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Climate

The Texas Panhandle Is on Fire

On the massive blazes, BYD's next move, and South Fork Wind

The Texas Panhandle Is on Fire
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Current conditions: Hundreds of people hunkered down in Chicago O’Hare’s emergency shelter during severe storms • Volcanic ash delayed flights out of Mexico City • The tree pollen count in Washington, DC, has been extremely high.

THE TOP FIVE

1. Large wildfires burn out of control in Texas

Massive wildfires are burning in the Texas Panhandle, fueled by strong winds and dry conditions. At least four fires have scorched more than 500,000 acres so far in areas surrounding Amarillo, and the flames have crept into neighboring Oklahoma. The biggest blaze is the Smokehouse Creek Fire, which remains out of control. Some communities have been evacuated, others are sheltering in place. Texas’ Hutchinson County was experiencing power and water shortages. Much of Texas experienced record-breaking heat at the start of this week, prompting red flag warnings.

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2. BYD not interested in entering ‘confusing’ U.S. market

The world’s top-selling EV maker apparently has no interest in bringing its cars to the U.S. In an interview with Yahoo! Finance, Stella Li, CEO of BYD Americas, called the U.S. market “interesting,” but said it was too messy to be worth a great investment from the Chinese carmaker. “U.S. market is a little bit slow down on electrification and a lot of confusing,” Li said, adding: “Everything is complicated. Politics are complicated ... and it's confusing for the consumer, and then they don't know which to choose.” Meanwhile, in China, “the message is strong. If you are not investing for electric car, you are out. You will die. You have no future.”

The news dovetails nicely with an opinion piece penned by Heatmap’s Robinson Meyer yesterday in The New York Times, in which he says American automakers need to recognize that “Chinese companies now understand aspects of EV manufacturing better than their American counterparts.” Even if BYD stays out of the U.S. for now, Meyer notes Chinese automaker Geely is preparing to sell the small, all-electric Volvo EX30 SUV in the U.S. for $35,000, and BYD’s cheap EVs still threaten global sales of American cars. “In the short term, American automakers — even the homegrown electric-only carmakers like Tesla and Rivian — must be shielded from a wave of cheap cars,” Robinson wrote. “But in the long term, Mr. Biden must be careful not to cordon off the American car market from the rest of the world, turning the United States into an automotive backwater of bloated, expensive, gas-guzzling vehicles.”

3. Biden administration announces funds for clean energy projects in rural America

The Biden administration will devote $366 million to funding 17 clean energy projects across rural and remote parts of America with the goal of improving access to electricity and reducing energy bills. At least 12 of those projects will serve Native American tribes. The Department of Energy estimates that 21% of Navajo Nation homes and 35% of Hopi Indian Tribe homes remain unelectrified, and even if homes do have electricity, they frequently experience outages. The projects vary in cost and scope: Some aim to install solar panels and battery storage and microgrids, others focus on new hydroelectric facilities. There are heat pump initiatives and EV charging stations. The projects have to submit a plan demonstrating how they will benefit the local community and will undergo negotiations with the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations before they’re given the green light. The funding was made available through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

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  • 4. Coffee farmers in Costa Rica try to adapt to climate change

    Coffee farmers in Costa Rica, threatened by a lack of rain brought on by climate change, are changing their farming practices to adapt, according to AFP. One farmer said he has been planting fruit trees around his coffee plants because the shade and humidity they foster helps create a “microclimate,” and their fallen leaves help fertilize the soil below. “We have increased production,” said Jesus Valverde. At the same time, the Coffee Institute of Costa Rica is trying to develop new coffee plant hybrids that are more resistant to the changing climate. One estimate suggests rising global temperatures threaten half the world’s coffee crops. The coffee industry supports more than 25,000 families in Costa Rica.

    5. South Fork Wind project installs last turbine

    The final turbine has been installed at New York’s South Fork Wind farm, meaning America’s first large-scale offshore wind farm in federal waters is complete. The project consists of 12 turbines that can provide clean power to 70,000 Long Island homes, eliminating up to 6 million tons of carbon emissions annually. “We are working toward full power,” a South Fork Wind spokesperson toldrenews. The project started sending power to the grid in December.

    THE KICKER

    Apple has reportedly abandoned its plans to build an electric car. Tesla CEO Elon Musk responded to the news with two emojis:

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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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    Blue
    Politics

    AM Briefing: The Megabill Goes to the House

    On the budget debate, MethaneSAT’s untimely demise, and Nvidia

    House Republicans Are Already Divided on the Megabill
    Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

    Current conditions: The northwestern U.S. faces “above average significant wildfire potential” for July • A month’s worth of rain fell over just 12 hours in China’s Hubei province, forcing evacuations • The top floor of the Eiffel Tower is closed today due to extreme heat.

    THE TOP FIVE

    1. House takes up GOP’s megabill

    The Senate finally passed its version of Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act Tuesday morning, sending the tax package back to the House in hopes of delivering it to Trump by the July 4 holiday. The excise tax on renewables that had been stuffed into the bill over the weekend was removed after Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska struck a deal with the Senate leadership designed to secure her vote. In her piece examining exactly what’s in the bill, Heatmap’s Emily Pontecorvo explains that even without the excise tax, the bill would “gum up the works for clean energy projects across the spectrum due to new phase-out schedules for tax credits and fast-approaching deadlines to meet complex foreign sourcing rules.” Debate on the legislation begins on the House floor today. House Speaker Mike Johnson has said he doesn’t like the legislation, and a handful of other Republicans have already signaled they won’t vote for it.

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    Podcast

    Shift Key Summer School: What Is a Watt?

    Jesse teaches Rob the basics of energy, power, and what it all has to do with the grid.

    Power lines.
    Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

    What is the difference between energy and power? How does the power grid work? And what’s the difference between a megawatt and a megawatt-hour?

    On this week’s episode, we answer those questions and many, many more. This is the start of a new series: Shift Key Summer School. It’s a series of introductory “lecture conversations” meant to cover the basics of energy and the power grid for listeners of every experience level and background. In less than an hour, we try to get you up to speed on how to think about energy, power, horsepower, volts, amps, and what uses (approximately) 1 watt-hour, 1 kilowatt-hour, 1 megawatt-hour, and 1 gigawatt-hour.

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