Ryan Van Velzer
Energy and Environment ReporterRyan Van Velzer is the Energy & Environment reporter at Louisville Public Media. He is dedicated to covering climate change and environmental issues across Kentucky.
Ryan graduated with a bachelor’s degree in journalism from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism at Arizona State University and has more than a decade of experience in the industry. He has worked for The Arizona Republic, The Associated Press, The South Florida Sun Sentinel and as a travel reporter in Central America and Southeast Asia.
He has won numerous awards including regional Edward R. Murrow awards, Associated Press Broadcasters awards and Society of Professional Journalists Louisville Pro Chapter awards.
Email him at rvanvelzer@lpm.org.
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Building new solar locally is now a cheaper source of electricity in Kentucky than continuing to operate coal-fired power plants, according to a new study. -
Freezing rain and sleet accumulated on roadways overnight, causing car accidents and school closures across Jefferson County.
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Kentucky hunters harvested nearly 145,000 deer in the season that ended Jan.16, more than any other season since the onset of the pandemic.
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John F. Johnson, AKA Grandmaster Jay, pleaded guilty Thursday to five counts of wanton endangerment for pointing an assault rifle at five Louisville Metro police officers. The one-year sentence will run concurrent to his seven-year federal sentence.
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Several utilities in the Southeast, including Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities, underestimated energy demand and lost pressure to natural gas power plants on the coldest day of the year. It caused rolling blackouts for about 53,000 ratepayers.
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A contractor died while working at Louisville Gas and Electric’s Mill Creek Generating Station on Monday night.
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Amid the intertwining crises of climate change and biodiversity loss, a 2-century-old Catholic convent outside Loretto, Ky. has signed a conservation easement to protect more than 650 acres of natural lands.
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Later this month, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service will re-classify the northern long-eared bat as an endangered species. WFPL’s Ryan Van Velzer reports on bat habitat in Kentucky under threat from a proposed natural gas pipeline in Bullitt County, the state’s biodiversity loss and what can be done to stop it.
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Bernheim Arboretum and Research Forest and Louisville Gas and Electric offered closing arguments Wednesday in a hearing that will decide the utility’s right to take conservation lands to build a natural gas pipeline.
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Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities are going to trial to take lands from Bernheim Research Forest and Arboretum to build a natural gas pipeline in northern Bullitt County.
