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Climate

Dead Hydrogen Hubs and Ghost Forests

On destruction in Spain, the low-carbon fuel standard, and a spookily warm Halloween.

Dead Hydrogen Hubs and Ghost Forests
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Current conditions:A “pretty good chance of rain” in Los Angeles over the next few days won’t dampen World Series celebrations • Typhoon Kong-rey makes landfall as the most powerful storm to hit Taiwan in 28 years • Record-warm temperatures across the Northeast mean trick-or-treaters can leave their jackets at home.

THE TOP FIVE

1. Valencia looks like it was struck by ‘a strong hurricane’

Shocking photos of the catastrophic damage to the Valencia region of Spain have begun to emerge after more than a month’s worth of rain fell in a single day. The official death toll from the storm, which hit Tuesday night, is at 95, though that number is expected to rise as search and rescue operations continue. In pictures, the aftermath in places like Sedaví looks “eerily similar to the damage left by a strong hurricane or tsunami,” the Associated Press reports, with dozens of cars piled on top of each other in the narrow streets between buildings.

Though it is too soon to know whether or to what extent climate change played a role in this week’s devastation, the intense rainfall was caused by cold air moving over the warm Mediterranean, an effect that is expected to become more severe in future years as the sea warms and evaporation increases. Separately, World Weather Attribution released a report on Thursday showing that the top 10 deadliest extreme weather events since 2004 were made worse by climate change and collectively killed more than half a million people. Meteorologists expect more heavy rain in the hardest-hit regions of Spain on Thursday.

Valencia after the storm. David Ramos/Getty Images

2. Why hydrogen hubs are struggling

A year after the Biden administration named the seven regional clean hydrogen hubs selected to receive $7 billion of support from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, almost half are “running into serious trouble,” Heatmap’s Jael Holzman reported Wednesday for The Fight. Several companies have pulled out of or paused projects; CNX indefinitely stepped away from a blue hydrogen hub in West Virginia, while Fortescue would not confirm that a hydro-powered production plant intended for Washington state will still be built.

“Conversations with experts and stakeholders indicate to me this could be evidence of broader macroeconomic issues hitting the hydrogen industry, from inflation pushing up the price of electrolyzers to the stubbornly low price of natural gas,” Holzman wrote. Or perhaps it’s “a calm before a storm of hydrogen investment” that’ll follow full implementation of the Inflation Reduction Act’s production tax credit. Jael’s take? “This is further proof we live in a disorganized energy transition.”

3. Tesla endorses California’s LCFS, despite Trump’s vow to axe it

Tesla joined Hyundai, GM, Audi, Rivian, and other major car makers in endorsing California’s low carbon fuel standard program, which sets declining limits for transportation fuel emissions in the state. Tesla’s participation in the letter from automakers to California lawmakers, obtained by Politico on Wednesday, puts the company’s CEO, Elon Musk, at odds with Donald Trump, who has vowed not to allow “California politicians to get away with their plan to impose a 100% ban on the sale of gas-powered cars and trucks,” a misleading reference to the LCFS.

Musk has spent more than $75 million supporting Trump’s campaign and has been promised a role in a Republican administration, while Trump, in turn, has tempered some of his more aggressive rhetoric on EVs. As Paul Waldman wrote for Heatmap, it would appear Musk is gunning for two things: “He would like government to give him more money, and he would also like it to get out of his way.”

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  • 4. Tariffs on Chinese-made EVs go into effect in Europe

    The European Union enacted higher tariffs on electric vehicles made in China on Wednesday. The tariffs come on top of the preexisting 10% rate and vary by manufacturer based on subsidies they receive from China, ranging from an additional 7.8% for Tesla to 35.3% for SAIC Motor of Shanghai.

    European carmakers like Mercedes-Benz and BMW oppose the tariffs, worrying they will hurt their sales in China if the country decides to retaliate, Bloomberg writes, while Reuters reports Beijing has already quietly told its domestic automakers not to make significant investments in countries that voted for the tariffs, including France, Poland, and Italy. China has publicly slammed the tariffs as unfair and protectionist and warned that the plan will make it more difficult for Europe to lower its emissions.

    5. Tucson school district approves ambitious student-drafted climate action plan

    While the federal election is still four days away, climate has already won one proposal put to the vote in Arizona. This week, the Tucson Unified School District board of governors approved in a 3-2 vote an ambitious student-led plan to cut emissions in half by 2030 and reach net-zero emissions by 2040, in part by electrifying its entire bus fleet, increasing plant-based meal options, and limiting its food waste, Fast Company reports. The plan will also require almost all schools in the district to have a designated “cooling room” by 2027 to combat Arizona’s dangerous temperatures, and for climate education to be included in the schools’ curricula. The Arizona Youth Climate Coalition researched and wrote the climate action plan; its co-leader, Ojas Sanghi, called the TUSD decision “a beacon of hope for young people everywhere fighting for their future.”

    THE KICKER

    The United States Geological Survey recently announced that it is investing in new research into “ghost forests,” the spooky remains of woodlands that have been killed by rising seawater. When researchers drilled into the dead snags, they discovered the trees are home to tiny organisms that convert methane into less-potent carbon dioxide.

    A ghost forest in Goose Creek State Park, North Carolina.Melinda Martinez, USGS

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    Elon Musk.
    Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images, Tesla

    Tesla already looked beleaguered last week as a tumbling stock price tied to public anger at CEO Elon Musk wiped out more than a half-billion dollars in value. The slide erased all the gains the company had garnered since new Musk ally Donald Trump was reelected as president. On Monday the stock went into full freefall, losing 15% of its value in one day. By Tuesday, Trump had to pose with Tesla vehicles outside the White House to try to defend them.

    With a crashing market valuation and rising rage against its figurehead, Tesla’s business is in real jeopardy, something that’s true regardless of Musk’s power in the federal government. If he can’t magically right the ship this time, this self-sabotaging MAGA turn will go down as one of the great self-owns.

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    Politics

    AM Briefing: Climate Grants Terminated

    On Lee Zeldin’s announcement, coal’s decline, and Trump’s Tesla promo

    The EPA’s $20 Billion Climate Grants Have Been Terminated
    Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

    Current conditions: Alaska just had its third-warmest winter on record • Spain’s four-year drought is nearing an end • Another atmospheric river is bearing down on the West Coast, triggering evacuation warnings around Los Angeles’ burn scars.

    THE TOP FIVE

    1. Zeldin terminates $20 billion in climate grants

    EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin said yesterday he had terminated $20 billion in congressionally-approved climate change and clean energy grants “following a comprehensive review and consistent with multiple ongoing independent federal investigations into programmatic fraud, waste, abuse and conflicts of interest.”

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    Climate

    What the NOAA Layoffs Are Doing to Climate Science

    And how ordinary Americans will pay the price.

    A hand in the NOAA logo.
    Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

    No one seems to know exactly how many employees have been laid off from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration — or, for that matter, what offices those employees worked at, what jobs they held, or what regions of the country will be impacted by their absence. We do know that it was a lot of people; about 10% of the roughly 13,000 people who worked at the agency have left since Donald Trump took office, either because they were among the 800 or so probationary employees to be fired late last month or because they resigned.

    “I don’t have the specifics as to which offices, or how many people from specific geographic areas, but I will reiterate that every one of the six [NOAA] line offices and 11 of the staff offices — think of the General Counsel’s Office or the Legislative Affairs Office — all 11 of those staff offices have suffered terminations,” Rick Spinrad, who served as the NOAA administrator under President Joe Biden, told reporters in a late February press call. (At least a few of the NOAA employees who were laid off have since been brought back.)

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