The Trump administration may not be enthusiastic about supporting megaprojects to suck carbon dioxide out of the air, but that’s not dampening Occidental Petroleum’s interest in the technology. Heatmap has learned that the oil and gas giant recently acquired the direct air captur … | Continue reading
The Trump administration will try to stop work on Empire Wind, an offshore wind project by Equinor south of Long Island that was going through active construction, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum posted to X on Wednesday. Burgum announced that he directed the Bureau of Ocean Energ … | Continue reading
In the past few days, I’ve started to wonder whether much of the Trump administration’s energy agenda is dead, and Trump officials just don’t realize it yet. Trump dreamed of a new U.S. mining bonanza. But his tariffs are slowing economic activity and raising equipment costs, sil … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Central and northeast New Mexico will face “extremely critical fire conditions” over the next two days • Thousands of Iraqis are suffering from respiratory problems caused by a severe sandstorm • Temperatures could hit 120 degrees Fahrenheit in Balochistan, Pa … | Continue reading
Donald Trump has implemented what is easily the most chaotic set of American economic policies in recent memory. First, the U.S. declared a trade war on the entire world, imposing breathtaking tariffs on many of the country’s biggest trading partners. He’s paused that effort — bu … | Continue reading
While much of the focus of President Donald Trump’s trade war has been on the United States’ yawning trade deficit with China, the U.S. does have considerable exports going the other way — agricultural products like soybeans, technology products like semiconductors, and fossil fu … | Continue reading
Buoys have it tough. Built to endure some of the harshest conditions on the planet, the instruments are thrashed by ocean waves, buffeted by high winds, corroded by sea salt, and scorched by the sun’s ultraviolet rays. Their measurements on everything from solar radiation to seaw … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Breezy weather in Sarasota, Florida, is increasing today’s fire danger • Turin, Italy, is bracing for an April’s worth of rain in a single day • The aurora borealis may be visible over the northern U.S. tonight and tomorrow thanks to a geomagnetic storm. THE T … | Continue reading
The largest hydrogen producer in the world, Air Products, stands to earn up to $440 million per year in clean energy tax credits once it opens its massive, $7 billion complex in Louisiana in 2028. But a recent report argues that while the hydrogen produced there will be highly pr … | Continue reading
A group of Republican lawmakers were hoping a new report released Monday would give them fresh ammunition in their fight against offshore wind development. Instead, they got … pretty much nothing. But they’re milking it anyway. The report in question originated with a spate of wh … | Continue reading
Current conditions: More than 28 million people in the Ohio Valley are at risk of severe thunderstorms today • Intense heat in Vietnam’s Ho Chi Minh City may be behind dozens of cases of food poisoning linked to street vendors • Parts of Michigan’s Upper Peninsula could see up to … | Continue reading
It wasn’t too long ago that the battery world was abuzz over sodium-ion batteries and their potential to be a cost-effective domestic competitor to the Chinese-dominated lithium-ion industry. The prevalence of sodium and the early-stage sodium-ion supply chain seemed to give the … | Continue reading
The Impulse Cooktop is, as my colleague Emily Pontecorvo has accurately described it, a “status stove.” Made out of “sleek black glass” with “burners that resemble a DJ turntable,” the kitchen appliance also has a large battery that allows it to double as an energy storage device … | Continue reading
A solar developer is accusing a Pennsylvania town of requesting a $150 million bribe to get its permits, calling it “municipal extortion.” Rockland Solar – a subsidiary of utility-scale solar developer Birch Creek – filed a federal lawsuit last week accusing officials in the nort … | Continue reading
1. Waldo County, Maine – The Republican-led bid to stop an offshore wind industrial site on Sears Island has failed. As we told you, GOP legislators introduced a measure to extend an existing conservation easement to stop construction of an assembly site for floating offshore win … | Continue reading
This week’s Q&A is a change of pace. I was contacted by two student researchers – Rebecca Barel and Dan Cassata – requesting to interview me for some policy and social science research they’ve been up to at Columbia University sponsored by the policy organization Clean Tomorrow. … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Unseasonably heavy rains killed at least 100 people in India and Nepal • Parts of Southern California could see triple-digit temperatures today as a heat wave peaks • This year’s La Nina is officially over. THE TOP FIVE 1. The Department of Energy is facing a … | Continue reading
I wanted to update you on some very exciting news — our Decarbonize Your Life section just won the National Magazine Award for Service Journalism. It’s a huge honor for a publication that just turned two years old last month and a testament to the outstanding journalism our small … | Continue reading
House Republicans passed a budget blueprint Thursday morning that lays the groundwork for the party to begin drafting legislation to enact President Trump’s agenda. Now the fight over the Inflation Reduction Act’s clean energy tax credits begins in earnest. The blueprint is merel … | Continue reading
The Trump administration is overseeing a chaotic set of changes at the U.S. Department of Energy that could gut its in-house bank and transform one of the government’s key scientific and technology development agencies. In the coming days, the department could see thousands of it … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Californians who live near the site of January’s devastating Los Angeles wildfires are being urged to get tested for lead poisoning • The Ohio River in waterlogged Louisville, Kentucky, crested at 37 feet on Wednesday • It will be about 60 degrees Fahrenheit a … | Continue reading
The country’s largest electricity market, PJM, has a problem: It’s facing a slew of retiring fossil fuel resources just as electricity demand is ramping, largely thanks to AI data centers. Meanwhile, PJM has a years-long waitlist full of wind and solar projects seeking permission … | Continue reading
Congestion pricing has only been in effect in New York City for three months, but its rollout has been nearly as turbulent as the 18-year battle to implement it in the first place. Trump’s Department of Transportation escalated its threat this week to retaliate against New York i … | Continue reading
The Trump administration is trying to save coal again. But despite the president’s seemingly forceful actions, there’s little indication he’ll be any more successful at it this time than he was the last time around. Backed by coal miners in hard hats and high visibility jackets, … | Continue reading
Current conditions: States left flooded from recent severe storms are now facing freezing temperatures • Firefighters are battling blazes in Scotland due to unusually warm and dry weather • Hospitals in India are reporting a 25% rise in heat-related illnesses compared to last yea … | Continue reading
China’s industrial policy for clean energy has turned the country into a powerhouse of solar, wind, battery, and electric vehicle manufacturing. But long before the country’s factories moved global markets — and invited Trump’s self-destructive tariffs — the country implemented e … | Continue reading
Among fossil fuel companies and clean energy developers, almost no one has been spared from the effects of Trump’s sweeping tariffs. But the good news is that in general, the transition to clean energy could create a world that is less exposed to energy price shocks and other ene … | Continue reading
When I wrote Heatmap’s guide to driving less last year, I didn’t anticipate that a good motivation for doing so would be that every car in America was about to get a lot more expensive. Then again, no one saw the breadth and depth of the Trump administration’s tariffs coming. “We … | Continue reading
When I wrote Heatmap’s guide to driving less last year, I didn’t anticipate that a good motivation for doing so would be that every car in America was about to get a lot more expensive. Then again, no one saw the breadth and depth of the Trump administration’s tariffs coming. “We … | Continue reading
Donald Trump’s tariffs — the “fentanyl” levies on Canada, China, and Mexico, the “reciprocal” tariffs on nearly every country (and some uninhabited islands), and the global 10% tariff — will almost certainly cause consumer goods on average to get more expensive. The Yale Budget L … | Continue reading
More than a decade ago, when I was a young editor at Popular Mechanics, we got a Nissan Leaf. It was a big deal. The magazine had always kept long-term test cars to give readers a full report of how they drove over weeks and months. A true test of the first true production electr … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Europe just experienced its warmest March since record-keeping began 47 years ago • It’s 105 degrees Fahrenheit in India’s capital Delhi where heat warnings are in effect • The risk of severe flooding remains high across much of the Mississippi and Ohio Valley … | Continue reading
It took Donald Trump just over two months to potentially tank his own American mineral supply chain renaissance. At the time Trump entered office, it looked like the stars could align for an American mining boom. Mining jobs had finally recovered to pre-COVID levels, thanks in pa … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Streets turned into rivers and at least 30 people were killed in the Democratic Republic of Congo after torrential rain • A month’s worth of snow is expected to fall over just two days in Moscow this week • Warm temperatures in Central Florida could break heat … | Continue reading
China dominates the lithium-ion battery supply chain at nearly every level, from critical minerals processing and refining to cell manufacturing and battery pack assembly. So now that the nation faces a cumulative 54% tariff rate, one might think domestic battery manufacturers — … | Continue reading
Expanding U.S. liquified natural gas exports has been a key priority for Trump and part of his strategy to “unleash U.S. energy dominance.” But his tariffs could make it harder for projects that are still early in their development to succeed. After taking office, Trump swiftly r … | Continue reading
The U.S. stock market has taken its worst hit this week since March 2020, with the S&P 500 falling over 10% in just two days, while the tech-heavy Nasdaq is down 22% from its all-time high in December. The tremendous decline in stock values is a reflection of Donald Trump’s chaot … | Continue reading
Over a decade’s worth of economic incentives — tariffs on solar components from China, the Inflation Reduction Act’s subsidies for American clean energy manufacturing, tariffs on Southeast Asian solar for avoiding tariffs on China — have been telling the American renewables indus … | Continue reading
President Donald Trump campaigned on a promise to “drill, baby, drill” and help the American oil and natural gas industry. Executives loved it — the industry gave more than $75 million to Trump’s campaign and its affiliated groups. Now the trade is blowing up in their faces. This … | Continue reading
As we sat down to write this essay in mid-March, hundreds of thousands of people in Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, and Texas were without electricity for days after heavy late-season snows and high winds took down power lines. Then just days ago, more powerful storms swept through the M … | Continue reading
Current conditions: The U.K. is on high alert for wildfires this weekend due to warm weather and high winds • The Canary Islands are cleaning up damage from Storm Nuria’s hurricane-force winds • Flooding in southeastern Oregon from historic levels of rain and snowmelt forced scho … | Continue reading
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