One of the most important pieces of the Biden administration’s climate policy has arrived: On Thursday, the Environmental Protection Agency issued new rules restricting climate pollution from coal-fired plants and natural gas plants that haven’t been built yet. The rules will eli … | Continue reading
There’s no question that coal is on its way out in the U.S. In 2001, coal-fired power plants generated about 50% of U.S. electricity. Last year, they were down to about 15%. On Thursday, however, the Biden administration arguably delivered a death blow. New carbon emission limits … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Flash floods killed at least 155 people in Tanzania • Dry conditions are spawning dust devils in western Canada • Ongoing thunderstorms are set to pummel the central U.S. with hail and possible sporadic tornadoes through the weekend. THE TOP FIVE 1. Climate ch … | Continue reading
Everyone loves a public good, and one of the classic examples is clean air. When I breathe in clean air, no one else gets any less of it, and you can’t exclude people from enjoying it. But how do we know whether the air we’re breathing is clean? And is that information a public g … | Continue reading
The United Nations’ climate summit in Dubai ended last December with a mad dash to lock in a location for this year’s gathering. Which is how we wound up with yet another petrostate — Azerbaijan — as the host. On Thursday at a climate conference in Berlin, Azerbaijan’s minister o … | Continue reading
The United Nations’ climate summit in Dubai ended last December with a mad dash to lock in a location for this year’s gathering. Which is how we wound up with yet another petrostate — Azerbaijan — as the host. On Thursday at a climate conference in Berlin, Azerbaijan’s minister o … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Heavy rains this spring have reinvigorated the drought-stricken wetlands at Spain’s Doñana National Park • Severe thunderstorms are taking shape above the central and southern U.S. • Flooding in Kenya kills at least 32 people and displaces over 40,000. THE TOP … | Continue reading
Utilities all over the country have proposed to build a slew of new natural gas-fired power plants in recent months, citing an anticipated surge in electricity demand from data centers, a boom in manufacturing, and the rise of electric vehicles. But on Thursday, the Environmental … | Continue reading
The Environmental Protection Agency’s power plant rules were not the only big energy policy announcement from the Biden administration Thursday. The White House also announced a bevy of initiatives and projects meant to bolster infrastructure throughout the country. Transmission … | Continue reading
The American solar industry is in a tizzy over tariffs. On one side are the companies that develop, finance, and install solar systems. On the other, the American (or American-located) companies that manufacture them. China’s solar panel industry has been a combination of boon an … | Continue reading
If you haven’t heard, the dumbphone is back. Vexed by their emotionally ruinous smartphone addiction, plenty of people, including those of the tech-savvy younger generations, are turning their backs on iPhones and Androids to embrace internet-free cellphones that walked right out … | Continue reading
Current conditions: A Saharan dust storm turned skies red in Greece • More heavy rain is expected in China’s flooded Guangdong province • Red Flag fire weather warnings are in place across much of New Mexico. THE TOP FIVE 1. Key takeaways from Tesla’s quarterly earnings report Te … | Continue reading
Jigar Shah might have more control over America’s new wave of industrial policy — not to mention its climate policy — than anyone not named Joe Biden. And he’s not even a Cabinet-level official. As director of the Department of Energy’s Loan Programs Office, which is akin to its … | Continue reading
Tesla doesn’t want to talk about its cars — or at least, not about the cars that have steering wheels and human drivers. Despite weeks of reports about Tesla’s manufacturing and sales woes — price cuts, recalls, and whether a new, cheaper model would ever come to fruition — CEO E … | Continue reading
It took more than a year and a half, but over the past month, money from the Inflation Reduction Act has started to flow out in earnest. Among the grants given just in the past four weeks are: $20 million for ice cream factories in Tennessee and Vermont so they can replace their … | Continue reading
Current conditions: A cold front brought an enduring heat wave in Mexico to an end • Northwest Texas could see large hail this afternoon • It will be 60 degrees Fahrenheit and rainy in Ottawa, where delegates are gathering this week to hammer out a global plastics treaty. THE TOP … | Continue reading
Climate change either is or isn’t the biggest issue of our time. It all depends on who you ask — and, especially, how. In March, as it has since 1939, Gallup asked Americans what they thought was the most important problem facing the country. Just 2% of respondents said “environm … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Torrential rains forced Mauritius to shut down its stock exchange • “Once in a century” flooding hit southern China • In the Northern Hemisphere, the Lyrid meteor shower peaks tonight. THE TOP FIVE 1. Biden kicks off Earth Day with $7 billion for expanding sol … | Continue reading
The great promise of solar panels — in addition to their being carbon-free — is the democratization of energy. Anyone can produce their own power, typically for less than the going utility rate. The problem is that those who stand to benefit the most from this opportunity haven’t … | Continue reading
While cold winters in the south and hot summers across the country are the most dramatic times for electricity usage — with air conditioners blasting as weary workers return home or inefficient electric heaters strain to keep toes warm from Chattanooga to El Paso before the sun i … | Continue reading
You have to give TikTok user el.chapito1985 credit for not panicking. In a video posted a few days ago, he explained how the cover on his Tesla Cybertruck accelerator pedal came loose and then wedged itself in just the right spot to leave the pedal stuck in floor-it position. The … | Continue reading
You have to give TikTok user el.chapito1985 credit for not panicking. In a video posted a few days ago, he explained how the cover on his Tesla Cybertruck accelerator pedal came loose and then wedged itself in just the right spot to leave the pedal stuck in floor-it position. The … | Continue reading
Things are looking down again for New York’s embattled offshore wind industry. The state is abandoning all three of the offshore wind projects it awarded conditional contracts to last October, after failing to secure final agreements with any of the developers, Politico reported … | Continue reading
Last week, I reported on the Environmental Protection Agency’s monumental new restrictions on “forever chemicals” in Americans’ drinking water. At the time, I stressed that the issue doesn’t end with the water that flows out of our kitchen and bathroom taps — the government also … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Unseasonably heavy rainfall killed at least 130 people across Pakistan and Afghanistan • Temperatures will soar to 111 degrees Fahrenheit today in Mali • It will be cool and cloudy in NYC, where thousands of high school students are expected to leave class to … | Continue reading
Decarbonizing the global economy requires replacing stuff that emits carbon dioxide with stuff that doesn’t. At its heart, this challenge is financial: All these high-emitting assets ― coal plants, gas stoves, airplanes ― were at some point financed into existence by investors se … | Continue reading
Are you feeling lucky? Americans are. Close to two-thirds say they’ve gambled in the past year; the sports pages are filled with headlines detailing the fallout of various investigations and scandals. But while there isn’t exactly a bookmaker for something like the Atlantic hurri … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Parts of Dubai remain waterlogged after this week’s epic rainfall • A volcanic eruption in Indonesia produced a 1.6-mile ash column • Severe thunderstorms are headed for the Midwest and Southern Plains. THE TOP FIVE 1. DOE unveils roadmap to speed up clean ene … | Continue reading
The federal government is really excited about geothermal: A Department of Energy report published in March said that geothermal can “become a key contributor to secure, domestic, decarbonized power generation for the U.S.” — particularly the kind of clean, always available power … | Continue reading
The federal government is really excited about geothermal: A Department of Energy report published in March said that geothermal can “become a key contributor to secure, domestic, decarbonized power generation for the U.S.” — particularly the kind of clean, always available power … | Continue reading
Current conditions: It was 103.5 degrees Fahrenheit in Mumbai yesterday, the warmest April day recorded in a decade • Australia’s Bureau of Meteorology declared El Niño over • It will be rainy today in Washington, D.C., where negotiators will be pushing for more climate investmen … | Continue reading
Climeworks made a name for itself as the first company to launch a commercial-scale facility that sucks carbon out of the air and buries it deep underground. The Swiss startup is widely recognized as a global leader in direct air capture technology. But on Wednesday, Climeworks m … | Continue reading
It isn’t just bad vibes: Electric vehicle sales are slumping in the United States. Fewer than 300,000 EVs were sold nationwide during the first three months of 2024 — although it could be more than 350,000, depending on how you count and whose data you trust. That’s a slight decl … | Continue reading
Twenty-five years ago, computers were on the verge of destroying America’s energy system. Or, at least, that’s what lots of smart people seemed to think. In a 1999 Forbes article, a pair of conservative lawyers, Peter Huber and Mark Mills, warned that personal computers and the i … | Continue reading
Twenty-five years ago, computers were on the verge of destroying America’s energy system. Or, at least, that’s what lots of smart people seemed to think. In a 1999 Forbes article, a pair of conservative lawyers, Peter Huber and Mark Mills, warned that personal computers and the i … | Continue reading
Five years ago, the world met the Model Y. Tesla officially unveiled its smaller crossover in March 2019 and, the next year, began to sell the car in staggering numbers. The Model Y helped Tesla tighten its grip on the electric vehicle market. Bby 2023 it had displaced the Toyota … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Severe thunderstorms and tornadoes are possible from Nebraska to Baltimore • It’s 109 degrees Fahrenheit in Vadodara, India, currently the hottest city in the world • Heavy rain is forecast for Indianapolis, but won’t dampen celebrations of #1 WNBA draft pick … | Continue reading
Quilt, a climate tech startup banking on the appeal of sleeker, smarter electric heat pumps, announced today that its products will be available to order in the Bay Area starting May 15. I first wrote about Quilt a year ago after the company raised a $9 million seed round. Its fo … | Continue reading
About six months ago, a climate scientist from Arizona State University, Stephanie Arcusa, emailed me a provocative new paper she had published that warned against our growing reliance on life cycle analysis. This practice of measuring all of the emissions related to a given prod … | Continue reading
Iran and Israel’s proxy conflict escalated into direct strikes over the weekend and oil prices have hardly budged. So far on Monday, the Brent crude oil benchmark is hovering around $89.50 a barrel, a 1-ish% dip for the day. This has been the story of the conflict so far: While o … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Temperatures in Sapporo, Japan, surpassed 77 degrees Fahrenheit today, earlier than ever before • Gale-force winds are blasting Britain • The weather is looking great for the Boston Marathon. THE TOP FIVE 1. Tesla reportedly lays off 10% of global workforce Te … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Temperatures in Sapporo, Japan, surpassed 77 degrees Fahrenheit today, earlier than ever before • Gale-force winds are blasting Britain • The weather is looking great for the Boston Marathon. THE TOP FIVE 1. Tesla reportedly lays off 10% of global workforce Te … | Continue reading
In late March, the board that oversees New York’s Metropolitan Transportation Authority cast a final vote to implement congestion pricing. If the plan survives some last-ditch lawsuits, drivers will soon have to cough up $15 to travel into Lower Manhattan during rush hours. The M … | Continue reading
Hindsight is 20-20, but boy have we had a lot of bad ideas. We laid lead pipes to transport our drinking water. We let our kids play in clouds of DDT. We textured our ceilings with asbestos fibers. And until this week, nothing prevented municipalities across the country from allo … | Continue reading
Late last year, I wrote about an overlooked but potentially transformative program in the Inflation Reduction Act called the Climate Pollution Reduction Grants. Administered by the Environmental Protection Agency, it offered all 50 states, plus D.C. and Puerto Rico, an initial $3 … | Continue reading
For the first time in my life I now own a car, and it’s electric. It took me a few weeks to narrow down my choices to a Hyundai Kona or a Ford Mustang Mach E. After much agonizing comparison, I went with the Kona. While I liked the Mach E’s sporty performance, longer range, and s … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Devastating flood waters are still rising near the Russia-Kazakhstan border • Severe drought in the Colombian capital of Bogota triggered water rationing measures • Coachella attendees are advised to pack a parka this weekend. THE TOP FIVE 1. A quick roundup o … | Continue reading
A new Trump administration’s climate agenda will be much the same as the old one. Project 2025, the 920-page instruction manual for an incoming Republican administration from the conservative Heritage Foundation, calls for eliminating the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy E … | Continue reading