Matthew Brown

Reporter with the Associated Press

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23 Articles

This 2019 aerial photo provided by ConocoPhillips shows an exploratory drilling camp at the proposed site of the Willow oil project on Alaska's North Slope. (ConocoPhillips via AP, File)

Alaska oil project approval raises another climate concern

The Biden administration’s approval of a massive oil development in northern Alaska commits the U.S. to yet another decades-long crude project even as scientists urgently warn that only a halt to more fossil fuel emissions can stem climate change.

News, US News | March 14th 2023

In this April 2018 photo provided by U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a wildlife worker holds a Tristram’s storm petrel chick in Papahanaumokuakea Marine National Monument, Hawaii. (Amanda Boyd/USFWS via AP)

Hawaiian seabird chicks moved as a last resort as climate warms

In a desperate effort to save a seabird species in Hawaii from rising ocean waters, scientists are moving chicks to a new island hundreds of miles away.

News | January 18th 2023

This Wednesday, June 15, 2022 photo shows hills outside Cody, Wyo. The region is ground zero in the conflict between golden eagles and wind farms, which both find homes in areas where there are strong winds. (AP Photo/Emma H. Tobin)

Golden eagles lose out in U.S. wind energy boom

The rush to build wind farms to combat climate change is colliding with preservation of one of the U.S. West’s most spectacular predators — the golden eagle — as the species teeters on the edge of decline.

News, US News | August 18th 2022

Clean energy company fined $8 million after 150 eagles perish in wind farms

NextEra Energy subsidiary ESI Energy was also sentenced to five years probation after being charged with three counts of violating the Migratory Bird Treaty Act during a court appearance in Cheyenne, Wyoming.

News, US News | April 7th 2022

The U.S. Army Soldiers work with the BLM California Folsom Lake Veterans handcrew on the Dixie Fire, Lassen National Forest. The Soldiers work on line construction in Division QQ. Photo by Joe Bradshaw, BLM/ Flickr

Governments worldwide unprepared for deadly wildfires

A warming planet and changes to land use patterns mean more wildfires will scorch large parts of the globe in coming decades, causing spikes in unhealthy smoke pollution and other problems that governments are ill prepared to confront, according to a U.N. report being released on Wednesday, February 23, 2022.

News | February 23rd 2022

This undated photo on Wednesday, Jan. 12, 2022, shows cleanup work at the site where more than 300,000 gallons of diesel spilled on Dec. 27, 2021, just outside New Orleans. (Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality via AP)

Corroded diesel pipeline ruptures killing fish and birds near New Orleans

A severely corroded pipeline ruptured and spilled more than 300,000 gallons (1.1 million liters) of diesel fuel just outside New Orleans after the operator delayed needed repairs, according to federal records.

News, US News | January 13th 2022

In this Dec. 11, 2017, file photo, solar arrays line the desert floor of the Dry Lake Solar Energy Zone as part of the 179 megawatt Switch Station 1 and Switch Station 2 Solar Projects north of Las Vegas. (Michael Quine/Las Vegas Review-Journal via AP)

Biden to expand solar power on federal land

U.S. officials announced approval on Tuesday, December 21, 2021, of two large-scale solar projects in California and moved to open up public lands in other Western states to potential solar power development, as part of the Biden administration’s effort to counter climate change by shifting from fossil fuels.

Race Against Climate Change

News, US News, Politics | December 22nd 2021

Cells are seen during a media tour of renovations at the Central Nova Scotia Correctional Facility in Halifax, on Tuesday, May 15, 2018. File photo by The Canadian Press/Andrew Vaughan

Companies bid $192 million in Biden's first Gulf oil sale

Energy companies including Shell, BP, Chevron and ExxonMobil offered a combined $192 million for drilling rights on federal oil and gas reserves in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday, November 17, 2021.

News, US News, Energy, Politics | November 18th 2021

President Joe Biden speaks during a news conference at the COP26 U.N. Climate Summit, on Tuesday, Nov. 2, 2021, in Glasgow, Scotland. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File)

U.S. auctions off huge crude reserves in Gulf of Mexico

The reserves in the Gulf of Mexico are estimated to hold up to 1.1 billion barrels of crude.

News, US News, Energy, Politics | November 17th 2021

A flare burns natural gas at an oil well on Aug. 26, 2021, in Watford City, N.D. File photo by The Associated Press/Matthew Brown

US admits fossil fuel sales damage climate yet carries on with oil and gas leases

The Biden administration is planning to sell oil and gas leases on huge tracts of public land in the U.S. West, despite the Interior Department's conclusion that doing so could cost society billions of dollars in climate change impacts, according to government documents.

Race Against Climate Change

News, US News, Energy, Politics | November 3rd 2021