President Donald Trump has exempted some — but certainly not all — of the critical minerals necessary for the energy transition from the sweeping tariffs he announced Wednesday. Minerals such as lithium, nickel, cobalt, manganese, and copper are key components of clean energy inf … | Continue reading
Autumn Johnson told me some days it feels like she’s shouting into a void. Johnson is the executive director for the Arizona branch of the Solar Energy Industries Association, the nation’s pre-eminent solar power trade group. Lately, she told me, she’s seeing an increasing number … | Continue reading
1. Long Island, New York – We begin today with a crucial stand-off for the future of energy off the coast of New York City: Rep. Chris Smith – one of the loudest anti-wind voices in Congress – is asking the Trump administration to shut down active work on the Empire Wind project. … | Continue reading
1. Long Island, New York – We begin today with a crucial stand-off for the future of energy off the coast of New York City: Rep. Chris Smith – one of the loudest anti-wind voices in Congress – is asking the Trump administration to shut down active work on the Empire Wind project. … | Continue reading
Today’s conversation is with Dustin Mulvaney, an environmental studies professor at San Jose State University. Mulvaney is a social scientist who spent much of his time before January 2025 advocating for more considerate and humane renewable energy development. Then Moss Landing … | Continue reading
Carbon capture has always been contentious, but its biggest critics have traditionally been climate activists on the left. Now, in an unexpected twist, it seems to be getting caught up in the same conservative climate culture war that has overwhelmed electric stoves and ESG inves … | Continue reading
Apple shares fell 9% Thursday — not surprising, iPhones are largely made in China, putting them soon behind a 65% tariff. Nike (down 14.5%) and Lululemon’s (down 9.5%) supply chains are now behind the formidable 46% tariff on Vietnam. But why is Vistra, which owns dozens of coal, … | Continue reading
American solar manufacturer First Solar may be the big winner from the slew of tariffs Donald Trump announced yesterday against the world’s trading partners. Sorry, make that basically the only winner among renewable energy companies. In a note to clients this morning, Jefferies … | Continue reading
Current conditions: A heat wave triggered power cuts in Kuwait as electricity demand exceeded capacity • Australia just rounded out its 12 hottest months ever recorded • Temperatures in New York City are forecast to reach 73 degrees Fahrenheit today, nearly 30 degrees higher than … | Continue reading
It’s probably fair to say that not that many people paid close attention to last night’s city council election in Naperville, Illinois. A far western suburb of Chicago, the city is known for its good schools, small-town charm, and lovely brick-paved path along the DuPage River. I … | Continue reading
The Department of Energy is moving ahead with plans to allow companies to build AI data centers and new power plants on federal land — and it has put together a list of more than a dozen sites nationwide that could receive the industrial-scale facilities, according to an internal … | Continue reading
Current conditions: A rare wildfire alert has been issued for London this week due to strong winds and unseasonably high temperatures • Schools are closed on the Greek islands of Mykonos and Paros after a storm caused intense flooding • Nearly 50 million people in the central U.S … | Continue reading
The Inflation Reduction Act dedicated $27 billion to build a new kind of climate institution in America — a network of national green banks that could lend money to companies, states, schools, churches, and housing developers to build more clean energy and deploy more next-genera … | Continue reading
Spring — as even children know — is the season for planting. But across the country, tens of thousands of farmers who bought seeds with the help of Department of Agriculture grants are hesitating over whether or not to put them in the ground. Their contractually owed payments, pr … | Continue reading
Current conditions: The Silver Fire, which erupted in eastern California on Sunday, spread to 1,589 acres and is 47% contained • More than 200,000 customers in Michigan are still without power following an ice storm • Torrential downpours this week could drop four months’ worth o … | Continue reading
China, Canada, Mexico, steel, aluminum, cars, and soon, copper. That’s what the market has concluded following a Bloomberg News report last week that copper tariffs would arrive far sooner than the 270 days President Trump gave the Department of Commerce to conduct its investigat … | Continue reading
Donald Trump’s pick to run the Energy Information Administration works for a think tank that denies the existence of an energy transition. The Energy Information Administration is the nation’s primary energy fuel and power forecasting agency. Since its inception in 1977, EIA has … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Ice storms left more than 900,000 customers without power across Michigan, Wisconsin, and Indiana • The Table Rock Fire, which ignited in South Carolina more than a week ago, has jumped the border into North Carolina • Meteorologists are warning that unprecede … | Continue reading
On Wednesday night in Washington, D.C., Heatmap hosted an evening of discussion on energy innovation and security, featuring special guest Senator Sheldon Whitehouse of Rhode Island. Guests at Heatmap's discussion on energy innovation and securityMariah Miranda Photography We’re … | Continue reading
President Trump has introduced yet another round of tariffs that could upend the car industry. The newest volley in his trade war promises to slap an extra 25% tax onto any automobile imported into the U.S. It’s a measure meant to sound like a safeguard for American industry agai … | Continue reading
People say they can still taste the metal from the Moss Landing fire. But no one in the local, state, or federal government is able to say why. The story of Moss Landing got little attention compared to the scale of the disaster. On January 16 — days before Trump reentered office … | Continue reading
People say they can still taste the metal from the Moss Landing fire. But no one in the local, state, or federal government is able to say why. The story of Moss Landing got little attention compared to the scale of the disaster. On January 16 — days before Trump reentered office … | Continue reading
New documents obtained by Senate Democrats on the Environmental and Public Works Committee this week shed more light on the inner workings of EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin’s attempt to shut down hundreds of climate- and environmental justice-related grants. Senators Sheldon Whiteh … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Between 10 and 15 inches of rain fell across parts of South Texas, triggering severe flooding • Firefighters made progress containing some of the large wildfires burning in South Korea • It’s -7 degrees Fahrenheit at Greenland’s Pituffik Space Base, which Vice … | Continue reading
Today’s Q&A is with Frank Maisano, one of the most sought-after energy lobbyists in Washington. Maisano, a Beltway veteran who has worked in Congress as well, has a long history with me that goes back to the earliest days of my environmental reporting career. So when I helped aut … | Continue reading
Dear Mr. Trump, What can I say? You astound me. You enthrall me. I am, in short, very impressed! Why? Well, earlier this month, I sent you an open letter in which I confessed that I finally understood your secret plan. It’s true, I wrote, that you campaigned as a scourge of clima … | Continue reading
1. Bristol County, Massachusetts – The state of Massachusetts is abandoning plans to build an offshore wind research center in New Bedford, a fishing town that has also hosted protests against Vineyard Wind. According to media reports, a local attorney gathered more than 260 sign … | Continue reading
The artificial intelligence industry is experiencing another TD Cowen shock. The whole spectrum of companies connected to artificial intelligence — the companies that design the chips, that supply the power, that make the generation equipment — shuddered Wednesday when the broker … | Continue reading
As recently as last month, some electric vehicle buyers were running into roadblocks when they tried to claim the EV tax credit on their 2024 returns. Their claims were rejected, it turned out, because the dealership where they bought their EV never registered the sale with the I … | Continue reading
Current conditions: South Korea’s massive wildfires have doubled in size in 24 hours • Fires are also spreading in North and South Carolina, consuming nearly 18,000 acres • A year’s worth of rain could fall over the next few days along the Texas Gulf Coast. THE TOP FIVE 1. Trump … | Continue reading
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has hired a new general counsel who was, until recently, pursuing legal challenges to offshore wind farms on behalf of the fishing industry, Heatmap has learned. NOAA’s Fisheries division, also known as the National Marine Fishe … | Continue reading
Mano Nazar spent nearly 40 years working in the atomic energy industry — first at Duke Energy, then at American Electric Power before his capstone years as the chief nuclear officer at NextEra. Now a semi-retired investor, he’s turning his attention to a resource he thinks can he … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Phoenix saw record high temperatures on Tuesday for the second day in a row • A freak hail storm turned a city in the south of Spain into a winter wonderland • Widespread bleaching has been recorded at Australia’s two World Heritage-listed coral reefs after an … | Continue reading
The electric vehicle company Rivian is known for products that are, well, large: pickup trucks, SUVs, and delivery vans. But for the past three years, it has been stealthily designing the technology platform for a slew of much smaller, yet-to-be-revealed electric vehicles — think … | Continue reading
If you care about decarbonizing the power grid anytime soon, you have to care about data centers. The AI boom and the ongoing growth of the internet have driven a big new cycle of data center construction in the United States, with tech companies trying to buy electricity on the … | Continue reading
In case you missed it: The Federal Emergency Management Agency has continued to withhold millions of dollars from states for disaster recovery, relief, and preparedness despite a district court’s order from March 6 calling on the administration to release the funds. Among the mor … | Continue reading
The Bureau of Land Management claims that Trump’s pause on solar energy permitting is no longer in effect — though no permits have yet come of it. President Trump paused permitting for solar as well as wind projects for 60 days via executive order on his first day in office. The … | Continue reading
In the labyrinthine organizational chart of the U.S. government, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration sits conspicuously within the portfolio of the Department of Commerce. Ocean research and weather monitoring have clear economic stakes, of course, but the respons … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Firefighters in South Korea are struggling to contain wildfires that have charred more than 36,000 acres • Reports of fire ant stings in Australia have exploded in recent weeks after torrential rain from Cyclone Alfred forced the invasive pests above ground • … | Continue reading
More than 100 clean energy companies, trade associations, and other industry stakeholders are descending on Capitol Hill this week to amplify an ongoing lobbying push to preserve clean energy tax credits in the upcoming budget reconciliation bill. Groups such as Clean Energy for … | Continue reading
Current conditions: A wildfire in New Jersey’s Wharton State Forest has burned 2,300 acres • An ancient Roman bridge collapsed in central Spain after extreme rainfall from four consecutive storms • Los Angeles could see record-breaking March heat today with temperatures nearing 9 … | Continue reading
Since Donald Trump was reelected president, the climate community has retained a kind of fragile optimism about the Inflation Reduction Act, the historic climate law enacted in 2022 that Trump has vowed to repeal. The oft-repeated mantra is that the IRA is stimulating billions of … | Continue reading
Officials at the Environmental Protection Agency remain closed-lipped about which grants they’ve canceled. Earlier this week, however, the office provided a written list to the Sierra Club in response to a Freedom of Information Act request, which begins to shed light on some of … | Continue reading
With the fate of the Inflation Reduction Act and its tax credits for building and producing clean energy hanging in the balance, the law’s supporters have increasingly turned to dollars-and-cents arguments in favor of its preservation. Since the election, industry and research gr … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Severe thunderstorms are expected across the Mississippi Valley this weekend • Storm Martinho pushed Portugal’s wind power generation to “historic maximums” • It’s 62 degrees Fahrenheit, cloudy, and very quiet at Heathrow Airport outside London, where a large … | Continue reading
Robust incentive programs to build out electric vehicle charging stations are alive and well — in Illinois, at least. ComEd, a utility provider for the Chicago area, is pushing forward with $100 million worth of rebates to spur the installation of EV chargers in homes, businesses … | Continue reading
The symbol of the American battery backlash can be found in the tiny town of Halstead, Kansas. Angry residents protesting a large storage project proposed by Boston developer Concurrent LLC have begun brandishing flashy yard signs picturing the Moss Landing battery plant blaze, a … | Continue reading
1. Carbon County, Wyoming – I have learned that the Bureau of Land Management is close to approving the environmental review for a transmission line that would connect to BluEarth Renewables’ Lucky Star wind project. This is a huge deal. For the last two months it has seemed like … | Continue reading