

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.


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

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

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

‘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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Chinese Chemical Company Captures and Reuses 6,000 Tons of a Super-Polluting Greenhouse Gas
By Phil McKenna, Lili Pike
