Sign In or Create an Account.

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

Technology

Microsoft’s Major Carbon Removal Deal

On curbing AI emissions, flood resilience, and offshore wind

Microsoft’s Major Carbon Removal Deal
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Current conditions: Extreme heat in Southern California is causing cars to break down on the highway • Flooding in northeastern India killed nine rare one-horned rhinos • Residents in Mount Vernon, Indiana, are waking up to debris and devastation from a violent tornado spawned by the remnants of Hurricane Beryl.

THE TOP FIVE

1. Microsoft and Oxy agree to largest-ever DAC credits deal

Tech giant Microsoft has agreed to the “single largest purchase” of direct air capture carbon credits, buying 500,000 metric tons of credits from Occidental Petroleum’s (aka Oxy) 1PointFive DAC subsidiary. The deal is worth hundreds of millions of dollars and will help Microsoft confront its growing emissions problem as demand for energy-intensive artificial intelligence grows. Microsoft’s emissions grew by 30% in 2023 compared to 2020. Google’s emissions are also rising, up 13% last year compared to the year before. Both companies pin the blame on the growth of AI. As Bloomberg noted, DAC “is expensive, energy-intensive and not yet proven at industrial scale.” Occidental clinched a similar (but smaller) deal with Amazon last year.

2. New FEMA rule will improve infrastructure flood resilience

The Biden administration yesterday finalized a rule aimed at protecting federal infrastructure from flooding exacerbated by climate change. The federal flood risk management standard, first proposed in 2015, will require public structures funded by FEMA be built above the projected flood level for their location, or be moved to a different location entirely. The hope is to “put a stop to the cycle of response and recovery, and rinse and repeat,” said Deanne Criswell, the FEMA administrator. FEMA will cover the cost of implementing the changes. The rule will come into effect on September 9.

3. Texas power outages persist as temperatures rise

Frustration is growing in Texas, where nearly 2 million people are still without power after Hurricane Beryl tore through the state Monday as a category 1 storm. The power outages mean many residents are without access to air conditioning as a heat wave pushes temperatures into the 90s. At least 16 hospitals were relying on generators to keep the lights on yesterday, according toThe Associated Press. Making matters worse, flooding from the storm caused a “domestic wastewater” spill in downtown Houston, where residents were told to boil water before consuming it. A report published in April found that power outages from extreme weather events are rising in the U.S., with Texas being the worst-affected state.

Climate Central

4. Report: Offshore wind capacity won’t meet Biden’s goal

New analysis from the American Clean Power Association found that U.S. offshore wind capacity will fall short of President Biden’s goal of 30 gigawatts by 2030. There are currently 56 GW of capacity under development across 37 leases, the report finds, but just 14 GW will be deployed by 2030. However, things will speed up quickly, and it’ll take just three years for capacity to hit 30 GW in 2033, and another two to hit 40 GW in 2035.

5. Climate change-denying senator James Inhofe dies

Former Republican senator James Inhofe, “the capital’s most vociferous denier of climate change,” died Tuesday at age 89. Inhofe served five terms in the Senate starting in the 1990s before retiring in January last year. He began vocally downplaying scientific evidence of climate change in 2003. His campaigns received generous donations from fossil fuel interests. In 2012, Inhofe authored a book called The Greatest Hoax: How the Global Warming Conspiracy Threatens Your Future. In a 2015 stunt, he brought a snowball into the Senate in an attempt to prove that man-made global warming was not real. He opposed efforts to cap greenhouse gas emissions and once called the Environmental Protection Agency a “Gestapo bureaucracy.” He later went on to play a key role in transforming the EPA under former President Trump.

The late Sen. Inhofe during his 2015 snowball stunt.YouTube/C-SPAN

THE KICKER

Global temperatures seem to be falling slightly now, after more than a year of unrelenting new record monthly highs.

Yellow

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
Sparks

Trump to New York: End Congestion Pricing, or Else

The administration is doubling down on an April 20 end date for the traffic control program.

Kathy Hochul and Janno Lieber.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Congestion pricing has only been in effect in New York City for three months, but its rollout has been nearly as turbulent as the 18-year battle to implement it in the first place.

Trump’s Department of Transportation escalated its threat this week to retaliate against New York if the state’s Metropolitan Transit Authority, or MTA, does not shut down the tolling program by April 20.

Keep reading...Show less
Green
Energy

Trump Can’t Save Coal From Natural Gas

The president’s executive order is already too late to save at least one Arizona plant.

An open coal plant.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

The Trump administration is trying to save coal again. But despite the president’s seemingly forceful actions, there’s little indication he’ll be any more successful at it this time than he was the last time around.

Backed by coal miners in hard hats and high visibility jackets, Trump on Tuesday announced a series of executive orders meant to boost “beautiful, clean coal.” The orders lift barriers to extracting coal on public lands, ask the Department of Energy to consider metallurgical coal a critical mineral, push out compliance with some air quality rules by two years, instruct the Department of Energy to use emergency authorities to keep coal plants open, and direct theattorney general to go after state climate laws that Trump claimed “discriminate” against greenhouse gas-emitting energy sources like coal.

What’s not clear is how much these orders will boost the coal industry, let alone save it. It’s not even clear whether the specific plant Trump said he was saving will burn coal again.

Keep reading...Show less
Red
Economy

AM Briefing: Tariff Turmoil

On stock selloffs, coal production, and shipping emissions

Trump’s Tariffs Are Here, and Financial Markets Are in Turmoil
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

Current conditions: States left flooded from recent severe storms are now facing freezing temperatures • Firefighters are battling blazes in Scotland due to unusually warm and dry weather • Hospitals in India are reporting a 25% rise in heat-related illnesses compared to last year. Yesterday the country’s northern state of Rajasthan reached 115 degrees Fahrenheit, about 13 degrees higher than seasonal norms.

THE TOP FIVE

1. Markets in turmoil as Trump’s new tariffs come into effect

President Trump’s sweeping new tariffs came into effect at 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday, rattling the world’s markets and raising the risk of a global trade war. The levies, which include a 104% tariff on Chinese imports, triggered a mass sell-off in U.S. Treasury bonds, hiking yields as investors worry about a potential recession and flock to alternative safe-haven investments. The price of oil fell for the fifth day in a row to its lowest since 2021, with Brent futures at about $61 per barrel, well below the $65 level that oil producers need in order to turn a profit drilling new wells nationwide. As Heatmap’s Robinson Meyer explained recently, the tariffs are an outright catastrophe for the oil industry because they threaten a global downturn that would hurt oil demand at a time when oil cartel OPEC+ is increasing its output. Trump’s slate of tariffs will impact the cost of just about everything, from gasoline to e-bikes to LNG to cars. China imposed retaliatory tariffs, increasing them from 34% to 84% in response to the U.S. escalation. Meanwhile, the European Union will vote today on whether to impose its own retaliatory fees. European shares plummeted, as did Asian and Australian stocks.

Keep reading...Show less
Yellow