to persuade a judge to reconsider a jury’s $24 million verdict against the agency in a case involving the alleged poisoning of two children by lead paint in CHA-owned property.

The problem?

The case doesn’t exist.

In the...Read more

Artificial intelligence figures to impact virtually every aspect of the global economy and now it’s making a foray onto California’s electric grid.

The California Independent System Operator, which manages the power system for about 80% of the Golden State and a portion of Nevada, just agreed to launch a pilot program that will use an AI ...Read more