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Climate

Multiple Heat Records are Falling in Texas

On linger heat waves, Ford’s big decision, and carbon credits

Multiple Heat Records are Falling in Texas
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Current conditions: The remnants of Hurricane Ernesto are headed toward Scotland • Unusually warm winter weather is raising wildfire risks in Australia • An August cold snap could bring snow to California’s Sierra Nevada this weekend.

THE TOP FIVE

1. Texas heat dome breaks multiple temperature records

Heat advisories remain in effect across most of the state of Texas. The National Weather service says “numerous new records” are being set as temperatures climb into the triple digits. Climatologist Maximiliano Herrera counted at least four new monthly heat records in various cities, and one all-time high of 113 degrees Fahrenheit in Abilene:

 x/extremetemps

The heat dome is expected to linger through the end of the week before things cool down slightly over the weekend. The heat will then move north, bringing some weather whiplash to the currently-cool Midwest and raising temperatures by up to 30 degrees by early next week.

2. Ford pumps the breaks on EV plans

Yesterday Ford announced it is canceling its much-anticipated three-row EV crossover and producing it only as a hybrid, and delaying the release of a new medium-sized electric pickup truck to 2027. The moves deal a substantial blow to the company’s future EV offerings and mean “the North American car market may not see the explosive growth of EV options — the kind of efflorescence already happening in Europe and China — until the end of this decade,” said Heatmap’s Robinson Meyer.

U.S. sales of electric vehicles actually reached a record high in the second quarter of 2024, hitting 330,463. That’s a 11.3% rise year-over-year, and a 23% jump compared to the first quarter. Ford’s quarterly EV sales were up 61% year-over-year. “The growth will, at times, be very slow, as all-time horizons in the automobile business are vast, but the long-term trajectory suggests that higher volumes of EVs will continue over time,” said Cox Automotive Industry Insights Director Stephanie Valdez Streaty. “As EV infrastructure and technology improve, and more models are launched, many shoppers sitting on the fence will eventually choose an EV.”

3. Climate activists protest Exxon Mobil at DNC event

Tensions were a little bit heightened at the Democratic National Convention yesterday after climate activists infiltrated an event hosted by Punchbowl News that featured conversations sponsored by fossil fuel giant Exxon Mobil. The activists chanted “Exxon lies, people die” before being removed. Climate groups including Friends of the Earth, Climate Hawks Vote, and Oil Change U.S. released a statement slamming the event and warning that Big Oil is trying to “shape the policies of the Democratic Party.”

4. Study: Antarctica at risk of contamination as ice melts

A new study published in the journal Global Change Biology warns that Antarctica’s ecosystems may be at risk of contamination from man-made pollution and non-native species that float down from places like Australia, South Africa, and South America. The problem is made worse by the shrinking sea ice, which acts as a barrier. “If the recent decline in Antarctic sea ice continues, then living things floating at the surface, or attached to floating objects, could have an easier time colonizing the continent, which may have big impacts on ecosystems,” said Dr. Hannah Dawson, who led the study as part of her PhD at UNSW Sydney.

5. Carbon removal registry Isometric delivers first credits

Carbon removal registry Isometric today announced its first verified delivery of CO2 removal credits to companies including JPMorganChase, Stripe, and Shopify, which were purchased through bio-oil sequestration firm Charm Industrial. Isometric aims to “raise the bar for quality in carbon markets” by using robust monitoring, reporting, and verification measures to certify the credits after the carbon has been removed, rather than before. The verification is paid for by buyers instead of suppliers to avoid conflicts of interest. Buyers pay Isometric a flat fee, “ensuring one credit is always equal to one tonne of carbon dioxide durably removed from the atmosphere.”

THE KICKER

Renewables now make up 30% of total U.S. power generating capacity, according to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.

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Climate

AM Briefing: House Cues Up Thursday Passage of GOP Megabill

On a late-night House vote, Tesla’s slump, and carbon credits

House Cues Up Potential Thursday Passage of GOP Megabill
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Current conditions: Tropical storm Chantal has a 40% chance of developing this weekend and may threaten Florida, Georgia, and the CarolinasFrench far-right leader Marine Le Pen is campaigning on a “grand plan for air conditioning” amid the ongoing record-breaking heatwave in EuropeGreat fireworks-watching weather is in store tomorrow for much of the East and West Coasts.

THE TOP FIVE

1. House cues up early morning passage of Trump’s ‘big, beautiful bill’

The House moved closer to a final vote on President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” after passing a key procedural vote around 3 a.m. ET on Thursday morning. “We have the votes,” House Speaker Mike Johnson told reporters after the rule vote, adding, “We’re still going to meet” Trump’s self-imposed July 4 deadline to pass the megabill. A floor vote on the legislation is expected as soon as Thursday morning.

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Sparks

Trump Will ‘Deal’ with Wind and Solar Tax Credits in Megabill, GOP Congressman Says

“We had enough assurance that the president was going to deal with them.”

Ralph Norman
Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images

A member of the House Freedom Caucus said Wednesday that he voted to advance President Trump’s “big, beautiful bill” after receiving assurances that Trump would “deal” with the Inflation Reduction Act’s clean energy tax credits – raising the specter that Trump could try to go further than the megabill to stop usage of the credits.

Representative Ralph Norman, a Republican of North Carolina, said that while IRA tax credits were once a sticking point for him, after meeting with Trump “we had enough assurance that the president was going to deal with them in his own way,” he told Eric Garcia, the Washington bureau chief of The Independent. Norman specifically cited tax credits for wind and solar energy projects, which the Senate version would phase out more slowly than House Republicans had wanted.

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Politics

Trump Promised Deregulation. His New Law Would Regulate Energy to Death.

The foreign entities of concern rules in the One Big Beautiful Bill would place gigantic new burdens on developers.

Power lines and Trump's tie.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Trump campaigned on cutting red tape for energy development. At the start of his second term, he signed an executive order titled, “Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation,” promising to kill 10 regulations for each new one he enacted.

The order deems federal regulations an “ever-expanding morass” that “imposes massive costs on the lives of millions of Americans, creates a substantial restraint on our economic growth and ability to build and innovate, and hampers our global competitiveness.” It goes on to say that these regulations “are often difficult for the average person or business to understand,” that they are so complicated that they ultimately increase the cost of compliance, as well as the risks of non-compliance.

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