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Climate

Summer Electricity Bills Are on the Rise

On the cost of staying cool, battery passports, and orange crops

Summer Electricity Bills Are on the Rise
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Current conditions: Heat advisories are in effect across much of California • A large landslide buried cars in Taiwan • It is 70 degrees Fahrenheit and partly cloudy in Bonn, Germany, where delegates from 198 countries are gathering this week for the Bonn Climate Change Conference

THE TOP FIVE

1. IEA: World not on track to triple renewable capacity by 2030

A new report from the International Energy Agency released this morning concluded that the world isn’t yet on track to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030 compared to 2022 levels – an ambitious goal set last year at COP28 in line with limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. But we’re not hugely far off: In examining countries’ unofficial energy policies, the IEA found we’re likely to increase renewable capacity by about 8,000 gigawatts by 2030, which is about 70% of the 11,000 GW goal. But these policies aren’t set in stone. In fact, very few countries (just 14) have included clear 2030 renewable targets in their climate action plans, known as nationally determined contributions (NDCs). The IEA wants countries to make these ambitions official when they revise those NDCs next year, but also urges them to move quickly on things like permitting and grid infrastructure expansion, and in general, aim higher. “The tripling target is ambitious but achievable – though only if governments quickly turn promises into plans of action,” said IEA executive director Fatih Birol.

2. U.S. energy bills expected to rise 8% this summer

U.S. household electricity bills are projected to rise by 8% on average this summer compared to last year, according to analysis from the National Energy Assistance Directors Association and the Center for Energy Poverty, and Climate. Costs are going up everywhere as Americans rely heavily on air conditioning to stay cool during intense heat. Here’s a look at expected summer electric bills across the country:

NEADA and CEPC

The report finds that “due to the unprecedented rise in summer temperatures and higher rates of extreme heat events,” summer energy bills have risen from an average cost of $476 in 2014 to a projected $719 this year. Low-income households will feel this financial strain the most because they spend a larger amount of their income (about 8%) on energy. Startlingly, the survey found that the percentage of customers that couldn’t pay their energy bills for one month or longer jumped from 21.3% to 23.5% last year, which saw the hottest summer on record. The largest increase was among households with children. The report calls for more efforts to ensure houses are weatherized, and installing heat pumps.

3. Researchers say climate change made Brazil floods more likely

The recent floods in southern Brazil, which have killed more than 170 people and displaced nearly 600,000, were made about twice as likely by human-induced climate change, according to an international group of researchers. The analysis from the World Weather Attribution also said the El Niño weather pattern played a big role in the disaster, increasing the risk by nearly five times and making rainfall between 3% and 10% more intense. Meanwhile, a bit farther north in Brazil’s “citrus belt,” orange growers are seeing a significant drop in crop production thanks in part to severe weather such as drought, disease, and pests. One research group is forecasting that the 2024-25 season could see production drop by a quarter. Brazil is the world’s top orange producer and exporter.

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  • 4. Puerto Rico to install solar arrays designed to withstand high winds

    An Australian company called 5B has designed solar arrays that can withstand some extreme weather. The 5B Maverick arrays are modular, fold up like an accordian for transporting, and can endure winds up to 166 mph. That makes them a good option for hurricane-prone areas like Puerto Rico, where 5B is installing 1,392 arrays, Electrekreported. Now, if only someone could design solar panels that can withstand the force of six-inch hail stones...

    5B

    5. Volvo to introduce EV battery passport

    Volvo is rolling out a “passport” for EV batteries that will show the origin of the battery’s components as well as its carbon footprint, according toReuters. The passport rollout will begin with Volvo’s EX90 SUV before expanding to include all of Volvo’s EVs. Drivers will be able to access the passport by scanning a QR code on the driver’s-side door. The European Union is set to require battery passports for all EVs starting in 2027, but Reuters reported that U.S. automakers are taking notes, as rules for EV subsidies under the Inflation Reduction Act dictate where battery parts can be manufactured.

    THE KICKER

    The band Coldplay says it has reduced the carbon footprint of its latest world tour by nearly 60% compared to its 2016-17 tour using solutions like power-generating dance floors and bikes that charge the show’s battery system.

    Yellow

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    Economy

    AM Briefing: Liberation Day

    On trade turbulence, special election results, and HHS cuts

    Trump’s ‘Liberation Day’ Tariffs Loom
    Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

    Current conditions: A rare wildfire alert has been issued for London this week due to strong winds and unseasonably high temperatures • Schools are closed on the Greek islands of Mykonos and Paros after a storm caused intense flooding • Nearly 50 million people in the central U.S. are at risk of tornadoes, hail, and historic levels of rain today as a severe weather system barrels across the country.

    THE TOP FIVE

    1. Trump to roll out broad new tariffs

    President Trump today will outline sweeping new tariffs on foreign imports during a “Liberation Day” speech in the White House Rose Garden scheduled for 4 p.m. EST. Details on the levies remain scarce. Trump has floated the idea that they will be “reciprocal” against countries that impose fees on U.S. goods, though the predominant rumor is that he could impose an across-the-board 20% tariff. The tariffs will be in addition to those already announced on Chinese goods, steel and aluminum, energy imports from Canada, and a 25% fee on imported vehicles, the latter of which comes into effect Thursday. “The tariffs are expected to disrupt the global trade in clean technologies, from electric cars to the materials used to build wind turbines,” explained Josh Gabbatiss at Carbon Brief. “And as clean technology becomes more expensive to manufacture in the U.S., other nations – particularly China – are likely to step up to fill in any gaps.” The trade turbulence will also disrupt the U.S. natural gas market, with domestic supply expected to tighten, and utility prices to rise. This could “accelerate the uptake of coal instead of gas, and result in a swell in U.S. power emissions that could accelerate climate change,” Reutersreported.

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    Yellow
    Podcast

    The Least-Noticed Climate Scandal of the Trump Administration

    Rob and Jesse catch up on the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund with former White House official Kristina Costa.

    Lee Zeldin.
    Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

    The Inflation Reduction Act dedicated $27 billion to build a new kind of climate institution in America — a network of national green banks that could lend money to companies, states, schools, churches, and housing developers to build more clean energy and deploy more next-generation energy technology around the country.

    It was an innovative and untested program. And the Trump administration is desperately trying to block it. Since February, Trump’s criminal justice appointees — led by Ed Martin, the interim U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia — have tried to use criminal law to undo the program. After failing to get the FBI and Justice Department to block the flow of funds, Trump officials have successfully gotten the program’s bank partner to freeze relevant money. The new green banks have sued to gain access to the money.

    Keep reading...Show less
    Adaptation

    Funding Cuts Are Killing Small Farmers’ Trust in Climate Policy

    That trust was hard won — and it won’t be easily regained.

    A barn.
    Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

    Spring — as even children know — is the season for planting. But across the country, tens of thousands of farmers who bought seeds with the help of Department of Agriculture grants are hesitating over whether or not to put them in the ground. Their contractually owed payments, processed through programs created under the Biden administration, have been put on pause by the Trump administration, leaving the farmers anxious about how to proceed.

    Also anxious are staff at the sustainability and conservation-focused nonprofits that provided technical support and enrollment assistance for these grants, many of whom worry that the USDA grant pause could undermine the trust they’ve carefully built with farmers over years of outreach. Though enrollment in the programs was voluntary, the grants were formulated to serve the Biden administration’s Justice40 priority of investing in underserved and minority communities. Those same communities tend to be wary of collaborating with the USDA due to its history of overlooking small and family farms, which make up 90% of the farms in the U.S. and are more likely to be women- or minority-owned, in favor of large operations, as well as its pattern of disproportionately denying loans to Black farmers. The Biden administration had counted on nonprofits to leverage their relationships with farmers in order to bring them onto the projects.

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    Green