RSS Parrot

The U.S. Has Lost $34 Billion in Clean Energy Projects

https://heatmap.news/am/clean-energy-cancellations

Published: February 6, 2026 12:40

Current conditions: Temperatures across the Northeast will drop nearly 30 degrees Fahrenheit below historical averages as another five inches snow heads for New England • Warmer air blowing eastward from the Pacific is set to ease the East Coast cold snap…

Factories Are Becoming More Like Data Centers

https://heatmap.news/energy/factories-data-centers

Published: February 5, 2026 22:49

A group of local activists recently rallied against a major new industrial site in their area.They worried the new facility was going to suck up water and electricity. They fretted about the chemicals and risky materials it might store on site. And they…

Google’s Investment Surge Is Fabulous News for Utilities

https://heatmap.news/sparks/google-amazon-capex-data-centers

Published: February 5, 2026 21:34

Big tech is spending big on data centers — which means it’s also spending big on power.Alphabet, the parent company of Google, announced Wednesday that it expects to spend $175 billion to $185 billion on capital expenditures this year. That estimate is…

White House Pitches Allies on an Anti-China Mineral Trading Bloc

https://heatmap.news/am/trump-mineral-summit

Published: February 5, 2026 12:32

Current conditions: The snow squalls and cold air headed from the Ohio Valley to the Northeast are coming with winds of up to 55 miles per hour • A “western disturbance,” an extratropical storm that originates in the Mediterranean and travels eastward, is…

The Super Safe, Super Expensive Nuclear Fuel That’s Making a Comeback

https://heatmap.news/energy/antares-bwxt-triso

Published: February 5, 2026 10:00

Long before the infamous trio of accidents at Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, and Fukushima, nuclear scientists started working on a new type of fuel that would make a meltdown nearly impossible. The result was “tri-structural isotropic” fuel, better known…

Lunar Energy Raises $232 Million to Scale Virtual Power Plants

https://heatmap.news/climate-tech/lunar-energy-vpp

Published: February 4, 2026 14:00

The concept of virtual power plants has been kicking around for decades. Coordinating a network of distributed energy resources — think solar panels, batteries, and smart appliances — to operate like a single power plant upends our notion of what…

Why Driverless Cars Still Can’t Handle Snow

https://heatmap.news/adaptation/driverless-cars-snow

Published: February 4, 2026 13:47

If all the snow and ice over the past week has you fed up, you might consider moving to San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Austin, or Atlanta. These five cities receive little to no measurable snow in a given year; subtropical Atlanta technically gets…

Doug Burgum Suggests the Supreme Court Will Kill Offshore Wind

https://heatmap.news/am/scotus-offshore-wind

Published: February 4, 2026 12:32

Current conditions: After a brief reprieve of temperatures hovering around freezing, the Northeast is bracing for a return to Arctic air and potential snow squalls at the end of the week • Cyclone Fytia’s death toll more than doubled to seven people in…

Trump’s Most Self-Defeating Move on Rare Minerals

https://heatmap.news/podcast/shift-key-s3-e25-critical-minerals

Published: February 4, 2026 10:10

President Trump announced on Monday that the U.S. would create a domestic stockpile of critical minerals for civilian use — essentially a Strategic Petroleum Reserve, but for lithium, copper, rare earths, and other rocks central to electronics and…

Scoop: New Bipartisan House Bill Would Keep President From Yanking Permits

https://heatmap.news/politics/freedom-act

Published: February 3, 2026 14:38

A specter is haunting permitting reform talks — the specter of regulatory uncertainty. That seemingly anodyne two-word term has become Beltway shorthand for President Donald Trump’s unrelenting campaign to rescind federal permits for offshore wind…

The Radical Grid Idea Gaining Traction on the Right — and the Left

https://heatmap.news/energy/consumer-regulated-electricity

Published: February 3, 2026 14:19

Debates over electricity policy usually have a common starting point: the “natural monopoly” of the transmission system, wherein the poles and wires that connect power plants to homes and businesses have exclusive franchises in a certain territory and…

Trump’s Latest Metals Play: A $12 Billion Mineral Stockpile

https://heatmap.news/am/trump-critical-minerals-stockpile

Published: February 3, 2026 12:41

Current conditions: Yet another snow storm is set to powder parts of the Ohio Valley and the Mid-Atlantic • Cyclone Fytia is deluging Madagascar, causing flooding that left at least three dead and 30,000 displaced in a country still reeling from the recent…

Sunrise Wind Got Its Injunction

https://heatmap.news/sparks/sunrise-wind-stop-work-injunction

Published: February 2, 2026 21:12

The offshore wind industry is now five-for-five against Trump’s orders to halt construction. District Judge Royce Lamberth ruled Monday morning that Orsted could resume construction of the Sunrise Wind project off the coast of New England. This wasn’t a…

To See the Future of EVs, Visit Costa Rica

https://heatmap.news/electric-vehicles/costa-rica-chinese-evs

Published: February 2, 2026 19:07

The cars that sit atop the list of best-selling electric vehicles in the world wouldn’t surprise Americans. Through the first three quarters of 2025, Tesla’s Model Y and Model 3 were the number one and two EVs in the world, just as they are in the United…

Duke Energy Asks for Help Keeping the Lights on in Cold Snap

https://heatmap.news/am/duke-energy-storm

Published: February 2, 2026 13:21

Current conditions: A bomb cyclone dumped as much as 16 inches of snow on North Carolina, and more snow could come by midweek • Tampa, Florida, is seeing rare flurries, putting embattled citrus crops at risk • Sri Lanka is being inundated by intense…

The 3 Big Unknowns About the EPA’s Biggest Climate Science Rollback Ever

https://heatmap.news/climate/epa-endangerment-finding-questions

Published: February 2, 2026 12:09

Any day now, Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency is expected to officially rescind what climate advocates refer to as “the endangerment finding,” its 2009 determination that greenhouse gas emissions threaten Americans’ public health and welfare and…

Trump Administration Restarts Key Permitting Process for Wind Farms

https://heatmap.news/politics/eagle-deaths-wind-ban

Published: January 30, 2026 19:49

When Trump first entered office, he banned wind projects from receiving permits that would allow operators to unintentionally hurt or kill a certain number of federally protected eagles, transforming one of his favorite attacks on the industry into a…

Funding Friday: A Big Week for Batteries

https://heatmap.news/climate-tech/form-energy-redwood

Published: January 30, 2026 17:25

It’s been a big few weeks for both minerals recycling and venture capital fundraising. As I wrote about earlier this week, battery recycling powerhouse Redwood Materials just closed a $475 million Series E round, fueled by its pivot to repurposing used…

Electricity Demand Is Rapidly Eclipsing The U.S. Supply

https://heatmap.news/am/us-electricity-supply

Published: January 30, 2026 12:32

Current conditions: The bomb cyclone barrelling toward the East Coast is set to dump up to 6 inches of snow on North Carolina in one of the state’s heaviest snowfalls in decades • The Arctic cold and heavy snow that came last weekend has already left more…

Why the Northeast’s Cap and Trade Market Is Suddenly Controversial

https://heatmap.news/energy/regional-greenhouse-gas-initiative

Published: January 29, 2026 23:04

The Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative has been quietly accelerating the energy transition in the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast since 2005. Lately, however, the noise around the carbon market has gotten louder as many of the compact’s member states have seen…

The Trump Administration Is Now Delaying Renewable Projects It Thinks Are Ugly

https://heatmap.news/plus/the-fight/spotlight/army-corps-water-permit-aesthetic

Published: January 29, 2026 18:08

A new Trump administration policy is indefinitely delaying necessary water permits for solar and wind projects across the country, including those located entirely on private land. The Army Corps of Engineers published a brief notice to its website in…

A Data Center Dies in Wisconsin

https://heatmap.news/plus/the-fight/hotspots/qts-wisconsin-indiana

Published: January 29, 2026 18:05

Dane County, Wisconsin – The QTS data center project we’ve been tracking closely is now dead, after town staff in the host community of DeForest declared its plans “unfeasible.” As I previously explained to Fight readers, this QTS project was a…

How Data Centers Became an Election Issue in Georgia

https://heatmap.news/plus/the-fight/qa/connie-di-cicco

Published: January 29, 2026 18:05

This week’s conversation is with Connie Di Cicco, legislative director for Georgia Conservation Voters. I reached out to Connie because I wanted to best understand last November’s Public Service Commission elections which, as I explained at the time,…

European EV Sales Overtake Gas for the First Time

https://heatmap.news/am/tesla-model-s

Published: January 29, 2026 13:09

Current conditions: A bomb cyclone is headed up the East Coast, bringing more cold air and possible blizzard conditions to the Northeast, especially New England • Even Tampa Bay, where so-called snowbirds from the Northeast go to winter, could see snow by…

Utilities Asked for a Lot More Money From Ratepayers Last Year

https://heatmap.news/sparks/powerlines-utility-rate-increase-2025

Published: January 29, 2026 11:00

Utilities asked regulators for permission to extract a lot more money from ratepayers last year.Electric and gas utilities requested almost $31 billion worth of rate increases in 2025, according to an analysis by the energy policy nonprofit PowerLines…

Redwood Materials Is Cashing In on Its Big Battery Bet

https://heatmap.news/climate-tech/redwood-425-million-series-e

Published: January 28, 2026 22:59

Amidst a two year-long slump in lithium prices, the Nevada-based battery recycling company Redwood Materials announced last summer that it had begun a new venture focused on grid-scale energy storage. Today, it’s clear just how much that bet has paid off.…

Why Michigan’s Big Oil Lawsuit Is Not Like the Others

https://heatmap.news/climate/michigan-big-oil-antitrust

Published: January 28, 2026 19:55

A new kind of climate lawsuit just dropped.Last week the state of Michigan joined the parade of governments at all levels suing fossil fuel companies for climate change-related damages. But it’s testing a decidedly different strategy: Rather than allege…

America Just Officially Quit The Paris Agreement, Again

https://heatmap.news/am/trump-paris-agreement

Published: January 28, 2026 13:00

Current conditions: Temperatures as low as 30 degrees Fahrenheit below average are expected to persist for at least another week throughout the Northeast, including in New York City • Midsummer heat is driving temperatures up near 100 degrees in Paraguay •…

What the China-Canada EV Trade Deal Really Means

https://heatmap.news/podcast/shift-key-s3-e24-china-canada-evs

Published: January 28, 2026 10:10

It’s been a huge few weeks for the electric vehicle industry — at least in North America.After a major trade deal, Canada is set to import tens of thousands of new electric vehicles from China every year, and it could soon invite a Chinese automaker to…

Trump Loses Another Case Against Offshore Wind

https://heatmap.news/sparks/vineyard-wind-stop-work-order

Published: January 28, 2026 00:02

The Vineyard Wind offshore wind project can continue construction while the company’s lawsuit challenging the Trump administration’s stop work order proceeds, judge Brian E. Murphy for the District of Massachusetts ruled on Tuesday. That makes four…

The Other Startup Promising 100 Hours of Cheap Energy Storage

https://heatmap.news/climate-tech/noon-energy-long-duration-battery

Published: January 27, 2026 21:15

Whatever you think of as the most important topic in energy right now — whether it’s electricity affordability, grid resilience, or deep decarbonization — long-duration energy storage will be essential to achieving it. While standard lithium-ion batteries…

Trump Takes an Equity Stake in Another Rare Earth Company

https://heatmap.news/am/trump-usa-rare-earth

Published: January 27, 2026 12:51

Current conditions: Winter Storm Fern may have caused up to $115 billion in economic losses and triggered the longest stretch of subzero temperatures in New York City’s history • Temperatures across the American South plunged up to 30 degrees Fahrenheit…

The Grid Survived The Storm. Now Comes The Cold.

https://heatmap.news/energy/winter-storm-electricity-cold

Published: January 26, 2026 22:16

Winter Storm Fern made the final stand of its 2,300-mile arc across the United States on Monday as it finished dumping 17 inches of “light, fluffy” snow over parts of Maine. In its wake, the storm has left hundreds of thousands without power, killed more…

A Million Households Face Outages During Winter Storm

https://heatmap.news/am/winter-storm-fern-blackouts

Published: January 26, 2026 13:30

Current conditions: Winter Storm Fern buried broad swaths of the country, from Oklahoma City to Boston • Intense flooding in Zimbabwe and Mozambique have killed more than 100 people • South Australia’s heat wave is raging on, raising temperatures as high…

Climate Change Won’t Make Winter Storms Less Deadly

https://heatmap.news/climate/winter-storm-fossil-fuels

Published: January 23, 2026 19:02

The relationship between fossil fuels and severe weather is often presented as a cause-and-effect: Burning coal, oil, and gas for heat and energy forces carbon molecules into a reaction with oxygen in the air to form carbon dioxide, which in turn traps…

Secrecy Is Backfiring on Data Center Developers

https://heatmap.news/plus/the-fight/spotlight/data-center-secrecy

Published: January 23, 2026 16:35

It’s time to call it like it is: Many data center developers seem to be moving too fast to build trust in the communities where they’re siting projects. One of the chief complaints raised by data center opponents across the country is that companies aren’t…

Missouri Could Be First State to Ban Solar Construction

https://heatmap.news/plus/the-fight/hotspots/missouri-solar-ban

Published: January 23, 2026 16:35

Cole County, Missouri – The Show Me State may be on the precipice of enacting the first state-wide solar moratorium. GOP legislation backed by Missouri Governor Mike Kehoe would institute a temporary ban on building any utility-scale solar projects in the…

Why Environmental Activists Are Shifting Focus to Data Centers

https://heatmap.news/plus/the-fight/qa/sandy-field

Published: January 23, 2026 16:33

This week’s conversation is with Sandy Field, leader of the rural Pennsylvania conservation organization Save Our Susquehanna. Field is a climate activist and anti-fossil fuel advocate who has been honored by former vice president Al Gore. Until recently,…

The Chevy Bolt Is Already Dead. Again.

https://heatmap.news/electric-vehicles/chevy-bolt-dead

Published: January 23, 2026 15:00

We knew the revived Chevrolet Bolt might have a limited run. Nobody knew it would be this limited.General Motors began manufacturing the updated version of its small electric car late last year to begin deliveries this month. Already the news of its…

Funding Friday: FleetZero, Fervo, and a Fusion SPAC

https://heatmap.news/climate-tech/fervo-zanskar-fleetzero

Published: January 23, 2026 14:41

Practically every week brings a flood of climate tech funding news and announcements — startups raising a new round, a venture capital firm closing a fresh fund, and big projects hitting (and missing) milestones. Going forward, I’ll close out each week…

Fervo, And a Fusion Company, Are Going Public

https://heatmap.news/am/fervo-ipo

Published: January 23, 2026 12:37

Current conditions: The monster snow storm headed eastward could dump more than a foot of snow on New York City this weekend • An extreme heat wave in Australia is driving temperatures past 104 degrees Fahrenheit • In northwest India, Jammu and Kashmir are…

Chris Wright Is Overhauling $83 Billion of Loans. He Won’t Say Which Ones.

https://heatmap.news/sparks/83-billion-energy-loans

Published: January 22, 2026 22:02

The Department of Energy announced on Thursday that it has eliminated nearly $30 billion in loans and conditional commitments for clean energy projects issued by the Biden administration. The agency is also in the process of “restructuring” or “revising”…

Can Chinese EVs Just ... Come to the U.S.?

https://heatmap.news/electric-vehicles/china-canada-geely-ces

Published: January 22, 2026 20:30

Chinese EVs are at the gates.Low-priced electric vehicles by the likes of Geely, BYD, and Zeekr have already sold enormous numbers in their home country and spearheaded EV growth around the world, from Southeast Asia to Latin America. Now they’re closing…

Two Geothermal Startups Raise a Combined $212 Million

https://heatmap.news/am/geothermal-fundraising

Published: January 22, 2026 12:49

Current conditions: The winter storm barreling from Texas to Delaware could drop up to 2 feet of snow on Appalachia • Severe floods in Mozambique’s province of Gaza have displaced nearly 330,000 people • Parts of northern Minnesota and North Dakota are…

Venezuela’s Oil Is Only Part of Its Climate Story

https://heatmap.news/climate/venezuela-climate-data

Published: January 22, 2026 11:57

The nation of Venezuela perches atop a fifth of the planet’s recoverable crude oil. Due to mismanagement, corruption, failing infrastructure, and a dearth of technical expertise, its output, however, is low — less than a million barrels a day. If…

Scoop: Trump Administration Refuses to Allow Safety Fixes at Vineyard Wind

https://heatmap.news/politics/trump-vineyard-wind-repairs

Published: January 21, 2026 20:44

In the Atlantic ocean south of Massachusetts, 10 wind turbine towers, each 500 feet tall, stand stripped of their rotary blades. Stuck in this bald state due to the Trump administration’s halt on offshore wind construction, the towers are susceptible to…

Zanskar Raises $115 Million to Propel Geothermal Discoveries

https://heatmap.news/climate-tech/zanskar-series-c

Published: January 21, 2026 13:00

One of the buzziest climate tech companies of the past year is proving that a mature, hitherto moribund technology — conventional geothermal — still has untapped potential. After a breakthrough year of major discoveries, Zanskar has raised a $115 million…

House Democrats Probe Trump Official’s Financial Ties to Lithium Project

https://heatmap.news/am/trump-lithium-mine

Published: January 21, 2026 12:46

Current conditions: A major winter storm stretching across a dozen states, from Texas to Delaware, and could hit by midweek • The edge of the Sahara Desert in North Africa is experiencing sandstorms kicked up by colder air heading southward • The…

Why America’s Climate Emissions Surged in 2025

https://heatmap.news/podcast/shift-key-s3-e23-ben-king

Published: January 21, 2026 10:10

America’s estimated greenhouse gas emissions rose by 2.4% last year — which is a big deal since they had been steady or falling in 2023 and 2024. More ominously, U.S. emissions grew faster than our gross domestic product last year, suggesting that the…

Doug Burgum’s Crisis

https://heatmap.news/politics/doug-burgum-greenland

Published: January 20, 2026 21:57

One thing has long stood out about U.S. Interior Secretary Doug Burgum: Even before he ran for office, he talked a lot about freedom. It’s really striking, even for a Republican.Perhaps you don’t know Burgum’s story. He grew up a shaggy-haired boy in tiny…

New Jersey’s New Governor Froze Electricity Prices During Her First Speech

https://heatmap.news/sparks/new-jersey-electricity-prices

Published: January 20, 2026 19:08

Mikie Sherill, a former Navy helicopter pilot, was best known during her tenure in the House of Representatives as a prominent Democratic voice on national security issues. But by the time she ran for governor of New Jersey, utility bills were spiking up…