The Rocky Files: Environmental Stories about Climate Change, Clean Energy and Environmental Justice
Welcome to The Rocky Files, a news site that features important stories about environmental topics, including climate change, clean energy, and environmental justice. These posts are based on facts and expert opinions, not PR or misinformation disseminated by special interests.
As a journalist for more than 40 years, I have covered some of the most pressing environmental stories. This website will serve as a hub for those seeking greater insights into environmental topics that shape our lives. These stories help guide us to a sustainable world. Our kids are depending on it.
Thanks for visiting this site. Please pass it along to your friends, family and working partners. Please send me your comments and suggestions too. I hope you find it interesting and insightful.
All the best;
Rocky Kistner
Rocky's Blog
Our health and our future is at stake
October 6, 2026 BY Rocky Kistner
This blog will be an environmental clearinghouse of stories and commentaries that I will expand on, focusing on climate change, environmental justice and clean energy. Climate change has been politicized and vilified by those who have a financial gain to make by doing little to fight it. I will write about stories that report on…
Stories and Social Media
Climate Change
Protecting Trump’s Anti-Environmental Agenda
March 7, 2025 BY Rocky Kistner
How EPA Chief Zeldin Became a Cheerleader for “Drill Baby Drill”? MARCH 7, 2025 BY WFKISTNER Last year, Lee Zeldin was a washed-up former four-term congressman from Long Island who had lost the 2022 New York governor’s race to incumbent Kathy Hochul. A former member of the bipartisan House Climate Caucus, Zeldin ran a somewhat…
Published first in https://themoneytrail.substack.com/p/protecting-trumps-anti-environmental
The Texas Flood, Climate Change, and the Fossil Fuel Coverup
July 18, 2025 BY Rocky Kistner
Rescue workers were still searching for bodies buried in twisted piles of brush and tree trunks along the Guadalupe River when Texas Sen. Ted Cruz stepped to the microphones…
Published first in https://themoneytrail.substack.com/p/the-texas-flood-climate-change-and
Feeding the Data Center Beast
August 12, 2025 BY Rocky Kistner
Just outside the nation’s capital along Northern Virginia’s rapidly expanding Dulles business corridor are more than 300 low-slung concrete buildings that represent the largest concentration of hyperscale data centers in the world.
Published first in https://themoneytrail.substack.com/p/feeding-the-data-center-beast
Environmental Justice
Inside Story: Behind the Crime Rings Trafficking Sand
October 7, 2026 BY Rocky Kistner
An investigation by journalist David Taylor and illustrator Mark Smith for Scientific American takes readers deep inside the criminal world of sand mafias operating in Morocco and other African countries, part of a massive illegal global trade worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
Edited by Rocky Kistner for SEJ’s Inside Story, published Oct. 7, 2026
Published first in https://www.sej.org/publications/inside-story/behind-crime-rings-trafficking-sand
Inside Story: The Battle to Protect Congo’s Vast Peatlands
September 7, 2026 BY Rocky Kistner
One of the world’s largest carbon sinks has long been protected by local communities in the Congo forests. But invading logging operators threaten this invaluable natural resource. New York Times reporter Ruth Maclean and journalist Caleb Kabanda teamed up to craft an award-winning, in-depth story about peatlands, an important element of nature that experts say…
Published first in https://www.sej.org/publications/inside-story/battle-protect-congo-s-vast-peatlands
Beautiful Clean Coal” Is Not Only Destroying the Planet, but It Is Also Killing Miners
April 10, 2026 BY Rocky Kistner
The number of coal miners has dropped precipitously, but they are still suffering from black lung disease at an alarming rate
Published first in https://themoneytrail.substack.com/p/beautiful-clean-coal-is-not-only
New Plaque Will Mark Notorious St. Louis Slave Prison Site Near Busch Stadium
January 7, 2026 BY Rocky Kistner
A five-year effort to mark Missouri’s most notorious slave prison will come to fruition next month, when a bronze historical plaque will be installed on the exterior of the Stadium East parking garage across from Ballpark Village and Busch Stadium….
Published first in the St. Louis Post Dispatch
Clean Energy
The Spike in a Flatlining U.S. EV Market
July 29, 2026 BY Rocky Kistner
Electric truck sales are surging despite Donald Trump’s oil industry-favored policies
Published first in https://themoneytrail.substack.com/p/the-spike-in-a-flatlining-us-ev-market
On the Banks of the Mississippi River, Clean Energy Rises in the Heartland of St. Louis to Fight Climate Change
September 7, 2026 BY Rocky Kistner
On the Banks of the Mississippi, Clean Energy Rises in the Heartland
Published first in AAAS