Nevada is one step closer to adopting the vehicle emissions standard proposal announced by Gov. Steve Sisolak last year after reaching a compromise lauded by environmental groups and automakers.

In an order Friday, U.S. District Court Judge Miranda Du wrote that environmental groups did not meet the legal threshold for issuing an injunction to stop preliminary mine work, digging and trenching.

Every summer, skies in the West fill with smoke as fires burn around Nevada and neighboring states.

U.S. District Court Judge Miranda Du’s courtroom was filled to capacity for an important hearing on a lithium project at the center of an energy transition away from fossil fuels and toward electrification.

Top administrators from UNR and the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory announced a new partnership Tuesday afternoon.

A study published in June by economists at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas found that the state’s pandemic-related stay-at-home order issued in March 2020 led to a significant increase in water usage in Henderson, driven by a rise in residential water consumption.

The mining oversight board, set up by the Legislature in 2011 and modeled after the Gaming Commission, held its last recorded meeting in December 2015. Today, all seven board seats on the commission are vacant.

Record-breaking temperatures swept across the West last week. This week’s Indy Environment newsletter looks at access to an essential service: A/C.

State regulators are requiring the U.S. Department of Energy to increase monitoring of waste at the Nevada National Security Site after the agency shipped unapproved low-level radioactive waste to the site.

Last month, Lake Mead fell to its lowest level since the reservoir, held back by the Hoover Dam, was filled in the 1930s.

“Starting today, we are also going to take the innovative and pragmatic step of actively measuring our carbon footprint so we can use this real time information to understand our actual impact,” Sisolak said in a statement to The Nevada Independent. “This is how we fight climate change and protect our state.”

This week’s Indy Environment newsletter looks at the unequal distribution of heat. Climate change is making hot summer days more common and more pronounced. But each hot day only tells a part of the story. In reality, heat is not static, and it is not equally distributed.

A company wants to build a mine that could bolster the domestic supply of lithium and help address climate change. But the rural communities that encircle the area have major concerns about the project and are at the center of an energy transition from climate-warming fuels, coal mining and combustible engines to solar energy, lithium mining and electric vehicles.

This week’s edition of the Indy Environment newsletter features an interview with Department of Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm, who visited Las Vegas last week as part of the Biden administration’s efforts to hasten the transition to more renewable energy and to sell the American Jobs Act. Granholm discussed Nevada’s position in the energy transition.

Colin Robertson, head of the state’s Division of Outdoor Recreation, called for more federal funding for land management along with investment in rural communities to help better manage resources stressed by the pandemic, which drove more campers to remote areas even as jobs decreased in outdoor recreation.

This week’s Indy Environment newsletter looks at a new report, released by the Biden administration on Tuesday, that analyzes critical supply chains, including how the U.S. can secure the materials necessary to transition from fossil fuels and address climate change.

The Southern Nevada Water Authority, which serves the Las Vegas metro area, is tasked with implementing what its general manager said is probably “the most aggressive municipal water conservation measure that's been taken in the western United States.”

A rare plant species found on only about 10 acres in Nevada and at the center of a fight over permitting a lithium mine warrants federal protection under the Endangered Species Act, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced.

This week’s Indy Environment looks at a bill recently approved by the Legislature that aims to address bicycle and pedestrian safety by making a number of small (but significant) changes to statute. It’s not a panacea, but activists see it as a step in the right direction.

Going into the last week of the session, lawmakers moved to adopt an amendment authorizing county commissions to impose fees related to emission reduction — a change aimed at removing the constitutional requirement for a two-thirds vote on the bill, as it previously raised taxes and fees.