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Climate

Downgraded Debby Churns North

On record rainfall, carbon removal standards, and a methane vaccine.

Downgraded Debby Churns North
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Current conditions: At least 11 people have died from extreme heat in South Korea • A fast-moving fire scorched 100 acres in California’s San Bernardino county • The Atlantic’s Saharan dust plume is disappearing, which could make for stronger tropical storms.

THE TOP FIVE

1. Southeast braces for record rainfall as Debby lingers

Hurricane Debby has been downgraded to a tropical storm after slamming into Florida’s Big Bend region yesterday. Despite the downgrade, the storm remains extremely dangerous. In the days to come, it is expected to bring historic rainfall and life-threatening flooding to Georgia and the Carolinas as it churns up the coast. “Major flooding is the number one concern with Debby going forward,” according to The Weather Channel. In Sarasota, Florida, more than 11 inches of rain fell Sunday, breaking a daily record from 1945. “Essentially we’ve had twice the amount of the rain that was predicted for us to have,” Sarasota County Fire Chief David Rathbun said. More than 150,000 customers are without power, and at least five people are known to have died in the storm.

The Weather Channel

2. New Carbon Removal Standards Initiative launches

There’s a new player in carbon removal. The Carbon Removal Standards Initiative wants to help establish a different system for advancing carbon removal — one where the challenging but important goal of scrubbing CO2 from the atmosphere is treated as a public good and not just a business opportunity. The initiative is run by Anu Khan, the former deputy director of science and innovation at Carbon180. CRSI will provide technical assistance to policymakers, regulators, and nongovernmental organizations in quantifying carbon removal outcomes, and as Heatmap’s Emily Pontecorvo reported, “Khan hopes CRSI will be a fulcrum around which the entire industry can begin to pivot.”

3. Rivian to report Q2 earnings

EV startup Rivian reports Q2 earnings today, after months of cost-cutting measures in its quest for profitability. We already know the company delivered nearly 13,800 vehicles, which was a slight improvement on Q1 but down from Q4 of last year. Wall Street analysts expect revenue to have hit $1.15 billion, with losses of about $1.24 per share. CEO RJ Scaringe has cautioned investors that this quarter will be “messy” but hopes they’ll hang in there until efficiency upgrades to the manufacturing process start to pay off in the company balance sheets. Last month Rivian announced a $5 billion joint venture with Volkswagen that boosted its stock. The startup is working on its next-gen R2 and R3 vehicles, which are “expected to significantly expand its market,” wrote Peter Johnson at Electrek. But they’re not expected until 2026.

4. Trump says he has ‘no choice’ but to embrace EVs

Former President Donald Trump told supporters at a rally that he has “no choice” but to support electric cars. Why? “Because Elon endorsed me very strongly.” He’s referring, of course, to Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who has backed Trump’s campaign. The two men have reportedly been speaking on the phone lately and despite Trump’s long history of trashing EVs, he seems to have changed his mind. Trump told the rally crowd EVs would make up a “small slice” of the auto industry and that “every kind of car” would be available. Trump’s concession “already feels very much like quid-pro-quo for the support of the world’s richest man,” wrote Rob Stumpf at Inside EVs.

5. Bezos Earth Fund puts $9.4 million toward cow methane vaccine research

The Bezos Earth Fund is pouring $9.4 million into researching whether a vaccine could be given to cows to cut their methane emissions. The funding will go to the Pirbright Institute and the Royal Veterinary College, which will “use state-of-the-art biotechnology to figure out the mechanism by which a vaccine could cut livestock methane emissions by more than 30%.” Microbes in the guts of cattle produce methane, which the cows burp out. Methane is a greenhouse gas more potent than carbon dioxide that many see as a good target for limiting global warming in the short term. There are a lot of ongoing efforts to curb agricultural methane emissions – from feed additives to better ranch management – but “a vaccine offers a universal solution which is both scalable and cost effective,” the fund said.

THE KICKER

Morgan Stanley yesterday released its annual intern survey, which examines the likes and dislikes of nearly 600 of the company’s summer interns to reveal the evolving preferences of future business leaders. It finds that Tesla is now less popular than Mercedes and BMW, and gas-powered cars are favored over EVs nearly 2-to-1.

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Climate

AM Briefing: Once-in-a-Lifetime Flooding

On once-in-a-lifetime bad weather, Trump tariffs, and Tesla’s shares

Severe Storms Threaten Millions with ‘Generational’ Flooding
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Current conditions: A heat wave triggered power cuts in Kuwait as electricity demand exceeded capacity • Australia just rounded out its 12 hottest months ever recorded • Temperatures in New York City are forecast to reach 73 degrees Fahrenheit today, nearly 30 degrees higher than yesterday.

THE TOP FIVE

1. Severe storms threaten millions with ‘generational’ flooding

Powerful thunderstorms are tearing across the Midwest and Mississippi Valley in what the National Weather Service has warned will be a “multi-day catastrophic and potentially historic” event. Destructive and deadly tornadoes were reported overnight in multiple states including Missouri, Arkansas, Kentucky, and Indiana. The system also brought a threat of once-in-a-lifetime flooding caused by heavy rainfall. More than 1.4 million people were under flash flood warnings. “This isn’t routine,” the National Weather Service in Memphis, Tennessee, warned. “This is a rare, high-impact, and potentially devastating event.” The storm is expected to stall over the region and continue to dump heavy rain – up to 12 inches in some areas – through the rest of the week.

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Politics

The Climate Election You Missed

While you were watching Florida and Wisconsin, voters in Naperville, Illinois were showing up to fight coal.

Climate voting.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

It’s probably fair to say that not that many people paid close attention to last night’s city council election in Naperville, Illinois. A far western suburb of Chicago, the city is known for its good schools, small-town charm, and lovely brick-paved path along the DuPage River. Its residents tend to vote for Democrats. It’s not what you would consider a national bellwether.

Instead, much of the nation’s attention on Tuesday night focused on the outcomes of races in Wisconsin and Florida — considered the first electoral tests of President Donald Trump and Elon Musk’s popularity. Outside of the 80,000 or so voters who cast ballots in Naperville, there weren’t likely many outsiders watching the suburb’s returns.

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Exclusive: Trump’s Plans to Build AI Data Centers on Federal Land

The Department of Energy has put together a list of sites and is requesting proposals from developers, Heatmap has learned.

A data center and Nevada land.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

The Department of Energy is moving ahead with plans to allow companies to build AI data centers and new power plants on federal land — and it has put together a list of more than a dozen sites nationwide that could receive the industrial-scale facilities, according to an internal memo obtained by Heatmap News.

The memo lists sites in Texas, Illinois, New Jersey, Colorado, and other locations. The government could even allow new power plants — including nuclear reactors and carbon-capture operations — to be built on the same sites to generate enough electricity to power the data centers, the memo says.

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