Current conditions: Firefighters in Japan are battling the country’s largest wildfire in 30 years • Tropical Cyclone Alfred is hurtling toward Australia’s Queensland coast • Some 170 million Americans are in the path of a storm system that will bring severe thunderstorms and tornadoes to the South and Mid-Atlantic regions through Wednesday.
THE TOP FIVE
1. Wildfires break out across North and South Carolina
More than 175 wildfires erupted across parts of North and South Carolina over the weekend, fueled by dry, windy conditions. About 4,200 acres have burned so far. The largest blaze, known as the Carolina Forest fire, spans about 1,600 acres and is located west of Myrtle Beach in South Carolina. It was about 30% contained as of last night. A state of emergency was declared in South Carolina on Sunday. Parts of the region are under fire danger warnings through the rest of today.
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2. Trump aims to ramp up logging
President Trump signed an executive order over the weekend directing the Departments of Interior and Agriculture, as well as the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service, to investigate ways to boost timber production across national forests and other public lands. The order slams “onerous” policies that have “prevented full utilization” of U.S. timber resources, likely referring to environmental regulations such as the Endangered Species Act. Last week Trump tapped Tom Schultz, a former Idaho timber executive, to lead the Forest Service, a move seen as a win for the timber industry. The administration is considering tariffs on timber imports, which could raise construction costs. “Taken together with massive staff cuts to the Forest Service that included reductions in wildland firefighters and support personnel, this order may offer a boost to timber industry profits — but carries heavy implications for the climate and for wildfire season in 2025 and beyond,” said Blaine Miller-McFeeley, representing environmental legal group Earthjustice.
3. China sets sights on commercial nuclear fusion by 2050
China wants to use nuclear fusion for clean power generation at scale by 2050, the country’s state-owned atomic company, China National Nuclear Corp., said on Friday. China’s experimental fusion reactors have been making progress in testing. In January, China’s Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak reportedly maintained a loop of plasma for more than 1,000 seconds, which was “a step towards maintaining prolonged, confined plasma loops that future reactors will need to generate electricity,” as LiveScienceexplained. China is planning for a demonstration phase in 2045, before going commercial by 2050. It also plans to build more fission reactors and small modular reactors in the near-term. “China is set to leapfrog the U.S. and France as the owner of the world’s biggest [nuclear] reactor fleet by 2030,” according toBloomberg.
4. Watershed invites proposals from carbon removal suppliers
Climate software company Watershed is issuing its first-ever request for proposals from carbon removal suppliers to fulfill an anticipated demand from its customers for 1 megaton of carbon removal credits over the next 18 months. Watershed is a sustainability platform that helps companies manage and reduce emissions. It claims to currently manage over 2 gigatons of emissions for customers including Walmart, Visa, Airbnb, General Motors, and six U.S. banks. “We are seeking carbon project partners to build a supply pipeline for our customers,” the company said. “We are excited to grow our partner ecosystem with a small group of providers whom we plan to highlight in future buyer cohort announcements.” The company said its new callout is “the first RFP in the market to procure both nature-based and engineered removals together.” Applications are due by March 31.
5. Vineyard Wind set for completion in 2025
The Vineyard Wind project is scheduled for completion this year, according to Spanish power company Iberdrola, whose subsidiary Avangrid is developing the wind farm off the coast of Massachusetts. As E&E Newsreported, Iberdrola’s executive chair Ignacio Galán told investors last week he was confident the company’s renewables investments would go ahead under President Trump. The comments “mark a vote of confidence in U.S. offshore wind at a time when the industry has been rocked by Trump's decision to freeze new wind permits and review existing ones.” Vineyard resumed sending power to the grid in January after a six-month pause following a very public problem with one of its turbine blades.
THE KICKER
“The energy transition is a one-way ticket.”
–Economists Eric Beinhocker and J. Doyne Farmer explain in The Wall Street Journal why the clean energy revolution is unstoppable.
