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Electric Vehicles

Tesla Just Recalled Nearly 4,000 Cybertrucks

On sticky accelerators, Alaskan oil, and sinking cities

Tesla Just Recalled Nearly 4,000 Cybertrucks
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Current conditions: Unseasonably heavy rainfall killed at least 130 people across Pakistan and Afghanistan • Temperatures will soar to 111 degrees Fahrenheit today in Mali • It will be cool and cloudy in NYC, where thousands of high school students are expected to leave class to join a climate strike.

THE TOP FIVE

1. Tesla recalls Cybertrucks over sticky accelerator pedals

Tesla is recalling 3,878 Cybertrucks due to potentially faulty accelerator pedals. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, “the accelerator pedal pad may dislodge and become trapped by the interior trim,” causing the vehicle to accelerate unintentionally. Or, as Rob Stumpf at Inside EVs put it, this issue “could potentially turn the stainless steel trapezoid into a 6,800-pound land missile.” The recall affects every single Cybertruck that has shipped so far,according toTechCrunch. Owners will be notified by mail, and Tesla will replace or repair the accelerator pedal at no charge. The news caps off a rough week for the embattled EV maker that started with mass layoffs.

2. Biden finalizes plan to limit new oil drilling and mining in Alaska

The Interior Department today moved to wall off huge swathes of the Alaskan wilderness to new drilling and mining activities. The plan will limit oil leasing and development across 13 million acres of the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska, and block new leasing completely across 10.6 million acres, plus the entire U.S. Arctic Ocean. “The move puts nearly half of the NPR-A’s 23 million acres off limits to oil drilling,” Politicoreported. The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) also recommended against the construction of a 211-mile mining route known as the Ambler Road that would have allowed for copper and zinc mining. The move would protect undeveloped land but has the downside of limiting access to critical minerals essential for the clean energy transition. Local Native tribes cheered the decisions; fossil fuel and mining groups condemned them.

In a separate decision, the BLM yesterday finalized a rule to help protect and restore public lands by recognizing and prioritizing conservation as an essential part of land management. The rule puts conservation “on equal footing” with other activities like grazing and energy development, and will help BLM “improve the health and resilience of public lands in the face of a changing climate,” the bureau said. Mining groups slammed the rule, while House Republicans called it “a classic example of overreach” and vowed to fight to have it rescinded.

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  • 3. Biden administration to unveil some recipients of clean energy tax credits

    Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm is expected to announce the recipients of about $2 billion in clean energy tax credits today during a visit to a Siemens Energy facility in Raleigh, North Carolina. Among the grant winners are Siemens Energy Inc. and Danish electrolyzer manufacturer Topsoe A/S, according to Bloomberg. The Biden administration restarted the tax credit program last year thanks to injection of funding from the Inflation Reduction Act. The “Advanced Energy Project Credit,” as it’s called, provides a 30% tax credit for clean energy projects that “expand domestic manufacturing, reduce industrial greenhouse gas emissions, or help create a domestic supply chain for critical minerals.” The first round of funding will total $4 billion in credits for more than 100 projects. One source told Bloomberg that Topsoe will receive $136 million to put toward building a green hydrogen electrolyzer plant in Virginia.

    4. Heat-related ER visits rose substantially last year

    Nearly 120,000 heat-related visits to U.S. emergency departments were recorded last year, a substantial increase compared with previous years, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Men under the age of 65 were the most likely demographic to show up in the ER with a heat-related health concern. The report notes that last year’s warm season (May through September) was the hottest ever recorded in the U.S. It calls for continued monitoring of health implications to help inform prevention measures as heat waves worsen. “Heat-related illness will continue to be a significant public health concern as climate change results in longer, hotter, and more frequent episodes of extreme heat,” the CDC said.

    5. Study: Many of China’s major cities are sinking

    Nearly half of China’s major cities are shrinking due to a combination of climate change and land subsidence, according to a study published in the journal Science. The researchers analyzed nationwide satellite data and found that 45% of urban lands are sinking at more than 3 millimeters per year. In total, one in 10 coastal residents in China could be living below sea level within a century. The subsidence is caused by water extraction and “the sheer weight of the built environment,” Reuterssaid. It’s exacerbated by rising sea levels due to climate change, a trend reflected across the world’s coastal regions. “By 2040, almost one-fifth of the world’s population is projected to be living on sinking land,” according toNature.

    THE KICKER

    Investment in renewable energy reached a record $88 billion in the U.S. last year.

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    Energy

    AM Briefing: Power Hungry

    On the IEAs latest report, flooding in LA, and Bill Gates’ bad news

    Global Electricity Use Is Expected to Soar
    Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

    Current conditions: Severe thunderstorms tomorrow could spawn tornadoes in Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Alabama • A massive wildfire on a biodiverse island in the Indian Ocean has been burning for nearly a month, threatening wildlife • Tropical Cyclone Zelia has made landfall in Western Australia with winds up to 180mph.

    THE TOP FIVE

    1. Breakthrough Energy to slash climate grantmaking budget

    Bill Gates’ climate tech advocacy organization has told its partners that it will slash its grantmaking budget this year, dealing a blow to climate-focused policy and advocacy groups that relied on the Microsoft founder, Heatmap’s Katie Brigham has learned. Breakthrough Energy, the umbrella organization for Gates’ various climate-focused programs, alerted many nonprofit grantees earlier this month that it would not be renewing its support for them. This pullback will not affect Breakthrough’s $3.5 billion climate-focused venture capital arm, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, which funds an extensive portfolio of climate tech companies. Breakthrough’s fellowship program, which provides early-stage climate tech leaders with funding and assistance, will also remain intact, a spokesperson confirmed. They would not comment on whether this change will lead to layoffs at Breakthrough Energy.

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    Climate Tech

    Breakthrough Energy Is Slashing Its Climate Grantmaking Budget

    Grantees told Heatmap they were informed that Bill Gates’ climate funding organization would not renew its support.

    Bill Gates.
    Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

    Bill Gates’ climate tech advocacy organization has told its partners that it will slash its grantmaking budget this year, dealing a blow to climate-focused policy and advocacy groups that relied on the Microsoft founder, Heatmap has learned.

    Breakthrough Energy, the umbrella organization for Gates’ various climate-focused programs, alerted many nonprofit grantees earlier this month that it would not be renewing its support for them. This pullback will not affect Breakthrough’s $3.5 billion climate-focused venture capital arm, Breakthrough Energy Ventures, which funds an extensive portfolio of climate tech companies. Breakthrough’s fellowship program, which provides early-stage climate tech leaders with funding and assistance, will also remain intact, a spokesperson confirmed. They would not comment on whether this change will lead to layoffs at Breakthrough Energy.

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    Spotlight

    Anti-Wind Activists Have a Big Ask for the Big Man

    The Trump administration is now being lobbied to nix offshore wind projects already under construction.

    Trump and offshore wind.
    Getty Images / Heatmap Illustration

    Anti-wind activists have joined with well-connected figures in conservative legal and energy circles to privately lobby the Trump administration to undo permitting decisions by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, according to documents obtained by Heatmap.

    Representatives of conservative think tanks and legal nonprofits — including the Caesar Rodney Institute, the Heartland Institute and Committee for a Constructive Tomorrow, or CFACT — sent a letter to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum dated February 11 requesting that the Trump administration “immediately revoke” letters from NOAA to 11 offshore wind projects authorizing “incidental takes,” a term of regulatory art referencing accidental and permissible harassment, injury, or potential deaths under federal endangered species and mammal protection laws. The letter lays out a number of perceived issues with how those approvals have historically been issued for offshore wind companies and claims the government has improperly analyzed the cumulative effects of adding offshore wind to the ocean’s existing industrialization. NOAA oversees marine species protection.

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