SCIENCE
Decades ago, many within the environmental movement called for a smaller population as a means of curbing carbon emissions and lessening the effects of climate change. But when a team of researchers at the University of Texas at Austin and Hunter College in New York City ran the numbers, they found that population decline was likely to have only a negligible impact on climate change. The reason? The timelines just don’t match up. Because human life spans are long, the researchers wrote in a recent working paper, falling birthrates will take a long time to meaningfully change the size of the world’s population. The threat of climate change is much more immediate — today’s emissions will have a lasting effect on the Earth’s atmosphere.
The Afro-Asian summer monsoon (AfroA-SM) provides essential rainfall for
billions of people. However, in recent decades, unusually wet
conditions have persisted into autumn, creating unprecedented extremes.
Using multidecadal observations, reanalysis datasets, and Polar
Amplification Model Intercomparison Project (PAMIP) simulations, we show that Arctic warming significantly postpones the retreat of the AfroA-SM. This delay shifts the northernmost summer monsoon boundary by
5.6°–12° and accounts for 33%–69% of September precipitation across
North Africa, South Asia, the Tibetan Plateau, and East Asia.
GREENING
- Factories that make essential materials like steel and
cement need scorching-hot air and steam to transform raw ingredients
into finished products. Traditionally, they get that heat by burning
fossil fuels. But the startup Electrified Thermal Solutions is pursuing a far cleaner approach: tapping piles of bricks. The Boston-based company has developed a thermal
battery system that uses electricity to heat metal-oxide firebricks for
hours at a time. The goal is to soak up wind and solar power from the
grid during cheaper off-peak periods, then deliver the stored heat to
industrial furnaces, boilers, and kilns whenever manufacturers need it. Last week, the MIT spin-off unveiled its first commercial-scale thermal battery at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. Its Joule Hive system can store 20 megawatt-hours of heat at temperatures of up to 1,800 degrees Celsius (3,270 degrees Fahrenheit). - California regulators propose reducing the number of pollution permits issued under the state’s carbon cap-and-trade program in an effort to meet increasingly ambitious climate goals. (E&E News) [Good news, but advocates called for this six years ago.]
DARK AGE CLIMATE POLITICS
- First Solar releases poll showing support for solar among GOP voters. When asked if all forms of electricity generation, including utility‑scale solar, should be allowed to compete fairly in the marketplace without political interference, 79% of GOP-aligned voters surveyed agreed.
- While President Trump’s attacks on offshore wind have been highly visible, his administration has also been hobbling hundreds solar and wind energy projects on land by halting or delaying federal approvals that were once routine. Many projects are facing potentially fatal delays, according to interviews with more than a dozen energy companies, industry groups and analysts.
- In a petition to the Department of Energy, Colorado’s Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association and Platte River Power Authority formally objected to the administration’s order keeping Craig’s Unit 1 coal power plant open. Colorado Attorney General Phil Weiser and environmental groups also petitioned the Department of Energy to rescind the emergency order.
- President Donald Trump signs into law an appropriations package that increases annual funding for the federal Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program [and weatherization] after the administration tried to eliminate the program last year. (Utility Dive)
- Offshore wind could have cut the risk of demand-driven power outages in New England by more than half last winter, according to a new study. (E&E News)
- Michigan launched a first-of-a-kind lawsuit that accuses four oil-and-gas giants and a major U.S. oil lobbying firm of behaving like a “cartel” to impede both the energy transition and public knowledge of the perils of climate change. (The Guardian)
- Over at The Washington Post, billionaire owner Jeff Bezos’ management team just gutted the newspaper’s Pulitzer Prize-winning climate desk. The paper sent layoff notices to at least 14 climate journalists, newsroom sources told veteran beat reporter Sammy Roth for his Climate-Colored Goggles newsletter. A total of 300 staff were cut. It’s infuriating when you read the back-of-the-napkin math New York Times reporter Peter Baker posted on X yesterday: “Last reported annual losses of Post: $100 million,” he wrote. “Number of years Bezos could absorb those losses with what he makes in a single week: 5.” [Think about these cuts when you consider ordering from Amazon.]
- For the first time since Colorado began regulating drilling 75 years ago, state officials said they may order a company to move a well pad farther from the Denver suburbs — a decision that could force the firm to leave oil and gas worth tens of millions of dollars in the ground, writes Jennifer Oldham. Colorado legislators enacted a law in 2019 that required regulators to prioritize public health over fossil fuel extraction. A major provision of the law that’s never been tested, until now, allows regulators to make decisions that would force an energy company to leave hydrocarbons in the ground “if necessary to protect public health, safety, welfare, the environment, or wildlife resources.”
Take Action!
In the past we have written letters to prevent Enbridge from putting its Line 5 oil pipeline under the Great Lakes. Now the EPA is trying to make it more difficult for states to regulate water quality in general. Oil and Water Don’t Mix asks us to submit comments in opposition to this new rule.
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Under current law, states can deny federal permits if a project would violate water quality standards. The proposed EPA rule narrows that authority, limits the impacts that can be considered, and fast-tracks approvals, even for risky, unprecedented projects through the Great Lakes. That matters because Enbridge continues to delay a final decision on its Clean Water Act Section 404 permit from the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy (EGLE). If EPA finalizes this rule, it could tilt the scales in Enbridge’s favor and undermine Michigan’s ability and tribal nations’ treaty rights to protect Great Lakes waters.
We need your voice now.
We made it easy to submit a public comment opposing the EPA’s proposed rule. Submit your comment now.