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On liquified natural gas exports, BYD vs. Tesla, and heat protections
Current conditions: Raging wildfires are forcing evacuations on several Greek islands • More rain is forecast for China’s sodden rice growing regions • Temperatures in Death Valley could reach 130 degrees Fahrenheit early next week.
A federal court last night blocked President Biden’s pause on permits for new liquefied natural gas export terminals. The administration issued a temporary moratorium on new LNG approvals in January, allowing the Energy Department to study what effect terminals have on the climate, a move seen as a big win for climate activists. But it was quickly followed by a lawsuit from 16 states accusing the administration of violating federal law. A Trump-appointed judge in Louisiana agreed that the pause was hurting states, and said it was “completely without reason or logic and is perhaps the epiphany of ideocracy [sic].” The Energy Department disagreed with the ruling and is considering its next steps. Some early reaction and analysis to the news:
Hurricane Beryl has strengthened into a monster category 5 storm, the earliest storm of that magnitude ever to form in the Atlantic in recorded history. The system slammed into Grenada’s Carriacou Island, St. Vincent, and the Grenadines, leaving catastrophic damage in its wake. “In half an hour, Carriacou was flattened,” Grenada’s Prime Minister Dickon Mitchell said. The National Hurricane Center said the storm had maximum sustained winds of 165 miles per hour and was “still intensifying” this morning as it headed toward Jamaica. “Hurricane Beryl could never have formed where and when it did were it not for the unprecedented heat in the Atlantic Ocean,” wrote Jake Bittle at Grist, noting that surface temperatures are as much as 3 or 4 degrees Fahrenheit above average.
Tesla is expected to report Q2 deliveries today. Analysts think the EV maker will show a 6% drop in deliveries compared to the same period last year, marking the second declining quarter in a row. The company has “few excuses for its sales slowdown,” wrote Dana Hull and Kara Carlson at Bloomberg. The problem is straightforward, they added: “Tesla’s older lineup of vehicles is having a harder time keeping up with fresher offerings from rival EV manufacturers.”
Meanwhile, Chinese EV powerhouse BYD just reported its highest ever monthly sales of new energy vehicles, and a 21% rise in EV sales for the second quarter. The total number of vehicles sold (426,039) is about 12,000 short of what is expected from Tesla, but the gap is closing.
The Biden administration today put forward a proposal to “establish the nation’s first-ever federal safety standard addressing excessive heat in the workplace.” The rules would require employers to identify heat hazards, have response plans for heat illness and heat emergencies, and provide access to shade, water, and rest breaks. New workers would also need to be acclimatized to higher temperatures. A White House official toldThe Associated Press that we’d see more penalties for heat-related violations in workplaces. If finalized, the rule would apply to about 36 million workers and reduce heat-related health problems in the workplace significantly. The plan is “likely to face legal challenges from businesses and lobbying groups that have staunchly opposed such a measure,” The Guardianreported.
Also today, the EPA will publish a new report outlining how climate change continues to affect the U.S., so be on the lookout for that.
An international fusion mega-project long in the making has received a delivery of 19 massive, 56-foot-tall magnets that are essential for controlling and confining the reactions that will take place inside its tokamak. Here is a rendering of the magnets surrounding the tokamak (human for scale!):
ITER
The International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor (ITER) project, which is under construction in southern France, will be the world's largest experimental fusion facility once completed. It is designed to demonstrate the feasibility of fusion power, which is the process by which stars produce energy and, if harnessed on Earth, could provide abundant clean energy. While the delivery of the magnets is a big step, the ITER project is struggling with delays and mounting costs. Its first fusion reaction was slated to happen next year but that timeline was recently pushed back by 10 years to 2035. Another large fusion reactor called JT-60SA fired up last October in Japan.
A new bill set to be signed into law in Michigan will prohibit the state’s homeowners’ associations from banning projects that improve a home’s energy efficiency, like rooftop solar or EV chargers.
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Did a battery plant disaster in California spark a PR crisis on the East Coast?
Battery fire fears are fomenting a storage backlash in New York City – and it risks turning into fresh PR hell for the industry.
Aggrieved neighbors, anti-BESS activists, and Republican politicians are galvanizing more opposition to battery storage in pockets of the five boroughs where development is actually happening, capturing rapt attention from other residents as well as members of the media. In Staten Island, a petition against a NineDot Energy battery project has received more than 1,300 signatures in a little over two months. Two weeks ago, advocates – backed by representatives of local politicians including Rep. Nicole Mallitokis – swarmed a public meeting on the project, getting a local community board to vote unanimously against the project.
According to Heatmap Pro’s proprietary modeling of local opinion around battery storage, there are likely twice as many strong opponents than strong supporters in the area:
Heatmap Pro
Yesterday, leaders in the Queens community of Hempstead enacted a year-long ban on BESS for at least a year after GOP Rep. Anthony D’Esposito, other local politicians, and a slew of aggrieved residents testified in favor of a moratorium. The day before, officials in the Long Island town of Southampton said at a public meeting they were ready to extend their battery storage ban until they enshrined a more restrictive development code – even as many energy companies testified against doing so, including NineDot and solar plus storage developer Key Capture Energy. Yonkers also recently extended its own battery moratorium.
This flurry of activity follows the Moss Landing battery plant fire in California, a rather exceptional event caused by tech that was extremely old and a battery chemistry that is no longer popular in the sector. But opponents of battery storage don’t care – they’re telling their friends to stop the community from becoming the next Moss Landing. The longer this goes on without a fulsome, strident response from the industry, the more communities may rally against them. Making matters even worse, as I explained in The Fight earlier this year, we’re seeing battery fire concerns impact solar projects too.
“This is a huge problem for solar. If [fires] start regularly happening, communities are going to say hey, you can’t put that there,” Derek Chase, CEO of battery fire smoke detection tech company OnSight Technologies, told me at Intersolar this week. “It’s going to be really detrimental.”
I’ve long worried New York City in particular may be a powder keg for the battery storage sector given its omnipresence as a popular media environment. If it happens in New York, the rest of the world learns about it.
I feel like the power of the New York media environment is not lost on Staten Island borough president Vito Fossella, a de facto leader of the anti-BESS movement in the boroughs. Last fall I interviewed Fossella, whose rhetorical strategy often leans on painting Staten Island as an overburdened community. (At least 13 battery storage projects have been in the works in Staten Island according to recent reporting. Fossella claims that is far more than any amount proposed elsewhere in the city.) He often points to battery blazes that happen elsewhere in the country, as well as fears about lithium-ion scooters that have caught fire. His goal is to enact very large setback distance requirements for battery storage, at a minimum.
“You can still put them throughout the city but you can’t put them next to people’s homes – what happens if one of these goes on fire next to a gas station,” he told me at the time, chalking the wider city government’s reluctance to capitulate on batteries to a “political problem.”
Well, I’m going to hold my breath for the real political problem in waiting – the inevitable backlash that happens when Mallitokis, D’Esposito, and others take this fight to Congress and the national stage. I bet that’s probably why American Clean Power just sent me a notice for a press briefing on battery safety next week …
And more of the week’s top conflicts around renewable energy.
1. Queen Anne’s County, Maryland – They really don’t want you to sign a solar lease out in the rural parts of this otherwise very pro-renewables state.
2. Logan County, Ohio – Staff for the Ohio Power Siting Board have recommended it reject Open Road Renewables’ Grange Solar agrivoltaics project.
3. Bandera County, Texas – On a slightly brighter note for solar, it appears that Pine Gate Renewables’ Rio Lago solar project might just be safe from county restrictions.
Here’s what else we’re watching…
In Illinois, Armoracia Solar is struggling to get necessary permits from Madison County.
In Kentucky, the mayor of Lexington is getting into a public spat with East Kentucky Power Cooperative over solar.
In Michigan, Livingston County is now backing the legal challenge to Michigan’s state permitting primacy law.
On the week’s top news around renewable energy policy.
1. IRA funding freeze update – Money is starting to get out the door, finally: the EPA unfroze most of its climate grant funding it had paused after Trump entered office.
2. Scalpel vs. sledgehammer – House Speaker Mike Johnson signaled Republicans in Congress may take a broader approach to repealing the Inflation Reduction Act than previously expected in tax talks.
3. Endangerment in danger – The EPA is reportedly urging the White House to back reversing its 2009 “endangerment” finding on air pollutants and climate change, a linchpin in the agency’s overall CO2 and climate regulatory scheme.