He signed a series of executive orders today meant to revive the nuclear energy industry in the US, which has struggled to compete with cheaper sources of electricity. The president could also hit the Nuclear Regulatory Commission with layoffs as part of a broader reorganization of the agency.
GOP lawmakers passed resolutions rescinding federal approval of California’s plans to require that all car sales be zero-emission by 2035, as well as policies limiting nitrogen oxide emissions and other pollutants from trucks.
Republicans fast-tracked passage of the resolutions using a maneuver that nonpartisan watchdogs said should be barred, and that Governor Gavin Newsom calls illegal. The Clean Air Act gives California authority to set state pollution limits that are more stringent than federal regulation.
On Wednesday, the House of Representatives passed President Donald Trump’s “One Big, Beautiful Bill” which would ban gender-affirming care for Medicaid recipients as well as those insured under the Affordable Care Act. House Republican leadership struck the phrase “for minors” with an amendment last night. Some Democrats are pushing back. Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL) told The Independent, “It’s horrible, and obviously the fight doesn’t end here.”
The bill now heads to Senate.
Researchers at Johns Hopkins claim to have developed a solid-state refrigeration tech that could increase efficiency by 70 percent compared to traditional thermoelectric materials.
The thin-film material called “controlled hierarchically engineered superlattice structures” (CHESS for short) is a thermoelectric material that could be used to make super-energy-efficient, super-slim fridges. And they might come from Samsung.
Samsung Research was part of the project, and the electronics giant just launched a new line of fridges with a thermoelectric Peltier module.
Updated May 22nd to clarify the efficiency comparison.
No, not those sorts of drugs, the kinds that could save your life.
The Empire Wind project off the coast of New York can restart construction, about a month after the Trump administration abruptly issued a stop work order. The project was reportedly bleeding $50 million a week during the pause as President Trump waged his war against windmills.
The company building it had considered taking legal action against the Trump administration; it already had federal and state permits in place and construction is roughly 30 percent complete.
