Jeff Brady
Jeff Brady is a National Desk Correspondent based in Philadelphia, where he covers energy issues, climate change and the mid-Atlantic region. Brady helped establish NPR's environment and energy collaborative which brings together NPR and Member station reporters from across the country to cover the big stories involving the natural world.
Brady approaches energy stories from the consumer side of the light switch and the gas pump in an effort to demystify an industry that can seem complicated and opaque. Frequently traveling throughout the country for NPR, Brady has reported on the Texas oil business hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic, the closing of a light bulb factory in Pennsylvania and a new generation of climate activists holding protests from Oregon to New York. In 2017 his reporting showed a history of racism and sexism that have made it difficult for the oil business to diversify its workforce.
In 2011 Brady led NPR's coverage of the Jerry Sandusky child sexual abuse scandal at Penn State—from the night legendary football coach Joe Paterno was fired to the trial where Sandusky was found guilty.
In 2005, Brady was among the NPR reporters who covered the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina. His reporting on flooded cars left behind after the storm exposed efforts to stall the implementation of a national car titling system. Today, the National Motor Vehicle Title Information System is operational and the Department of Justice estimates it could save car buyers up to $11 billion a year.
Before coming to NPR in September 2003, Brady was a reporter at Oregon Public Broadcasting (OPB) in Portland. He has also worked in commercial television as an anchor and a reporter, and in commercial radio as a talk-show host and reporter.
Brady graduated with a Bachelor of Arts in Communications from Southern Oregon State College (now Southern Oregon University). In 2018 SOU honored Brady with its annual "Distinguished Alumni" award.
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An Oregon company plans a new kind of nuclear power plant that many consider the future of the industry. It's smaller and cheaper and could work well with renewable energy.
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Nuclear power plants around the country are running out of room to store spent fuel. Federal plans for a permanent disposal site are stalled, so private companies come up with their own solutions.
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The Trump administration wants to reverse a rule designed to make lightbulbs more efficient. Environmental groups say the change will cost consumers and waste energy.
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Thousands of students around the world — and across the U.S. — skipped school on Friday to protest inaction on climate change.
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Nearly 130,000 homes in the U.S. still burn coal for heat. Despite decades of decline and concerns about climate change, companies in the coal home-heating business are optimistic about the future.
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President Trump and other Republicans are pressuring the Tennessee Valley Authority not to close a coal plant in Kentucky. A major Trump backer supplies the plant with most of its coal.
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The proposal to address climate change is short on specifics and wildly ambitious. Seasoned energy experts doubt it can work, but give it credit for energizing young activists.
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As the partial government shutdown continues, some federal workers and contractors are looking for temporary jobs to earn income.
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The EPA says it will keep limits on toxic mercury emissions from coal plants but now deems them not cost-effective. Environmental groups worry the move could hinder future regulations.
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A U.N. climate report says the only way to avoid the worst climate impacts will be to suck carbon emissions out of the air. Researchers are trying to find a feasible way to do that.
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The Trump administration wants to reverse a rule that would have required new coal plants to have expensive technology to capture their carbon dioxide emissions.
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Legal battles and local tensions persist two years after the North Dakota prairie was filled with thousands of indigenous and environmental protesters opposed to the Dakota Access Pipeline.