Imagine you’re a corporate sustainability exec and your company is planning to build a new data center. You’ve managed to convince the higher-ups to pay extra to use low-carbon building materials, lest the project blow up your brand’s emissions goals. But when you meet with the g … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Parts of southwest France are flooded after heavy rains • Sydney’s Bondi Beach is closed because lumps of toxic tar are washing ashore • A winter storm warning is in effect for parts of Montana. THE TOP FIVE 1. Report: Large chunk of World Bank climate funds u … | Continue reading
The Supreme Court allowed the Environmental Protection Agency to move forward with its rule restricting climate pollution from power plants on Wednesday, meaning that one of the Biden administration’s key climate policies can stay in place. For now. The high court’s decision will … | Continue reading
In 2021, top elected officials in New York state promised that Plug Power, a nascent company in the growing hydrogen industry, would build a large hydrogen fuel production facility in the Buffalo-Rochester area. It was supposed to make the state an industry leader. Today, the pro … | Continue reading
1. San Diego County, California – The battery backlash just got stronger after the city of Escondido, California, indefinitely banned permits to the entire sector in reaction to a battery fire last month. Last week, the city council enacted a 45-day moratorium on permits to const … | Continue reading
IRA on the mind – The renewable energy ecosystem is starting to really sound alarm bells about the November election and the risks of what they’re calling a “clean energy plan repeal” – e.g. scrapping IRA credits and carbon pollution rules. Yesterday, the nonprofit E2 released a … | Continue reading
This week’s conversation is with Ray Long, president and CEO of the American Council on Renewable Energy, or ACORE. A representative of one of Washington’s most influential climate tech policy trade groups, Long is also a seasoned veteran of the energy sector across fossil and ca … | Continue reading
First it was Microsoft and Constellation restarting Three Mile Island, then it was Google announcing it would buy power from small modular reactors built by Kairos. Now today, Amazon has said it’s investing in X-energy, the small modular reactor and fuel company, and supporting a … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Snow is falling in the mountains of North Carolina, where many are still without power • Severe weather warnings are in effect for nearly half of Australia • A coral bleaching alert has been issued for the eastern Caribbean, where the coral face a risk of “nea … | Continue reading
What’s next for the Biden administration — and for climate policy in the United States? Should Democrats negotiate with Republicans over permitting reform, even if it means making concessions to fossil fuel interests? And how should the country’s trade policy handle the problem o … | Continue reading
Early this morning, the International Energy Agency released its annual World Energy Outlook. And while the Paris-based agency says the world should certainly be concerned about rising electricity demand overall, it also conveys (not quite in so many words) that perhaps we should … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Severe flooding in Sri Lanka has closed schools and forced thousands from their homes • The U.K. could be warmer than Spain this week • It will be 95 degrees Fahrenheit today in Phoenix, which just marked 20 consecutive days of record heat. THE TOP FIVE 1. Acc … | Continue reading
American electricity consumption is growing for the first time in generations. And though low-carbon technologies such as solar and wind have scaled impressively over the past decade, many observers are concerned that all this new demand will provide “a lifeline for more fossil f … | Continue reading
This year’s Economics Nobel is not a climate prize — that happened in 2018, when Yale economist William Nordhaus won the prize for his work on modeling the effects of climate change and economic growth together, providing the intellectual basis for carbon taxation and more genera … | Continue reading
Starting this month, the tens of millions of Americans who browse the real-estate listings website Zillow will encounter a new type of information. In addition to disclosing a home’s square footage, school district, and walkability score, Zillow will begin to tell users about its … | Continue reading
Oil giants Exxon and Chevron are among a group of energy companies that could receive up to $1.2 billion in federal funding to make so-called “clean” hydrogen in Texas. Their proposal to produce the clean-burning fuel using natural gas and carbon capture, in addition to other met … | Continue reading
Millions of Americans first met Washington, D.C., resident Taylor Krause when she appeared on Netflix’s dating show “Love Is Blind.” The series frames getting engaged as a type of matching problem, where contestants talk to each other, fall in love, and get engaged before they me … | Continue reading
Current conditions: The U.K. government is warning people to prepare for flooding this winter • Hurricane forecasters are keeping a watchful eye on another storm lurking in the Atlantic • The Orionid meteor shower will peak this week, but a bright moon is likely to reduce visibil … | Continue reading
As the southeastern U.S. recovers from hurricanes Helene and Milton, the destruction the storms have left behind serves to underline the obvious: The need for technologies that support climate change adaptation and resilience is both real and urgent. And while nearly all the mone … | Continue reading
Current conditions: England just had its one of its worst crop harvests ever due to extreme rainfall last winter • Nevada and Arizona could see record-breaking heat today, while freeze warnings are in effect in four northeastern states • The death toll from Hurricane Milton has c … | Continue reading
After the storm, we rebuild. That’s the mantra repeated by residents, businesses and elected officials after any big storm. Hurricane Milton may have avoided the worst case scenario of a direct hit on the Tampa Bay area, but communities south of Tampa experienced heavy flooding j … | Continue reading
In the coming days and weeks, as Floridians and others in storm-ravaged communities clean up from Hurricane Milton, trucks will carry all manner of storm-related detritus — chunks of buildings, fences, furniture, even cars — to the same place all their other waste goes: the local … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Large parts of Pennsylvania are under a frost advisory today and tomorrow • The remnants of Hurricane Kirk killed at least one person in France • A severe solar storm is expected to hit Earth today. THE TOP FIVE 1. Hurricane Milton moves toward Atlantic after … | Continue reading
One of the biggest threats to American offshore wind is a handful of homeowners on the south Jersey shoreline spouting unproven theories about magnetic fields. Within a year of forming, the activist group “Stop The High-Risk Cables” has galvanized local politicians against the tr … | Continue reading
Maybe Sharpiegate wasn’t so funny after all. You’ll recall the micro-controversy from 2019, when then-President Donald Trump said that Hurricane Dorian was headed toward Alabama (which it wasn’t), and officials from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration were pressur … | Continue reading
1. Nantucket County, Massachusetts – A new group – Keep Nantucket Wild – is mobilizing opposition to the Vineyard Wind offshore wind project, seeking to capitalize on the recent blade breakage to sever the town of Nantucket’s good neighbor agreement with project developer Avangri … | Continue reading
Transmissions on transmission – The Energy Department last week released a must-read national planning study for transmission to connect renewables to the grid through 2040. The takeaway? We could reduce billions of tonnes of CO2 emissions with interregional transmission and cons … | Continue reading
This week we chatted with Jason Kaminsky, CEO of renewables insurance data firm kWh Analytics. Kaminsky has been laser focused on the real risks of physical damage solar and battery projects face – and the fears host communities feel about them. We talked about how those risks co … | Continue reading
In around 12 hours, Hurricane Milton is set to make landfall within miles of Tampa Bay, a region that is home to more than 5 million people. Once a sleepy retirement community, the area has seen a major development boom in recent years fueled by Millennials and Gen Zers seeking t … | Continue reading
One of the biggest wins the United Auto Workers’ secured in its historic negotiations with the Big Three automakers last year was a commitment from Stellantis to reopen and expand its shuttered factory in Belvidere, Illinois. Now the company is shelving those plans, which include … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Rare rainstorms have flooded parts of the Sahara Desert • Storm Kirk is expected to bring flooding to parts of northern France • Wyoming’s 75,000-acre Elk Fire has been burning for nearly two weeks. THE TOP FIVE 1. Category 5 Hurricane Milton approaches Florid … | Continue reading
How can you fight climate change in your daily life? Last month, Heatmap published our attempt at answering that question: Called Decarbonize Your Life, it’s a series of stories and guides to help you make better, smarter decisions to nudge the energy system away from fossil fuel … | Continue reading
There’s a familiar script when it comes to hurricanes: The high winds snap tree branches and even tree trunks and whip around anything else that’s light enough or not bolted down — including power lines and distribution poles. While this type of damage can lead to large-scale out … | Continue reading
Current conditions: What remains of former Hurricane Kirk could bring heavy rain and dangerous winds to Europe • Wildfires in Bolivia have scorched nearly 19 million football fields worth of land this year • It is 55 degrees Fahrenheit and rainy today at the Alpe du Grand Serre, … | Continue reading
With the markets for electric vehicles and battery energy storage systems on the come-up, energy market analysts predict that the world is hurtling towards a global lithium shortage by the 2030’s. Lithios, a Massachusetts-based startup with a novel method of lithium extraction, i … | Continue reading
The “Meteorologists” Facebook page has 51,000 followers, an iffy grasp of grammar rules, and outsized confidence in the United States’ weather engineering capabilities. “They are Aiming this KILLER Monster Hurricane Right at FLORIDA!” one user said of Hurricane Milton on Sunday m … | Continue reading
Last week, I took a train and two buses to an abandoned tuberculosis sanatorium on Staten Island, where I watched first responders pretend another Hurricane Sandy had just struck New York City. For the sake of the drill, organizers kept many of the details of the fictional scenar … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Rescue teams have arrived in Bosnia after intense rain triggered flooding and landslides that killed at least 18 people • Phoenix marked its 13th straight day of record heat Sunday • There are three storms churning in the Atlantic simultaneously, which has nev … | Continue reading
California just hit a critical climate milestone: On September 1, Pacific Gas and Electric, the biggest utility in the state, raised natural gas rates by close to $6 due to shrinking gas demand. I didn’t say it was a milestone worth celebrating. But experts have long warned that … | Continue reading
Contrary to recent rumor, the U.S. government cannot direct major hurricanes like Helene and Milton toward red states. According to two new rapid attribution studies by World Weather Attribution and Climate Central, however, human actors almost certainly made the storms a lot wor … | Continue reading
Battery swaps used to be the future. To solve the unsolvable problem of long recharging times for electric vehicles, some innovators at the dawn of this EV age imagined roadside stops where drivers would trade their depleted battery for a fully charged one in a matter of minutes, … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Hurricane Kirk, now a Category 4 storm, could bring life-threatening surf and rip currents to the East Coast this weekend • The New Zealand city of Dunedin is flooded after its rainiest day in more than 100 years • Parts of the U.S. may be able to see the Nort … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Hurricane Kirk, now a Category 4 storm, could bring life-threatening surf and rip currents to the East Coast this weekend • The New Zealand city of Dunedin is flooded after its rainiest day in more than 100 years • Parts of the U.S. may be able to see the Nort … | Continue reading
The American renewables industry is a global industry. While the Biden administration has devoted three-plus years and billions of dollars to building up wind and solar supply chains in the United States, many of the components of renewable energy generation — whether it’s the ce … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Typhoon Krathon has made landfall in Tawain with 100 mph wind gusts • Hurricane Kirk became a Category 3 storm but is not yet threatening land • The October heat wave baking California has yet to break. THE TOP FIVE 1. Hurricane Helene recovery drains FEMA fun … | Continue reading
This is a special Hurricane Helene edition of Shift Key. Our regular programming will resume next week. Nearly a week after Hurricane Helene made landfall, we are still coming to terms with the scale of its destruction. The storm killed at least 182 people, making it the deadlies … | Continue reading
Hurricane Helene is, by conventional measures, the deadliest hurricane to strike the continental United States since Katrina. At least 182 people have been confirmed killed by the storm, with hundreds of people still unaccounted for. Although all hurricanes are deadly, only a han … | Continue reading
Earlier this week, ProPublica published an investigation revealing that the Heritage Foundation, home of Project 2025, has been flooding the federal government with Freedom of Information Act requests targeted at federal employees, meant to discover which have used words includin … | Continue reading