It was — against all odds — an energy debate. Just look at the statistics. The word “fracking” was mentioned 10 times. “Oil” came up seven times. Even “climate change,” which Donald Trump was not very eager to talk about, was mentioned four times. And while that may not seem like … | Continue reading
At least one natural gas plant in America’s biggest energy market that was scheduled to shut down is staying open. Elgin Energy Center, an approximately 500 megawatt plant in Illinois approximately 40 miles northwest of downtown Chicago was scheduled to shut down next June, accor … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Hurricane Francine is approaching Louisiana as a Category 1 storm • The streets of Vietnam’s capital of Hanoi are flooded after Typhoon Yagi, and the death toll has reached 143 • Residents of Nigeria’s northern Borno state are urged to watch out for crocodiles … | Continue reading
Maybe you’ve never heard of it. Maybe you know it too well. But to a certain type of clean energy wonk, it amounts to perhaps the three most dreaded words in climate policy: the interconnection queue. The queue is the process by which utilities decide which wind and solar farms g … | Continue reading
In the closing minutes of the first presidential debate tonight, Donald Trump’s attacks on Kamala Harris took an odd, highly specific, and highly Teutonic turn. It might not have made sense to many viewers, but it fit into the overall debate’s unusually substantive focus on energ … | Continue reading
Well, it happened — over an hour into the debate, but it happened: the presidential candidates were asked directly about climate change. ABC News anchor Linsey Davis put the question to Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump, and their respective answers w … | Continue reading
Former President Donald Trump has been warming up to the idea of electric vehicles in recent months, and he used the debate podium on Tuesday night to announce that “I’m a big fan of solar.” But don’t get too excited: He apparently can’t name three of their albums. During a heate … | Continue reading
Former President Donald Trump has been warming up to the idea of electric vehicles in recent months, and he used the debate podium on Tuesday night to announce that “I’m a big fan of solar.” But don’t get too excited: He apparently can’t name three of their albums. During a heate … | Continue reading
About 40 minutes into the first (and perhaps only) debate between Donald Trump and Kamala Harris, the vice president was asked about her changing stances on a variety of issues since her ill-fated 2019 run for president — in particular, her previous vow to ban fracking. Debating … | Continue reading
Almost by definition, warehouses are boring — spaces of pure industry and function with no aesthetic value. Boring, though, is not very efficient. The Department of Energy keeps national statistics on warehouses (instead of the more obvious Department of Commerce), largely becaus … | Continue reading
Direct air capture companies are in a race to prove they can reduce the cost of removing carbon from the atmosphere down below $100 per ton. Now, one is closing in on the prize with a first-of-its-kind deal. On Tuesday, Google announced it will pay the startup Holocene $10 millio … | Continue reading
Current conditions: A year’s worth of rain fell in just two days in southern Morocco • A single dropped Cheetos bag disrupted the delicate ecosystem of a large cave at New Mexico’s Carlsbad Caverns National Park • It will be about 75 degrees Fahrenheit and clear this evening in P … | Continue reading
Here’s a dilemma: Large chunks of fossil fuel-powered energy generation are scheduled to fall off the U.S. electric grid in the next decade thanks to economic and regulatory pressures. Even larger chunks of renewable energy generation have not yet been approved to connect to the … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Typhoon Yagi was downgraded to a tropical depression after tearing through northern Vietnam • Hollywood Bowl had to cancel a show on Sunday because excessive heat knocked out power to the venue • Forecasters are watching storm Francine in the Atlantic Basin th … | Continue reading
A few Super Bowls ago, when General Motors used its ad spots to pitch Americans on the idea of the GMC Hummer EV, it tried to flip the script on the stereotypes that had always dogged the gas-guzzling SUV. Yes, it implied, you can drive a military-derived menace to society and st … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Torrential rains flooded the streets of Milan, Italy • The U.K. recorded its coldest summer since 2015 • The temperature in Palm Springs, California, hit 121 degrees Fahrenheit yesterday. THE TOP FIVE 1. Summer 2024 was hottest on record Summer 2024 was offici … | Continue reading
In the town of Superior, Arizona, there is a hotel. In the hotel, there is a room. And in the room, there is a ghost. Henry Muñoz’s father owned the building in the early 1980s, back when it was still a boarding house and the “Magma” in its name, Hotel Magma, referred to the copp … | Continue reading
Fusion, sometimes breathlessly referred to as the “holy grail” of clean energy, capable of providing “near limitless” energy, might actually, finally be on the verge of working. And when that first prototype reactor turns on, the feverish headlines about harnessing the power of t … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Thunderstorms brought widespread flooding to Tampa Bay, Florida • The famous Constantine Arch in Rome was damaged by lightning • Super Typhoon Yagi is now the second-most powerful storm of 2024 and is expected to hit China on Friday. THE TOP FIVE 1. Biden to a … | Continue reading
Fracking is just about the last thing Kamala Harris wants to talk about right now, which may be understandable. In a CNN interview last week — her first major sit-down since becoming the Democratic Party’s official nominee for president — she changed her earlier campaign position … | Continue reading
Welcome to The Fight, I’m your punk rock climate journalist host Jael Holzman. I’ve dedicated my entire career in journalism to understanding how and why people oppose projects crucial to decarbonization. Now, every week, I’ll be delivering must-read exclusive scoops and analysis … | Continue reading
By the numbers, a new federal program designed to give low-income communities access to renewable energy looks like a smashing success. According to data provided exclusively to Heatmap, in its first year, the Low-Income Communities Bonus Credit Program steered nearly 50,000 sola … | Continue reading
One hour north of Los Angeles, the small town of Acton is experiencing a battery energy storage buildout — and quickly becoming the must-watch frontline in the backlash against lithium-ion energy storage systems. The flashpoint: wildfires. Like many parts of California, Acton has … | Continue reading
1. York County, South Carolina – Silfab Solar’s efforts to build a solar panel factory in coastal South Carolina have become a nexus of fear politics in recent weeks, even as the community’s Republican congressman tries to assuage residents’ concerns. Members of the community are … | Continue reading
China, China, China – Republicans in Congress are trying to pressure the U.S. into an even more hawkish stance against Chinese battery supply chains ahead of the November election. The top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Senator Marco Rubio, wrote the Defens … | Continue reading
Welcome to The Fight’s Q&A section where we’ll speak with the movers and shakers shaping every side of the debate over renewable energy deployment. Today our subject is Patrick Donnelly, Great Basin director for the Center for Biological Diversity, an environmentalist organizatio … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Ruins of the sunken village of Kallio have emerged from a dried up lake in drought-stricken Greece • AccuWeather reduced its 2024 forecast for the number of named Atlantic storms • It will be hot, humid, and rainy in Beijing today where U.S. climate envoy John … | Continue reading
You don’t need us to say it: The 2024 election will have enormous stakes for America’s climate policy and the planet’s climate. But how well can we quantify those stakes? What would a Trump presidency — or a Harris presidency, for that matter — really mean for the country’s emiss … | Continue reading
The United States Senate sits on a knife-edge. Democrats currently control the chamber by a 51-49 margin, but they are defending more seats than Republicans are in this election. In fact, with the retirement of Joe Manchin and the nearly inevitable passing of that West Virginia s … | Continue reading
Is summer really over? Meteorologists would say one thing, astronomers another, and Americans will just decide to start making things pumpkin-flavored whenever they please. So who’s to say? And after all the record-breaking this summer, does it really matter? So far, 2024 has pro … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Japan recorded its hottest summer ever • Tropical Storm Yagi killed at least 14 people in the Philippines and is forecast to strengthen as it heads toward China • Cooling centers are open in L.A. as another powerful heat wave bakes California. THE TOP FIVE 1. … | Continue reading
Climate has not exactly been the focus in this election cycle that it was in 2024 — but the political climate could still be polarizing public opinion on clean energy. For the latest Heatmap News poll, Embold Research surveyed more than 5,000 registered voters over two weeks in e … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Conditions in the central Atlantic appear “conducive” to the possible formation of Tropical Storm Francine over Labor Day weekend • A cold front is relieving the more than 20 million Americans who were under a heat alert this week • An “exceptionally rare delu … | Continue reading
In a warming world where winter snow is melting earlier and rain is arriving later, “wildfire season” has become somewhat of a misnomer. Some parts of the country now see blazes popping up practically year round. This, combined with decades of fire management policy that promoted … | Continue reading
Most Americans support the idea of a bipartisan law that would make it easier to build new clean energy projects while benefiting some oil and gas development, according to a Heatmap News poll conducted earlier this month. Some 52% of Americans said they backed the general idea o … | Continue reading
The new way to buy an electric car is not to buy one at all. Just three years ago, four out of five EV drivers had financed their car or paid in cash, while only 21% had leased the EV, according to data from TransUnion. But by the second quarter of this year, leasing had become t … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Thousands of dead fish are stinking up the port of Volos in Greece • At least 24 people are missing after flash floods hit Yemen • More than 4 million people are under evacuation orders in Japan because of Typhoon Shanshan. THE TOP FIVE 1. New research shows j … | Continue reading
Nuclear energy is making a comeback, conceptually at least. While we’re yet to see a whole lot of new steel in the ground, money is flowing into fusion, there’s a push to build more standard fission reactors, and the dream of small modular reactors lives on, even in the wake of t … | Continue reading
It shows up when you are most vulnerable. Maybe it’s under a reel of Fleabag’s season 2, episode 5 confession scene, in which Phoebe Waller-Bridge finally gets together with Andrew Scott’s “hot priest.” Or maybe it’s slapped on a TikTok of an industrial hydraulic press squashing … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Torrential rain caused a dam to burst in eastern Sudan, killing at least 30 people • Brazil’s environment minister said the country is “at war” with wildfires • The scorching heat that has blanketed the Midwest this week is shifting east. THE TOP FIVE 1. 3 tak … | Continue reading
The Biden administration has struggled to convince Americans that it has done much of anything to improve the economy. Despite a strong labor market, low unemployment, and steady GDP growth, a recent Gallup poll found that 70% of Americans believe the economy is “getting worse.” … | Continue reading
It’s time to start talking about a big year for climate politics and policy: 2025. No matter who wins this fall’s elections, next year’s executive and legislative climate policy will be huge for America’s decarbonization strategy. Congress is all but guaranteed to negotiate over … | Continue reading
The American EV market has seen its fair share of tumult this year — Ford canceled its three-row SUV, Tesla canceled its $25,000 mass-market EV, and EV sales growth dropped sharply in the first quarter. But from all this darkness, a glimmer of hope has emerged: The market for hyb … | Continue reading
The United States produces more natural gas and crude oil than any other country ― it isn’t even a contest. But these “molecules of U.S. freedom” aren’t free: They’re extracted and transported through a network of rigs, drills, pumps, and pipes that are, increasingly, controlled … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Typhoon Shanshan is headed toward southwestern Japan with the power of a Category 3 hurricane • Flooding in Bangladesh has killed 23 people and stranded 1.24 million families • Australia just experienced its hottest winter temperature ever recorded. THE TOP FI … | Continue reading
Attending a public hearing is the most important civic duty that nobody actually does. (Well, not nobody — we’ll get into that.) But despite attendance at public hearings being one of the most effective ways to directly shape one’s community, the average American probably isn’t g … | Continue reading
This week’s weather forecast is like the Uno reverse card: Texas might finally get a break from triple-digit temperatures, but the summer heat is making its way back into the Northeast. After some taste of fall, summer returns to the north Those west of the Appalachians might hav … | Continue reading
Current conditions: The Midwest is bracing for a brutal heat wave • California’s Sierra Nevada mountain range received a dusting of snow over the weekend • It will be 85 degrees and cloudy today in Flushing Meadows for the start of the U.S. Open tennis championship. THE TOP FIVE … | Continue reading