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Climate

Texas Could Face Historic Fire Conditions This Week

On a massive winter storm, NOAA’s future, and battery storage

Texas Could Face Historic Fire Conditions This Week
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Current conditions: A large wildfire threatens the Japanese city of Ofunato, which was devastated in the 2011 earthquake and tsunami • Mardi Gras celebrations are in disarray as New Orleans braces for high winds • Statewide tornado drills scheduled for tomorrow in the Carolinas have been postponed due to the threat of actual tornadoes.

THE TOP FIVE

1. February was 3rd hottest on record

Last month was the third hottest February ever recorded, marking the first time since June 2023 that a single month has not been the first or second warmest in history, according to climate researcher Zeke Hausfather. But global temperatures were still worryingly high, averaging 1.59 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial era. Hausfather noted that temperatures dropped sharply in February, which “may be a sign that the short-term cooling effect of La Niña is at long last kicking in, though it is too early to know for sure.”

X/hausfath

2. Winter storm raises threat of fires, tornadoes across U.S.

A powerful winter storm is moving across the country this week, bringing an array of threats including strong winds, blizzards, tornadoes, and hail to millions of Americans. Starting today, “more than half of the country will be at risk for winds that can toss around loose objects, including trash cans, and impact travel, especially at airports and via high-profile vehicles,” according to AccuWeather. The National Weather Service warned of “potentially historic” fire conditions in central Texas, with winds gusting at up to 50 mph.

Texas A&M Forest Service

Meanwhile, the Rockies and upper Midwest will be hit with heavy snow and high winds, while severe thunderstorms will rattle across the southern Plains, South, and Southeast. Some could spawn tornadoes, cause power outages, and drop large hail as well as huge amounts of rain.

3. Report: Trump administration plans to cancel leases for NOAA weather centers

Outrage and concern is growing over the Trump administration’s cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. After having slashed more than 800 NOAA jobs (and with plans to slash up to half of the agency), the Department of Government Efficiency, led by Elon Musk, is reportedly canceling leases for NOAA centers that are essential to gathering national weather data and making accurate forecasts. “If this actually happens, it would spell the end of U.S. numerical weather prediction – the scientific models, run on supercomputers, used to create virtually all weather forecasts,” warned climate scientist Daniel Swain. More than 1,000 people rallied outside a NOAA building in Colorado yesterday to protest the cuts, and NOAA staffers marched outside the agency’s HQ in Maryland. “NOAA is critical to safe seafood that we eat, to weather forecasts involving dangerous hurricanes,” one demonstrator said. “A million different ways NOAA is a critical part of our lives and we need to keep this agency strong.”

4. EU extends emissions compliance deadline for automakers

The European Union is loosening the deadline on its new vehicle emissions rules, giving automakers a bit more time to comply. The EU wants to bring vehicle emissions to zero by 2035, starting with new caps this year that would have meant that about one-fifth of all cars sold would need to be electric in order for automakers to avoid fines. Many manufacturers have been pushing back, but were planning to “pool” their emissions and buy credits from Tesla and other EV makers to be in compliance. The change of plans means carmakers now have three years to meet the new emissions targets, which will perhaps “enable them to buy fewer emission credits from Tesla,” Electrekadded. Environmentalists said the move will slow the EV transition, and Volvo CEO Jim Rowan said Volvo “has made the heavy investments needed to be ready for 2025.” “Companies like ours should not be disadvantaged by any last-minute changes to legislation,” Rowan said.

5. Former coal-fired power plant in Alabama to become battery energy storage system

A former coal-fired power plant in Alabama’s Walker County is set to be transformed into a large battery storage facility. Construction on Alabama Power’s Gorgas Battery Facility will start this year, with completion expected in 2027. It will house lithium ion phosphate batteries with a two-hour duration capable of storing 150 megawatts of electricity, which is equivalent to the capacity needed to power about 9,000 homes. It will connect directly to the grid. This will be the state’s first ever utility-scale battery energy storage system. “This facility will help Alabama Power understand how we can best use battery systems on our electric grid so that customers have power when they need it,” said Jeff Peoples, CEO of Alabama Power. The Gorgas coal-fired facility was retired in 2019.

THE KICKER

“This isn’t a good time to put a red flag in front of the bull.”

–Jennifer Holmgren, CEO of LanzaTech Global Inc., sums up why her firm, and many others, are starting to downplay their climate initiatives.

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Climate Tech

Crusoe Is Pushing the Definition of Climate Tech

A climate tech company powered by natural gas has always been an odd concept. Now as it moves into developing data centers, it insists it’s remaining true to its roots.

Trump and technology.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Crusoe Energy has always been a confusing company, whose convoluted green energy credentials raise some eyebrows. It started as a natural gas-powered Bitcoin miner, then became a climate tech unicorn thanks to the fact that its crypto operations utilized waste gas that would have otherwise been flared into the atmosphere. It’s received significant backing from major clean tech investors such as G2 Venture Partners and Lowercarbon Capital. And it touts sustainability as one of its main selling points, describing itself as “on a mission to align the future of computing with the future of the climate,” in part by “harnessing large-scale clean energy.”

But these days, the late-stage startup valued at $2.8 billion makes the majority of its revenue as a modular data center manufacturer and cloud services provider, and is exploring myriad energy solutions — from natural gas to stranded solar and wind assets — beyond its original focus. Earlier this week, it announced that it would acquire more than 4 gigawatts of new natural gas capacity to power its data center buildout. It’s also heavily involved in the Trump-endorsed $500 billion AI push known as the Stargate Project. The company’s Elon Musk-loving CEO Chase Lochmiller told The Information that his team is “pouring concrete at three in the morning” to build out its Stargate Project data centers at “ludicrous speed.”

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Climate

AM Briefing: The Greenpeace Verdict

On Energy Transfer’s legal win, battery storage, and the Cybertruck

The Greenpeace Verdict Is In
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Current conditions: Red flag warnings are in place for much of Florida • Spain is bracing for extreme rainfall from Storm Martinho, the fourth named storm in less than two weeks • Today marks the vernal equinox, or the first day of spring.

THE TOP FIVE

1. Jury sides with pipeline company in Greenpeace lawsuit

A jury has ordered Greenpeace to pay more than $660 million in damages to one of the country’s largest fossil fuel infrastructure companies after finding the environmental group liable for defamation, conspiracy, and physical damages at the Dakota Access Pipeline. Greenpeace participated in large protests, some violent and disruptive, at the pipeline in 2016, though it has maintained that its involvement was insignificant and came at the request of the local Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. The project eventually went ahead and is operational today, but Texas-based Energy Transfer sued the environmental organization, accusing it of inciting the uprising and encouraging violence. “We should all be concerned about the future of the First Amendment, and lawsuits like this aimed at destroying our rights to peaceful protest and free speech,” said Deepa Padmanabha, senior legal counsel for Greenpeace USA. The group said it plans to appeal.

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Fusion.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images, Thea Energy

Thea Energy, one of the newer entrants into the red-hot fusion energy space, raised $20 million last year as investors took a bet on the physics behind the company’s novel approach to creating magnetic fields. Today, in a paper being submitted for peer review, Thea announced that its theoretical science actually works in the real world. The company’s CEO, Brian Berzin, told me that Thea achieved this milestone “quicker and for less capital than we thought,” something that’s rare in an industry long-mocked for perpetually being 30 years away.

Thea is building a stellarator fusion reactor, which typically looks like a twisted version of the more common donut-shaped tokamak. But as Berzin explained to me, Thea’s stellarator is designed to be simpler to manufacture than the industry standard. “We don’t like high tech stuff,” Berzin told me — a statement that sounds equally anathema to industry norms as the idea of a fusion project running ahead of schedule. “We like stuff that can be stamped and forged and have simple manufacturing processes.”

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