Alex Brown

Alex Brown

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Alex Brown covers environmental issues for Stateline, reporting from Washington state. Prior to joining Stateline, Brown wrote for The Chronicle in Lewis County, Washington state. He’s won awards for investigative reporting and feature writing from the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Association. In 2017, Brown thru-hiked the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail, which traverses mountain ranges from the Mexican border to the Canadian border. He previously was a congressional correspondent for National Journal, where he covered energy and environment, technology and campaigns. Brown graduated from Union University and is a native of Michigan.

States sue feds over endangered species rollbacks
A coalition of state attorneys general filed a pair of lawsuits Wednesday challenging the Trump administration’s rollbacks of protections for endangered species. The lawsuits, filed by 20 states and the District of Columbia, seek to reinstate rules that protect the...
FEMA is off the chopping block. But disaster aid is still a guessing game.
State leaders are breathing a sigh of relief that the Trump administration’s threats to eliminate the Federal Emergency Management Agency have subsided. But experts say there’s still confusion about President Donald Trump’s decisions to approve or deny disaster declarations, leaving...
Judge blocks New York’s ‘climate Superfund’ law as other states watch closely
A federal judge ruled Monday that New York cannot enforce its landmark “climate Superfund” law, a measure that sought to charge fossil fuel companies $75 billion over 25 years to help the state deal with the costs of climate change...
Feds and 22 states sue Amazon, alleging deceptive advertising scheme
The Federal Trade Commission and attorneys general from 22 states sued Amazon Monday, claiming the online retail company used artificial bids to inflate costs for advertisers, bringing in tens of billions of dollars. The complaint alleges that Amazon used an...
Learning to Burn
AUBURN, Wash. — In the back row of a small community college classroom, I sip my coffee and consider a cumulus cloud, a puffy white pillar over an expanse of blue. I’m not staring out the window, but at a...
Photo essay: Communities embrace fire to protect against out-of-control blazes
Story and photos by Alex Brown ROSLYN, Wash. — In less than an hour, this hillside will be ablaze — sparks flying, smoke swirling, the forest floor turning into a black carpet. That’s all part of the plan. Here in...
This Washington town is burning. That’s the plan.
ROSLYN, Wash. — Francisco Martinez hefts a canister filled with a mixture of diesel fuel and gasoline. A tongue of flame dances above the nozzle. He tips the drip torch forward — whoosh — and a stream of blazing liquid...
Judge orders Pentagon to resume wind energy project reviews
A federal judge has ordered the Department of Defense to lift its blockade of wind energy projects and resume the permitting process that has ground to a halt during President Donald Trump’s second term. Under Trump, the Pentagon has stopped...
Western wildfire could be latest climate disaster to unsettle property insurance market
As Washington state reels from a devastating wildfire that destroyed hundreds of homes in Spokane last weekend, experts say the disaster has cast newfound uncertainty over a property insurance market that had just begun to stabilize. Across the country, insurance...
Wildfire veterans fear federal tactics, extreme fires could put crews at risk
As millions of acres burn across the western United States, some wildland fire veterans are fearful that aggressive fire suppression tactics ordered by the Trump administration — coupled with extreme, fast-moving blazes — could put firefighters in danger as conditions...
As fires rage in the Pacific Northwest, leaders call all hands on deck
With dozens of large fires burning across the Pacific Northwest, and nearly 2 million acres burned already, state leaders are calling for firefighting reinforcements and bracing for a grueling August. “We’re going to have a long year ahead,” said Washington...
State AGs join legal fight against Trump’s wind farm freeze
A coalition of Democratic state attorneys general has joined a lawsuit seeking to end the Trump administration’s halt of onshore wind projects in the United States. Last week, 18 states and the District of Columbia moved to intervene in a...