President Trump painted a picture over the weekend of how U.S. oil companies would dive into Venezuela after the ouster of President Nicolás Maduro and “spend billions of dollars, fix the badly broken infrastructure” and “start making money for the country.”But Mr. Trump’s oil goals face formidable challenges.A handful of Western p...

Last winter, Chevron appeared to be running out of time in Venezuela.The company was the last major U.S. oil company still producing oil in the South American country, many years after others, like Exxon Mobil and ConocoPhillips, had left. For years, Chevron muddled along under short-term exemptions from U.S. sanction policies. The...

Venezuela’s oil reserves, thought to be the largest in the world at an estimated 300 billion barrels, are notable not just for scale. Most of the oil found there is among the dirtiest type, with high sulfur and low hydrogen content.Before Venezuela plunged into an economic crisis under President Nicolás Maduro, the country was prod...

Developers of five offshore wind farms that were ordered last week by the Trump administration to halt construction are suing to restart work on at least three of the projects.The Interior Department on Dec. 22 ordered companies to halt work on five wind farms in various stages of construction along the East Coast. They were: Sunri...

The crew of an oil tanker fleeing U.S. forces in the Atlantic Ocean recently painted a Russian flag on the side of the vessel, in an apparent attempt to claim Russian protection, two American officials said on Tuesday.It’s the latest twist in a bizarre odyssey that began on Dec. 21 when the U.S. Coast Guard tried to intercept the s...

Readers submitted more than 3,200 ideas for our 50 States, 50 Fixes series. Before the year ends, we wanted to share just a few more of them.

The Trump administration said on Tuesday that it had received an application for seabed mining exploration in international waters, the first in its effort to encourage the controversial industry.The federal government said it was formally considering the first permit applications from the Metals Company, which has become a forerun...

In Northern Virginia’s Data Center Alley, windowless buildings the size of aircraft hangars are powering America’s artificial intelligence industry, which is locked in a race against China.Yet, these data centers are increasingly reliant on China, America’s geopolitical rival, for a vital technology: batteries.These facilities can...

Interview by Austyn GaffneyLost Science is an ongoing series of accounts from scientists who have lost their jobs or funding after cuts by the Trump administration. The conversations have been edited for clarity and length. Here’s why we’re doing this.Ana Vaz: I worked for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s South...

As Greenpeace and the pipeline company Energy Transfer have fought a series of bruising court battles — including one that could bankrupt Greenpeace in the United States — a little-known organization filed what’s known as a “friend-of-the-court” brief with the North Dakota Supreme Court.The organization, Grow America’s Infrastructu...

The Trump administration said it will be dismantling the National Center for Atmospheric Research in Colorado, one of the world’s leading Earth science research institutions.The center, founded in 1960, is responsible for many of the biggest scientific advances in humanity’s understanding of weather and climate. Its research aircra...

Republicans criticized the Biden administration for years for allowing Chevron to export oil from Venezuela, arguing that it helped finance President Nicolás Maduro’s totalitarian and corrupt government.After returning to power, President Trump halted and then changed the terms of Chevron’s operations in Venezuela, contending that...

Consumers already tapped out from rising home energy costs face yet another strain on their pocketbooks — surging heating costs.Higher electricity and natural gas prices coupled with forecasts for unusually cold temperatures across parts of the country are expected to drive up bills as winter takes hold. The average U.S. household...

Record-setting temperatures and rainfall in the Arctic over the past year sped up the melting of permafrost and washed toxic minerals into more than 200 rivers across northern Alaska, threatening vital salmon runs, according to a report card issued by federal scientists.The report, compiled by dozens of academic and government scie...

The Trump administration wants the European Union to exempt American oil and gas companies from a landmark law aimed at curbing emissions of methane, a powerful planet-warming gas.In recent days U.S. diplomats have verbally informed officials in European countries that the Trump administration considers the 27-member bloc’s methane...

A blast of Arctic air has plunged much of the United States into a bitter cold snap. About 202 million people — around 60 percent of the population of the contiguous United States — live in the areas expected to see freezing temperatures over the next week.Follow that frigid air north to the Arctic, and you find a region undergoing...

Scientists from the United States, Canada and Europe will soon start researchflights over the Atlantic Ocean to learn more about atmospheric rivers in the hopes of giving battered residents of both Europe and the West Coast of the United States more time to prepare for the deluges they bring.Atmospheric rivers, high-altitude plumes...

The Nobel Peace Prize winner made her pitch by live video to a business conference in Miami attended by American executives and politicians, including President Trump.“I am talking about a $1.7 trillion opportunity,” María Corina Machado, Venezuela’s main opposition leader, said last month, weeks after winning the peace prize for c...

Three Democratic senators said on Tuesday that they are investigating whether and how the operations of technology companies are driving up residential electricity bills.In letters sent on Monday to Google, Microsoft, Amazon, Meta and three other companies, the lawmakers said the energy needs of data centers used for artificial int...

On an unusually warm November morning on Pitchfork Ranch in northwestern Wyoming, wranglers coaxed hundreds of cows, one at a time, into a small holding pen. They were there for their regular twice-per-year checkups. But this time, the cows got something more: GPS collars.If all goes according to plan, the collars will allow Ben An...

The beaver who would one day be named June was simply doing what beavers do. But her dams, built around her lodge in Utah’s Bear River Mountains, ran afoul of a rancher. He said the flooding caused his sheep to get stuck in the mud.That landed the furry engineer in the unfortunate category of “nuisance beaver.” In most places aroun...

The beaver who would one day be named June was simply doing what beavers do. But her dams, built around her lodge in Utah’s Bear River Mountains, ran afoul of a rancher. He said the flooding caused his sheep to get stuck in the mud.That landed the furry engineer in the unfortunate category of “nuisance beaver.” In most places aroun...

Fayetteville, Ark., has proudly worn colorful descriptors over the years.Crunchy. Funky. “Kind of a granola, hippie environment,” said Jeff Pummill, who chairs the city’s environmental action committee.Set in the Ozark Mountains in the northwest corner of the state, a region of lush, rolling hills crisscrossed by rivers and creeks,...

Fayetteville, Ark., has proudly worn colorful descriptors over the years.Crunchy. Funky. “Kind of a granola, hippie environment,” said Jeff Pummill, who chairs the city’s environmental action committee.Set in the Ozark Mountains in the northwest corner of the state, a region of lush, rolling hills crisscrossed by rivers and creeks,...

A group of young activists, who in 2023 won a landmark climate change case against their home state of Montana, are asking the state’s top court to prevent legislators from undermining their victory.The original case, Held v. Montana, took issue with a law that barred the state from considering the effects of climate change when ap...

A group of young activists, who in 2023 won a landmark climate change case against their home state of Montana, are asking the state’s top court to prevent legislators from undermining their victory.The original case, Held v. Montana, took issue with a law that barred the state from considering the effects of climate change when ap...

A leading proponent of election fraud conspiracy theories is set to oversee federal disaster response as the Trump administration prepares to drastically reshape the Federal Emergency Management Agency, according to a person familiar with the decision.The appointee, Gregg Phillips, will take over the agency’s Office of Response and...

A leading proponent of election fraud conspiracy theories is set to oversee federal disaster response as the Trump administration prepares to drastically reshape the Federal Emergency Management Agency, according to a person familiar with the decision.The appointee, Gregg Phillips, will take over the agency’s Office of Response and...

Call an Uber in Austin or Atlanta, and you might be offered a vehicle without a driver. Waymo, the self-driving taxi service owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet, is expanding rapidly and partnering with ride-hailing companies.Waymo operated 14 million trips across five U.S. cities this year and is expanding to Dallas, Housto...

Call an Uber in Austin or Atlanta, and you might be offered a vehicle without a driver. Waymo, the self-driving taxi service owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet, is expanding rapidly and partnering with ride-hailing companies.Waymo operated 14 million trips across five U.S. cities this year and is expanding to Dallas, Housto...

A task force that President Trump created to explore an overhaul of the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Thursday abruptly postponed a meeting where it had been scheduled to vote on recommendations to reshape the agency.Less than an hour before the meeting’s scheduled 1 p.m. start, members of the panel, known as the FEMA Revi...

A task force that President Trump created to explore an overhaul of the Federal Emergency Management Agency on Thursday abruptly postponed a meeting where it had been scheduled to vote on recommendations to reshape the agency.Less than an hour before the meeting’s scheduled 1 p.m. start, members of the panel, known as the FEMA Revi...

A federal lawsuit filed Thursday challenges an oil company’s new permit to explore for oil in a remote region of the Arctic in Alaska, arguing that such activity threatens the tundra’s ecosystem and the caribou herds that Native communities rely on for sustenance.Last month, the Bureau of Land Management approved the permit for Con...

A federal lawsuit filed Thursday challenges an oil company’s new permit to explore for oil in a remote region of the Arctic in Alaska, arguing that such activity threatens the tundra’s ecosystem and the caribou herds that Native communities rely on for sustenance.Last month, the Bureau of Land Management approved the permit for Con...

The executives dining at the White House to celebrate President Trump’s $300 million ballroom — and their role in financing it — were a who’s who of American industry. Many hailed from companies that are household names, like Microsoft, OpenAI and Comcast.Seated among them was Harold G. Hamm, the 13th child of Oklahoma sharecropper...

The executives dining at the White House to celebrate President Trump’s $300 million ballroom — and their role in financing it — were a who’s who of American industry. Many hailed from companies that are household names, like Microsoft, OpenAI and Comcast.Seated among them was Harold G. Hamm, the 13th child of Oklahoma sharecropper...

The United States’ seizure of a tanker on Wednesday off the coast of Venezuela was clearly meant to rattle that country’s autocratic government.The move will most likely make it more difficult for Venezuela to export oil, squeezing a crucial source of revenue for the government of President Nicolás Maduro.“It will affect all vessel...

The United States’ seizure of a tanker on Wednesday off the coast of Venezuela was clearly meant to rattle that country’s autocratic government.The move will most likely make it more difficult for Venezuela to export oil, squeezing a crucial source of revenue for the government of President Nicolás Maduro.“It will affect all vessel...