Sign In or Create an Account.

By continuing, you agree to the Terms of Service and acknowledge our Privacy Policy

Climate

It’s a Big Week for Carbon Removal

On the Graphyte plant’s ribbon-cutting, greenwashing, and Taylor Swift’s emissions

It’s a Big Week for Carbon Removal
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Current conditions: Winter storm warnings are in effect across parts of the American Southwest • Huge waves washed jellyfish onto the streets of Havana • It’s snowy and cold in Tokyo, where Taylor Swift is kicking off the second leg of her Eras Tour.

THE TOP FIVE

1. ‘World’s largest carbon removal plant’ will soon be up and running

One to watch for this week: A Bill Gates-backed startup called Graphyte plans to begin operations at its Arkansas carbon removal plant by Friday, E&E Newsreported. The facility, which has been dubbed the “world’s largest carbon removal plant,” relies on biomass matter like sawdust and farming waste that, if left to decompose, would release a lot of carbon. Graphyte wants to stop the decomposition process by drying the waste out, shaping it into bricks, and burying the bricks underground for years and years, thus keeping the carbon from ever reaching the atmosphere.

Biomass bricks that sequester carbon. Graphyte

Last year Graphyte's CEO claimed the company's process keeps the cost of carbon removal below $100 per ton, a key benchmark for scalability. Graphyte hopes to remove 15,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere by the end of 2024 and continue scaling quickly from there.

2. Republicans play ‘Opposite Day’ during LNG hearings

Americans got a good preview yesterday of the Republican Party’s fossil fuel defense strategy, reported Heatmap’s Jeva Lange. In the first of two hearings this week concerning the White House’s pause on approving new permits for facilities to export liquified natural gas, Republicans on the House Energy, Climate, and Grid Security Subcommittee raised traditionally liberal talking points to undermine the Biden administration’s order. “By their topsy-turvy logic,” Lange wrote, “the administration should not pause approving new export terminals because natural gas is the cleanest fossil fuel, and thus our best bet for fighting climate change — an argument that is still under considerable debate in the scientific community, and coming from these folks is especially weird.” At one point an argument broke out over the meaning of the words “pause” versus “ban.” Ranking member Diana DeGette of Colorado perhaps encapsulated the hearing best in her opening round of questioning. “I can’t help sitting here thinking that the silly season has begun,” she told her colleagues.

Get Heatmap AM directly in your inbox every morning:

* indicates required
  • 3. UK watchdog bans ‘zero emissions’ from EV ads

    Carmakers in the United Kingdom can no longer use the words “zero emissions” in ads to describe their electric vehicles. The U.K.’s advertising watchdog, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), says the claim is misleading for consumers because it ignores emissions from manufacturing and charging. If carmakers want to use the term, they must find a way to explain this nuance. The precedent-setting move is part of a bigger crackdown on greenwashing – the ASA has also banned misleading ads from oil groups and airlines, the Financial Timesreported. But it comes at a time when carmakers are striving to increase their EV sales to avoid hefty fines: As of this year, fully-electric cars must make up at least 22% of new cars sales in the U.K. If a company misses that target, it will be fined £15,000 for every non-compliant vehicle. So the question is how much the words “zero emissions” really matter for sales. BMW, for example, uses the term in Google ads. But a quick look at Google Trends shows “EVs” (in red) is a far more popular search term than “zero emissions” (in blue), at least in the U.K.:

    Google searches for “EVs” (red) compared to “zero emissions” (blue) in the U.K. over one yearGoogle Trends

    As EV options flood the market, a much more reliable way to boost sales than touting emissions reductions is by introducing cutting edge smart features, like lidar sensors, according to Bloomberg. Chinese manufacturers “are deploying lidars in order to provide features that can help differentiate their offerings from competitors.”

    4. EU power-sector emissions drop as renewables take over

    The European Union’s power sector is undergoing a “monumental shift” away from fossil fuels before our eyes, according to a new report from energy think-tank Ember. In 2023, wind power generation in the bloc surpassed that of gas plants for the first time. Compared to 2022, fossil fuel power generation fell by almost 20% overall, with electricity from coal plants plummeting by 26% and gas down 15%. Greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector fell by 19% as a result, more than the huge reduction seen during the pandemic. Ember added that the EU’s power-sector emissions are now almost half their 2007 peak levels. “Fossil fuels are playing a smaller role than ever as a system with wind and solar as its backbone comes into view,” said Sarah Brown, Ember’s Europe program director.

    Ember

    5. Taylor Swift threatens legal action against man tracking her private jet emissions

    Taylor Swift threatened to sue a 21-year-old college student that has been tracking her private jet activity and the resulting emissions, The Washington Post reported. Jack Sweeney uses publicly available FAA data to monitor celebrities’ flying habits and then posts about it on social media. Private jet use has been criticized by climate advocates – by one estimate, a private jet passenger emits 10 to 20 times as much carbon pollution as a commercial airline passenger. A 2022 analysis identified the globe-trotting Swift as the biggest offender among celebrities, but she insists her plane is often loaned out. Her attorneys say Sweeney’s posts have caused her to fear for her personal safety.

    THE KICKER

    More than 7,000 yogis have backed a petition calling for Lululemon to convert its supply chain to 100% renewable energy.

    Yellow

    You’re out of free articles.

    Subscribe today to experience Heatmap’s expert analysis 
of climate change, clean energy, and sustainability.
    To continue reading
    Create a free account or sign in to unlock more free articles.
    or
    Please enter an email address
    By continuing, you agree to the Terms of Service and acknowledge our Privacy Policy
    Politics

    AM Briefing: Trump’s Big Speech

    On boasts and brags, clean power installations, and dirty air

    What Trump Said During His Speech to Congress
    Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

    Current conditions: Strong winds helped spark dozens of fires across parched Texas • India’s Himalayan state of Uttarakhand experienced a 600% rise in precipitation over 24 hours, which triggered a deadly avalanche • The world’s biggest iceberg, which has been drifting across the Southern Ocean for 5 years, has run aground.

    THE TOP FIVE

    1. What Trump said during his speech to Congress

    President Trump addressed Congress last night in a wide-ranging speech boasting about the actions taken during his first five weeks in office. There were some familiar themes: He claimed to have “ended all of [former President] Biden’s environmental restrictions” (false) and the “insane electric vehicle mandate” (also false — no such thing has ever existed), and bragged about withdrawing from the Paris climate agreement (true). He also doubled down on his plan to boost U.S. fossil fuel production while spouting false statements about the Biden administration’s energy policies, and suggested that Japan and South Korea want to team up with the U.S. to build a “gigantic” natural gas pipeline in Alaska.

    Keep reading...Show less
    Yellow
    Climate

    Why the South Is America’s Newest Tinderbox

    A conversation with Resources for the Future’s David Wear on the fires in the Carolinas and how the political environment could affect the future of forecasting.

    Firefighters.
    Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

    The Wikipedia article for “wildfire” has 22 photographs, including those of incidents in Arizona, Utah, Washington, and California. But there is not a single picture of a fire in the American Southeast, despite researchers warning that the lower righthand quadrant of the country will face a “perfect storm” of fire conditions over the next 50 years.

    In what is perhaps a grim premonition of what is to come, several major fires are burning across the Southeast now — including the nearly 600-acre Melrose Fire in Polk County, North Carolina, a little over 80 miles to the west of Charlotte, and the more than 2,000-acre Carolina Forest fire in Horry County, South Carolina. The region is also battling hundreds of smaller brush fires, the smoke from which David Wear — the land use, forestry, and agriculture program director at Resources for the Future — could see out his Raleigh-area window.

    Keep reading...Show less
    Green
    Podcast

    Why Solar Might Be Better Off Than You Think

    Rob and Jesse visit Intersolar and Energy Storage North America.

    Solar panels.
    Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

    Longtime listeners of Shift Key will recognize the name Intersolar and Energy Storage North America, one of the country’s premier solar industry conferences. Shift Key was live at this year’s event, hosting a panel on the present and future of the solar industry featuring a pair of marquee panelists: Tom Starrs, currently the vice president for government and public affairs at EDP Renewables, North America, who has more than 30 years of experience in the renewables industry; and Maria Robinson, until recently the director of the Department of Energy’s Grid Deployment Office and now the president and CEO of the Interstate Renewable Energy Council. (Robinson is also a repeat Shift Key guest.)

    On this week’s episode of Shift Key, Rob and Jesse talk with the panelists about the momentum propelling solar energy forward in the U.S. and whether the uncertainty created by the Trump administration could put a damper on that. Shift Key is hosted by Jesse Jenkins, a professor of energy systems engineering at Princeton University, and Robinson Meyer, Heatmap’s executive editor.

    Keep reading...Show less
    Green