Interesting Ideas

Washington, DC — During its monthly open meeting today, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) indicated that it no longer plans to complete cumulative impact analyses when conducting environmental reviews of projects. The change was announced in an order approving the Eastern Gas Transmission and Storage Project. FERC Commissioner Chang ... [continued]

The post FERC Will No Longer Complete Cumulative Impact Analyses in Environment Reviews appeared first on CleanTechnica.

In this week’s newsletter: The melting of the Arctic’s summer sea ice is the most visible upshot of the climate crisis. Refreezing it might be a long shot – but do drastic times call for drastic measures?

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Speeding across rapidly melting Arctic ice on a snowmobile gave me a vivid feel for its beauty and fragility. The brilliant white landscape gleamed ahead, while the sky blue pools of meltwater jetted up on to my boots.

When I visited Cambridge Bay in northern Canada at the start of this month, the melt season had hit with brutal speed: temperatures were 5-10C above normal, kickstarting the melting almost overnight.

Why farmers see Colombia’s knife-edge election as a battle for the Amazon’s future

Jamaica’s beach access crisis: ‘We shouldn’t be forced to fight for what is already ours’

‘The Antarctic is the last frontier’: the quest to save Shackleton’s Endurance

Yesterday, BYD officially launched sales of the Datang or “Great Tang.” The premium SUV went on sale with over 150,000 pre-orders on the books over the past month, after having been previewed months earlier. BYD has been supply constrained with its latest models featuring the second-generation Blade Battery. Based on ... [continued]

The post BYD Datang Flagship SUV Launch Impresses appeared first on CleanTechnica.

While the solar industry really got its jumpstart in the US, and then grew to a significant level in Germany, it’s China that completely exploded the industry while driving costs down to unbeatable levels. The same thing basically happened with electric vehicles as well. However, there’s still much more that ... [continued]

The post Solar With Firming Now Beating Gas In Asia, & EVs Could Save Region $350 Billion A Year appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Move to dismantle $368m sea observatory initiative faced opposition from experts and lawmakers

The Donald Trump administration has reversed its decision to dismantle a $368m deep-sea observation system following an outcry from lawmakers and ocean experts.

On Thursday, the National Science Foundation announced that it would halt plans to dismantle the Ocean Observatories Initiative, stating: “effective immediately, [it] will not proceed with further removal or descoping of equipment from the remaining arrays and will continue operations including planned maintenance”.

As farmers choose solar to support operations and boost income, suburban sprawl uses 6x more farmland and golf courses nearly 3x more than solar. WASHINGTON D.C. — The Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) today launched an interactive map showing how solar development and agriculture thrive side-by-side while creating shared value ... [continued]

The post New Map Shows Solar Uses Only 0.07% of U.S. Prime Farmland appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Fossil fuel prices have been in serious crunch zone lately due to the US and Israel war on Iran and oil shipments through the Strait of Hormuz being blocked. That’s been hurting people all around the world, but a recent analysis from Ember shows that people living in Spain have ... [continued]

The post Electricity Bills in Spain €10 Lower Thanks to Renewable Energy appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Hartford Advocates and Community Members Gathered to Remember, Honor Path to Freedom HARTFORD, Ct. — Today, Sierra Club Connecticut and State Representatives Minnie Gonzalez, Maryam Khan, and Jilian Gilchrist hosted Black Lungs Matter, a Juneteenth Press Conference, at the Connecticut Legislative Office Building. The event highlighted the disproportionate impact of ... [continued]

The post Sierra Club Connecticut, State Representatives Host Black Lungs Matter: Juneteenth Press Event appeared first on CleanTechnica.

As demand soars, the country’s mangrove forests and the livelihoods of shellfish gatherers are under threat from encroaching farms and unchecked pollution

At low tide, Johana Carolina Cruz Potes steps into the mudflats around Isla Costa Rica, in Ecuador’s Jambelí Archipelago. Holding a bucket and a short metal hook, she probes the tangled roots of a mangrove patch, searching for concha negra, black-shelled cockles, buried beneath the sludge.

Cruz Potes has done this work since she was nine, when she first followed her father into the mud. But earning a living from shellfish gathering – often the only income for families here – has become harder as grounds shrink and catches decline.

INDIANAPOLIS — Today, the Trump Administration and Department of Energy (DOE) announced yet another extension for the Culley and Schahfer coal-fired power plants since they were ordered to stay open at the end of 2025. This news comes just weeks after the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission revealed that both of the Schahfer ... [continued]

The post Trump Administration Illegally Extends Operations of the Culley & Schahfer Coal Plants for Third Time appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Expansion could also hit access to housing, education, healthcare, open spaces and transport, analysis says

Construction of a third runway at Heathrow is likely to have significant adverse effects on the health and wellbeing of up to 3 million people living nearby, an official report has said, as the government launched the next stage of its rapid airport expansion plan.

An analysis for the Department for Transport (DfT) has found that expanding London’s hub airport could have “major adverse” impacts on the health of the most local population.

Veteran campaigner Robin Hanbury-Tenison is raising money for a research station near his home in Cornwall

Pedalling on water for more than a hundred miles in a heatwave, pushed back by east winds and having to navigate 31 locks would be a challenge for anybody. But when that body is 90 years old, with a bad knee, failing balance and malfunctioning arms and shoulders, it’s a herculean feat.

Rainforest campaigner Robin Hanbury-Tenison, 90, is pedalling 104 miles down the River Thames from Oxford to Richmond on a water-bike to raise money for a unique research station which is being built to study Britain’s temperate rainforest.

Portsmouth, Hampshire: A huge conservation effort is under way to restore native oysters to the Solent, and I was on hand to help give them a pre-release spa day

Native oysters (Ostrea edulis) have been harvested from Chichester Harbour since Roman times, but due to overfishing, disease, pollution and competition from invasive Pacific oysters (Magallana gigas), the population has declined by 96% over the past century.

The Solent Oyster Restoration Project is working to restore reefs by reseeding them with juveniles and installing cages containing a high density of mature broodstock beneath pontoons, to facilitate the release of millions of larvae.

More than half of Ayetoro – a Christian utopia founded in the 1940s – has been lost to the ocean, and its remaining people are running out of options

In the early hours of 15 February 2019, the Atlantic Ocean came for Arowo Victoria’s livelihood. The 60-year-old retired midwife was asleep when neighbours began banging on her door, shouting that the sea had started covering buildings along the nearby coastline.

By the time she got to her small shop, she discovered that the Atlantic had already swept it away, destroying the business she had built with borrowed money after retirement.

Jackery was one of the early pioneers in portable power stations and has continued to push the envelope in the space. It recently hosted CleanTechnica on a dedicated media tour at its headquarters in Shenzhen, China, where the company gave us an early look at its new solar roof system ... [continued]

The post Jackery Solar Roof & SolarVault 3 Home Energy Storage System — CleanTechnica Field Trip appeared first on CleanTechnica.

A prospecting company’s search for gold has the town of Lone Pine and Indigenous leaders on edge, as the Trump administration greenlights new projects across the American west

Lone Pine, population 1,882, lies along a stretch of California highway framed by the vast Inyo mountains and a sweeping desert landscape of sagebrush and dunes.

It’s the type of small town tourists drive through en route to Death Valley; where hikers get a motel room between Pacific Crest Trail treks. But amid the quiet downtown strip of bars and shops, there are signs of a battle brewing under the town’s sleepy surface.

The Canadian firm Graphite One has a plan in the works to onshore the graphite supply for EV batteries and other energy storage applications, with a mine in Alaska and a processing facility in Ohio.

The post Here Comes Another New Addition To The US EV Battery Ecosystem appeared first on CleanTechnica.

Withholding clean energy resources could increase energy bills during increased demand. CHAPEL HILL, N.C. — The Southern Environmental Law Center filed a motion for preliminary injunction today in Wake County Superior Court and challenged the N.C. Utilities Commission’s order halting North Carolina’s 2026 solar and storage procurement process as unconstitutional. At a time of escalating ... [continued]

The post Clean Energy Groups Challenge Utility Commission Cancellation of N.C. Solar Development appeared first on CleanTechnica.

The warming caused by climate breakdown in the landlocked east Asian country is transforming its fragile ecosystem

As the climate crisis accelerates, Mongolia is warming rapidly, transforming the country’s cryosphere, including some of the most southerly permafrost landscapes in the northern hemisphere.

Although rarely associated with the Arctic, Mongolia has a remarkably cold climate. Ulaanbaatar is the coldest capital city in the world, and a substantial portion of the country lies within the Arctic Ocean drainage basin. As a result, many of the physical and ecological processes occurring here resemble those found at much higher latitudes.

People in Khövsgöl province say they have observed an increase in the number of arrivals of migratory birds from China in recent years, consuming large quantities of fish in the region’s lakes. In northern Mongolia, communities closely tied to fishing, herding and tourism are witnessing the visible transformation of fragile freshwater ecosystems shaped by climate breakdown and the changing cryosphere.

Historical surveys conducted in the 1970s suggested that nearly 63% of Mongolia was underlain by permafrost. Today, estimates indicate that only 26% to 29% remains. Unlike the ice-rich permafrost of Siberia, Canada or Alaska, much of Mongolia’s permafrost is relatively warm, thin and dry, making it particularly sensitive to rising temperatures. Climate change is the primary reason for this decline, although local pressures such as overgrazing can further accelerate thaw by removing the vegetation that insulates the ground – Nikolay Shiklomanov, a professor in the department of geography and environment at George Washington University

Scientists are examining how ‘blood rain’ affects soil microbiome, with Portuguese vineyards a particular focus

Dust events, when thousands of tonnes of fine sand whipped up from the Sahara are dumped over Europe, are becoming more intense. These sometimes produce “blood rain” that leaves visible red streaks, and while generally harmless, the dust is not sterile but brings a freight of microorganisms.

One big concern is how imported microbes may affect the soil microbiome and impact agricultural fertility and crop yield. Southern Portugal lies along one of the main deposition routes for Saharan dust, and the effect on vineyards in particular is a growing concern. A team from the University of Lisbon carried out genomic mapping of microbes in dust samples from 2022’s Storm Celia.