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Climate

What Electricity Providers Can Learn From the Eclipse

On solar power, Tesla’s wrongful death suit, and Elmer the elephant

What Electricity Providers Can Learn From the Eclipse
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Current conditions: Wildfire season has started one month early in Greece • A Russian oil refinery in Orsk paused operations after torrential rains caused a dam to burst • It will be about 70 degrees Fahrenheit and partly cloudy in Glendale, Arizona, for the men's NCAA basketball championship game between Purdue and UConn.

THE TOP FIVE

1. Solar eclipse will offer power providers a ‘test run’

Happy eclipse day! The moon will block out the sun’s light for up to four minutes in some areas across the U.S. this afternoon. Millions have flocked to cities along the eclipse’s “path of totality,” which arcs diagonally across continental North America from Mexico’s Pacific coast up through eastern Canada, touching 15 states along the way. The eclipse is “offering power providers a test run for unpredictable sun-blocking events, such as winter storms and wildfire smoke so thick it blankets the sky,” Politicoreported. Texas, for example, could lose more than 90% of its solar capacity during the celestial event. But customers are unlikely to have any problems with their electricity as a result.

Eclipse cloud cover forecast. NWS

Unfortunately, the weather isn’t looking great for spectators. Most regions are expected to have at least some cloud cover. “Cloud cover is one of the trickier things to forecast,” said National Weather Service meteorologist Alexa Mainee. “At the very least, it won’t snow.”

2. European human rights court to issue precedent-setting climate rulings

The European Court of Human Rights will issue rulings on three major climate cases this week. “The verdicts will set a precedent for future litigation on how rising temperatures affect people’s right to a liveable planet,” reportedReuters. In all three cases, the plaintiffs claim governments breached their human rights by not protecting them from the damaging health effects of climate change. The three cases are all quite different: One involves a group of young people from Portugal, another is from older Swiss women, and the third involves a former French mayor. But “we all are trying to achieve the same goal,” said 23-year-old Catarina Mota, one of the Portuguese youths. “A win in any one of the three cases will be a win for everyone.” A ruling against even one government could put added pressure on all European countries to reconsider their emissions reductions schedules, and pave the way for similar cases.

3. Greta Thunberg arrested in The Hague

Greta Thunberg was detained again over the weekend. The 21-year-old climate activist joined about 100 people from Extinction Rebellion in blocking a highway in The Hague to protest fossil fuel subsidies. Dutch police lifted Thunberg from her seated position on the ground and dragged her to a bus. Photos circulating from the arrest show her grimacing while being carried away, but Thunberg described the arrest as “peaceful.” Thunberg was arrested in London last year for blocking the entrance of a hotel. In February a judge found her not guilty of breaking the law in that case, and said the police had imposed “unclear” and “unlawful” conditions on protesters.

X/XrItaly

4. Tesla wrongful death suit heads to trial

A wrongful death lawsuit involving Tesla’s Autopilot system goes to trial tomorrow. The jury will have to decide who is at fault for a 2018 crash that occurred while the driver, Walter Huang, was using the driver-assistance technology in his Tesla Model X. Huang died in the crash, and his family says the Autopilot feature was not safe and that Tesla oversold it in marketing materials. Tesla insists Huang is at fault for the crash because he was playing a video game. “If the Huangs prevail, the suit could represent a major financial liability for Tesla, potentially spurring additional cases that seek notable awards,” reportedThe Wall Street Journal. The ruling could also have ramifications for Tesla’s planned robotaxis, which would likely rely on Autopilot and Full Self-Driving tech. The company plans to unveil its robotaxi on August 8.

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  • 5. New ‘Elmer’ book will focus on climate change

    The creator of the iconic children’s book character Elmer the patchwork elephant was working on an Elmer book about climate change before he died in 2022. Author David McKee left behind an early manuscript and sketches of his book “Elmer + White Bear,” in which Elmer meets a polar bear that has floated to the jungle a melting piece of ice. “I love where I live,” the bear says, explaining that global warming is making the world warmer and caused him to become lost in the jungle.

    Andersen Press

    Before he died, McKee talked with his publisher about writing a book that helped parents talk to their kids about the climate crisis. “So many people have wanted to use Elmer as a mascot,” said McKee’s son, Chuck. “He never wanted that to happen, because Elmer belongs to everybody. So the idea of doing something, of making a statement with Elmer about climate change, was a first for him.”

    Elmer and the White Bear will be published by Andersen Press next year.

    THE KICKER

    “A surge in earthquakes should be the absolute least of your worries when it comes to the warming planet.”Heatmap’s Emily Pontecorvo investigates whether climate change causes earthquakes

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    Electric Vehicles

    The Best Time to Buy an EV Is Probably Right Now

    If the Senate reconciliation bill gets enacted as written, you’ve got about 92 days left to seal the deal.

    A VW ID. Buzz.
    Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

    If you were thinking about buying or leasing an electric vehicle at some point, you should probably get on it like, right now. Because while it is not guaranteed that the House will approve the budget reconciliation bill that cleared the Senate Tuesday, it is highly likely. Assuming the bill as it’s currently written becomes law, EV tax credits will be gone as of October 1.

    The Senate bill guts the subsidies for consumer purchases of electric vehicles, a longstanding goal of the Trump administration. Specifically, it would scrap the 30D tax credit by September 30 of this year, a harsher cut-off than the version of the bill that passed the House, which would have axed the credit by the end of 2025 except for automakers that had sold fewer than 200,000 electric vehicles. The credit as it exists now is worth up to $7,500 for cars with an MSRP below $55,000 (and trucks and sports utility vehicles under $80,000), and, under the Inflation Reduction Act, would have lasted through the end of 2032. The Senate bill also axes the $4,000 used EV tax credit at the end of September.

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    Senators.
    Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

    After more than three days of stops and starts on the Senate floor, Congress’ upper chamber 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, as promised.

    An amendment brought by Senators Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley of Iowa and Lisa Murkowski of Alaska that would have more gradually phased down the tax credits for wind and solar rather than abruptly cutting them off was never brought to the floor. Instead, Murkowski struck a deal with the Senate leadership designed to secure her vote that accomplished some of her other priorities, including funding for rural hospitals, while also killing an excise tax on renewables that had only just been stuffed into the bill over the weekend.

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    Politics

    AM Briefing: The Vote-a-Rama Drags On

    On sparring in the Senate, NEPA rules, and taxing first-class flyers

    The Megabill’s Clean Energy Holdouts
    Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

    Current conditions: A hurricane warning is in effect for Mexico as the Category 1 storm Flossie approaches • More than 50,000 people have been forced to flee wildfires raging in Turkey • Heavy rain caused flash floods and landslides near a mountain resort in northern Italy during peak tourist season.

    THE TOP FIVE

    1. Senate Republicans spar over megabill’s clean energy policies

    Senate lawmakers’ vote-a-rama on the GOP tax and budget megabill dragged into Monday night and continues Tuesday. Republicans only have three votes to lose if they want to get the bill through the chamber and send it to the House. Already Senators Thom Tillis and Rand Paul are expected to vote against it, and there are a few more holdouts for whom clean energy appears to be one sticking point. Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, for example, has put forward an amendment (together with Iowa Senators Joni Ernst and Chuck Grassley) that would eliminate the new renewables excise tax, and phase out tax credits for solar and wind gradually (by 2028) rather than immediately, as proposed in the original bill. “I don’t want us to backslide on the clean energy credits,” Murkowski told reporters Monday. E&E News reported that the amendment could be considered on a simple majority threshold. (As an aside: If you’re wondering why wind and solar need tax credits if they’re so cheap, as clean energy advocates often emphasize, Heatmap’s Emily Pontecorvo has a nice explainer worth reading.)

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