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Climate

Labor Protections Are So Hot Right Now

On extreme heat, solar robots, and exploding craters.

Labor Protections Are So Hot Right Now
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Current conditions:Temperatures are expected to hit 99 degrees Fahrenheit today in Chico, California, hampering efforts to quell the country’s largest wildfire • North Korean state media says over 4,000 homes have been flooded after heavy rainfall near the Chinese border • Strong winds and high temperatures are fanning wildfires in Greece, Croatia, and North Macedonia.

THE TOP FIVE

1. Americans support extreme heat protections

Earlier this month, the Department of Labor proposed a new rule that would require employers to take steps — such as mandatory rest breaks and illness prevention plans — to protect workers from extreme heat. A new poll from Data for Progress suggests that the rule is broadly popular, with 90% of respondents either “strongly” or “somewhat” supporting the requirements.

The Biden Administration is framing the rule as part of a broader response to extreme weather during a summer when wildfires, tropical storms, and extreme heat are afflicting large swaths of the country. Texas Rep. Greg Casar, a Democrat and an outspoken supporter of the rule, said in a statement, “Protecting workers from the heat unites voters across the aisle in a way that virtually nothing else does.”

Workers endure triple-digit heat in California. Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images.

2. Methane levels rise dangerously

Methane has long been recognized as a dangerous greenhouse gas, shorter-lived in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide, but more than 80 times more potent in its first 20 years there. A new paper in Frontiers in Science finds that methane emissions are growing at an alarming rate. Annual emissions in the 2020s are clocking in at about 30 million tons more than during the previous decade. While the study acknowledges there is no single reason for this, the authors point to fossil fuel processing, livestock, and wetlands as contributing factors. This spells trouble for the climate, particularly over the next couple decades. “Reducing CO2 will protect our grandchildren — reducing methane will protect us now,” one of the study’s authors told The Guardian.

3. Kairos Power begins construction on a new reactor

Kairos Power, a nuclear technology company founded in 2016, began construction on its Hermes Low-Power Demonstration Reactor in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, the company announced on Tuesday. The reactor uses a modular design, allowing Kairos to manufacture it in Albuquerque before shipping it to the construction location, and employs fluoride salt cooling technology, a departure from the light water cooling that is the norm in the U.S. nuclear industry. In fact, the reactor was the first non-light water reactor to receive construction approval from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission in more than 50 years when the agency issued it a permit last year. Kairos aims to have the reactor operational in 2027.

4. New climate change accounting standards

The International Accounting Standards Board sets the norms for companies in 140 jurisdictions — including the U.S., Canada, the E.U., and Japan — on how to record and report financial data. On Wednesday, the Board proposed guidance for companies to show how climate change might affect their bottom lines. Both climate impacts (like floods and extreme heat) and targets (like net-zero strategies) have a bearing on a firm’s financial performance, the IASB said. Wednesday’s guidance, which now enters a consultation period, aims to provide a standardized approach to reporting these factors to investors.

The guidance follows a March announcement by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it will require companies to disclose climate change-related information to investors. As Heatmap’s Emily Pontecorvo wrote at the time, “The rule is also set to spark an explosion in the businesses of corporate emissions accounting and climate risk analysis,” making robust standards that much more important.

5. Meet Maximo, the solar-panel-installing robot

On Tuesday, electric utility AES introduced a new hire: Maximo, a pickup truck-sized robot charged with installing panels at the company’s solar farms. AES says Maximo can install these heavy panels at twice the rate a human could, using artificial intelligence to line them up. The company plans to employ Maximo first on its solar-plus-battery project in Kern County, California, later this year.

If Maximo proves effective, he may get some siblings. Large solar farms can take 12 to 18 months to build and often require workers to operate in extreme heat. Robots could reduce risks to workers and help companies accelerate their construction timelines. The flipside? The number of solar workers in the U.S. is expected to double by 2033, and these workers may find some stiff competition from Maximo.

MaximoImage courtesy of AES.

THE KICKER

Add exploding Siberian craters to the list of climate-change-related hazards. Ongoing research suggests that longer thawing periods are allowing buildups of gas to escape (or detonate) from beneath the permafrost.

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Spotlight

Trump’s Onshore Wind Pause Is Still On

Six months in, federal agencies are still refusing to grant crucial permits to wind developers.

Donald Trump and a wind turbine.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Federal agencies are still refusing to process permit applications for onshore wind energy facilities nearly six months into the Trump administration, putting untold billions in energy infrastructure investments at risk.

On Trump’s first day in office, he issued two executive orders threatening the wind energy industry – one halting solar and wind approvals for 60 days and another commanding agencies to “not issue new or renewed approvals, rights of way, permits, leases or loans” for all wind projects until the completion of a new governmental review of the entire industry. As we were first to report, the solar pause was lifted in March and multiple solar projects have since been approved by the Bureau of Land Management. In addition, I learned in March that at least some transmission for wind farms sited on private lands may have a shot at getting federal permits, so it was unclear if some arms of the government might let wind projects proceed.

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Climate

AM Briefing: EPA Reportedly to Roll Back Power Plant Emission Regulations Today

On power plant emissions, Fervo, and a UK nuclear plant

EPA Will Reportedly Roll Back Power Plant Emission Regulations Today
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Current conditions: A week into Atlantic hurricane season, development in the basin looks “unfavorable through JuneCanadian wildfires have already burned more land than the annual average, at over 3.1 million hectares so farRescue efforts resumed Wednesday in the search for a school bus swept away by flash floods in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa.

THE TOP FIVE

1. EPA to weaken Biden-era power plant pollution regulations today

EPA

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Politics

Why Big Tech Is Keeping Quiet on Clean Energy

Microsoft, Amazon, Google, and the rest only have so much political capital to spend.

Tech company heads.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

When Donald Trump first became a serious Presidential candidate in 2015, many big tech leaders sounded the alarm. When the U.S. threatened to exit the Paris Agreement for the first time, companies including Google, Microsoft, Apple, and Facebook (now Meta) took out full page ads in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal urging Trump to stay in. He didn’t — and Elon Musk, in particular, was incensed.

But by the time specific climate legislation — namely the Inflation Reduction Act — was up for debate in 2022, these companies had largely clammed up. When Trump exited Paris once more, the response was markedly muted.

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