The ‘Endangerment Finding’ Is in Danger

Current conditions: An electricity transmission line failure triggered a massive blackout in Chile • Six tropical storms are currently swirling in the Southern Hemisphere • The Santa Ana winds are returning to Southern California this week.

THE TOP FIVE

1. Report: EPA urging Trump to repeal key greenhouse gas finding

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin has reportedly been advising the Trump administration to repeal a landmark scientific finding that explicitly identified greenhouse gases as a public health threat. The 2009 “endangerment finding” gave the EPA the authority to regulate these gases. President Trump ordered the EPA to review the finding, but the agency has not publicly released any recommendations yet. According to The Washington Post, Zeldin has “privately urged the White House” to strike it down.

2. U.S. to ramp up retirements of coal-fired power plants

Power generators in the U.S. plan to retire 8.1 gigawatts of coal-fired capacity this year, according to the Energy Information Administration. That’s more than double the 4 GW retired last year but less than the 9.8 GW that have been taken offline each year over the last decade. Planned retirements across all sources for 2025 total about 12.3 GW, and coal power retirements account for the largest share at 66%, followed by natural gas at 21%. At the same time, the EIA expects 63 GW of new utility-scale power capacity to come online this year, 81% of which will be solar and battery storage.

EIA

EIA

3. U.S. and Ukraine reach tentative deal on minerals

The U.S. and Ukraine have reportedly reached a deal that would see Ukraine share some of the revenue from its state-owned natural resources – including oil, gas, and critical minerals – with the United States. Ukraine has large deposits of critical minerals and rare earth materials, some of which are essential in clean technologies including electric vehicles. President Trump previously said he wanted access to some of those materials. The terms of the new deal remain unclear, but a draft seen by some outlets suggests Ukraine would put 50% of future mineral proceeds into a newly established joint fund, up to $500 billion. Some of the money would be reinvested into the war-battered country, and “the United States would provide a long-term financial commitment to the development of a ‘stable and economically prosperous Ukraine,’” according toRetuers. However, there do not seem to be any clear security guarantees for Ukraine in the deal. The Financial Times also noted that it “leaves crucial questions such as the size of the U.S. stake in the fund and the terms of ‘joint ownership’ deals to be thrashed out in follow-up agreements.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reportedly plans to meet with Trump in Washington on Friday.

4. Database reveals Americans are drinking contaminated tap water

The nonprofit Environmental Working Group has published its newly updated tap water database, showing that millions of Americans are drinking water that contains “forever chemicals” (or PFAS) and other contaminants. EWG synthesized reports from 50,000 individual water systems across the country. In total, 563 utilities reported unsafe levels of forever chemicals. Almost all community water systems contained detectable levels of contaminants of some kind – from PFAS to heavy metals to radioactive substances. As Heatmap’s Jeva Lange reports, the Environmental Protection Agency is required to report drinking water data, but it’s never released a comprehensive database, and information can be hard to come by. “EWG is filling this need for people to have a national clearinghouse where they can easily access their drinking water data,” Tasha Stoiber, a senior scientist with EWG, told Lange.

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5. UK emissions goals hinge on consumers switching to EVs, heat pumps

The UK needs to bring its emissions down by 87% compared to 1990 levels by 2040 if it is to remain on track for net zero by 2050, according to a new report from the Climate Change Committee, which is an independent climate adviser to the government. Sixty percent of those 2040 reductions will come from electrification – decarbonizing the grid, switching to EVs, and swapping out fossil fuel home systems with heat pumps, etc. The report noted that the UK has already cut its greenhouse gas emissions in half since 1990 by “expanding renewable power and phasing out coal in the electricity sector.” Going forward, surface transport alone will account for nearly 30% of emissions cuts, with three-quarters of cars and vans on the road in the UK expected to be electric by 2040.

THE KICKER

A recent study found that in spring and summer, trees and other vegetation in Central Los Angeles can absorb up to 60% of the carbon dioxide that gets emitted during the daytime.