Exclusive: New Tax Rules Could Make It Cheaper to Hook Up Clean Energy to the Grid

It may soon be easier — and cheaper — to build a large-scale clean energy project in the United States. Under a new and little-noticed update to a climate tax credit published last week, the government will now pick up some of the cost of connecting a new wind or solar project to … | Continue reading


@heatmap.news | 1 year ago

Eric Adams Just Cut the Only NYC Compost Programs That Ever Worked

For the past 30 years, New York City has funded community-based programs that spread the gospel of compost. What started as a few education and outreach sites at the city’s botanical gardens has grown into a vast network of more than 200 neighborhood food scrap drop-off locations … | Continue reading


@heatmap.news | 1 year ago

New Jersey Is the Latest State to Go All-EV

New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy just announced a rule requiring that all new cars sold in the state must be electric by 2035, with interim goals starting for model year 2027 and ramping up from there. Meeting these goals will take an aggressive push given that as of June, just 1.8% o … | Continue reading


@heatmap.news | 1 year ago

OpenAI Is a Cautionary Tale About Nonprofits

Surely you’ve heard by now. On Friday, the board of directors of OpenAI, the world-bestriding startup at the center of the new artificial intelligence boom, fired its chief executive, Sam Altman. He had not been “consistently candid” with the board, the company said, setting in m … | Continue reading


@heatmap.news | 1 year ago

The Pope’s Latest Climate Banger

Pope Francis is heading to this year’s COP summit in Dubai next week, fresh off releasing an encyclical, Laudate Deum, that takes wealthy countries to task for their failure to curb greenhouse gas emissions. NPR dedicated its Sunday cover story on All Things Considered to the new … | Continue reading


@heatmap.news | 1 year ago

Inside the Weird World of Succulent Smuggling

It was questionable if we needed a second season of Tiger King — or, let’s be honest, a first season. Regardless, if Netflix ever decides it’s interested in a story that features surprisingly charming criminals, IWT violations, and yes, even possibly murder (but without the tablo … | Continue reading


@heatmap.news | 1 year ago

Building California Cool in the Desert

The architecture firm HKS is known for its innovative, climate-informed approach to large-scale architectural projects, from an award-winning stadium in California to a yacht club in Saudi Arabia to a bioscience lab in Singapore. The practice is also committed to research, landin … | Continue reading


@heatmap.news | 1 year ago

The Heat Pump Manufacturing Boom is About to Begin

When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, American environmentalist and writer Bill McKibben pitched an idea to sap Russia’s power by drying up the market for its oil and gas. Heat Pumps for Peace and Freedom, he named the proposal, which called on President Biden to use his … | Continue reading


@heatmap.news | 1 year ago

The School Fight Over Climate Change Is Growing

Fights over school curricula have become issues du jour, and today officials in Texas are voting on what kids in that state will read about climate change in their school textbooks. The problem, according to the AP, is that the textbooks in their current form are “too negative to … | Continue reading


@heatmap.news | 1 year ago

This Icelandic Volcano May Surprise You

If you were to walk down the street in the Icelandic town of Grindavik right now — which, to be clear, you shouldn’t — you would find a scene out of the apocalypse. Cracks in the road emitting ominous steam. A low rumbling beneath your feet. Deserted homes and buildings all aroun … | Continue reading


@heatmap.news | 1 year ago

Offshore Wind to Get a Little Tax Boost

The beleaguered offshore wind industry got a small boost from the Biden administration on Friday in the form of a proposal that would expand the definition of what qualifies for a 30% clean energy investment tax credit.Offshore wind farms have many different components beyond jus … | Continue reading


@heatmap.news | 1 year ago

Inflation Is Killing Long-Term Climate Bets

Every company is, in a certain light, a kind of time machine, and every new product is a missive from the past. When a group of people get together to launch a startup, they’re making a bet that in a few months or years, people are going to want what they’re selling. In the softw … | Continue reading


@heatmap.news | 1 year ago

Los Angeles Spreads the EV Wealth Around

Los Angeles officials on Thursday announced a plan to make the clean energy transition cheaper for low-income residents, The New York Times reports. “Working families in our city need to be assured that our city’s clean energy future won’t leave them trapped in the past,” Mayor K … | Continue reading


@heatmap.news | 1 year ago

Can Xi and Biden’s Climate Deal Prevent a Second Cold War?

The past couple years have seen escalating tensions between China and the United States. On the one hand, the brutally repressive nature of the Chinese government has become undeniable, with the crushing of protests in Hong Kong and the ongoing cultural genocide against the Uyghu … | Continue reading


@heatmap.news | 1 year ago

Mike Munsell and Jillian Goodman Join Heatmap News

The climate news website Heatmap News announced today the hiring of Jillian Goodman as Deputy Editor and Mike Munsell as VP of Sales. Jillian most recently served as Opinion Editor for The Information and previously was Deputy Editor for Bloomberg Green, Politics Editor for Bloom … | Continue reading


@heatmap.news | 1 year ago

China’s Wildly Complex Energy Transition, Explained in 8 Charts

Ahead of President Biden’s meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping in San Francisco on Wednesday, the U.S. and China released a joint statement that represents a breakthrough in the two countries’ climate change negotiations. Most notably, the Asian superpower has finally agree … | Continue reading


@heatmap.news | 1 year ago

Oil Companies Are Preparing for a Lucrative Decline

The oil industry is not telling a credible story about its own future. Far from doubling down on the future of oil — as they’d have us believe — and as climate action advocates fear – the most powerful oil producers are planning for obsolescence, but they’re hoping to do it on th … | Continue reading


@heatmap.news | 1 year ago

New York’s Year of Battery Fires Keeps Getting Worse

A lithium-ion battery sparked a deadly blaze that killed three family members in a Brooklyn brownstone over the weekend, the FDNY revealed on Monday. Two electric scooters, powered by lithium-ion batteries, were found at the site. Per WABC, the fire started in the Brooklyn neighb … | Continue reading


@heatmap.news | 1 year ago

How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Unmanned, Aerial Flamethrowers

I confess that when I first heard about flamethrowing drones, I did not think they sounded like a good idea. Being an American sometimes means learning that flamethrowers can get marked down for Black Friday (25% off! Bitcoin accepted!) and that a device that shoots literal fire … | Continue reading


@heatmap.news | 1 year ago

New Climate Report Warns We Could Lose What Makes Us Americans

Tucked about two-thirds of the way through the overview of the U.S. government’s Fifth National Climate Assessment — a congressionally mandated, roughly quinquennial summary of how climate change is affecting the country — comes a startling observation. Climate change is not just … | Continue reading


@heatmap.news | 1 year ago

ExxonMobil Is Getting into Lithium

ExxonMobil on Monday announced plans to produce lithium in an area of southern Arkansas known for its vast deposits of the mineral, a key material in the manufacture of electric vehicle batteries. The company aims to begin producing battery-grade lithium in 2027 in a 120,000-acre … | Continue reading


@heatmap.news | 1 year ago

Don’t Believe the Story About ‘Slowing’ EV Sales

If you’ve read about electric vehicles in the news lately, you know the vibes are bad. Over the past few weeks, the media has fixated on the idea that consumer demand for EVs is “slowing,” “chilling,” or “losing its charge.” But are sales even slowing? Has federal policy failed t … | Continue reading


@heatmap.news | 1 year ago

The Irreverent Punks Trying to Flip the Energy System on Its Head

The hottest ticket in Brooklyn last week wasn’t for an indie rock show or a buzzy new restaurant. It was for the most niche, nerdiest clean energy conference of the year — the sold-out DERVOS 2023.The conference name — a satirical play on Davos, a stuffy, World Economic Forum eve … | Continue reading


@heatmap.news | 1 year ago

We’ve Been Counting Bats in All the Wrong Places

American bats have been having a rough time lately. In 2006, a deadly disease called White Nose Syndrome appeared on the East Coast, dusting the faces of bats there with a white fungus that sapped their fat reserves while they hibernated over the winter, starving them before spri … | Continue reading


@heatmap.news | 1 year ago

Joe Manchin Was America’s De Facto Climate King

What can you say about Joe Manchin, perhaps the most important — and most complicated — American climate policy maker of the past decade? Let’s start here: Soon, he won’t be a senator any more. On Thursday, Manchin announced that he will not pursue re-election in West Virginia in … | Continue reading


@heatmap.news | 1 year ago

The Age of Inescapable Wildfire

When Manjula Martin was growing up in Northern California in the 1980s, wildfires weren’t something she thought about much. She knew about disaster — the magnitude 6.9 Loma Prieta earthquake of 1989, which killed 63 people and injured thousands, hit when she was a teenager — but … | Continue reading


@heatmap.news | 1 year ago

Nikki Haley Called Ron DeSantis the ‘E’ Word

Tonight, at approximately seven feet above sea level, the five leading Republican presidential candidates not named Trump assembled in a performing arts center in Miami to once again go through the motions of pretending this a normal election cycle. If you happened to be doing so … | Continue reading


@heatmap.news | 1 year ago

The Sporty EV Pickup of My Dreams Is Coming — But Not to America

My wife drove one of the last great little trucks. The 2000 Toyota Tacoma had no extended cab and no frills, just a bench seat and a short bed to shuttle her stuff back and forth from L.A. to Berkeley. To no one’s surprise, it still runs. We just moved a loveseat in it this weeke … | Continue reading


@heatmap.news | 1 year ago

Maine’s Historic Public Power Push Goes Down in Flames

An unprecedented “public power takeover” campaign in Maine failed on Tuesday, according to a projection by The New York Times.The Maine ballot had asked voters if they wanted to create the Pine Tree Power Company, a nonprofit electric utility governed by a publicly-elected board, … | Continue reading


@heatmap.news | 1 year ago

Canada Wants U.S. Offshore Wind Too

The Northeast has a mismatch between its climate ambitions — some of the most aggressive decarbonization targets in the country — and its resources for renewable energy. While the Pacific Northwest has rivers and gorges, the Southwest and Southeast have lots of sun, and the Great … | Continue reading


@heatmap.news | 1 year ago

A Clean Energy Scandal Brings Down Portugal’s Prime Minister

As investment in renewable energy rises globally, so too does the potential for massive corruption. This proved true on Tuesday, when Portuguese Prime Minister António Costa resigned amid an explosive investigation into his administration’s handling of lithium mining and hydrogen … | Continue reading


@heatmap.news | 1 year ago

Prince William Announces the Earthshot Prize Winners

The Earthshot Prize, an annual award by Prince William’s Royal Foundation, was given to five climate-focused startups on Tuesday. The winners — each of which will receive $1.2 million and “tailored support” from the prize’s “global alliance of partners” — were Acción Andina, a Pe … | Continue reading


@heatmap.news | 1 year ago

What Would You Spend to Save San Francisco’s Ferry Building?

When San Francisco’s Ferry Plaza Farmers Market is in full Saturday swing, one way to dodge the determined foodies and casual browsers is to retreat to the plaza just 30 steps south of the Ferry Building. It sits atop three tiers of dark-veined granite, accessible by two flights … | Continue reading


@heatmap.news | 1 year ago

Michigan Is About to Have the Best Climate Policies of Any Battleground State

Michigan looks likely to pass an aggressive package of climate laws this week, as the state’s Democrats are set to capitalize on their first governing trifecta in nearly four decades. The climate laws would require that 100% of Michigan’s electricity come from carbon-free sources … | Continue reading


@heatmap.news | 1 year ago

Gaza Has Never Had Enough Water

Home to two million people, the Gaza Strip sits squeezed between Israel and the Mediterranean Sea on a bit of land just twice the size of Washington, D.C. Gaza is the smaller part of Palestine’s two territories; you could walk the length of its southern border with Egypt in under … | Continue reading


@heatmap.news | 1 year ago

The NYC Marathon Was Unseasonably Warm Again. That Spells Trouble.

The buzzy topic of conversation among New York City Marathon race volunteers in the predawn hours of Sunday morning wasn’t if a course record was going to be broken or Peres Jepchirchir’s pre-race withdrawal, but how we decided what we were going to wear.This year, I was one of t … | Continue reading


@heatmap.news | 1 year ago

Republicans Propose One of the Year’s Most Interesting Climate Laws

One of the year’s most interesting climate policies was just proposed … by a Republican. Two, actually.On Thursday, Senators Bill Cassidy and Lindsey Graham released a bill that would establish a “foreign pollution fee,” a new type of tariff that would raise the cost of products … | Continue reading


@heatmap.news | 1 year ago

‘Planet Earth III’ Is a Poignant Reminder of What We’re Fighting For

David Attenborough is not mad, he’s just disappointed. At 97 years old, the narrator of the Planet Earth series returns to guide us through the nature docuseries’ third installment, which becomes available for U.S. audiences this weekend. Maybe I’d just forgotten how harrowing st … | Continue reading


@heatmap.news | 1 year ago

The Oil Market Is Chilling Out About Hezbollah

The global energy market breathed a sigh of relief after Hassan Nasrallah, the secretary general of the Lebanese militia Hezbollah, gave a widely anticipated speech that indicated the group would not escalate its current skirmishes with the Israeli military into a full-on conflic … | Continue reading


@heatmap.news | 1 year ago

It Sure Looks Like a Rivian Was Too Much Truck for Alan Ruck​

It is just as the prophets (John Hughes) of old (1986) foretold. On Tuesday, actor Alan Ruck allegedly crashed his Rivian into a Los Angeles pizza shop, an accident that drew immediate comparisons to the famous scene in which he “kills” his father’s Ferrari in Ferris Bueller’s Da … | Continue reading


@heatmap.news | 1 year ago

Mercedes’ Vision for Luxury EV Charging

Gas stations aren’t fancy. There are a few quirky or pretty refueling stations scatted around the world, but the typical roadside stops amounts to a few pumps that reek of gasoline, the air pump that only takes quarters, and a convenience store stocked with Zingers. The experienc … | Continue reading


@heatmap.news | 1 year ago

People Will Stop Eating Meat for the Planet’s Health If Not Their Own

When I was a teen in the late aughts, the Washington Department of Health inflicted permanent damage to my psyche by airing intensely nightmarish anti-smoking commercials late at night on Adult Swim. (No really, you’ve been warned). The fact that a maggoty stop-motion sewer rat s … | Continue reading


@heatmap.news | 1 year ago

My 37 Minutes with Honda’s Rideable Attaché Case

Ever since moving back to New York City a year ago, I’ve gotten really into e-biking. The city upped the number and quality of e-bikes in its bikeshare program, and I’ve been taking full advantage. But the e-bikes are so popular, they aren’t always available, and I’ve been wonder … | Continue reading


@heatmap.news | 1 year ago

Gavin Newsom Is Weaker on Climate When the Cameras Aren’t Rolling

As governor of California, Gavin Newsom has cultivated a reputation as a climate crusader who holds powerful polluters accountable for delay tactics. “The climate crisis is, after all, a fossil fuel crisis. Period, full stop. And these guys have been playing us for fools,” Newso … | Continue reading


@heatmap.news | 1 year ago

Everyone’s Mad at Offshore Wind Developers

The Danish energy company Orsted pulled the plug on two big offshore wind projects in New Jersey on Tuesday, taking a $4 billion write-down in the process. Orsted’s decision is just the latest example of the trouble facing the offshore wind industry in the United States, as ambit … | Continue reading


@heatmap.news | 1 year ago

Let’s Not Coat Our Roads in Toxic Wastewater

Betteridge’s law of headlines, as defined by the journalist Ian Betteridge, states that any headline which ends in a question mark can be answered by the word “no.” This is probably especially true of a headline like the one that ran on Jake Bolster’s recent story for Inside Clim … | Continue reading


@heatmap.news | 1 year ago

Is Deep-Sea Mining Really Necessary?

“To say, ‘Don’t harm the ocean’ — it is the easiest message in the world, right? You just have to show a photo of a turtle with a straw in its nose,” Michael Lodge, the secretary general of the U.N.’s International Seabed Authority, told The New York Times last year. “Everybody i … | Continue reading


@heatmap.news | 1 year ago

The Panama Canal Is Drying Up

The Panama Canal is in trouble. In an advisory dated Monday, the Panama Canal Authority said it will cut the number of ships allowed to pass through the waterway on a typical day in half due to a drought afflicting the region. This year has been the area’s second driest since 195 … | Continue reading


@heatmap.news | 1 year ago