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Climate

GM Announces the Return of the Hybrids

On an automaker rerouting, crypto carbon accounting, and more.

Briefing image.

AM Briefing: Return of the hyrids.

Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Current conditions: The city of Oakland, California opened two emergency shelters for unhoused residents ahead of storms that brought the threat of floods to the state • Dense fog is disrupting flights and trains in Delhi, which is experiencing its coldest January in 13 years • A heat wave in Australia, where it’s currently the summer, is breaking temperature records.

THE TOP FIVE

1. Podesta to become new climate envoy

Senior Biden advisor John Podesta will take over from former Secretary of State John Kerry as the U.S. special envoy for climate change, the White House announced. Kerry, who’s stepping down this spring, was the first person to hold the position; while his role was based at the State Department, Podesta will instead remain at the White House, reports Maxine Joselow in the Washington Post, with his title changing to “senior adviser to the president for international climate policy.”

The appointment marked an expansion of Podesta’s current role implementing Biden’s signature climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act. He’s going to continue that work — which, Joselow writes, probably means he’ll travel less often than Kerry — but will now also be tapped to help Biden manage relationships with foreign powers.

If you’d like some insight into how Podesta thinks about climate change and the IRA, our interview with him from the sidelines of COP 28 in Dubai might be a good place to start.

2. Climate laws begin at home

The IRA and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (better known as the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, or BIL) are filled with subsidies to help with the clean energy transition. But, as I wrote on the site yesterday, a new study shows that while the share of funds for household improvements in each act is relatively small — about 12% in the IRA and 5.7% in the BIL — the impact those improvements could have on emissions is proportionally huge. Household emissions, the study authors write, could decrease by as much as 40% by 2030.

3. GM’s bringing back hybrids

In the face of dealer protests, GM CEO Marry Barra told investors this week that the automaker would bring back plug-in hybrids. That's a reversal from the company’s stance of just a few years ago, reports David Ferris at E&E News, when GM said it was “all in” on electric vehicles, and is a sign of the difficulties automakers have faced in trying to switch over to EVs.

The announcement comes the same week as new data showing EVs and hybrids made up more than 16% of total light-duty vehicle sales in the U.S. in 2023, up from 12.9% in 2022. Italian luxury automaker Lamborghini also announced that it will start producing hybrid versions of all its models.

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  • 4. Crypto mines face an energy accounting

    Next week the Department of Energy’s Energy Information Administration will start collecting data on the energy use of cryptocurrency mining, reports Justine Calma in The Verge. It’s a win for activists and lawmakers who have long warned of the climate impacts of crypto projects, which are so energy-hungry that they’ve spurred the reopening of some shuttered fossil fuel plants.

    “We intend to continue to analyze and write about the energy implications of cryptocurrency mining activities in the United States,” said EIA Administrator Joe DeCarolis in a press release. “We will specifically focus on how the energy demand for cryptocurrency mining is evolving, identify geographic areas of high growth, and quantify the sources of electricity used to meet cryptocurrency mining demand.”

    A crypto mining rig.luza studios/Getty Images

    5. Ford to give away Tesla charger adapters

    Ford will send free Tesla charging adapters to owners of its Mustang Mach-E and Ford F-150 Lightning EVs in the U.S. and Canada, announced CEO Jim Farley on X. The adapters will allow Ford owners to access one of the largest and most reliable charging networks in the country. They’re also another nail in the coffin of the Combined Charging Standard or CCS, which Ford and other automakers defaulted to before Ford — followed shortly after by practically every other automaker in the country — announced it would switch to the Tesla plug, which is now known as the North American Charging Standard.

    THE KICKER

    The Sun’s magnetic poles are due to flip starting this year, writes Brian Resnick in Vox. The flip could cause solar storms that disrupt communications satellites, but will also lead to more vivid auroras. So start planning your aurora trips now — just maybe don’t count on having GPS the whole way.

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    Economy

    Trump’s Tariff Threats Will Soon Be Tested

    What he wants them to do is one thing. What they’ll actually do is far less certain.

    Donald Trump.
    Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

    Donald Trump believes that tariffs have almost magical power to bring prosperity; as he said last month, “To me, the world’s most beautiful word in the dictionary is tariffs. It’s my favorite word.” In case anyone doubted his sincerity, before Thanksgiving he announced his intention to impose 25% tariffs on everything coming from Canada and Mexico, and an additional 10% tariff on all Chinese goods.

    This is just the beginning. If the trade war he launched in his first term was haphazard and accomplished very little except costing Americans money, in his second term he plans to go much further. And the effects of these on clean energy and climate change will be anything but straightforward.

    Keep reading...Show less
    Blue
    Electric Vehicles

    The New Electric Cars Are Boring, and That’s Okay

    Give the people what they want — big, family-friendly EVs.

    Boredom and EVs.
    Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images, Apple

    The star of this year’s Los Angeles Auto Show was the Hyundai Ioniq 9, a rounded-off colossus of an EV that puts Hyundai’s signature EV styling on a three-row SUV cavernous enough to carry seven.

    I was reminded of two years ago, when Hyundai stole the L.A. show with a different EV: The reveal of Ioniq 6, its “streamliner” aerodynamic sedan that looked like nothing else on the market. By comparison, Ioniq 9 is a little more banal. It’s a crucial vehicle that will occupy the large end of Hyundai's excellent and growing lineup of electric cars, and one that may sell in impressive numbers to large families that want to go electric. Even with all the sleek touches, though, it’s not quite interesting. But it is big, and at this moment in electric vehicles, big is what’s in.

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    Green
    Climate

    AM Briefing: Hurricane Season Winds Down

    On storm damages, EV tax credits, and Black Friday

    The Huge Economic Toll of the 2024 Hurricane Season
    Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

    Current conditions: Parts of southwest France that were freezing last week are now experiencing record high temperatures • Forecasters are monitoring a storm system that could become Australia’s first named tropical cyclone of this season • The Colorado Rockies could get several feet of snow today and tomorrow.

    THE TOP FIVE

    1. Damages from 2024 hurricane season estimated at $500 billion

    This year’s Atlantic hurricane season caused an estimated $500 billion in damage and economic losses, according to AccuWeather. “For perspective, this would equate to nearly 2% of the nation’s gross domestic product,” said AccuWeather Chief Meteorologist Jon Porter. The figure accounts for long-term economic impacts including job losses, medical costs, drops in tourism, and recovery expenses. “The combination of extremely warm water temperatures, a shift toward a La Niña pattern and favorable conditions for development created the perfect storm for what AccuWeather experts called ‘a supercharged hurricane season,’” said AccuWeather lead hurricane expert Alex DaSilva. “This was an exceptionally powerful and destructive year for hurricanes in America, despite an unusual and historic lull during the climatological peak of the season.”

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