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Climate

The Rising Threat of Really Big Waves

Plus: Biden's big LNG bet, Tesla's Q4 numbers, and IKEA's emissions

The Rising Threat of Really Big Waves
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Current conditions: Colombia declared a natural disaster after unrelenting wildfires • Tropical Cyclone Kirrily poses a unique risk to Australia due to the storm’s “irregular shape” • Washington, D.C., could hit 70 degrees Fahrenheit in January for the first time in four years.

THE TOP FIVE

1. Report: Biden delaying approval of major LNG export terminal

The Biden administration has delayed approval of 17 new facilities for the export of liquified natural gas (LNG), according to a New York Times report. Officials are instead asking the Department of Energy to widen its review of the first of these 17 — known as Calcasieu Pass 2, or CP2 — to include effects on the global climate. Heatmap reached out to the White House and got a “no comment” in response. Such a decision, if confirmed, would be seen as a win for climate advocates who oppose the terminals due to their potential environmental toll: At least one analysis shows that, if all 17 export terminals were to be approved, the emissions related to the fuel that would flow through them would exceed the annual greenhouse gas emissions of the entire European Union. “Um, I think we all just won,” wrote Bill McKibben, who is perhaps the project’s staunchest foe.

Republicans would likely oppose the decision, and some already accuse President Biden of waging a war on affordable domestic energy. “What was never in question is that this would be a major campaign issue, no matter what Biden did,” wrote Heatmap’s Jillian Goodman. “It looks like he has cast his bet in favor of the climate crowd.”

2. Tesla reports underwhelming Q4 results

Tesla reported fourth quarter results yesterday, with earnings and revenue that missed expectations. Earnings per share came in at $0.71, slightly below Wall Street’s estimates. Revenue hit $25.17 billion, which was up 3% from a year earlier, but marked the slowest growth rate in more than three years. And CEO Elon Musk tempered expectations about the year ahead, saying sales growth would be “notably lower.” He confirmed plans to start production of a next-generation "Redwood" EV – likely to be cheaper than existing models – in 2025, but indicated this wouldn’t happen until late in the year.

The update likely did little to ease investors’ concerns about the company’s footing in the shifting EV landscape: Demand for EVs is still growing but at a slower pace than before, and competition is heating up at home and abroad. China’s BYD overtook Tesla at the end of last year as the world’s top-selling EV maker. During the earnings call, Musk took the opportunity to call for trade barriers, warning that without them, Chinese rivals “will pretty much demolish most other car companies in the world.”

3. Extreme waves bring chaos and flooding to Marshall Islands

A terrifying weather video has been making the rounds this week. Perhaps you’ve seen it? Freak waves burst through the glass doors of a restaurant on a U.S. military base in the Marshall Islands, flooding the building and sweeping people away. Here’s a quick still from the video, but it’s worth watching the whole thing to get a sense of the sheer force of the water as it slams into bodies.

storyful/worldmaverick

The Marshall Islands are “at the very front lines of climate change,” reported ABC News, and one expert told the outlet that so-called extreme waves like these could become more common as sea levels rise. A separate study earlier this month found that storm waves hitting the Americas today are 80% bigger than they were 40 years ago. “Coastal towns and vessels urgently need to prepare better defenses – especially in the Americas – to avoid damage from these extreme waves," said tropical storm expert Dr. Xiangbo Feng, who co-authored the study.

4. Dengue cases soar in South America

In October of last year, scientists from the World Health Organization warned that cases of dengue fever would “take off” in the next decade as climate change accelerates. That timeline may have been far too conservative. Already cases of the mosquito-borne illness are rising dramatically in South America, Reutersreported. Argentina recorded more than 12,500 cases last month and stores are running out of bug spray. In Brazil, cases more than doubled in the first week of January compared to last year. Hospitals in Paraguay have set up night clinics to deal with a surge in patients. Dengue is often asymptomatic but can cause terrible joint pain in some patients and more than 35,000 people die from infections each year. “Climate change has expanded the range for mosquitoes to breed,” explained Thais dos Santos from the Pan American Health Organization (PAHO). A mass vaccination program is underway in Brazil.

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  • 5. New Jersey approves 2 new offshore wind projects

    New Jersey approved two offshore wind projects yesterday, just three months after Orsted delivered a major blow to the state’s clean power ambitions by canceling two major contracts. The new projects would produce about 3,470 megawatts of electricity, power about 1.8 million homes, and bring $6.8 billion in economic benefits. But the clean energy would come at a cost for customers: The average residential bill would go up by about $7 per month, according to the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities. The operators of one of the projects promised to provide direct assistance to some low-income households to offset the increase. The wind farms are expected to start providing power to the grid by 2032.

    THE KICKER

    IKEA has updated its emissions-cutting targets for 2030. The previous goal was to reduce emissions by 15% from 2016 levels. The new goal is to cut emissions in half.

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    Politics

    The Climate Election You Missed Last Night

    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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    Green
    Energy

    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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    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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