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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.

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

A thermal image of SF6-containing electrical equipment at a Duke Energy substation. The image does not show any leaks. Credit: Phil McKenna

Duke Energy Is Leaking a Potent Climate-Warming Gas at More Than Five Times the Rate of Other Utilities

By Phil McKenna

A thermal image of SF6-containing electrical equipment at a Duke Energy substation. The image does not show any leaks. Credit: Phil McKenna

How a Successful EPA Effort to Reduce Climate-Warming ‘Immortal’ Chemicals Stalled

By Phil McKenna

At least three separate analyses by think tanks and academic institutions agree that the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 would cut U.S. greenhouse gas emissions some 40 percent by 2030

Deep in the Democrats’ Climate Bill, Analysts See More Wins for Clean Energy Than Gifts for Fossil Fuel Business

By Marianne Lavelle, Dan Gearino, Georgina Gustin, Phil McKenna

People watch as the SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket lifts off from launch pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center on April 11, 2019 in Titusville, Florida. The rocket is carrying a communications satellite built by Lockheed Martin into orbit. Credit: Joe Raedle/Getty Images

Space Tourism Poses a Significant ‘Risk to the Climate’

By Phil McKenna

Every Hour, This Gas Storage Station Sends Half a Ton of Methane Into the Atmosphere

By Phil McKenna, Inside Climate News and Alex Rozier, Mississippi Today

Smoke billows from smokestacks and a coal fired generator at a steel factory on Nov. 19, 2015 in the industrial province of Hebei, China. Credit: Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

New Study Says World Must Cut Short-Lived Climate Pollutants as Well as Carbon Dioxide to Meet Paris Agreement Goals

By Phil McKenna

An air source heat pump repairman from Valiant replaces a Wilo pump inside an air source heat pump unit at a house in Folkestone, United Kingdom on Dec. 23, 2021. Credit: Andrew Aitchison/In pictures via Getty Images

International Commission Votes to Allow Use of More Climate-Friendly Refrigerants in AC and Heat Pumps

By Phil McKenna

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