JULIA TILTON
Journalist
Hi, I'm Julia Tilton. I am a multimedia journalist covering energy, technology, and climate change. I often report on how AI, and the infrastructure that supports it, affect everyday people and the environment.My byline has appeared in outlets including Inside Climate News, Canary Media, Grist, The Boston Globe and The Oregonian. Currently, I report on energy topics and data center development in rural communities for The Daily Yonder, a national nonprofit news organization that covers rural America. I also contribute to IEEE Spectrum's energy and climate tech sections. I previously wrote for the The Maine Monitor's weekly climate column.In 2026, I was named a finalist for the Southern Environmental Law Center's Phil Reed Environmental Writing Award for my reporting on gas-powered data center development in rural Virginia. I was also selected as a fellow for the Institute for Journalism and Natural Resources' 2026 workshop on AI-driven data center reporting in Wisconsin.I got my start in media at NASA, working on the agency's Curious Universe podcast and Earth Science News Team just outside of Washington, D.C. I have a dual-major bachelor's degree in Earth & Environmental Sciences and Spanish from Vanderbilt University, where I was an Ingram Scholar for four years. I am based in Maine.
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Featured
POWER DYNAMICS: The Rural Data Center Boom
Listen to the special report 🎧
This hour-long audio report digs into how different kinds of power – from literal computing power to political and economic power – are shaping data center development in small towns across the U.S.Rural America is not new to boom-and-bust cycles: many of the comforts of modern life have been made possible by railroads, power plants, and manufacturing built on the backs of rural communities. While big industry can bring jobs and prosperity to rural places, it can also exploit natural resources and the people who rely on them. This special blends more than a year's worth of reporting from nearly every region of the U.S. with conversations featuring experts in law, policy, energy, and economics.
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AI Infrastructure
THE BOSTON GLOBE
Maine considers a moratorium on data centers as businesses look to New England
DAILY YONDER
We Mapped Rural Data Center Development – and Opposition.
Here’s What We Found
PORTLAND PRESS HERALD
How a Data Center Derailed $240,000 for Affordable Housing in Rural Maine
GRIST
This Rural Community Fought One of the Country’s Biggest Gas-Powered Data Centers, and Won
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Energy
IEEE SPECTRUM
Puerto Rico Upgrades Remote Microgrid With Clean Hydrogen
IEEE SPECTRUM
How Clean-Energy Firms Adapt Messaging in the Trump Era
INSIDE CLIMATE NEWS
Arizona Rural Grassroots Organizers Take on Industrial Developers, Aided by Urban Allies
CANARY MEDIA
Electric boats splash down in rural Maine’s coastal waters
THE BOSTON GLOBE
Rural New England needs EV chargers. The Trump administration is making it harder to build them.
CANARY MEDIA
This map of fast EV charging ports in rural America reveals some big gaps
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CLIMATE
DAILY YONDER
After Fighting for Clean Waters, Rural Communities along Hudson Take on Climate Change
DAILY YONDER
CARBON CREDIT MARKETS HELP RURAL LANDOWNERS HOLD ONTO THEIR LAND.
DAILY YONDER
FEMA Funding at Risk for Vermont’s Rural Communities After Trump Denies Disaster Declaration Request
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MULTIMEDIA
My multimedia work includes video and audio production for social media, podcasts, and radio.
A TRACTOR FOR THE SEA: Maine's Electric Boats
Off the coast of Maine, a growing cohort of farmers and small business owners are electrifying their operations in an effort to transition away from fossil fuels. They are among the first in the country to test marine electric propulsion for commercial purposes.
Read the full series for Daily Yonder and Canary Media.
