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How John Podesta Is Thinking About the IRA’s Big Final Tax Credits
The rules governing virtually all of the remaining policies in President Joe Biden’s climate law — including some of its most important and generous provisions — will come out in the next several weeks, signaling a new era in the law’s implementation, a senior White House advisor told Heatmap in an exclusive interview.Speaking on the sidelines of the United Nations climate conference in Dubai, the advisor John Podesta said that the Treasury Department will publish rules governing some of the law’s biggest remaining subsidies by the end of the year. The former White House chief of staff and veteran...
AM Briefing: Al Jaber Plays Defense
Current conditions: Cyclone Michaung drenches Chennai, India, with 20 inches of rain in two days • Death toll from northern Tanzania floods rises to 63 • The high is 90 degrees in Caracas, the capital of Venezuela, which voted this weekend to annex two-thirds of neighboring oil state Guyana.THE TOP FIVE1. COP28 President Defends Himself Following Controversial CommentsCOP28 President Sultan Al Jaber responded to critics on Monday, insisting that he and the UAE “very much believe and respect the science” after The Guardian published a video of him pooh-poohing the phase-out of fossil fuels in an online event that...
Detroit Is About to Test the Bejeezus Out of Wireless EV Charging
One block of Detroit’s hip Corktown neighborhood is now the home to the nation's first inductive charging roadway, allowing specially-equipped vehicles to charge while on the move.The electric road system is being deployed two years after Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer announced the pilot program. A joint project between the state’s Department of Transportation, Detroit, and the company that developed and installed the technology, Electreon, the quarter-mile stretch of road is packed with copper coils that allow EVs equipped with Electreon’s magnetic receivers to wirelessly charge while driving, idling, or parked. Just as importantly, it’s safe for pedestrians, animals, and...
In a Headline-Making Report, an Overlooked Insight About Carbon Removal
COP is always awash in new policy reports and scientific studies. It can be hard to figure out which are the most important. So I want to draw your attention to a particularly interesting report that came out in Dubai over the weekend. On Sunday, a consortium of climate science groups released this year’s "10 New Insights in Climate Science," a synopsis of the most recent climate research.The report was written at the invitation of the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change, and it’s meant to keep negotiators up to date on climate science in between major reports from...
Venezuela Essentially Approves a Petrowar
Under pressure from the U.S. to hold a free and fair election, Venezuela’s President Nicolás Maduro upped the ante. On Sunday, the nation went to the polls — to vote to invade its neighbor and the world’s newest petrostate, Guyana.Approval was seemingly swift and suspiciously overwhelming. According to the Venezuelan National Electoral Council, the ballot’s five-question referendum — which culminated in asking if Caracas should incorporate Guyana’s Essequibo region “into the map of Venezuelan territory” — passed by a margin of 95%. Calling the vote a free or fair election might be a bit of a stretch; local...
AM Briefing: Catch Up on COP28
Current conditions: There’s a high risk of avalanches in the Cascade Mountains after a storm dumped up to 14 inches of snow • The AQI in Dubai is back down to 80 after spiking to 155 this weekend • The high is in the low 50s in Central Park, which has been without snow for a record-breaking 659 days. THE TOP FIVE1. What Happened at COP28 This Weekend COP28 continued for its third and fourth days in Dubai this weekend. Here’s a quick primer on what you might have missed: On Saturday, Vice President Kamala Harris announced the U.S. will commit $3...
The World Finally Agrees to Cut Emissions the Easy Way
Today is Methane Day at COP28 in Dubai, and there has been a slew of new commitments to wrangle the highly potent, short-lived greenhouse gas: ➢ The Biden administration finalized the strongest-ever federal regulations in the U.S. covering the methane that leaks from existing oil and gas wells, plus tightened rules for new wells. The Environmental Protection Agency expects to achieve a nearly 80% reduction in emissions compared to a world without the rules. ➢ Canada is also expected to announce new methane regulations. ➢ Turkmenistan and Kazakhstan — home to some of the biggest methane leaks from oil and gas operations...
Biden’s EPA Just Enacted Its Strongest Methane Rules Yet
One of the first things Joe Biden did on the day he was inaugurated as the 46th president of the United States was issue an executive order on the climate crisis. In it, he directed the Environmental Protection Agency to set new standards for emissions of the potent greenhouse gas methane from the oil and gas industry. Nearly three years later, those regulations have been finalized. This is the first time the U.S. will try to rein in methane leaking from drilling sites and other infrastructure that already exist, in addition to regulating new oil and gas projects. The EPA says...
A Hilariously Sad Chart of COP28 Climate Pledges
Early on Thursday, the first day of the UN Climate Conference in Dubai, world leaders secured an agreement for a fund that will help vulnerable nations deal with the impacts of climate change. My colleague Charu has written about the fund in more detail, but I was curious about one thing: How do these pledges compare to each country’s GDP? The answer is hilariously stark — I originally tried making a chart of these pledges as a fraction of GDP, but they simply didn’t show up on the axes. For a point of comparison, the United States has so far sent $75 billion worth of aid to Ukraine since the war began, while the Loss and Damage Fund will be doled among the various countries who ask the UN for assistance. Still, it’s a start, and hopefully these contributions will grow over time.
What I Misunderstood About COP28
The third day of events are ending here at COP28 in Dubai. If you read any international coverage of the conference, you probably saw that King Charles III of the United Kingdom and President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva of Brazil spoke at the main session today, along with many other world leaders. “The planet is tired of climate agreements and goals that were not fulfilled,” Lula said. “How many world leaders are, in fact, committed to save the planet?” Vice President Kamala Harris is in town and expected to address the summit tomorrow. I will be honest: I did not...
It’s Suddenly a Mystery Which EVs Will Qualify for a Tax Credit in 2024
If you’re in the market for a new car and considering cashing in on the $7,500 federal tax credit for an electric vehicle, I have good news. Also bad news. The good news is, starting January 1, the credit will be a lot easier to claim. You won’t need to meet a certain level of tax liability to qualify or wait for your tax refund. You can transfer the credit to the dealership and take $7,500 off the sticker price right then and there. The bad news is that suddenly, nobody knows which — if any — EVs will...
What Really Happened on the First Day of COP28
Hello from Dubai, where the United Nations’ annual climate conference — that is, COP28 — officially began today. This was an enormous day for climate and environmental news around the world. Not only did COP28 begin with a surprising (and important) accomplishment, but the Environmental Protection Agency proposed cracking down on lead pipes, one of the biggest remaining sources of water pollution in the United States. Tesla is also set to release — and announce a price for — its gargantuan Cybertruck today, one of the most contentious electric vehicles launches in history. So let’s get down to it. The Top Three...
A Climate Reparations Breakthrough at COP28
World leaders at the United Nations’ annual climate summit secured an early agreement on Thursday for a disaster fund that will help vulnerable nations dealing with drought, floods, or other costly damage caused by climate change. The agreement follows a lengthy negotiation process for the loss and damage fund, which was first brokered in Egypt at last year’s COP27 and was seen as a historic breakthrough for the climate crisis. Poorer countries, which are the most vulnerable to climate impacts, have long asked for restitution from wealthier nations, which account for the majority of historic emissions. Wealthier nations have...
Malaria Cases Are Spiking on a Warmer, Wetter World
The World Health Organization’s annual malaria report, released Thursday, for the first time includes a chapter “focused on the intersection between climate change and malaria” — and finds that climate change was a factor in a global increase in the disease. There were an estimated 249 million malaria cases in 2022, a five million increase over the previous year. Most of the new cases were concentrated in Pakistan, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Papua New Guinea, and Uganda.The reasons for the surge seem to be manifold. Across sub-saharan Africa, the Anopheles mosquito, which transmits the disease, is expanding its range as the...
The Cybertruck Is Interesting. Tesla Needs Boring.
While channel-surfing over Thanksgiving weekend, I stumbled upon The Aviator — specifically, the scene in which Leonardo DiCaprio’s Howard Hughes maniacally scrambles a fleet of biplanes to capture the greatest air combat scenes even filmed, and rants that he doesn’t care if the conservative suits at his company worry he’s squandering his fortune in pursuit of a mad dream. It’s hard to watch these scenes and not think of Elon Musk, Hughes’ heir apparent (with apologies to Richard Branson and Jeff Bezos) as the leading air-and-space-obsessed billionaire man-child of his era. That’s doubly true this week, with the long-awaited...
Hello from Dubai, Where the Fleece Quotient Is High
One tool I have developed in my years of climate reporting might be described as the fleece quotient. This is the idea that you can generally predict if something is a climate event — a category I consider in its broadest terms, including but not limited to a scientific conference, a protest, or an international meeting — if more people attending it are wearing fleece than not. (It is distinct but related to the Patagonia ratio.)This methodology is not perfect: In some cities, one can accidentally trip the fleece quotient on an ordinary Back to School night or even...
New ‘SAF’ Just Dropped
American Airlines will purchase sustainable aviation fuel from a first-of-its-kind facility under development in Texas called Project Roadrunner. Infinium, the company behind the project, will be converting a former natural gas refinery into a commercial “eFuels” plant where it will make jet fuel and diesel from carbon dioxide and green hydrogen. The company announced the offtake agreement on Wednesday along with a $75 million equity agreement with Breakthrough Energy Catalyst, a subsidiary of a climate tech firm backed by Bill Gates that focuses on first-of-a-kind projects. Infinium specified that it would use “waste CO2” for the process, although it did not say where the carbon would be sourced from.Most so-called sustainable aviation fuels in use today are made from waste cooking oils and agricultural residues, but experts are skeptical they’re truly scalable. In theory, fuel made from carbon dioxide captured from the atmosphere and green hydrogen could be carbon neutral, though capturing the carbon, and producing green hydrogen, requires a lot of energy.This first appeared in Heatmap AM, a briefing on the most important climate and energy news. Sign up to get it in your inbox every week day:* indicates requiredEmail Address *Our Privacy Policy & Terms Apply.
John Kerry Unveils America’s Plans for COP28
In a press conference on Wednesday morning, U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry previewed the three main issues the U.S. will be focused on “securing strong outcomes” for at COP28, the United Nations climate conference that kicks off tomorrow:1. Acting on the global stocktake: Negotiators will discuss the results of the first 5-year assessment of global climate progress and how countries might make additional commitments. One of the main sticking points is sure to be language around reducing fossil fuels. Kerry reiterated that the U.S. supports requiring the “phase out of unabated fossil fuels,” which leaves room for the continued...
24 States Are About to Set Climate Targets for the First Time
To date, less than half of all states have set forth targets to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions. Within two years, almost all of them will have official climate goals. Even Texas, even West Virginia, even Wyoming.It’s already been a big year for climate action in states where the issue has been a nonstarter politically. The Inflation Reduction Act, the historic climate package that Biden signed last year, has brought billions of dollars in investment and tens of thousands of new jobs in clean energy manufacturing to places like Georgia. But that state’s governor, Brian Kemp, has managed to...
What Do Rich Countries Owe Their Old Colonies? More Than Once Thought.
At the height of Britain’s power, it was said that the sun never set on its empire. The crown’s tendrils stretched around the world, with colonies on every continent but Antarctica — though I’m sure if there had been anybody around to subjugate on the ice, the crown would have happily set up shop there, too. The British were not, of course, the only colonial power; many of their European brethren had empires of their own. All that colonization takes energy, and the days of empire were also, for the most part, the days of coal. But as countries around...
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