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James Bruggers

James Bruggers

Reporter, Southeast, National Environment Reporting Network

James Bruggers covers the U.S. Southeast, part of Inside Climate News’ National Environment Reporting Network. He previously covered energy and the environment for Louisville’s Courier Journal, where he worked as a correspondent for USA Today and was a member of the USA Today Network environment team. Before moving to Kentucky in 1999, Bruggers worked as a journalist in Montana, Alaska, Washington and California. Bruggers’ work has won numerous recognitions, including best beat reporting, Society of Environmental Journalists, and the National Press Foundation’s Thomas Stokes Award for energy reporting. He served on the board of directors of the SEJ for 13 years, including two years as president. He lives in Louisville with his wife, Christine Bruggers.

Ghana's Betty Osei Bonsu, representing the Green Africa Youth Organization, a nongovernmental group, will be attending next week’s U.N. negotiating session to develop a legally binding treaty to curb plastic pollution. Credit: World Wildlife Fund.

On the Eve of Plastics Treaty Talks, a Youth Advocate From Ghana Speaks Out: ‘We Need Urgent Action’

By James Bruggers

Shell's new petrochemical plant in Monaca, Pennsylvania, on the Ohio River, about 30 miles north of Pittsburgh. Credit: Emma Ricketts/Inside Climate News.

Shell Agrees to Pay $10 Million After Permit Violations at its Giant New Plastics Plant in Pennsylvania

By James Bruggers

The Stanton Energy Center, a coal-fired power plant, is seen in Orlando. Credit: Paul Hennessy/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

EPA Proposes to Expand its Regulations on Dumps of Toxic Waste From Burning Coal

By James Bruggers, Amy Green

Canadian activist and artist, Benjamin von Wong is pictured in front of his 30-foot monument themed 'turn off the plastics tap' created using plastic waste from Nairobi's largest slum, Kibera, standing outside the venue of the Fifth Session of the United Nations Environment Assembly, at the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) Headquarters in Nairobi on Feb. 22, 2022. Credit: Tony Karumba/AFP via Getty Images

UN Agency Provides Path to 80 Percent Reduction in Plastic Waste. Recycling Alone Won’t Cut It

By James Bruggers

Cubes of sorted compressed plastic bottles are seen at the recycling center at the Sile Integrated Waste Facility Center on March 12, 2018 in Istanbul, Turkey. Credit: Chris McGrath/Getty Images

Who Said Recycling Was Green? It Makes Microplastics By the Ton

By James Bruggers

Baled plastic at the Brightmark chemical recycling plant in Indiana in July. The plant is designed to turn plastic waste into diesel fuel, naphtha and wax. Credit: James Bruggers

Environmentalists Want the FTC Green Guides to Slam the Door on the ‘Chemical’ Recycling of Plastic Waste

By James Bruggers

A fire Tuesday at a plastics recycling plant in Richmond, Indiana, forced the evacuation of 2,000 nearby residents. Credit: Kevin Shook/Global Media Enterprise.

Where There’s Plastic, There’s Fire. Indiana Blaze Highlights Concerns Over Expanding Plastic Recycling

By James Bruggers

A man walks along the Susquehanna River near the proposed Encina plastics recycling plant looking for a fishing spot in the summer of 2022. Credit: James Bruggers

Plastic Recycling Plant Could Send Toxic ‘Forever Chemicals’ Into the Susquehanna River, Polluting a Vital Drinking Water Source

By James Bruggers

Smoke billows from a chemical plant in the "cancer alley" area Oct. 12, 2013. Credit: Giles Clarke/Getty Images

For the First Time in Nearly Two Decades, the EPA Announces New Rules to Limit Toxic Air Pollutants From Chemical and Plastics Plants

By James Bruggers

Coal miners, their faces smeared with coal dust in a coal mine, in Cumberland, Kentucky, around 1945. Credit: Curtis Wainscott/FPG/Archive Photos/Getty Images

Why Kentucky Is Dead Last for Wind and Solar Production

By James Bruggers, Dan Gearino

Gail LeBoeuf, a lifelong member of St. Michael Catholic Church in St. James Parish and co founder and co executive director of the group Inclusive Louisiana, was part of a delegation of Black elders from Louisiana to speak last summer before UNESCO. Credit: James Bruggers

Citing ‘Racial Cleansing,’ Louisiana ‘Cancer Alley’ Residents Sue Over Zoning

By James Bruggers

From Gas Wells to Rubber Ducks to Incineration, the Plastics Lifecycle Causes ‘Horrific Harm’ to the Planet and People, Report Shows

By James Bruggers

Officials continue to conduct operation and inspect the area after the train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, in February 2023. Credit: U.S. Environmental Protection Agency/Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

How to ‘Make Some Good’ Out of East Palestine, Ohio, Rail Disaster? Ban Vinyl Chloride, Former EPA Official Says

By James Bruggers

A corn field wilts in a mid summer dry spell in a Point Township, Pennsylvania, field where Houston-based Encina says it will convert plastic waste to benzene, toluene and xylene. Credit: James Bruggers

Encina Chemical Recycling Plant in Pennsylvania Faces Setback: One of its Buildings Is Too Tall

By James Bruggers

Workers display polypropylene nonwoven raw materials on the production line in Hohhot, Inner Mongolia, China, on Jan. 31, 2020. Credit: Costfoto/Future Publishing via Getty Images

Once Hailed as a Solution to the Global Plastics Scourge, PureCycle May Be Teetering

By James Bruggers

Worker Kamol Srilaloong manually separates plastic bottles at the Wongpanit Suvarnabhumi recycle collection center on Sept. 1, 2017 in Bangkok, Thailand. Credit: Paula Bronstein/Getty Images

Biden Administration’s Global Plastics Plan Dubbed ‘Low Ambition’ and ‘Underwhelming’

By James Bruggers

On the Frontlines in a ‘Cancer Alley,’ Black Women Inspired by Faith Are Powering the Environmental Justice Movement

By James Bruggers

A rescue team from the Jackson Fire Department assists people out of floodwaters downtown on July 28, 2022 in Jackson, Kentucky. Credit: Michael Swensen/Getty Images

Drowning Deaths Last Summer From Flooding in Eastern Kentucky’s Coal Country Linked to Poor Strip-Mine Reclamation

By James Bruggers

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