Climate | The Verge

America is at risk of becoming an automotive backwater

2026-02-25T09:21:39-05:00

Traffic moves along the 405 Freeway in Los Angeles in February of 2026. | Apu Gomes/Getty Images

For decades, America's auto industry was the envy of the world, driven by mass production, the rise of Detroit's Big Three automakers, and the iconic stylings of the 1950s and '60s.

Then, through a series of blunders and missteps, things started to unravel. There was the fuel crisis of the 1970s, which led to an influx of Japanese imports that bested Detroit in fuel savings and reliability. And then there were various global financial collapses throughout the 1990s and early 2000s, and a significant decline in automotive quality as the Big Three continued to push bigger and more expensive vehicles, at the expense of road safety and global …

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In one swoop, Trump kills US greenhouse gas regulations

2026-02-12T14:35:41-05:00

Exhaust billows out of a car tailpipe on January 2nd, 2008, in San Francisco. | Photo: Getty Images

The Trump administration just eliminated the landmark finding that has underpinned federal regulations on planet-heating pollution since 2009.

For nearly the past two decades, the "endangerment finding" has allowed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to craft rules limiting greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. Rather than repealing those rules individually, the Trump administration can undermine them all at once by attacking the endangerment finding.

Today, the EPA finalized its plans to overturn the endangerment finding as part of its attempts to overhaul tailpipe pollution standards. The move could also affect efforts …

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It’s a new heyday for gas thanks to data centers

2026-01-30T10:51:32-05:00

Gas turbines at the on-site natural gas plant under construction during a media tour of the Stargate AI data center in Abilene, Texas, US, on Sept. 24, 2025. | Photo: Getty Images

The US is now leading a global surge in new gas power plants being built in large part to satisfy growing energy demand for data centers. And more gas means more planet-heating pollution.

Gas-fired power generation in development globally rose by 31 percent in 2025. Almost a quarter of that added capacity is slated for the US, which has surpassed China with the biggest increase of any country. More than a third of that growth in the US is expected to directly power data centers, according to a recent analysis by the nonprofit Global Energy Monitor (GEM).

More gas means more planet-heating pollution

The rush to install more powerful hardwa …

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The winter storm tested power grids straining to accommodate AI data centers

2026-01-27T17:28:58-05:00

Power lines during a winter storm in Irving, Texas, on Sunday, January 25th. | Photo: Getty Images

The colossal winter storm that swept across 34 states left hundreds of thousands of people without electricity. Bitterly cold temperatures lingering after Winter Storm Fern are still testing power grids, already under stress from a rush of new AI data centers.

Over the weekend, wholesale electricity prices soared in Virginia, the state with the most data centers. And while that's not surprising during a spike in energy demand for heating, it could add to the growing discontent over rising utility bills that has fueled opposition to data centers across the US. Utilities and grid operators were already hard-pressed to meet the increasing pow …

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Why this winter storm will likely be a wild one

2026-01-25T12:26:50-05:00

Most of the US is bracing for a prolonged stretch of frigid weather and a massive winter storm that could wreak havoc on roads and power grids over the next several days.

At least 170 million Americans are under winter weather alerts. "Bitterly cold temperatures and dangerously cold wind chills" will linger even after the storm is done dumping heavy snow, sleet, and freezing rain across the Southern Rockies all the way to New England through Monday, the National Weather Service (NWS) warned Friday. Forecasters expect low temperatures to break numerous records, with wind chills as frigid as minus 50 degrees Fahrenheit in the Northern Plains …

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Trump and Mid-Atlantic governors want tech companies to pay for new power plants

2026-01-16T15:51:18-05:00

An Amazon Web Services data center in Ashburn, Virginia, US, on Tuesday, Oct. 28, 2025. | Photo: Getty Images

The Trump administration and a bipartisan group of governors are pressuring the PJM Interconnection, the biggest electricity market in the US, to hold a power auction meant to spur a massive buildout of new power plants.

Together, they're "urging" PJM to hold an "emergency" auction for companies to procure electricity over 15-year contracts. The unusually long length of the contracts would ostensibly make it easier to build out new infrastructure by guaranteeing revenue and discouraging speculative requests to connect to the grid by data center developers.

The move comes as power grids scramble to meet increasing electricity demand from A …

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How to fireproof a city

2026-01-30T10:53:25-05:00

default | Photo by Adam Amengual / The Verge

Down the street from the Los Angeles Angels' stadium in Anaheim, a crowd gathers to watch two homes burn.

In less than 30 minutes, one structure is reduced to its smoldering, blackened wood frame, while the other, thanks to simple changes to its design, is remarkably unscathed. Of course, this was the point of the demonstration, which was held last June by the Insurance Institute for Business & Home Safety (IBHS) at a firefighting training center.

The heat from the burning demo home is fierce as we stand outside under a bright, cloudless sky. The plume of thick, black smoke is what eventually pushes me back from the front of the audience. …

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RFK Jr.’s new food pyramid could be a disaster for the environment — if Americans actually follow it

2026-01-15T15:07:49-05:00

The Trump administration announced last week that it wants Americans to consume more protein, churning out a colorful illustration of an inverted food pyramid that prominently features a big, red steak, a wedge of cheese, and a carton of whole milk at the top and claiming it's "ending the war on protein." It may seem like another example of cartoonish propaganda from an administration that essentially runs on memes, but don't be fooled: It signals a marked turn from previous advice that encouraged Americans to limit high-fat sources of protein like red meat and whole milk for their health, which can incidentally also curb planet-heating poll …

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America’s new era of energy imperialism is about more than oil

2026-01-23T12:18:01-05:00

President Donald Trump has no shame in admitting what he wants to get out of attacking Venezuela and threatening other energy resource-rich nations. "We're gonna get the oil flowing the way it should be," he said January 3rd, soon after his administration stunned the world with what many policy experts and Democratic lawmakers are calling an unlawful incursion into Caracas that led to the arrest of President Nicolás Maduro.

Trump's fixation on so-called "energy dominance" is also more pretext - on top of federal drug trafficking charges against Maduro - for a plain-old power grab. "Under our new national security strategy, American dominanc …

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Trump’s war on offshore wind faces another lawsuit

2025-12-29T08:23:14-05:00

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Dominion Energy, an offshore wind developer and utility serving Virginia's "data center alley," filed suit against the Trump administration this week over its decision to pause federal leases for large offshore wind projects. The move puts a sudden stop to five wind farms already under construction, including Dominion's Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project.

The complaint Dominion filed Tuesday alleges that a stop work order that the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM) issued Monday is unlawful, "arbitrary and capricious," and "infringes upon constitutional principles that limit actions by the Executive Branch." Dominion wants a fede …

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