Current conditions: Much of the southern Plains remain at risk for extreme fire weather today and tomorrow • A month’s worth of rain fell over six hours in Florence, Italy • It’s about 50 degrees Fahrenheit and cloudy in Dublin for the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade. THE TOP FIV … | Continue reading
The Trump administration just did something surprising: It paved the way for a transmission line to a solar energy project. On Friday, the Bureau of Land Management approved the Gen-Tie transmission line and associated facilities for the Sapphire Solar project, a solar farm sited … | Continue reading
This story is part of a Heatmap series on the “green freeze” under Trump. Following Donald Trump’s election in November, climate advocates self-soothed with the conviction that cities and states would continue carrying the banner in the absence of federal climate action. That’s w … | Continue reading
If you believe solely in the power of the stock market, then the world’s most important automaker is Tesla, whose soaring stock valuation reflects faith in Elon Musk and his AI dreams as much as it does the company’s EV sales. But if you care about selling cars, the real most imp … | Continue reading
Current conditions: A severe storm system this weekend threatens 30 states with extreme weather ranging from fires to blizzards to tornadoes • Schools are closed in Florence after heavy rain triggered floods in Italy • The La Niña weather pattern looks to be on its way out. THE T … | Continue reading
The Moss Landing battery fire now may be the storage industry’s East Palestine moment – at least in California. In the weeks since Vistra’s battery plant south of San Francisco caught fire on January 16, at least two lawsuits have been filed against Vistra, PG&E, and battery manu … | Continue reading
1. Nantucket County, Massachusetts – Welcome to the Vineyard Wind lawsuit 2.0. Fishermen represented by a conservative legal group – the Texas Public Policy Foundation – filed a petition to the Supreme Court this week asserting that the justices can now reconsider approvals for t … | Continue reading
Today’s conversation is with Samantha Levy, senior policy manager for conservation and energy at American Farmland Trust, an agriculture and energy advocacy organization I became familiar with through covering the conflict over solar on farmland. I reached out to Levy after the o … | Continue reading
Speaking in front of a roomful of journalists at CERAWeek in Houston this week, Secretary of Energy Chris Wright vowed to honor deals his agency made through the Loan Programs Office and “very selectively use” the in-house lender “to nudge things that ultimately can deliver more … | Continue reading
This story is part of a Heatmap series on the “green freeze” under Trump. By now I’ve come to expect the responses. “We’re continuing to assess the situation and aren’t able to speak on it at this time.” “We are not able to provide comment on this matter.” Oftentimes, all I’ll re … | Continue reading
Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin said earlier this week that he had canceled more than 400 grants “across nine unnecessary programs.” What were those unnecessary programs? Why were they deemed unnecessary? The Trump administration refuses to say. This is t … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Health officials in Mumbai are warning vulnerable residents to take care as temperatures hover around 104 degrees Fahrenheit • Storm Konrad is battering Portugal and Spain with torrential rain • Cloudy weather is likely to spoil many Americans’ plans to catch … | Continue reading
A major chapter in climate giving has ended. Breakthrough Energy, the climate philanthropy organization founded by Bill Gates, is closing its policy and advocacy office and has laid off much of its staff in Washington, D.C., Heatmap News has learned. The layoffs will effectively … | Continue reading
Tesla already looked beleaguered last week as a tumbling stock price tied to public anger at CEO Elon Musk wiped out more than a half-billion dollars in value. The slide erased all the gains the company had garnered since new Musk ally Donald Trump was reelected as president. On … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Alaska just had its third-warmest winter on record • Spain’s four-year drought is nearing an end • Another atmospheric river is bearing down on the West Coast, triggering evacuation warnings around Los Angeles’ burn scars. THE TOP FIVE 1. Zeldin terminates $20 … | Continue reading
No one seems to know exactly how many employees have been laid off from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — or, for that matter, what offices those employees worked at, what jobs they held, or what regions of the country will be impacted by their absence. We do … | Continue reading
Donald Trump’s second term has now entered its second month. His administration is doing much to slow down renewables, and everything it can to slow down offshore wind. Jael Holzman is a senior reporter at Heatmap and the author of our newsletter, “The Fight,” about local battles … | Continue reading
During Alan Greenspan’s decade-plus run leading the Federal Reserve, investors and the financial media were convinced that there was a “Greenspan put” underlying the stock market. The basic idea was that if the markets fell too much or too sharply, the Fed would intervene and put … | Continue reading
This is the second story in a Heatmap series on the “green freeze” under Trump. Climate tech investment rode to record highs during the Biden administration, supercharged by a surge in ESG investing and net-zero commitments, the passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs A … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Critical fire weather returns to New Mexico and Texas and will remain through Saturday • Sharks have been spotted in flooded canals along Australia’s Gold Coast after Cyclone Alfred dropped more than two feet of rain • A tanker carrying jet fuel is still burni … | Continue reading
One of the most significant actions a person can take to fight climate change is to swap out their fossil fuel-fired furnace or boiler for electric heat pumps. But while rebates and other subsidies can help defray the up-front cost of the switch, the price of electricity relative … | Continue reading
This is the first story in a Heatmap series on how clean energy has fared under Trump. The renewables industry was struggling even before Donald Trump made his return to the White House. High interest rates, snarled supply chains, and inflation had already dealt staggering blows … | Continue reading
Those who drew hope from the letter 18 House Republicans sent to Speaker Mike Johnson last August calling for the preservation of energy tax credits under the Inflation Reduction Act must be jubilant this morning. On Sunday, 21 House Republicans sent a similar letter to House Way … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Firefighters successfully controlled brush fires in Long Island that prompted New York Gov. Kathy Hochul to declare a state of emergency • Brisbane, Australia, recorded its wettest day in more than 50 years • Forecasters are keeping an eye on a storm system de … | Continue reading
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration has had a bruising few weeks. Deep staffing cuts at the hands of Elon Musk’s efficiency crusaders have led to concerns regarding the potential closure of facilities critical to data-gathering and weather-forecasting operations. … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Australians have been told to prepare for the worst ahead of Cyclone Alfred, and 100,000 people are already without power • Argentina’s Buenos Aires province has been hit by deadly flooding • Critical fire conditions will persist across much of west Texas thro … | Continue reading
This week’s conversation is with Katherine Kollins of the Southeastern Wind Coalition, an advocacy group that supports offshore wind development in the American Southeast. I wanted to talk with Katherine about whether there are any silver linings in the offshore wind space, and t … | Continue reading
This week’s conversation is with Katharine Kollins of the Southeastern Wind Coalition, an advocacy group that supports offshore wind development in the American Southeast. I wanted to talk with Katherine about whether there are any silver linings in the offshore wind space, and t … | Continue reading
1. Barnstable County, Massachusetts – The SouthCoast offshore wind project will now be delayed for at least four years, developer Ocean Winds said on Friday, confirming my previous reporting that projects Biden seemed to fully approve were still at risk from Trump. Biden’s Interi … | Continue reading
Who pays for a data center? The first answer is the investors and developers who are planning on pouring billions of dollars into building out power-hungry facilities to serve all sorts of internet services, especially artificial intelligence. And how much will it cost them? The … | Continue reading
State legislatures are now a crucial battleground for the future of renewable energy, as Republican lawmakers seek massive restrictions and punitive measures on new solar and wind projects. Once a hyperlocal affair, the campaign to curtail renewable energy development now include … | Continue reading
It’s long been clear that Elon Musk’s primary talent is not dreaming up electric cars, reusable rockets, or tunnel-boring machines. It is reshaping reality in a way that always seems to keep Tesla’s stock price high, which made him the world’s richest man. That stock price has be … | Continue reading
It’s long been clear that Elon Musk’s primary talent is not dreaming up electric cars, reusable rockets, or tunnel-boring machines. It is reshaping reality in a way that always seems to keep Tesla’s stock price high, which made him the world’s richest man. That stock price has be … | Continue reading
Current conditions: A smattering of rainfall did little to contain a massive wildfire raging in Japan • Indonesia is using cloud seeding to try to stop torrential rains that have displaced thousands • At least 22 tornadoes have been confirmed this week across southern states. THE … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Strong winds helped spark dozens of fires across parched Texas • India’s Himalayan state of Uttarakhand experienced a 600% rise in precipitation over 24 hours, which triggered a deadly avalanche • The world’s biggest iceberg, which has been drifting across the … | Continue reading
The Wikipedia article for “wildfire” has 22 photographs, including those of incidents in Arizona, Utah, Washington, and California. But there is not a single picture of a fire in the American Southeast, despite researchers warning that the lower righthand quadrant of the country … | Continue reading
Longtime listeners of Shift Key will recognize the name Intersolar and Energy Storage North America, one of the country’s premier solar industry conferences. Shift Key was live at this year’s event, hosting a panel on the present and future of the solar industry featuring a pair … | Continue reading
Dear Donald Trump, I will be honest with you. I doubted at first. I didn’t understand the plan. But now that I see what you are doing, I have to say: I underestimated you. I was not really familiar with your game. Yes, I finally see it all now. Even though you have attacked envir … | Continue reading
Just as Trump’s tariffs on Canada and Mexico went into effect in the wee hours of Tuesday morning, electricity prices in the Northeast appeared to spike. As I wrote back when the specter of tariffs first loomed in January, New England sources a substantial amount of electricity f … | Continue reading
Current conditions: A large wildfire threatens the Japanese city of Ofunato, which was devastated in the 2011 earthquake and tsunami • Mardi Gras celebrations are in disarray as New Orleans braces for high winds • Statewide tornado drills scheduled for tomorrow in the Carolinas h … | Continue reading
New York City and Los Angeles — America’s two biggest cities — have both burned in the past four months. Though the Pacific Palisades and Altadena fires were far more destructive, turning nearly 40,000 acres of homes, schools, parks, and businesses to ash, the New York fire was i … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Firefighters in Japan are battling the country’s largest wildfire in 30 years • Tropical Cyclone Alfred is hurtling toward Australia’s Queensland coast • Some 170 million Americans are in the path of a storm system that will bring severe thunderstorms and torn … | Continue reading
In the month or so since Donald Trump took office, something new has happened: He has become an austerity president. Trump, Elon Musk, and the rest of their team have frozen spending on hundreds of contracts. They’ve fired as many as 200,000 people across the federal government, … | Continue reading
Ditching the combustion engine for an electric vehicle is a good first step for cutting transportation emissions. But it’s becoming increasingly clear that owning an electric car on its own is not enough. When and how you charge the car makes an enormous difference, not only for … | Continue reading
Grant Faber suspected his short tenure as the program manager for the Department of Energy’s direct air capture hubs initiative was up when he saw an article circulating that the department was set to terminate up to 2,000 employees — generally those who were new to their jobs. W … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Thousands are without power and drinking water in the French Indian Ocean territory of Réunion after Tropical Cyclone Garance made landfall with the strength of a Category 2 hurricane • A severe weather outbreak could bring tornadoes to southern states early n … | Continue reading
Battery fire fears are fomenting a storage backlash in New York City – and it risks turning into fresh PR hell for the industry.Aggrieved neighbors, anti-BESS activists, and Republican politicians are galvanizing more opposition to battery storage in pockets of the five boroughs … | Continue reading
1. Queen Anne’s County, Maryland – They really don’t want you to sign a solar lease out in the rural parts of this otherwise very pro-renewables state. County officials this week issued a public notice encouraging all residents to consider the economic impacts of taking farmland … | Continue reading