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Climate

AM Briefing: Chevy's New Electric SUV

On the Blazer EV reviews, Trump's latest climate target, and oil demand

AM Briefing: Chevy's New Electric SUV
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Current conditions: More than 125 highways are closed in China due to a record-setting winter storm • Tropical Cyclone Jasper downed trees in parts of Queensland in Australia • The Geminids meteor shower will peak tonight.

THE TOP FIVE

1. Trump promises to revoke U.S. pledge to Green Climate Fund if re-elected

Former President Donald Trump told a crowd at an Iowa campaign event yesterday that he would cancel “all climate reparation payments” immediately should he be re-elected next year. A campaign aide clarified that Trump was talking specifically about America’s pledge to the Green Climate Fund, which helps developing countries adapt and become more resilient to the effects of climate change. Vice President Kamala Harris recently announced that America would give the fund $3 billion. President Biden’s climate policies have become a “core part” of Trump’s campaign message, saysReuters. In the same speech, Trump also promised to “end Joe Biden’s war on American energy” and “drill, baby, drill.”

2. Chevy Blazer EV first-drive reviews are in

Early reviews of the Chevy Blazer EV, which TechCrunchdescribes as “a vehicle designed to satiate Americans’ never-ending appetites for SUV,” are trickling in. The consensus? It’s good! But with a starting price around $56,000, it’s too expensive. Here’s a quick roundup

  • “Chevy has designed and produced an absolutely normal SUV — a welcome relief from the string of novelty EVs that have come on the market in recent years. The big miss is the higher-than-expected price tag.” –Kirsten Korosec at TechCrunch
  • “A solid and highly customizable first entry into the market … and we’re particularly impressed by the UI,” but “there’s a lot to be considered when looking at the lower-priced alternatives in the market.” –Jameson Dow at Electrek
  • “Not the most compelling electric SUV” but “its slick blend of new-age technology and old-school redundancy provides a compelling lure for hesitant EV buyers.” –Mack Hogan atRoad and Track

The Chevy Blazer EVChevrolet

3. Massive Tesla recall is a ‘win’ ... for Tesla

In other EV news, more than 2 million Tesla vehicles are set to receive over-the-air updates to address failures in the Autopilot system. As Wirednotes, that’s nearly all the vehicles Tesla has sold in the U.S. to date. At issue is the Autosteer functionality, and the recall follows an investigation by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (HTWSA) into a series of crashes that may have occurred while Autopilot was in use. The updates will include added safety controls and alerts, and further limit where drivers can use Autosteer, Wired says. The recall is a “win” for Tesla, argues Damon Lavrinc at Heatmap. “U.S. regulators did not conclude the technology itself was unsafe, and also determined that drivers are responsible for using Autopilot safely. This is what Tesla has contended since the beginning, and it’s a rebuke to safety advocates, many local legislators, and lawyers representing accident victims and their families.”

4. IEA and OPEC reports show conflicting projections for oil demand

The Inernational Energy Agency (IEA) released its December Oil Market Report this morning, which says that global oil demand rose in 2023 but that a slowdown has begun and will continue through 2024. This, combined with supply growth from the U.S. (and elsewhere), will “complicate efforts by key producers to defend their market share and maintain elevated oil prices,” the agency concludes. The report is in contrast to projections put forward by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which this week said it still expects demand for oil to grow next year by 2.25 million barrels a day. Oil prices have been plummeting for several weeks now despite OPEC output cuts. The oil cartel blamed this on “exaggerated” concerns about oil demand growth.

5. U.S. forecasters say Christmas snow is unlikely

Weather forecasts for the next few weeks are starting to come into focus, and a white Christmas is looking increasingly unlikely for the continental U.S. “For the second year in a row, models show low chances of snow leading up to and on Christmas, continuing a disappointing trend for snow lovers tied to human-caused climate change,” reportsThe Washington Post.

U.S. temperature outlook for the next two weeksNOAA

THE KICKER

PETA has named Apple its 2023 Company of the Year for its move to ditch animal leather in its products.

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Politics

AM Briefing: What Happened at the Debate

On the presidential debate, California’s wildfires, and the nuclear workforce

Kamala Harris’ Big Oil Boast
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

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 and snakes that escaped from a zoo due to flooding.

THE TOP FIVE

1. Harris boasts about increased U.S. oil production during debate with Trump

Former President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris squared off on the debate stage in Philadelphia last night. Here are some important climate and energy highlights from the evening:

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A Beginner’s Guide to the Interconnection Queue

Inside season 2, episode 5 of Shift Key.

Power lines.
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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 get to hook up to the power grid in the United States. Across much of the country, it has become so badly broken and clogged that it can take more than a decade for a given project to navigate.

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Sparks

Trump’s Odd Attack on German Energy Policy

What’s a “normal energy plant”?

Donald Trump.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

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 energy policy.

“You believe in things that the American people don’t believe in,” he said, addressing Harris. “You believe in things like, we’re not gonna frack. We’re not gonna take fossil fuel. We’re not gonna do — things that are going to make this country strong, whether you like it or not.”

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