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Phil McKenna

Reporter, Boston

Phil McKenna is a Boston-based reporter for InsideClimate 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.

Phil McKenna poses with his new, HFC-free refrigerator. Courtesy of Phil McKenna

Want to Buy a Climate-Friendly Refrigerator? Leading Manufacturers Are Finally Providing the Information You Need

By Phil McKenna

Louisville, Kentucky skyline as photographed from the Ohio River Greenway on July 16, 2015 in Clarksville, Indiana. Credit: Raymond Boyd/Getty Images

Louisville’s Super-Polluting Chemical Plant Emits Not One, But Two Potent Greenhouse Gases

By Phil McKenna, James Bruggers

Has the Ascend Nylon Plant in Florida Cut Its Greenhouse Gas Emissions, as Promised? A Customer Wants to Know

By Phil McKenna

A man views a General Electric refrigerator displayed for sale at a Lowe's Cos. store in Torrance, California. Credit: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Images

I Tried to Buy a Climate-Friendly Refrigerator. What I Got Was a Carbon Bomb.

By Phil McKenna

A Single Chemical Plant in Louisville Emits a Super-Pollutant That Does More Climate Damage Than Every Car in the City

By Phil McKenna, James Bruggers

CFC-11 was used primarily to make foam insulation, and was slowly phased out before being banned entirely by 2010. Credit: Education Images/Universal Images Group via Getty Images

A New Study Closes the Case on the Mysterious Rise of a Climate Super-Pollutant

By Phil McKenna

U.S. President Joe Biden prepares to sign executive orders after speaking about climate change issues in the State Dining Room of the White House on January 27, 2021 in Washington, DC. President Biden signed several executive orders related to the climate change crisis on Wednesday, including one directing a pause on new oil and natural gas leases on public lands. Also pictured, left to right, Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry and Vice President Kamala Harris. Credit: Anna Moneymaker-Pool/Getty Images

‘We Need to Be Bold,’ Biden Says, Taking the First Steps in a Major Shift in Climate Policy

By Marianne Lavelle, Agya K. Aning, Dan Gearino, David Hasemyer, James Bruggers, Katie Surma, Kristoffer Tigue, Phil McKenna

Protesters march from Copley Plaza to the Massachusetts State House in Boston to call for action on climate change on Dec. 6, 2019. Credit: David L. Ryan/The Boston Globe via Getty Images

Can Massachusetts Democrats Overcome the Power of Business Lobbyists and Pass Climate Legislation?

By Phil McKenna

President Joe Biden takes the oath of office during the presidential inauguration on Jan. 20, 2021, at the Capitol in Washington, D.C. Credit: Andrew Harnik/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

Biden Signs Sweeping Orders to Tackle Climate Change and Rollback Trump’s Anti-Environment Legacy

By Sabrina Shankman, Dan Gearino, David Hasemyer, James Bruggers, Judy Fahys, Marianne Lavelle, Phil McKenna

The Navoiyazot chemical plant in Navoiy, Uzbekistan uses a chemical reactor to eliminate 97 percent of its emissions of nitrous oxide, a potent greenhouse gas.

A German Initiative Seeks to Curb Global Emissions of a Climate Super-Pollutant

By Phil McKenna

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) speak after a press conference on Capitol Hill on Dec. 20, 2020 in Washington, D.C. Credit: Tasos Katopodis/Getty Images

Stimulus Bill Is Laden With Climate Provisions, Including a Phasedown of Chemical Super-Pollutants

By Phil McKenna

Restrictive safety standards in the U.S. and elsewhere have limited production of propane based air conditioners to just 1 percent of total capacity from 18 assembly lines across China that were retooled to use propane with money from the United Nations. Credit: Feng Hao

Chinese Factories Want to Make Climate-Friendly Air Conditioners. A US Company Is Blocking Them

By Phil McKenna and Feng Hao

As Special Envoy for Climate, John Kerry Will Be No Stranger to International Climate Negotiations

By Phil McKenna

Protesters march in Boston after President Trump claimed to have won reelection as officials continued counting ballots with neither the president nor Joe Biden having amassed the 270 electoral votes needed for victory. Credit: Phil McKenna/InsideClimate

Post Election, Climate and Racial Justice Protesters Gather in Boston Over Ballot Counting

By Phil McKenna

Miles of unused pipe, prepared for the proposed Keystone XL pipeline, sit in a lot on Oct. 14, 2014 outside Gascoyne, North Dakota. Credit: Andrew Burton/Getty Images

Too Much Sun Degrades Coatings That Keep Pipes From Corroding, Risking Leaks, Spills and Explosions

By Phil McKenna

Crops are sprayed with fertilizer to promote the growth of sorghum crops in Heilongjiang Province, China, on July 1, 2020. Credit: Costfoto/Barcroft Media via Getty Images

Emissions of Nitrous Oxide, a Climate Super-Pollutant, Are Rising Fast on a Worst-Case Trajectory

By Phil McKenna

Linggas tanks have begun capturing and purifying waste nitrous oxide gas from the Henan Shenma Nylon Chemical Company in central China. Credit: Geng Xue, Linggas

A Chinese Chemical Company Captures and Reuses 6,000 Tons of a Super-Polluting Greenhouse Gas

By Phil McKenna, Lili Pike

Methane flare. Credit: Spencer Platt/Getty Images

In a Move That Could be Catastrophic for the Climate, Trump’s EPA Rolls Back Methane Regulations

By Phil McKenna

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