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The week’s hottest real estate listings, ranked by climate risk.
Glued to real estate posts on The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Dwell, Spaces, The Modern House, or Architectural Digest and wondering how those gorgeous homes will hold up in the next decades? I have you covered.
Heatmap has partnered with my new climate risk platform, Habitable. Every Friday, we add a climate risk score to the real estate listings featured in the news this week and ask: Could you live here as the climate changes?
Using a model developed by a team of Berkeley data scientists at Climate Check, Habitable scores each property for heat, flood, drought, and fire risk on a scale of 1-10. One represents the lowest risk and 10 is the highest. Our rating for each hazard is based on climate change projections through 2050. (You can check your own home’s climate risk here.)
For today’s edition, I apply the Habitable Index to homes featured on the market this week — homes that are definitely creeping away from a minimalist style. Not quite full on maximalism, but breaking away from the pack of white walled Marie Kondo-ed homes. Read on as we rate houses with conspicuously decorative flourishes and discover which are at risk to lose all that stuff to flood or fire.
The Alexander Team
You could think of this 30,000-square-foot, opulently decorated Park Avenue penthouse as a steal since it was originally listed for $169,000,000 a few years ago. No one has ever slept or lived in the six bedrooms or used the nine bathrooms or marred the Hermes pillows, marble finishes, or natural oak cabinetry. There is barely a climate risk, although you’d think it might get hot up there at the top of a 96-floor building.
Featured in NYPost and listed for $130,000,000.
Blaine House, a 7,000-square-foot, historic Washington, D.C. mansion, has served the power players of the nation’s capital since the 19th century. This commercial and residential mansion flaunts its architectural detail and millwork, extravagant rotundas, formal dining and reception rooms, and even a rooftop lap pool with views over the city. And it won’t be the end of an era — all this mansion has low flood, fire, or drought risk. Have a ball!
Featured in Robb Report and listed for $29,950,000.
Sothebys
This steel and wood modern house in Chicago is extra. With almost 6,000 square feet in Chicago’s old town, it features fireplaces, bluestone patios, hardwood, floating staircases, open concept, balconies, and radiant floors. Only flood and fire minimalists need apply. And it won’t be too hot here to enjoy the private deck with views over the Chicago skyline.
Featured in dwelland listed for $2,625,000.
Zillow.
This small and perfect little house near the airport in Minneapolis manages to squeeze so much into a tiny space. Outside features crammed gardens. Inside, there’s an admirable lack of minimalism — there’s stuff but a place for everything. It’s kind of perfect — fenced in, near a dog park, designed for maximum efficiency with a good deal of storage. There is one thing: The flood risk is worryingly high, so I would worry about all that stuff in the basement.
Featured in dwelland listed for $247,000.
Zillow
“Go for it” is what we say about this place. This over the top Golden Oak neighborhood at Walt Disney World® Resort in Orlando is a custom built home with no attention to detail spared. With great rooms, crystal chandeliers, marble floors, courtyards, pool areas, golf courses, and wraparound balconies — all this and the magic of discounted Disney access at your fingertips? Yes, it will be hot but you could always lay on that cool marble floor, click your heels, and say, “I’m going to Disney World.”
Featured in WSJ and listed for $9,650,000.
Sotheby’s.
This house is quite minimal and even, dare I say subtle? But it’s only because the modern glass house doesn’t want to compete with the overindulgence of the garden. On this island outpost, you will find granite courtyards with reflecting pools, a moss garden, curved flower beds, hedges, decorative boulders, fountains, specimen trees, and 150,000 daffodils! Enjoy them while you can, though. Even though there is no risk for drought, fire, and the seabreeze will keep things cool, the flood risk offers little hope for the future of this horticultural orgy.
Featured in WSJand listed for $8,250,000.
Zillow
I love that song ”Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X and feel like whoever bought this house was singing the chorus: Can’t nobody tell me nothing. This house on Stonehouse Road in Pasadena is jam packed — stone walls and fireplace, copper hoods, wood beams, and tile floors. But it is also packed with climate risk. Did anyone tell the buyer about the fire risk or drought risk? Eek! They are going to need to ride from Stonehouse Road “‘til they can’t no more.”
Featured in dirt and sold for $5,488,000.
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They might not be worried now, but Democrats made the same mistake earlier this year.
Permitting reform is dead in the 118th Congress.
It died earlier this week, although you could be forgiven for missing it. On Tuesday, bipartisan talks among lawmakers fell apart over a bid to rewrite parts of the National Environmental Policy Act. The changes — pushed for by Representative Bruce Westerman, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee — would have made it harder for outside groups to sue to block energy projects under NEPA, a 1970 law that governs the country’s process for environmental decisionmaking.
When those talks died, they also killed a separate deal over permitting struck earlier this year between Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming. That deal, as I detailed last week, would have loosened some federal rules around oil and gas drilling in exchange for a new, quasi-mandatory scheme to build huge amounts of long-distance transmission.
Rest in peace, I suppose. Even if lawmakers could not agree on NEPA changes, I think Republicans made a mistake by not moving forward with the Manchin-Barrasso deal. (I still believe that the standalone deal could have passed the Senate and the House if put to a vote.) At this point, I do not think we will see another shot at bipartisan permitting reform until at least late 2026, when the federal highway law will need fresh funding.
But it is difficult to get too upset about this failure because larger mistakes have since compounded the initial one. On Wednesday, Republican Speaker Mike Johnson’s bipartisan deal to fund the government — which is, after all, a much more fundamental task of governance than rewriting some federal permitting laws — fell apart, seemingly because Donald Trump and Elon Musk decided they didn’t like it. If I can indulge in the subjunctive for a moment: That breakdown might have likely killed any potential permitting deal, too. So even in a world where lawmakers somehow did strike a deal earlier this week, it might already be dead. (As I write this, the House GOP has reportedly reached a new deal to fund the government through March, which has weakened or removed provisions governing pharmacy benefit managers and limiting American investments in China.)
The facile reading of this situation is that Republicans now hold the advantage. The Trump administration will soon be able to implement some of the fossil fuel provisions in the Manchin-Barrasso deal through the administrative state. Trump will likely expand onshore and offshore drilling, will lease the government’s best acreage to oil and gas companies, and will approve as many liquified natural gas export terminals as possible. His administration will do so, however, without the enhanced legal protection that the deal would have provided — and while those protections are not a must-have, especially with a friendly Supreme Court, their absence will still allow environmental groups to try to run down the clock on some of Trump’s more ambitious initiatives.
Republicans believe that they will be able to get parts of permitting reform done in a partisan reconciliation bill next year. These efforts seem quite likely to run aground, at least as long as something like the current rules governing reconciliation bills hold. I have heard some crazy proposals on this topic — what if skipping a permitting fight somehow became a revenue-raiser for the federal government? — but even they do not touch the deep structure of NEPA in the way a bipartisan compromise could. As Westerman toldPolitico’s Josh Siegel: “We need 60 votes in the Senate to get real permitting reform … People are just going to have to come to an agreement on what permitting reform is.” In any case, Manchin and the Democrats already tried to reform the permitting system via a partisan reconciliation bill and found it essentially impossible.
Even if reconciliation fails, Republicans say, they will still be in a better negotiating position next year than this year because the party will control a few more Senate votes. But will they? The GOP will just have come off a difficult fight over tax reform. Twelve or 24 months from now, demands on the country’s electricity grid are likely to be higher than they are today, and the risk of blackouts will be higher than before. The lack of a robust transmission network will hinder the ability to build a massive new AI infrastructure, as some of Trump’s tech industry backers hope. But 12 or 24 months from now, too, Democrats — furious at Trump — are not going to be in a dealmaking mood, and Republicans have relatively few ways to bring them to the table.
In any case, savvy Republicans should have realized that it is important to get supply-side economic reforms done as early in a president’s four-year term as possible. Such changes take time to filter through the system and turn into real projects and real economic activity; passing the law as early as possible means that the president’s party can enjoy them and campaign on them.
All of it starts to seem more and more familiar. When Manchin and Barrasso unveiled their compromise earlier this year, Democrats didn’t act quickly on it. They felt confident that the window for a deal wouldn’t close — and they looked forward to a potential trifecta, when they would be able to get even more done (and reject some of Manchin’s fossil fuel-friendly compromises).
Democrats, I think, wound up regretting the cavalier attitude that they brought to permitting reform before Trump’s win. But now the GOP is acting the same way: It is rejecting compromises, believing that it will be able to strike a better deal on permitting issues during its forthcoming trifecta. That was a mistake when Democrats did it. I think it will be a mistake for Republicans, too.
Heatmap Pro is an insights platform providing actionable intelligence to renewable energy developers, helping them stay informed about community sentiments and regulatory trends. We are seeking a strategic and entrepreneurial VP of Sales to lead our efforts in scaling the business, expanding our revenue base and shaping our go-to-market strategy. Heatmap Pro is a fast growing division of Heatmap News, a successful media and data company covering climate change, clean energy and sustainability for a large, professional audience.
Key Responsibilities
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• Build and manage a pipeline of high-value opportunities within the renewable energy sector
• Support business development strategy for expansion in new market segments
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Strategic Leadership
• Work closely with leadership to shape Heatmap Pro’s growth strategy and identify new market opportunities.
• Provide insights on industry trends and client feedback to guide product development and market positioning.
• Represent Heatmap Pro at industry events and conferences to build brand awareness and establish partnerships.
Sales Structure & Process Development
• Design and implement scalable sales processes, including CRM management, lead qualification, and deal tracking.
• Shorten the sales cycle and improve conversion rates through effective process improvements.
Qualifications
Required Experience
• Deep understanding of the renewable energy industry or adjacent sectors with extensive contacts to match
• 5+ years of experience in enterprise sales, with a proven track record of meeting or exceeding revenue targets.
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Above all, candidates should be passionate about Heatmap's mission and excited about working with a talented team of journalists and business executives dedicated to advancing the energy transition.
The salary minimum is $120,000 and the maximum is $135,000 plus a good commission plan based on revenue performance. Competitive benefits, unlimited paid time off, and a generous equity plan, which gives employees a real stake in the company, are also offered. This position is remote. While candidates from all over the U.S. are encouraged to apply, the VP of Sales is expected to keep East Coast hours.
Interested candidates should send a brief cover letter and resume to business@heatmap.news.
Heatmap News is an Equal Opportunity employer. All qualified applicants will receive consideration for employment without regard to sex, gender identity, sexual orientation, race, color, religion, national origin, disability, protected Veteran status, age, or any other characteristic protected by applicable law.
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On Biden’s big announcement, Montana’s climate case, and the murder hornet
Current conditions: Temperatures across western states are between 10 and 20 degrees Fahrenheit above seasonal averages • A temple in Thailand collapsed after unrelenting heavy rain • It’s hot and humid on the remote Caribbean island of Sombrero, where a lizard that was facing extinction six years ago has made a remarkable comeback thanks to conservation efforts.
In one of his last major environmental moves before leaving office, President Biden today announced a new climate plan for the United States that includes tougher emissions targets.
All countries under the Paris Agreement are required to submit updated climate plans – or nationally determined contributions (NDC) – by February of next year. While the new goal is an improvement, it is “at the lower bound of what the science demands and yet it is close to the upper bound of what is realistic if nearly every available policy lever were pulled,” said Debbie Weyle, U.S. acting director of the World Resources Institute. “Assertive action by states and cities will be essential to achieving this goal.” The Climate Action Tracker project calculates that the U.S. must cut total emissions by at least 62% below 2005 levels by 2030 to be compatible with a goal of limiting warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. President-elect Trump is expected to take the U.S. out of the Paris Agreement once again.
The Montana Supreme Court yesterday handed a win to a group of 16 youth climate activists, upholding a lower court’s ruling in the landmark Held V. Montana case that the state was violating residents’ constitutional right to a clean environment by permitting fossil fuel projects without considering the climate consequences. The state had argued that its greenhouse gases were a drop in the bucket compared to global emissions, with negligible effects on the climate, but in a 6-1 ruling, the justices disagreed and affirmed the lower court’s decision. “Montana’s right to a clean and healthful environment and environmental life support system includes a stable climate system,” chief justice Mike McGrath wrote.
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The Environmental Protection Agency this week gave the green light for California to enforce its ban on sales of new gas-powered cars by 2035. About a dozen other states, plus some major automakers, adhere to California’s strict vehicle emission standards, so the decision could have broad implications. But it also is likely to be revoked by the incoming Trump administration, and a long court battle could ensue.
A new report from a group of leading climate tech and microgrid development firms examined the feasibility of using off-grid solar and storage to provide clean power for AI data centers. It found solar microgrids would cost nearly the same as using off-grid natural gas turbines, could be built on a shorter timeline as opposed to rolling out new grid connections, and are “enormously scalable.” “We found that there is enough available land in the southwest U.S. alone that is close to roads and gas pipelines to build 1,200 gigawatts of offgrid solar microgrid data center capacity, far more than will be needed for the foreseeable future,” said Zeke Hausfather, lead climate researcher at Stripe. Here’s a look at the varying “time to operation” estimates from the report:
And speaking of data centers, Oklo, a nuclear startup chaired by Open AI’s Sam Altman, has secured a 20-year agreement to supply power to data center operator Switch Inc. Under the deal, Oklo will build small modular reactors that can supply up to 12 gigawatts of electricity and come online by 2030. Caveat: The Financial Timesnoted that the deal “is non-binding and the company’s technology is years from production.”
President-elect Trump’s advisers are telling him to let federally funded critical minerals projects go ahead without environmental reviews, Reutersreported. Nixing the review process currently required under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) could speed up mining projects and help cut U.S. dependence on China for critical minerals used in clean tech like electric vehicles, but it could also allow developers to ignore climate change and environmental justice considerations.
The invasive “murder hornet” has been eradicated from the U.S.
Karen Ducey/Getty Images