Weekend Tornadoes, Fires, and Dust Storms Kill At Least 40

Current conditions: Much of the southern Plains remain at risk for extreme fire weather today and tomorrow • A month’s worth of rain fell over six hours in Florence, Italy • It’s about 50 degrees Fahrenheit and cloudy in Dublin for the annual St. Patrick’s Day parade.

THE TOP FIVE

1. Weekend tornadoes, fires, and dust storms kill 40

At least 40 people died in severe storms that ripped across the Midwest and South over the weekend. Missouri recorded the most fatalities, with 12 people known to have died in tornadoes that caused “staggering” damage. In Oklahoma, nearly 300 buildings were destroyed in an eruption of wildfires fueled by dry conditions and strong winds. Mark Goeller, director of Oklahoma Forestry Services, called the blazes “historic” and said he had never seen anything like them. Dust storms in Kansas and Texas caused deadly highway pile-ups.

The U.S. is emerging from a pretty warm and dry winter. Kansas, Texas, and Oklahoma are all experiencing drought conditions. Other states hit hard in the wall of storms include Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, and Louisiana. The system is moving east now, but another wave of dangerous weather is right behind it

Tornado damage in AlabamaJan Sonnenmair/Getty Images

Fire damage in OklahomaScott Olson/Getty Image

2. EPA reconsiders key permit for Atlantic Shores South wind project

Plans to build New Jersey’s first offshore wind farm are in trouble after the federal Environmental Appeals Board invalidated a key air pollution permit for the site at the request of the Environmental Protection Agency. The permit was granted back in September, but some local residents protested, and the EPA asked the board to allow it to review the project’s environmental impacts in line with President Trump’s executive order pausing all wind permits. “Atlantic Shores is disappointed by the EPA’s decision to pull back its fully executed permit as regulatory certainty is critical to deploying major energy projects,” the project’s developer told Bloomberg.

Heatmap’s Jael Holzman has been warning for months that the Atlantic Shores site could be vulnerable to permitting shakeups. In January she said the project was “on deathwatch” after Shell announced it would pull out of its 50-50 joint venture with EDF Renewables to develop the wind farm.

3. Mark Carney kills Canada’s consumer carbon tax

Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who was sworn in on Friday, announced that one of his first moves will be to eliminate the country’s consumer carbon tax. The policy, which has been in place since 2019, made consumers pay an extra fee (offset by rebates) to use fossil fuels, but Carney believes this unfairly punishes cash-strapped consumers rather than big corporate polluters. He has proposed introducing more financial incentives to encourage people to invest in things like energy efficiency upgrades and electric vehicles. “This will make a difference to hard-pressed Canadians, but it is part of a much bigger set of measures that this government is taking to ensure that we fight against climate change, that our companies are competitive and the country moves forward,” Carney said. The move may give Carney and his Liberal Party a better chance in the upcoming general election: The carbon tax has been a “a potent point of attack” from Conservatives in recent years.

4. Mauna Loa Observatory threatened by Musk cuts

The office that manages one of the most important projects tracking levels of atmospheric greenhouse gases could have its lease terminated as part of sweeping cost-cutting measures by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency. The NOAA office in Hilo, Hawaii, houses the Mauna Loa Observatory, which measures carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere and charts them onto the Keeling Curve. The measurements are “among the most reliable and sound data on greenhouse gas concentrations because the Mauna Loa Observatory is so far from the influences of any major pollution sources,” according to The Washington Post. The observatory itself isn’t being targeted, but it is run by the Hilo lab’s staff, so an office closure would threaten operations at Mauna Loa.

5. Closing arguments to begin in Greenpeace vs. pipeline company lawsuit

Closing arguments will begin today in a case that could ruin the environmental advocacy group Greenpeace. The company that operates the Dakota Access Pipeline, Energy Transfer, accuses Greenpeace of coordinating disruptive protests over the (now operational) pipeline’s construction in 2016 and 2017, and seeks $300 million in damages, an amount that could bankrupt the activist group. Greenpeace insists Energy Transfer has no evidence to support its claims, and that the protests were mostly organized by Native American groups. The group says the lawsuit is a critical threat to free speech and peaceful protest rights.

THE KICKER

“I think anger can be a positive thing, but it’s the loss of hope, even if it’s marginal, that is truly, truly dangerous to this movement.”

–Rebecca Evans, sustainability director for the city of Ithaca, New York, on how cities are navigating the chaos of Trump 2.0