"The deadly Los Angeles area wildfires were turned into a political conflagration on Wednesday as President-elect Donald Trump rekindled past threats to withhold disaster aid to Democratic opponents in California."
"Nearly all major global climate datasets agree that, in 2024, human-caused global warming for the first time pushed Earth’s average surface temperature to more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average for a full calendar year, a level that countries around the world had agreed to do all they could to avoid."
As the Biden White House rushes to enact environment and energy policy before Inauguration Day, an obscure law leaves room for the incoming administration to claw them back. At risk: strengthened emissions standards for vehicles and power, tougher energy efficiency standards and plans to replace lead pipes. The latest EJ TransitionWatch explains how the reversal works — and why it might not.
"U.S. coal plant use is dropping, but utilities are delaying their retirement and running them — even when they cost more than renewable sources."
"President-elect Donald Trump appears “very sympathetic” to requests to issue an executive order reversing many of President Joe Biden’s energy policies in Alaska, Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) said in an interview Thursday, a move with sweeping implications for oil and gas drilling on millions of acres of federal lands in the state."
"A long-awaited La Nina has finally appeared, but the periodic cooling of Pacific Ocean waters is weak and unlikely to cause as many weather problems as usual, meteorologists said Thursday."
"Posting on the social media site he owns, Mr. Musk blamed the fires on government. Scientists said a warming planet set the conditions."
"The Great Salt Lake is shrinking, and new research published Tuesday reports that saving it requires reducing the amount of farmland that is irrigated in the region."
"It’s too soon to know the financial cost of the wildfires burning around Los Angeles. But the toll on California’s troubled insurance market could be enormous."
"One of President-elect Donald J. Trump’s biggest “drill, baby, drill” initiatives suffered a significant setback on Wednesday as the Interior Department announced that a lease sale in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge ended without a single bidder."
