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Climate

The Year’s Big Climate Summit Is Here. No, Not That One.

On NYC Climate Week, a brewing storm, and net zero targets

The Year’s Big Climate Summit Is Here. No, Not That One.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Current conditions: One of South Africa’s busiest highways has reopened after an unusual heavy snowfall • The streets of Cannes turned to rivers as heavy rains swept through southeast France • It will be about 70 degrees Fahrenheit and cloudy in New York City for most of Climate Week.

THE TOP FIVE

1. Thousands descend on NYC for Climate Week

Climate Week kicked off in New York City yesterday. The event, which corresponds with the 79th United Nations General Assembly, is expected to draw some 100,000 people – including entrepreneurs, financiers, CEOs, diplomats, scientists, and creatives – to discuss climate solutions. More than 900 events are planned all over the city. Climate Week has become “the unofficial climate summit of the year,” as Bloombergput it, not just because of its size, but also because of the low expectations going into November’s U.N. COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan (expected to draw just 40,000 people). Climate Week organizers toldThe Wall Street Journal they’d seen more than 1,350 people apply to speak this year, up from 650 last year. Here’s this year’s official agenda. The event runs through September 29.

2. Warm waters could supercharge evolving storm in Caribbean

Forecasters are warning people in Florida’s Panhandle and along the eastern Gulf coast to prepare for a hurricane as a storm churns through the unusually warm Caribbean waters. It is expected to strengthen into Tropical Storm Helene today or tomorrow, and then become a hurricane Wednesday before making landfall Thursday. “Helene could become a formidably strong hurricane in the Gulf,” according to The Weather Channel. “That’s because heat content is one favorable ingredient for intensification, and the map below shows there is plenty of deep, warm water in the northwest Caribbean and parts of the Gulf of Mexico.”

Weather.com

3. House backs bill to block EPA tailpipe rules

The Republican-led House of Representatives on Friday passed a bill that aims to block new emissions standards for light-duty and medium vehicles that were put in place by the Environmental Protection Agency in March. The vote was 215 to 191, with eight Democrats joining 207 Republicans in support. But the bill is very unlikely to get past the Senate, and will face a veto if it somehow makes it to President Biden’s desk. The EPA estimates that the rules could see EVs make up anywhere between 30% and 56% of new light-duty sales from model years 2030 to 2032, and avoid more than 7 billion tons of carbon dioxide emissions and provide nearly $100 billion of annual net benefits to society by improving public health, and reducing fuel and maintenance costs for drivers.

4. New report spotlights where net zero targets are falling short

More than 40% of “non-state entities” – that is, major companies, regions, and cities – do not have targets in place for curbing greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new report from Net Zero Tracker. The group’s annual stocktake examines net zero targets “across all countries, states, regions in the largest 25-emitting countries in the world, all cities with more than 500,000 inhabitants, and the largest 2,000 publicly listed companies in the world.” It found that, while more net zero targets are being made, many of these fall short on integrity measures, like providing clarity on the use of offsets, covering all emissions scopes, annual progress reporting, and having a published implementation plan. Among the major companies that do not yet have a mitigation target are Tesla, Nintendo, and Berkshire Hathaway.

Net Zero Tracker

5. California firefighter suspected of igniting 5 fires

Police arrested a California firefighter on Friday suspected of igniting five brush fires while off duty over the last month or so. Robert Matthew Hernandez, a 38-year-old CAL FIRE fire apparatus engineer, is under investigation in connection with the Alexander Fire, the Windsor River Road Fire, the Geysers Fire, and the Geyser and Kinley fires. Luckily the blazes combined only burned through less than an acre, CAL FIRE said. But the strange development comes as the state’s firefighters have been battling fires that have charred almost a million acres, fueled by high temperatures and dry vegetation. “I am appalled to learn one of our employees would violate the public’s trust and attempt to tarnish the tireless work of the 12,000 women and men of CAL FIRE,” Joe Tyler, the agency’s director and fire chief, said in a statement. Some of this year’s biggest fires in the state have been linked to arson.

THE KICKER

There were just 1,228 mentions of “climate change” in the nearly 200,000 hours of unscripted TV that aired in the U.S. in the six months between September 2022 and February 2023. Fifty-eight of those mentions were on “paranormal/mystery” programs.

Yellow

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Spotlight

The Moss Landing Fire Is Radicalizing Battery Foes

From Kansas to Brooklyn, the fire is turning battery skeptics into outright opponents.

Texas battery project.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

The symbol of the American battery backlash can be found in the tiny town of Halstead, Kansas.

Angry residents protesting a large storage project proposed by Boston developer Concurrent LLC have begun brandishing flashy yard signs picturing the Moss Landing battery plant blaze, all while freaking out local officials with their intensity. The modern storage project bears little if any resemblance to the Moss Landing facility, which uses older technology,, but that hasn’t calmed down anxious locals or stopped news stations from replaying footage of the blaze in their coverage of the conflict.

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Hotspots

Trump May Approve Transmission Line for Wind Project

And more on the week’s conflicts around renewable energy.

Map of renewable energy conflicts
Heatmap Illustration

1. Carbon County, Wyoming – I have learned that the Bureau of Land Management is close to approving the environmental review for a transmission line that would connect to BluEarth Renewables’ Lucky Star wind project.

  • This is a huge deal. For the last two months it has seemed like nothing wind-related could be approved by the Trump administration. But that may be about to change.
  • The Bureau of Land Management sent local officials an email March 6 with a draft environmental assessment for the transmission line, which is required for the federal government to approve its right-of-way under the National Environmental Policy Act.
  • According to the draft, the entirety of the wind project itself is sited on private property and “no longer will require access to BLM-administered land.”
  • The email suggests this draft environmental assessment may soon be available for public comment, which is standard practice and required under the law to proceed. BLM’s web page for the transmission line now states an approval granting right-of-way for the transmission line may come as soon as this May.
  • We’ve asked BLM for comment on how this complies with Trump’s executive order ending “new or renewed approvals” and “rights of way” for onshore wind projects. We’ll let you know if we hear back.
  • It’s worth noting, however, that BLM last week did something similar with a transmission line that would go to a solar project proposed entirely on private lands. Could private lands become the workaround du jour under Trump?

2. Nantucket County, Massachusetts – Anti-offshore wind advocates are pushing the Trump administration to rescind air permits issued to Avangrid for New England Wind 1 and 2, the same approval that was ripped away from Atlantic Shores offshore wind farm last Friday.

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Q&A

What’s the Deal with Battery Storage Regulation?

A conversation with Nikhil Kumar of GridLab

Nikhil Kumar, program director at GridLab
Heatmap Illustration

Today’s sit-down is with Nikhil Kumar, a program director at GridLab and an expert in battery storage safety and regulation. Kumar’s folks reached out to me after learning I was writing about Moss Landing and wanted to give his honest and open perspective on how the disaster is impacting the future of storage development in the U.S. Let’s dive in!

The following is an abridged and edited version of our conversation.

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