In her first interview since becoming the Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris told CNN’s Dana Bash that her “values have not changed,” even though when she ran for the nomination in 2019, she said she was in favor of a ban. Fracking, of course, is a lightning rod issue in the critical swing state of Pennsylvania.
The Elon Musk-led company is allegedly running gas turbines without the proper permit at a data center in Memphis, TN. Local environmental groups are reportedly urging regulators to investigate.
They’re worried about nitrogen oxides (NOx), smog-forming pollution that can aggravate respiratory illness.
The company has a target of making all of its hardware packaging without plastic by 2025. Packaging for new products it made and launched in 2023 was at least 99 percent plastic-free, according to the company’s latest sustainability report. It’s replacing plastic with paper, which can be included in curbside recycling programs unlike most plastic packaging.
The Biden administration needs to conduct more thorough environmental reviews, advocates contend.
Roughly half of customers lost power yesterday. As of this morning, more than 30 percent of customers are still without service, according to power utility Luma Energy.
It shows how vulnerable the US territory’s grid is after Hurricane Maria hit in 2017 and left residents without electricity for up to 11 months. In July, Puerto Rico filed a $1 billion suit against fossil fuel companies.
[The Washington Post]
They’re on different sides of a debate over how to counteract pollution from data centers’ energy use, Financial Times reports.
Amazon and Meta are part of a lobby group that wants more lax standards for renewable energy certificates, which can pose similar risks as carbon offset credits. Google, meanwhile, backs a different strategy for bringing more renewables online wherever data centers operate.
[Financial Times]
