The Environmental Forum

BRIEFING As AI expands its role in daily life, climate advocates have sounded the alarm on the technology’s growing impacts on energy, water, and public health. Yet the public remains largely in the dark when it comes to understanding the full consequences of this boom.

CROSS-EXAMINATION With less room to interpret ambiguous laws after the demise of the Chevron precedent, agencies must now work within narrow legal boundaries. Further, statutory meaning may come to be shaped by judicial reasoning rather than regulatory interpretation.

COVER STORY The little-known, judge-made administrative-remand rule can control access to federal appellate courts. It makes the courts more efficient and gives agencies space to correct their errors, but it also hamstrings litigants and can undermine environmental protection.

FIELD REPORT A few companies exercise control over the global cacao supply—profiting handsomely from tropical deforestation and human rights abuses. But there is another way. A paradigm changer’s experience working directly with producers committed to sustainable production of heirloom cacao.

THE DEBATE Supporters envision an energy economy built on zero-carbon fuels that cut air pollution and create new jobs while building on existing electric and gas infrastructure. But critics describe the green hydrogen economy as a pipedream and an expensive energy boondoggle. Currently comprising less than 1 percent of global hydrogen production, clean hydrogen investments will reach a 31 percent annual compound growth rate by 2032, predicts fuel cell company Plug Power, Inc. But what are the green hydrogen economy’s real projected impacts?