Current conditions: Bushfires are burning out of control in Australia • The death toll from Cyclone Chido in Mozambique has risen to 94 • It is 25 degrees Fahrenheit in Cleveland, Ohio, which is home to the iconic house from the film “A Christmas Story.”
THE TOP FIVE
1. A quick Christmas weather update
Both U.S. coasts will be hit with wild weather in the days leading up to Christmas. Out west, back-to-back atmospheric rivers are drenching Washington, Oregon, and Northern California and could cause some waterways to flood. “Travelers immediately ahead of the Christmas holiday will have to contend with wet roads along much of the West coast, from the Canadian border to California,” said AccuWeather Senior Meteorologist Heather Zehr. On the other side of the country, frigid temperatures have settled over the Northeast. It’s just 11 degrees Fahrenheit this morning in New York, and 8 degrees in Boston. Some places could see light snow in the coming days, but “otherwise, temperatures this last full week of December will average above normal for much of the lower 48 states,” according to the National Weather Service.
AccuWeather
2. Honda and Nissan plan 2026 merger
Honda and Nissan announced today they plan to merge in 2026 to create the world’s third largest automaker by sales. While Honda sees the deal as an opportunity to scale, it’s more about survival for Nissan, which has suffered from slumping sales. Honda’s market cap is about four times bigger than Nissan’s. In merging, the companies will be able to swap and share resources as they invest in new technologies like electrification and autonomous driving to keep up with rivals, all while increasing sales and production of gas and hybrid vehicles to help finance the transition. “To sustain these dual investments, automakers need scale and the operational efficiencies that come with it,” Takaki Nakanishi, head of the automotive consulting firm Nakanishi Research Institute in Tokyo, told The New York Times. “If Nissan and Honda are not able to achieve this, they will not survive,” he said. “Times are truly that tough.”
3. Permian Basin methane emissions drop
Methane emissions from the Permian Basin, America’s biggest oilfield, dropped by 26% in 2023, according to a new report. What’s behind the plunge? The most likely answer is President Biden’s crackdown on venting and leaky oil and gas infrastructure, a priority he set on day one of his presidency. New rules from the Environmental Protection Agency are set to require producers to identify and fix leaks or face a fine, though the incoming Trump administration could roll back those regulations. The report, from S&P Global Commodity Insights and Insight M, says that “finding and fixing leaks makes financial sense most of the time, even at low gas prices and with no regulatory impetus.” Methane is a potent greenhouse gas that has more warming potential than carbon dioxide. It is estimated that methane is responsible for about 30% of the global temperature rise seen since the Industrial Revolution.
4. Biden approves 11th large-scale offshore wind project
A couple of items you may have missed last week:
- The Biden administration approved a large wind farm to be built south of Nantucket island. Construction on SouthCoast Wind is set to start next year. The project will have 141 turbines and supply power to some 840,000 homes by 2030. It’s the 11th large-scale offshore wind farm approved under this administration.
- A large coal plant in Texas is being converted into a solar and battery power facility. The San Miguel Electric Cooperative Inc. will get $1.4 billion from the Department of Agriculture as part of the “Empowering Rural America” grant program. The plant has been a major source of pollution in the state – the USDA estimates “the project will reduce climate pollution by more than 1.8 million tons each year, equivalent to removing 446,000 cars from the road each year, and support as many as 600 jobs.” Nine other rural electric cooperatives also received grants totaling $4.37 billion in clean energy investments.
5. EPA head announces departure date
EPA Administrator Michael Regan will step down on December 31. He alerted his team through an email on Friday, saying the agency had “confronted climate change with the urgency science demands. We set the strongest standards in history and put billions of dollars to work to spur clean energy development, create good-paying American jobs and lower costs for families.” Regan is the first Black man to lead the EPA, and championed environmental justice during his tenure. Under his watch, the agency issued pollution rules for power plants and oil and gas facilities, rolled out new emissions standards for vehicles, banned some dangerous chemicals, and cracked down on forever chemicals. President-elect Trump has appointed Lee Zeldin to lead the EPA under his administration, and is expected to drastically scale back the agency and loosen environmental regulations.
THE KICKER
Research finds that real Christmas trees tend to be more eco-friendly than fake trees, so long as they’re recycled or composted. The study, from the University of Sheffield, concluded that a plastic tree needs to be reused more than five times to lower its carbon footprint enough to be as green as the real thing.
AccuWeather
