An Oregon gas company said it could clean up its act by turning to “renewable natural gas” made from organic waste. Years later, it’s selling customers just as much fossil fuel gas as it did before, according to a ProPublica investigation.
Fossil fuel giants have used AI for years to increase production. Now, Microsoft sees the generative AI boom as an opportunity to boost profits for itself and oil and gas companies it wants to strike deals with, Karen Hao reports for The Atlantic. Microsoft’s own greenhouse gas emissions are growing with its focus on AI, taking the company further away from its climate goals.
[The Atlantic]
It popped up quickly with little transparency around its potential impact on the power grid, air quality, or water resources, local advocates say. The Elon Musk-led company is reportedly running gas generators without a proper permit. Local utility officials reportedly signed NDAs.
“We have been deemed by xAI not even valuable enough to have a conversation with,” says KeShaun Pearson, who grew up a few miles from the facility and is president of the local nonprofit Memphis Community Against Pollution. “To not even be included in conversations about what is transpiring in our own backyards.”
Meanwhile, Trump claims that under a Harris presidency, “Oil will be dead. Fossil fuel will be dead. We’ll go back to windmills and we’ll go back to solar.”
I will not ban fracking. I have not banned fracking as Vice President of the United States and in fact I was the tie breaking vote on the Inflation Reduction Act which opened new leases on fracking.
Climate advocates previously hoped Harris would take a tougher stance against fracking. This statement in tonight’s debate repeats a promise she made in her CNN interview last month.
The Verge spoke with Bill Gates about AI, misinformation, and climate change.
The number of heat-related deaths recorded in the US climbed 117 percent between 1999 and 2023, according to recent research.
In Hell or High Water, a podcast from Vox Media and Audible Originals, we explore how heat hits certain communities harder after a history of racist redlining in the US. There’s still a lot of work to do to end disparities and save lives.
[Audible.com]
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]
SunPower helped kick off a solar boom in the US, Canary Media explains. But the company was hit hard by soaring interest rates and faced allegations of mismanagement, CNBC reports. Solar companies in the US have grappled with inflation and supply chain kinks pushing up projects costs in recent years, and have struggled to compete with more affordable panels made in China.
Scientists discovered ‘dark oxygen’ in the ocean’s abyss, where companies want to mine battery metals.
