News from around the nation.

State of Emergency for Alabama and Florida as Hurricane Isaias continues to strengthen; a new report suggests customers pay the price when utilities fail to plan adequately for clean energy, and a national coalition calls for tighter guardrails on new data centers.

Transcript

The Public News Service Friday afternoon update.

I'm Mike Clifford.

The governors of Florida, Alabama, and Georgia have declared states of emergency.

The National Hurricane Center says Hurricane SAES intensified into a major Category 3 hurricane Friday with 120 mile-an-hour winds and is forecast to make landfall tonight along the Florida Panhandle.

According to the National Hurricane Center, a life-threatening storm surge is expected to cross the Gulf Coast from the mouth of the Mississippi River to Sewanee, Florida.

Residents in warning areas should follow advice given by local officials and evacuate immediately if told to do so.

Meantime, a new report by the Sierra Club shows Tennessee still leans too heavily on fossil fuels for energy production rather than cleaner burning sources.

Tennessee Valley Authority, which serves a total of seven states, scored an F in this year's Dirty Truth Report.

Bonnie Swinford with the Sierra Club says TVA falls short in all three categories, retiring coal plants by 2030, avoiding new gas plants through 2035, and transitioning to clean and renewable energy.

She adds TVA is behind other utilities on building renewable energy like solar and batteries.

The report highlights that TVA is planning on adding over 10,000 megawatts of new gas.

TVA has zebra plans to retire its uneconomical coal plant while breaking its promise to close down the outdated and uneconomical Kingston and Cumberland coal plant.

Danielle Smith reporting.

And Indiana's growing fight over data centers is drawing a new proposal from a coalition that says communities need stronger protections, not outright bans.

We get the details from our Joe Ullery.

The American Infrastructure Alliance wants large energy users to pay their own electricity costs and developers to make enforceable commitments on water use, environmental standards, and community benefits.

Graham Newhall is a spokesperson for the alliance.

This effort is very much focused on finding the right way for states and local communities to propose guardrails and guidelines for those.

The debate is playing out across Indiana.

At least 24 counties have adopted data center moratoriums and three have banned them.

Public skepticism remains high.

An August survey funded by the Alliance found nearly three-fourths of Hoosiers opposed new data center construction.

This story was produced with original reporting from Carson Gerber for FBI News.

Next to Wyoming, where voters will decide whether or not people who own their homes should see their property taxes cut in half.

It's a move projected to reduce state revenues by as much as $125 million per year.

Kim Amen is president of the Wyoming Education Association, which opposes the measure.

Because the state has to fund public schools, a whole bunch of other services could be cut, like road repairs and fire and 911 services and libraries and snow removal.

Proponents of Proposition 1 on the November ballot say it's necessary to meet after real estate prices and tax burdens skyrocketed when the pandemic created a spike in demand for homes in rural areas.

This is Public News Service.

Organic farmers in New York are worried about pending Farm Bill proposals.

The House passed one version, while the Senate Agriculture Committee passed another.

Some organic farming groups are glad to see slight funding increases for conservation programs and cost-sharing initiatives in the Senate version.

Leanna Hoods with the Northeast Organic Farmers Association of New York says organic or not, dairy farms struggle without a farm bill.

The more the farm bill gets delayed, the more they continue to be uncertain about their next steps.

And that's from how the crop insurance works to how the pay price for farmers works and research.

She notes the Senate Ag Committee version of the bill doesn't include language to improve data collection for organic dairies to better address challenges they face.

Other improvements, Hood says this version of the bill needs are cost increases for the organic certification cost share and funding for farmers to transition to organic.

I'm Edwin J. Viera.

The latest Farm Bill reauthorization expired at the end of September, leaving the next one's fate uncertain.

Next, food security groups are dismayed by the lack of significant punishment for major egg producers accused of price gouging.

A Department of Justice investigation alleges CalMain Foods, the largest egg producer in the U.S., and others worked together to artificially increase egg prices while blaming the increase on the bird flu.

Palmein's profits increased tenfold to over a billion dollars in a year in 2022 during the first major wave of bird flu.

Sarah Carden with Farm Action says the company is settling with the DOJ instead of going to court.

But the settlement is not nearly high enough to protect consumers from future misdeeds.

The financial penalties are just not severe enough.

The fine is about 0.23 percent of the profits they made in one year.

So instead of being disincentivizing, it's really more of like a cost of doing business.

I'm Tramiel Gomes.

Finally, duck hunting is one of the most significant outdoor economic drivers in Arkansas.

Hunters pump more than $300 million into the local economy each year, but the number has been dwindling as the waterfowl population has decreased.

During the fall, rice farmers typically flood their harvested fields to create habitats for migratory birds, but in recent years, fewer farmers are planting rice due to economic hardships.

Ryan Askren with Five Oaks Ag Research and Education says if farmers aren't profitable, they can't provide the winter habitat the birds need.

The hunting opportunity really drives the habitat.

People being able to have successful hunts on properties incentivizes the flooding of all these, the pumping costs and work that goes into it.

So if you don't have those people wanting to come hunt, then the habitat's very likely going to struggle.

I'm Freda Ross reporting.

This is Mike Clifford, and thank you for wrapping up your week with Public News Service.

Member and listener supported.

Find our trust indicators at publicnewsservice.org.