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Articles by Casey Page
Why we’re watching these climate tech companies
This week, we released our 2026 version of our Climate Tech Companies to Watch list. It’s an annual project that the MIT Technology Review team puts together. Our goal is to highlight some of the promising, interesting advances and firms we think are worth paying attention to in the world of climate and energy technology.
Europe’s extreme heat is shutting down power plants
Your experience on PreventionWeb Please help us improve PreventionWeb by taking this brief survey. Your input will allow us to better serve the needs of the DRR community. See the survey 24 June 2026 Author(s): Casey Crownhartarchive page Rising temperatures can affect our power supply, including nuclear and natural-gas power plants [...] On June 23, France saw its hottest day since record-keeping began in 1947.
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What’s next for EV batteries in 2026
Today, both production and demand for sodium-ion batteries are heavily centered in China. That’s likely to continue, especially after a cutback in tax credits and other financial support for the battery and EV industries in the US. One of the biggest sodium-battery companies in the US, Natron, ceased operations last year after running into funding issues.
How AI is uncovering hidden geothermal energy resources
In the case of Big Blind, this prospecting information gave the company enough confidence to purchase a federal lease, allowing it to develop a geothermal plant. With that lease secured, the team returned with large drill rigs and drilled thousands of feet down in July and August. The workers found the hot, permeable rock they expected. Next they must secure permits to build and connect to the grid and line up the investments needed to build the plant.
Stop worrying about your AI footprint. Look at the big picture instead.
Picture it: I’m minding my business at a party, parked by the snack table (of course). A friend of a friend wanders up, and we strike up a conversation. It quickly turns to work, and upon learning that I’m a climate technology reporter, my new acquaintance says something like: “Should I be using AI? I’ve heard it’s awful for the environment.” This actually happens pretty often now.
Can we repair the internet?
Breaking up Big Tech through antitrust laws would hinder innovation, says Clegg, arguing that the idea “completely ignores the benefits users gain from large network effects.” Users stick with these outsize channels because they can find “most of what they’re looking for,” he writes, like friends and content on social media and cheap consumer goods on Amazon and eBay. Wu might concede this point, but he would disagree with Clegg’s claims that maintaining the status quo is beneficial to users.
Unlocking AI’s full potential requires operational excellence
Capturing, documenting, and distributing knowledge at scale is critical to organizational success with AI. Yet our survey showed only 16% of respondents say their workflows are extremely well-documented. The top barriers to proper documentation are a lack of time, cited by 40% of respondents, and a lack of tools, cited by 30%. The challenge of integrating new technology with old processes was perfectly illustrated in a recent meeting I had with a Fortune 500 executive.
The US may be heading toward a drone-filled future
Currently, you need a waiver from the FAA to fly a drone farther than you can see it. This is meant to protect the public and property from in-air collisions and accidents. In 2018, the FAA began granting these waivers for various scenarios, like search and rescues, insurance inspections, or police investigations. With Flock’s help, police departments can get waivers approved in just two weeks. The company’s private-sector customers generally have to wait 60 to 90 days.
US investigators are using AI to detect child abuse images made by AI
Generative AI has enabled the production of child sexual abuse images to skyrocket. Now the leading investigator of child exploitation in the US is experimenting with using AI to distinguish AI-generated images from material depicting real victims, according to a new government filing.
How AI and Wikipedia have sent vulnerable languages into a doom spiral
This could have significant repercussions in cases where Wikipedia is poorly written—potentially pushing the most vulnerable languages on Earth toward the precipice as future generations begin to turn away from them. “Wikipedia will be reflected in the AI models for these languages,” says Trond Trosterud, a computational linguist at the University of Tromsø in Norway, who has been raising the alarm about the potentially harmful outcomes of badly run Wikipedia editions for years.
It's surprisingly easy to stumble into a relationship with an AI chatbot
To conduct their study, the authors analyzed the subreddit’s top-ranking 1,506 posts between December 2024 and August 2025. They found that the main topics discussed revolved around people’s dating and romantic experiences with AIs, with many participants sharing AI-generated images of themselves and their AI companion. Some even got engaged and married to the AI partner.
AI models are using material from retracted scientific papers
“If [a tool is] facing the general public, then using retraction as a kind of quality indicator is very important,” says Yuanxi Fu, an information science researcher at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.
How to measure the returns on R&D spending
Pondering such questions should keep innovation economists busy for the next several years. But there is another mystifying piece of the puzzle, says Northwestern’s Jones. If the returns on R&D investments are so high—the kind that most venture capitalists or investors would gladly take—why isn’t the government spending more?
The looming crackdown on AI companionship
It’s hard to overstate the impact of these stories. To the public, they are proof that AI is not merely imperfect, but a technology that’s more harmful than helpful. If you doubted that this outrage would be taken seriously by regulators and companies, three things happened this week that might change your mind. On Thursday, the California state legislature passed a first-of-its-kind bill.
AI is changing the grid. Could it help more than it harms?
There’s a growing list of other potential uses for AI on the grid and in electricity generation. The technology could monitor and plan ahead for failures in equipment ranging from power lines to gear boxes. Computer vision could help detect everything from wildfires to faulty lines. AI could also help balance supply and demand in virtual power plants, systems of distributed resources like EV chargers or smart water heaters.
How Trump is helping China extend its massive lead in clean energy
And now the US seems determined to repeat the mistake. In its quest to prop up aging fossil-fuel industries, the Trump administration has slashed federal support for the emerging cleantech sector, handing his nation’s chief economic rival the most generous of gifts: an unobstructed path to locking in its control of emerging energy technologies, and a leg up in inventing the industries of the future. China’s dominance of solar was no accident.
How healthcare accelerator programs are changing care
Healthcare accelerator programs act as gateways for international digital health companies looking to enter the U.S. market, often considered one of the most complex and highly regulated healthcare landscapes in the world. These programs provide tailored support to navigate U.S. compliance standards, understand payer and provider dynamics, and tailor offerings to meet the needs of U.S. patients and care delivery models.
Can an AI doppelgänger help me do my job?
Who are they for? Delphi, a startup that recently raised $16 million from funders including Anthropic and actor/director Olivia Wilde’s venture capital firm, Proximity Ventures, helps famous people create replicas that can speak with their fans in both chat and voice calls. It feels like MasterClass—the platform for instructional seminars led by celebrities—vaulted into the AI age.
Google’s still not giving us the full picture on AI energy use
“We’re not comfortable revealing that for various reasons,” Dean told me on our call. The total number is an abstract measure that changes over time, he says, adding that the company wants users to be thinking about the energy usage per prompt. But there are people out there all over the world interacting with this technology, not just me—and what we all add up to seems quite relevant. OpenAI does publicly share its total, sharing recently that it sees 2.5 billion queries to ChatGPT every day.
Fix damaged art in hours with A I
In his study, Alex Kachkine, SM ’23, presents a new method he’s developed that involves printing the restoration on a very thin polymer film that can be carefully aligned with a painting and adhered to it or easily removed. As a demonstration, he used the method to repair a highly damaged 15th-century oil painting he owned. First he used traditional techniques to clean the painting and remove any past restoration efforts.
In a first, Google has released data on how much energy an AI prompt uses
“People are using [AI tools] for all kinds of things, and they shouldn’t have major concerns about the energy usage or the water usage of Gemini models, because in our actual measurements, what we were able to show was that it’s actually equivalent to things you do without even thinking about it on a daily basis,” he says, “like watching a few seconds of TV or consuming five drops of water.” The publication greatly expands what’s known about AI’s resource usage.
Why recycling isn’t enough to address the plastic problem
So, in March 2022, the UN Environment Assembly set out to develop an international treaty to address plastic pollution. Pretty much everyone should agree that a bunch of plastic waste floating in the ocean is a bad thing. But as we’ve learned over the past few years, as these talks developed, opinions diverge on what to do about it and how any interventions should happen. One phrase that’s become quite contentious is the “full life cycle” of plastic.
The US could really use an affordable electric truck
As Andrew Hawkins pointed out in The Verge this week, “Ford seems to realize its timing is unfortunate.” During the announcement, executives emphasized that this was a bet, one that might not work out. CEO Jim Farley put it bluntly: “The automotive industry has a graveyard littered with affordable vehicles that were launched in our country with all good intentions, and they fizzled out with idle plants, laid-off workers, and red ink.” Woof.
Google’s electricity demand is skyrocketing
Let’s start with fusion: Google’s deal with Commonwealth Fusion Systems is intended to provide the tech giant with 200 megawatts of power. This will come from Commonwealth’s first commercial plant, a facility planned for Virginia that the company refers to as the Arc power plant. The agreement represents half its capacity. What’s important to note here is that this power plant doesn’t exist yet.
Scaling green hydrogen technology for the future
Thyssenkrupp nucera has entered into a strategic partnership with the renowned German research institute Fraunhofer IKTS to move the technology toward applications in industrial manufacturing. The company envisages SOEC as a complement to AWE in the areas where it is cost effective to reduce overall energy consumption. “The combination of AWE and SOEC in thyssenkrupp nucera’s portfolio offers a unique product suite to the industry,” says Noeres.
Meet the climate innovators of tomorrow
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→ For example, I’m interested in the efforts to use recycled materials, including recycled cobalt, in batteries. (MIT Technology Review) Thermal battery startup Antora just flipped on its first commercial-scale system. The company’s technology could help power industrial plants that require high heat and constant power. (Bloomberg) → Here’s why thermal batteries are the hottest (get it?) new climate technology.
By Casey Page, Casey Crownhart Verified, Will Douglas Heaven Verified, Luigi Avantaggiatoarchive page
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Argonne National Laboratory
How climate vulnerability and the digital divide are linked
The ultimate goal, Sanders says, is for residents to be able to tackle or mitigate whatever comes their way next, without any further help from her organization. Sanders, a Louisiana native, knows what it feels like to have a disaster upend your world: in 2005, she was at home in New Orleans getting ready for her first semester of law school when Hurricane Katrina made landfall.
World - These deep-sea “potatoes” could be the future of mining for renewable energy
I’ve been on the road this week, and by a stroke of luck I got to visit one of my favorite places in the world: the whale shark exhibit at the Georgia Aquarium in Atlanta. The tank is massive, holding over 6 million gallons of water. Six full-sized whale sharks swim around it, along with lots of manta rays and other assorted ocean creatures. I remember sitting down in front of the main viewing window on a school field trip, captivated by this gigantic array of life.
Hurlbert celebrates
Montana native and part-time Rollins resident Craig Hurlbert (pink shirt) celebrates after winning the Montana Men's State Senior Amateur Championship last July in Billings. Hurlbert has earned a prestigious national honor, named Senior Player of the Year by AmateurGolf.com. CASEY PAGE, Billings Gazette You don't have any notifications. Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device. Topics News Alerts Subscribe Breaking News Subscribe
Jeff the Nature Guy's top moments of 2020
Jeff the Nature Guy's top moments of 2020 On any video shoot with Jeff "the Nature Guy" Ewelt at ZooMontana, I could end up holding a lizard, learn about how to tell the difference between male and female cockroaches, or feed zucchini to a sloth. This year was full of exciting new arrivals at ZooMontana. From Winston the long-anticipated sloth, Simpson and Onyx the grey wolves, Phe the miniature donkey, to Pascal the chameleon, creatures great and small arrived at the zoo this year.
146 new COVID-19 cases, 2 more deaths reported in Montana
Montana reported two more deaths due to COVID-19 on Saturday and 146 new cases of the virus. That brings the statewide total to 116 deaths. Dawson County reported its first death, a man in his 80s who died Friday at the Eastern Montana Veterans Home, according to a Facebook post by the Dawson County Health Department. Yellowstone County also reported one death Saturday, bringing the total to 47.
146 new COVID-19 cases, 2 more deaths reported in Montana Original
146 new COVID-19 cases, 2 more deaths reported in Montana Return to homepage × Please subscribe to keep reading. You can cancel at any time. Already a subscriber? Log in or Activate your account. Loading&hellp; × Sign Up Today and Support Local Journalism Enjoy more articles from Billings' Most Trusted Information Source. Subscribers can log in for unlimited digital access Montana reported two more deaths due to COVID-19 on Saturday and 146 new cases of the virus.
Montana Men's State Mid-Amateur
Nathan Bailey of Laurel watches his tee shot on the first hole of his second round at the Montana Men's State Mid-Amateur golf tournament at the Laurel Golf Club on Friday. CASEY PAGE, Billings Gazette You don't have any notifications. Get up-to-the-minute news sent straight to your device. Topics News Alerts Subscribe Breaking News Subscribe
Wyoming man gets 40 years for armed carjacking spree
42-year-old Ryan Glenn McElmury was sentenced Friday to 40 years in Montana State Prison. | Billings Gazette Wyoming () — A Wyoming man was sentenced Friday to 25 years in prison after pleading guilty to multiple felonies committed in a single night in 2018 that included stealing five cars, threatening several people at gunpoint and leading law enforcement on a high-speed chase in and out of Billings.
Photos: Vintage Cafe in Roundup destroyed in explosive fire
Photos: Vintage Cafe in Roundup destroyed in explosive fire Firefighters battles a fire in the Vintage Cafe building in the 200 block of Main Street in Roundup on Wednesday, May 20, 2020. A propane tank apparently exploded, causing the fire. Roundup Fire People watch as firefighters battle a fire in the Vintage Cafe building in the 200 block of Main Street in Roundup on Wednesday, May 20, 2020.
Photos: Vintage Cafe in Roundup destroyed in explosive fire
Photos: Vintage Cafe in Roundup destroyed in explosive fire Firefighters battles a fire in the Vintage Cafe building in the 200 block of Main Street in Roundup on Wednesday, May 20, 2020. A propane tank apparently exploded, causing the fire. Roundup Fire People watch as firefighters battle a fire in the Vintage Cafe building in the 200 block of Main Street in Roundup on Wednesday, May 20, 2020.
Photos: Vintage Cafe in Roundup destroyed in explosive fire
Photos: Vintage Cafe in Roundup destroyed in explosive fire Firefighters battles a fire in the Vintage Cafe building in the 200 block of Main Street in Roundup on Wednesday, May 20, 2020. A propane tank apparently exploded, causing the fire. Roundup Fire People watch as firefighters battle a fire in the Vintage Cafe building in the 200 block of Main Street in Roundup on Wednesday, May 20, 2020.
Pet of the Week: Jazzy
Jazzy is the pet of the week from Rez Dog Rescue. Jazzy is the pet of the week from Rez Dog Rescue. CASEY PAGE, Billings Gazette Jazzy is a 4-month-old heeler/shepherd mix available for adoption through Rez Dog Rescue. She is a happy, energetic sweetheart and loves to play with everyone. Jazzy needs training and guidance from an assertive owner. She is very treat-motivated. She is almost 100% potty trained and uses the doggy door at her foster home. Jazzy sleeps perfectly in her crate at night.
NorthWestern seeks $23.8M rate increase for unexpected costs
NorthWestern Energy is seeking a one-year $23.8 million rate increase to make up for unexpected expenses in parts of 2018 and 2019. The $23.8 million request is separate from the $6.5 million rate increase that Montana’s Public Service Commission approved for NorthWestern Energy on Oct. 30. The larger charge stems from the utility having to buy more power in 2018 and the first nine months of 2019 than it expected.
NorthWestern seeks $23.8M rate increase for unexpected costs
NorthWestern Energy is seeking a one-year $23.8 million rate increase to make up for unexpected expenses in parts of 2018 and 2019. The $23.8 million request is separate from the $6.5 million rate increase that Montana’s Public Service Commission approved for NorthWestern Energy on Oct. 30. The larger charge stems from the utility having to buy more power in 2018 and the first nine months of 2019 than it expected.
NorthWestern seeks $23.8M rate increase for unexpected costs
NorthWestern Energy is seeking a one-year $23.8 million rate increase to make up for unexpected expenses in parts of 2018 and 2019. The $23.8 million request is separate from the $6.5 million rate increase that Montana’s Public Service Commission approved for NorthWestern Energy on Oct. 30. The larger charge stems from the utility having to buy more power in 2018 and the first nine months of 2019 than it expected.
Entertainment guide
MSUB jazz concert to honor Brad Edwards The Montana State University Billings Jazz Ensemble and Honor Jazz Combo will present their jazz concert at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Nov. 21, at Cisel Recital Hall. The performance, directed by John Roberts, assistant professor of low brass, and Dr. Scott Jeppesen, assistant music professor, will be given in honor of the late Brad Edwards.
NorthWestern seeks $23.8M rate increase for unexpected costs
NorthWestern Energy is seeking a one-year $23.8 million rate increase to make up for unexpected expenses in parts of 2018 and 2019. The $23.8 million request is separate from the $6.5 million rate increase that Montana’s Public Service Commission approved for NorthWestern Energy on Oct. 30. The larger charge stems from the utility having to buy more power in 2018 and the first nine months of 2019 than it expected.
Victim of Ballantine homicide identified
Yellowstone County detectives and evidence technicians process the scene of a homicide at the Tiger Town Motel in Ballantine on Saturday. Yellowstone County detectives and evidence technicians process the scene of a homicide at the Tiger Town Motel in Ballantine on Saturday. CASEY PAGE, Billings Gazette The Yellowstone County Sheriff's Office has released the name of the man found dead in the Tiger Town Motel in Ballantine early Saturday morning in an apparent homicide.
Helena-Lewis and Clark forest seeks new outfitter, guide operations
The Helena-Lewis and Clark National Forest is soliciting applications from interested outfitters and guides to provide services on the Belt Creek–White Sulphur Springs and the Judith–Musselshell ranger districts, known collectively as the Jefferson Division. The Forest Service intends to authorize three new special use permits for outfitters and guides providing a variety of services in the area, including snowmobiling, snowshoeing, and skiing.
Tiger Town Motel homicide victim identified
The Yellowstone County Sheriff's Office has released the name of the man found dead in the Tiger Town Motel in Ballatine early Saturday morning in an apparent homicide. The victim was 53-year-old Carl Archer Jr. Archer's specific cause of death was still being withheld Monday morning because the sheriff's office's investigation remains ongoing, according to Sheriff Mike Linder.
Yellowstone County investigating suspicious death in Ballantine
Yellowstone County Sheriff's Office is investigating a suspicious death at the Tiger Town Motel on S. 16th Road in Ballantine. Yellowstone County Sheriff's Office is investigating a suspicious death at the Tiger Town Motel on S. 16th Road in Ballantine. CASEY PAGE, Billings Gazette Yellowstone County Sheriff's Office is investigating a suspicious death at the Tiger Town Motel in Ballantine.
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