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Sustainability

An Arc'teryx jacket.
Lifestyle

The Quest to Ban the Best Raincoats in the World

Why Patagonia, REI, and just about every other gear retailer are going PFAS-free.

Politics

AM Briefing: Ford’s EV ‘Model T’ Moment

On Interior’s birdwatching, China’s lithium slowdown, and recycling aluminum

Yellow
Politics

AM Briefing: The Republican Renewables Rebellion

On residential solar dims, New Jersey makes history, and Brazil’s challenge

Yellow
Politics

AM Briefing: Big Oil's Green Contrarian

On abandoning Antarctica, an EV milestone, and this week’s big earnings

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OpenAI’s Stargate Stumbles Out of the Gate

AM Briefing: OpenAI's Stargate Stumbles

On Fervo’s megadeal tease, steel’s coal gamble, and Norway’s CO2 milestone

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NRC Expected to ‘Rubber Stamp’ New Reactors

AM Briefing: NRC Expected to ‘Rubber Stamp’ New Reactors

On the NRC, energy in Pennsylvania, and Meta AI

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Sustainability

Window Heat Pumps Could Change the Game

A new report from the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy has some exciting data for anyone attempting to retrofit a multifamily building.

A Midea heat pump.
<p>Heatmap Illustration/Midea, Getty Images</p>

By now there’s plenty of evidence showing why heat pumps are such a promising solution for getting buildings off fossil fuels. But most of that research has focused on single-family homes. Larger apartment buildings with steam or hot water heating systems — i.e. most of the apartment buildings in the Northeast — are more difficult and expensive to retrofit.

A new report from the nonprofit American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy, however, assesses a handful of new technologies designed to make that transition easier and finds they have the potential to significantly lower the cost of decarbonizing large buildings.

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Politics

AM Briefing: ‘Natural Variability Alone’ Cannot Explain Texas Floods

On the Texas floods, wind and solar restrictions, and an executive order

‘Natural Variability Alone’ Cannot Explain Texas Floods
<p>Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images</p>

Current conditions: An extreme heat warning is in place for Phoenix, which could reach 113 degrees Fahrenheit today • Flooding in central North Carolina has killed at least one person after two months’ worth of rain fell in 24 hours • Parts of the U.K. this week will experience their third heatwave in less than a month.

THE TOP FIVE

1. Early analysis concludes ‘natural variability alone’ cannot explain Texas floods

The catastrophic flooding in central Texas that claimed more than 100 lives late last week was intensified by human-driven climate change, according to a rapid attribution report by ClimaMeter, an experimental framework funded by the European Union and the French National Centre for Scientific Research. The researchers compared historic and contemporary weather patterns in Texas’ Hill Country and found that conditions going into Fourth of July weekend were up to 7% wetter than during similar events in the past. “These results suggest that meteorological conditions similar to those of the July 2025 Texas floods are becoming more favorable for extreme precipitation, in line with what would be expected under continued global warming,” the researchers wrote, concluding that “natural variability alone cannot explain the changes in precipitation associated with this very exceptional meteorological condition.”

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