Sign In or Create an Account.

By continuing, you agree to the Terms of Service and acknowledge our Privacy Policy

Technology

Let There Be Cloud Brightening

On the return of geoengineering, climate lawsuits, and a cheaper EV.

Sunrise over a mountain.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Current conditions: Battered Midwest in for more bad weather this weekend • Tornadoes keep hitting the Great Plains • A heat wave in New Delhi that pushed temperatures above 116 degrees Fahrenheit on Friday is expected to last several more days.

THE TOP FIVE

1. Red states challenge climate lawsuits

Nineteen Republican-led states are asking the Supreme Court to stop Democrat-led states from trying to force oil and gas companies to pay for the impacts of climate change. Rhode Island in 2018 became the first state to sue major oil companies for climate damages and has since been joined by California, Connecticut, Minnesota, and New Jersey. The states pursuing legal action against oil companies are trying to “dictate the future of the American energy industry,” the Republican attorneys general argued in a motion filed this week, “not by influencing federal legislation or by petitioning federal agencies, but by imposing ruinous liability and coercive remedies on energy companies” through the court system.

2. Geoengineering experiment could resume in California

A month after ordering researchers to stop a cloud brightening experiment due to health and environmental concerns, officials in Alameda, California, determined that the experiment poses no measurable risk to people or wildlife. They found that the saltwater solution being sprayed into air is similar to saltwater, a naturally occurring aerosol. Alameda’s city council plans to reconsider the experiment based on officials’ findings early next month.

The experiment is one of the first tests of a form of geoengineering intended to reflect more solar energy back into space. Sarah J. Doherty, director of the Marine Cloud Brightening Program at the University of Washington, told The New York Times that the report “supports our own evaluation that this is a safe, publicly accessible way to further research on aerosols in the atmosphere.”

3. Conservation group sues Biden administration over coal pollution rule

The Center for Biological Diversity is suing the Biden administration over its new standards for pollution from coal-fired power plants. The rule, which the EPA finalized last month, curtails coal plants’ discharges of heavy metals into water sources. But it includes exceptions for plants that are slated to retire by 2034. The Center for Biological Diversity called this an “unacceptable” loophole, emphasizing the risks that heavy metal pollution pose to communities and ecosystems. Brett Hartl, the conservation group’s government affairs director, said in a statement that the rule gives the coal industry “a free pass to dump millions of pounds of toxic pollution into this nation’s rivers for another 10 years.”

4. Kia Debuts Cheaper, Boxier EV

On Thursday, the Korean automaker Kia revealed the EV3, a small crossover that will start in the $30,000s when it comes to America next year or the year after. While slower than some of its rivals — Kia says it will go 0-60 miles per hour in 7.5 seconds — the EV3 will boast a range of 372 miles, “which blows away most current offerings, especially in that price range,” Andrew Moseman writes at Heatmap. The EV3 is the latest piece of the grand plan put together by Kia (and its owner, Hyundai) to offer an electric crossover at every price point — and a sign that more entry-level EVs might be coming over the horizon.

5. Native beetle threatens giant sequoias

General Sherman, the world’s largest tree, passed a recent health check by researchers looking for evidence of damage by bark beetles. Both giant sequoias and bark beetles are native to California’s Sierra Nevada range, but the mounting pressures of climate change, including heat, drought, and fire, are weakening the sequoias and leaving them vulnerable to dying from bark beetle infestations. “The most significant threat to giant sequoias is climate-driven wildfires,” Ben Blom, director of stewardship and restoration at Save the Redwoods League, told The Associated Press. “But we certainly don’t want to be caught by surprise by a new threat, which is why we’re studying these beetles now.”

THE KICKER

Researchers don’t fully understand how climate change is impacting air travel, but evidence suggests that instability in the jet stream may be contributing to the rise in clear-air turbulence.


You’re out of free articles.

Subscribe today to experience Heatmap’s expert analysis 
of climate change, clean energy, and sustainability.
To continue reading
Create a free account or sign in to unlock more free articles.
or
Please enter an email address
By continuing, you agree to the Terms of Service and acknowledge our Privacy Policy
Climate

AM Briefing: California’s Insurance Hike

On the fallout from the LA fires, Trump’s tariffs, and Tesla’s sales slump

California’s Insurance Crisis Is Heating Up
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Current conditions: A record-breaking 4 feet of snow fell on the Japanese island of Hokkaido • Nearly 6.5 feet of rain has inundated northern Queensland in Australia since Saturday • Cold Arctic air will collide with warm air over central states today, creating dangerous thunderstorm conditions.

THE TOP FIVE

1. China hits back at Trump tariffs

President Trump yesterday agreed to a month-long pause on across-the-board 25% tariffs on Canada and Mexico, but went ahead with an additional 10% tariff on Chinese imports. China retaliated with new levies on U.S. products including fuel – 15% for coal and liquefied natural gas, and 10% for crude oil – starting February 10. “Chinese firms are unlikely to sign new long-term contracts with proposed U.S. projects as long as trade tensions remain high,” notedBloomberg. “This is bad news for those American exporters that need to lock in buyers before securing necessary financing to begin construction.” Trump recently ended the Biden administration’s pause on LNG export permits. A December report from the Department of Energy found that China was likely to be the largest importer of U.S. LNG through 2050, and many entities in China had already signed contracts with U.S. export projects. Trump is expected to speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping this week.

Keep reading...Show less
Yellow
Politics

Trump’s Little Coal Reprieve

Artificial intelligence may extend coal’s useful life, but there’s no saving it.

Donald Trump.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Appearing by video connection to the global plutocrats assembled recently at Davos, Donald Trump interrupted a rambling answer to a question about liquefied natural gas to proclaim that he had come up with a solution to the energy demand of artificial intelligence (“I think it was largely my idea, because nobody thought this was possible”), which is to build power plants near data centers to power them. And a key part of the equation should be coal. “Nothing can destroy coal — not the weather, not a bomb — nothing,” he said. “But coal is very strong as a backup. It’s a great backup to have that facility, and it wouldn’t cost much more — more money. And we have more coal than anybody.”

There is some truth there — the United States does in fact have the largest coal reserves in the world — and AI may be offering something of a lifeline to the declining industry. But with Trump now talking about coal as a “backup,” it’s a reminder that he brings up the subject much less often than he used to. Even if coal will not be phased out as an electricity source quite as quickly as many had hoped or anticipated, Trump’s first-term promise to coal country will remain a broken one.

Keep reading...Show less
Politics

Trump’s Other Funding Freeze Attacks Environmental Justice

Companies, states, cities, and other entities with Energy Department contracts that had community benefit plans embedded in them have been ordered to stop all work.

Donald Trump.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Amidst the chaos surrounding President Trump’s pause on infrastructure and climate spending, another federal funding freeze is going very much under the radar, undermining energy and resilience projects across the U.S. and its territories.

Days after Trump took office, acting Energy Secretary Ingrid Kolb reportedly told DOE in a memo to suspend any work “requiring, using, or enforcing Community Benefit Plans, and requiring, using, or enforcing Justice40 requirements, conditions, or principles” in any loan or loan guarantee, any grant, any cost-sharing agreement or any “contracts, contract awards, or any other source of financial assistance.” The memo stipulated this would apply to “existing” awards, grants, contracts and other financial assistance, according to E&E News’ Hannah Northey, who first reported the document’s existence.

Keep reading...Show less
Green