Jennifer McDermott

Stay informed with Jennifer McDermott’s coverage and analysis for Fortune.

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Hawaiian Electric

Hawaiian Electric admits its power lines started the Maui wildfire but says the fire department declared mission accomplished too soon

By Jennifer McDermott and The Associated Press

Linemen work on poles Aug. 13, 2023, in Lahaina, Hawaii, following a deadly wildfire that caused heavy damage days earlier.

A utility company’s decrepit power lines may have sparked deadly blaze in Maui

By Jennifer McDermott, Bernard Condon, and others

FILE – A man reacts as he sits on the Lahaina historic banyan tree damaged by a wildfire on Aug. 11, 2023, in Lahaina, Hawaii. With a housing crisis that has priced out many Native Hawaiians as well as families that have been there for decades, concerns are rising that Maui could become the latest example of “climate gentrification,” when it becomes harder for local people to afford housing in safer areas after a climate-amped disaster. (AP Photo/Rick Bowmer, File)

Hawaii residents fear ‘climate gentrification’ after devastating Maui fires cause $3.2B in property losses

By Isabella O'Malley, Jennifer McDermott, and others

Kahana, HI- AUGUST 12: People gets propane tanks and other supplies brought in by boats on Saturday August 12, 2023 in Kahana, HI. The death toll continues to rise for the fires on Maui. (Photo by Matt McClain/The Washington Post via Getty Images)

‘I heard buzz, buzz’: Downed power lines are a prime suspect in at least some of Maui’s devastating wildfires

By Jennifer McDermott, Bernard Condon, and others

Money

SBA watchdog estimates over $200 billion of COVID relief fraud, but official claims ‘serious flaws that significantly overestimate’ damage

By Richard Lardner, Jennifer McDermott, and others

Boston, MA – June 25: U.S Coast Guard Captain Jason Neubauer, right, and Rear Admiral John Mauger hold a press briefing on the conclusion of the search and rescue mission to find the Titan submersible. (Photo by Pat Greenhouse/The Boston Globe via Getty Images)

Investigators examine whether criminal charges are warranted for the Titan sub disaster that left 5 people dead

By Jennifer McDermott, Steve LeBlanc, and others

FILE – A portion of a Small Business Administration Paycheck Protection Program Borrower Application Form is seen in Washington on Tuesday, April 21, 2020. An Associated Press analysis published on Monday, June 12, 2023, found that fraudsters potentially stole more than $280 billion in COVID-19 relief funding; another $123 billion was wasted or misspent. Combined, the loss represents a jarring 10 percent of the total $4.2 trillion the U.S. government has so far disbursed in COVID-relief aid. (AP Photo/Wayne Partlow, File)

How $400 billion in COVID-19 aid was stolen or wasted, by everyone from social security fraudsters to Texas pastors

By Aaron Kessler, Richard Lardner, and others

Ohmium

A Silicon Valley startup that is threatening to replace fossil fuels with clean hydrogen just raised $250 million

By Jennifer McDermott and The Associated Press

FILE – A 2021 Toyota Prius that runs on a hydrogen fuel cell sits on display at the Denver auto show Sept. 17, 2021, at Elitch’s Gardens in downtown Denver. As fossil fuel emissions continue warming Earth’s atmosphere, the Biden administration is turning to hydrogen as an energy source for vehicles, manufacturing and generating electricity. (AP Photo/David Zalubowski, File)

Biden is offering $8 billion to whoever can figure out how to produce clean hydrogen energy

By Jennifer McDermott, John Flesher, and others

Antonio Guterres

Rising seas are a ‘death sentence’ for some nations and will shake ‘mega-cities on every continent,’ UN chief says

By Edith M. Lederer, Jennifer McDermott, and others

An artist's rendering of the NuScale nuclear power plant layout.

Nuclear energy gets boost as small reactor design certified for use in U.S.: ‘They are real and they are ready for deployment’

By Jennifer McDermott and The Associated Press

Jennifer Granholm

‘It’s almost like it’s a starting gun going off’: The fusion energy breakthrough means winning the climate change race could be just decades away

By Matthew Daly, Michael Phillis, and others

A man kneels down near a huge pile of shredded plastic.

Environmental groups see a Trojan Horse in big plastic’s plan to scale recycling efforts: ‘Nobody needs more plastic’

By Jennifer McDermott and The Associated Press

FILE – Carbon dioxide and other pollutants billows from a stack at PacifiCorp’s coal-fired Naughton Power Plant, near where Bill Gates company, TerraPower plans to build an advanced, nontraditional nuclear reactor, Thursday, Jan. 13, 2022, in Kemmerer, Wyo. A major economic bill headed to the president has “game-changing” incentives for the nuclear energy industry, experts say, and those tax credits are even more substantial if a facility is sited in a community where a coal plant is closing. (AP Photo/Natalie Behring, File)

A major economic bill headed to Biden’s desk has ‘game changing’ incentives for nuclear energy companies—especially those locating near a closing coal plant

By Jennifer McDermott and The Associated Press

LOS ANGELES, CA – DECEMBER 31: Registered nurses Fernando Fernandez, left, and and Akiko Gordon are working in the ICU with a covid-19 patient at Martin Luther King Jr. Community Hospital (MLKCH) on Friday, Dec. 31, 2021 in Los Angeles, CA.

Health officials let COVID-infected staff stay on the job

By Adriana Gomez Licon, Jennifer McDermott, and others