WHITE HOUSE HOLDS SUMMIT TO TACKLE RISING TEMPERATURES: Dozens of healthcare professionals, emergency responders, scientific think tanks, and local and state leaders gathered at the White House today for the first-ever Extreme Heat Summit.
The administration first announced the summit this summer as a platform to discuss what more can be done for cities affected by severe rising temperatures. Today, President Joe Biden’s national climate advisor Ali Zaidi was set to issue an “Extreme Heat Call to Action,” asking states, tribes, territories, local governments, businesses, and NGOs to take more action in protecting Americans from the dangers of extreme heat.
The call recommends opening resilience hubs or cooling centers during extreme heat events, installing new cooling infrastructure, improving tree canopy, establishing stronger ways to track progress on heat and health metrics, running planning exercises, and providing healthcare professionals with new resources.
Some background: The summit comes one day after the NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information reported that last month was the hottest August on record. With average global land and ocean surface temperatures 2.29 degrees above the average, August marked the fifteenth straight month of record-high global temperatures.
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HARRIS ‘NEEDS’ FRACKING, FORMER OBAMA AIDE SAYS: As Kamala Harris has changed her stance on fracking, former Obama aide Van Jones now says the vice president “needs” the drilling method if elected president.
The details: During an appearance last night on CNN, Jones indicated that fracking has become invaluable for the United States amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
“Kamala Harris needs fracking. She needs fracking. The idea that – they spent four years, they did nothing to stop fracking, the idea she would stop it now is literally ludicrous,” Jones said. “Why does she need it? Fracking has given us a geopolitical weapon against Putin.”
Some background: U.S. LNG shipments to Europe soared in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and now account for nearly half of the total imports to the continent. Pennsylvania, which is home to the largest source of shale natural gas in the country, is one of the top five producing states of natural gas, according to the Energy Information Administration.
During her 2020 campaign, Harris voiced support for a fracking ban, telling CNN at the time, “There’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking.” She appeared to take a more centrist approach earlier this summer, and vowed not to issue a ban during this week’s debate. “Let’s talk about fracking, because I made that very clear in 2020 I will not ban fracking,” Harris said.
TACKLING CLIMATE CHANGE THROUGH ADS: The Hague has become the first city in the world to ban advertising for fossil fuel products. Approved late last night, the ban in the Netherlands’ third largest city is set to take effect on Jan. 1.
While other major cities like Edinburgh, Scotland, have also sought to ban or limit advertising for fossil fuels, The Hague’s efforts are the first to be written in local law. Under the new ban, public and private advertising for high-carbon activities and products will no longer be allowed on billboards, at bus stops, or on free-standing screens. This is expected to affect advertising for gas and diesel, air travel, and cruise ships.
Some background: In June, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres asked countries to take similar action, claiming oil and gas companies are “distorting the truth, deceiving the public, and sowing doubt” about climate change. Guterres pointed to similar bans on advertising harmful products like tobacco.
OIL DIPS SLIGHTLY AFTER GULF OF MEXICO SHUTINS: The cost of oil dropped again this afternoon, after having risen by more than $1 a barrel Friday morning.
Just before 3 pm, West Texas Intermediate crude oil was priced at around $68.74, down by 0.33% (or $0.23). Prices had risen as high as $70.21 mid-Friday morning, giving hopes that the streak of weekly declines would finally break.
What’s going on: Experts have said that major disruptions in oil output had been supporting slightly higher prices. For weeks, Libya has seen supply decline amid facility shutdowns due to a feud over its central bank. Meanwhile, the Gulf of Mexico saw around 42% of crude oil and 53% of natural gas production offline yesterday afternoon due to Hurricane Francine.
Giovanni Staunovo, an analyst with UBS, told Reuters that these supply disruptions are keeping “the oil market tight.”
“Further support is likely coming from short-covering activity as a result of rebounding prices,” Staunovo added.
WHAT IT TAKES TO PUT OUT A BURNING TESLA SEMI: It took 50,000 gallons of water and airlifted fire retardant to put out a fire caused by the crash of a Tesla Semi, the National Transportation Safety Board said yesterday.
The truck crashed while traveling between Tesla sites northeast of Sacramento on Aug. 19. Firefighters had said that the battery fire temperature reached 1,000 degrees, the Associated Press reported.
Putting out lithium battery fires poses a significant problem for firefighters. EVs can burn hotter and much longer than gas-fired vehicles, leading firefighters to try new methods for putting out fires. In some cases, they figure that the best approach is to try to keep the fire cool using water until it burns itself out.
CLEAN ENERGY THREATENED UNDER TRUMP, LEADERS WARN: Several leaders in green technology are on record in the Financial Times warning that former President Donald Trump could threaten the automotive industry in the U.S., wipe out offshore wind, and hurt the nation’s efforts to distance itself from China as a superpower with renewable energy.
“There is a very good chance that he’ll try to just kill the industry and try to shut things down and maybe even revoke permits,” Christopher MacRae Ham, manager of offshore wind at energyRe, told the outlet.
“Wall Street is getting itself convinced that somehow a Trump win is the death knell for companies like ours, which it isn’t,” said Desmond Wheatley, chief executive of electric vehicle charging company Beam Global. “But it negatively impacts our share price.”
ICYMI: WHITE HOUSE HOSTS MEETING WITH TOP AI EXECUTIVES: Yesterday the White House held a roundtable with executives from top tech companies like OpenAI, Microsoft, Google, Meta, and more, where they discussed how to support AI and data center development while meeting the administration’s climate goals.
The industry leaders met with top administration officials including but not limited to White House Chief of Staff Jeff Zients, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, National Climate Advisor Ali Zaidi, Senior Advisor to the President for International Climate Policy John Podesta, Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm, and Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo.
Among the industry figures who attended were Dario Amodei of Anthropic, Jensen Huang of Nvidia, Brad Smith of Microsoft, and Sam Altman of OpenAI.
Together, they discussed the importance of developing AI within the U.S. to keep these technologies “safe, secure, and trustworthy,” while also creating more jobs and keeping energy costs low, the White House said. The administration said that representatives from hyperscalers like Amazon Web Services also affirmed their goals for net zero carbon emissions while securing clean energy.
To support this effort, the White House launched a “Task Force on AI Datacenter Infrastructure” and said it will – through the federal Permitting Council – increase funds to accelerate the evaluations for clean energy projects that supply data centers.
RUNDOWN
The Guardian ‘Not on my watch’: how windfarms became a key issue in NSW local elections
San Diego Union-Tribune San Diego County air pollution officers to develop alert system for noxious sewage odors
BBC ‘People can be a positive force for nature’: The fishermen reviving Finland’s scarred wastelands
Los Angeles Times A key ally in the battle against climate change? People over 60