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Phil McKenna

Reporter, Boston

Phil McKenna is a Boston-based reporter for Inside Climate News. Before joining ICN in 2016, he was a freelance writer covering energy and the environment for publications including The New York Times, Smithsonian, Audubon and WIRED. Uprising, a story he wrote about gas leaks under U.S. cities, won the AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Award and the 2014 NASW Science in Society Award. Phil has a master’s degree in science writing from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and was an Environmental Journalism Fellow at Middlebury College.

Ascend Performance Materials' adipic acid plant near Pensacola, Florida. Credit: Agya Aning

A US Non-Profit Aims to Reduce Emissions of a Super Climate Pollutant From Chemical Plants in China

By Phil McKenna

Trash is flattened and spread out across a hilllside before being covered with dirt at the Prima Deshecha landfill in San Juan Capistrano on Thursday, March 10, 2022. Credit: Mark Rightmire/MediaNews Group/Orange County Register via Getty Images

Federal Regulations Fail to Contain Methane Emissions from Landfills

By Phil McKenna, Amy Green

Aerial photo taken on Nov. 21, 2019 shows a night view of a factory of Petrochina Liaoyang Petrochemical Company in Liaoyang, northeast China's Liaoning Province. Credit: Yang Qing/Xinhua via Getty Images

Eleven Chemical Plants in China and One in the U.S. Emit a Climate Super-Pollutant Called Nitrous Oxide That’s 273 Times More Potent Than Carbon Dioxide

By Phil McKenna

A local brass band leads environmental protesters as they approach the EPA’s office on Pennsylvania Avenue, in Washington, D.C. Credit: Emma Ricketts

Environmental Advocates Protest Outside EPA Headquarters Over the Slow Pace of New Climate and Clean Air Regulations

By Phil McKenna, Emma Ricketts

Air conditioners Kota Bharu Malaysia. Credit: Andrew Woodley/Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Potent Greenhouse Gases and Ozone Depleting Chemicals Called CFCs Are Back on the Rise Following an International Ban, a New Study Finds

By Phil McKenna

Aaron Sinclair, of Dave's World, installs a heat pump at the home of Roland and Dale Bois on Sept. 25, 2018. Credit: Brianna Soukup/Portland Portland Press Herald via Getty Images

‘Green Hydrogen’ Would Squander Renewable Energy Resources in Massachusetts

By Phil McKenna

Electricity pylon and power cables. Credit: Tim Graham/Getty Images

US Emissions of the World’s Most Potent Greenhouse Gas Are 56 Percent Higher Than EPA Estimates, a New Study Shows

By Phil McKenna

The last-ever Concorde passenger flight takes off from John F. Kennedy International Airport en route to London on Oct. 24, 2003 in New York City. Credit: Mario Tama/Getty Images

Supersonic Aviation Program Could Cause ‘Climate Debacle,’ Environmentalists Warn

By Phil McKenna

3M's chemical plant in Cordova, Illinois released 73 tons of perfluoromethane (CF4) into the atmosphere, more than any other industrial facility in the county, in 2021. CF4 is 7,380 times more potent than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas and remains in the atmosphere for 50,000 years. Credit: Phil McKenna

A 3M Plant in Illinois Was The Country’s Worst Emitter of a Climate-Killing ‘Immortal’ Chemical in 2021

By Phil McKenna

Why Chinese Aluminum Producers Emit So Much of Some of the World’s Most Damaging Greenhouse Gases

By Phil McKenna, and Lili Pike, Grid China Reporter

Why American Aluminum Plants Emit Far More Climate Pollution Than Some of Their Counterparts Abroad

By Phil McKenna

Can being placed in can bank in the United Kingdom. Credit: Universal Images Group via Getty Images

Want to Help Reduce PFC Emissions? Recycle Those Cans

By Phil McKenna

Steam rises from the Miller coal Power Plant in Adamsville, Alabama on April 13, 2021. Credit: Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/AFP via Getty Images

Who Were the Worst Climate Polluters in the US in 2021?

By Phil McKenna

A methane flare at an oil refinery. Credit: H. Armstrong Roberts/ClassicStock/Getty Images

New EPA Proposal to Augment Methane Regulations Would Help Achieve an 87% Reduction From the Oil and Gas Industry by 2030

By Phil McKenna

A gas leak causes bubbles on the surface of the water at Sea in Sweden on Sept. 29, 2022. Credit: Swedish Coast Guard / Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

A New Study from China on Methane Leaks from the Sabotaged Nord Stream Pipelines Found that the Climate Impact Was ‘Tiny’ and Nothing ‘to Worry About’

By Phil McKenna

Air conditioner units sit in windows of an apartment building on July 20, 2022 in Washington, D.C. Credit: Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images

A New Report Suggests 6 ‘Magic’ Measures to Curb Emissions of Super-Polluting Refrigerants

By Phil McKenna

Sections of steel pipe of the Mountain Valley Pipeline lie on wooden blocks on Aug. 31, 2022 in Bent Mountain, Virginia. Credit: Robert Nickelsberg/Getty Images

Pressing Safety Concerns, Opponents of the Mountain Valley Pipeline Gear Up for the Next Round of Battle

By Phil McKenna

A person walks among refrigerators on display at a Lowe's Home Improvement store on June 27, 2022 in Miami, Florida. Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Senate Votes to Ratify the Kigali Amendment, Joining 137 Nations in an Effort to Curb Global Warming

By Phil McKenna

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