• New York’s Climate Buyout Plans Must Put Communities First: Experts

    In 2022, New York State passed the Clean Water, Clean Air and Green Jobs Environmental Bond Act. Among its many objectives, the act promises to invest more than a billion dollars toward flood protection across the state — including through voluntary private property buyouts. What should a buyout program look like? Designing an equitable buyout program is more complicated than it may seem.

  • Tidal Energy Project for Carbon Emission Reduction and Energy Security

    The University of Oxford will lead an ambitious £7 million project to help deliver scalable, affordable and sustainable tidal stream energy. The project will address the key challenges that are currently preventing the tidal energy sector from reaching its full potential, with the aim of boosting energy security.

  • NOAA’s 1-in-100 Year Flooding Can Now Be Expected Every 8 Years

    NOAA’s 1-in-100 year floods are supposed to occur once every 1 years – except that in parts of the United States, climate change is causing these events to occur at least once every 8-10 years. Moreover, increases in severe rainfall events are taking place in some of the most populated areas of the country – throughout the Northeast, along the Ohio River Valley, and the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast.

  • The Future of Nuclear Power in a Low-Carbon World

    For decades, large gigawatt-scale nuclear reactors have provided a significant portion of electricity in the United States, but most of these reactors are at least 40 years old. As the nation moves to decarbonize the economy and transition to clean energy, there are questions how nuclear power could maintain a position in the future energy mix ― given environmental and safety concerns, as well as the high upfront capital costs associated with building reactors.

  • As California Attempts a “Managed Retreat,” Coastal Homeowners Sue to Stay

    “Managed retreat” is a climate adaptation policy that calls for relocating and removing coastal structures rather than protecting them where they are. Experts say managed retreat is an important last-resort option for adapting to climate change, but California’s early attempts to implement the policy have provoked a backlash from homeowners and politicians.

  • Texas Farmers Are Worried One of the State’s Most Precious Water Resources Is Running Dry. You Should Be, Too.

    The Ogallala Aquifer serves farming communities in multiple states. When it runs dry, the agriculture industry in Texas and the nation is in jeopardy.

  • How Molten Salt Could Be the Lifeblood of Tomorrow’s Nuclear Energy

    Molten salt has caught the eye of the nuclear industry as an ideal working fluid for reactor cooling, energy transfer, fueling and fission product absorption. Many of the salts being considered are inexpensive, nontoxic, and easily transportable – and table salt is one of the constituents many reactor developers are choosing to use.

  • 150 Hydrogen-Powered Trucks Ready to Roll on European Roads

    Truck manufacturers Daimler Truck, Volvo Group, and Iveco have joined with fuel manufacturers and academic researchers to make heavy transport across Europe more climate friendly. The result: The first of a total of 150 hydrogen-powered trucks will start rolling on European roads next year.

  • First Hydrogen Filling Station Opens in Israel

    Israel’s first hydrogen fueling spot has opened, heralding the start of clean hydrogen-based transportation in Israel. Pioneering project enables a shift to non-polluting hydrogen fuel cell-based vehicles.

  • Boosting Supply Chains by Recovering Valuable Materials from Water

    Promoting national security and economic competitiveness will require America’s researchers to find new ways to obtain the materials that we need for many technologies. Traditional mining is fraught with challenges, while water, from the oceans to geothermal brines, is an underexplored resource for providing various materials.

  • Human-Caused Climate Change at the Center of Recent California Wildfires

    Summer wildfire seasons in California routinely break records. The average summer burn area in forests in northern and central portions of the state have increased fivefold between 1996 and 2021 compared to between 1971 and 1995. In a new study, scientist and collaborators shows that nearly all the recent increase in summer wildfire burned area is attributable to human-caused (anthropogenic) climate change.

  • Microgrids Can Help Communities Adapt to Wildfires

    Wildfires have become increasingly frequent due to climate change, with record occurrences in areas not historically prone to them. For some of the most vulnerable communities, clean energy microgrids can be both more effective and cheaper than conventional technologies.

  • Adapt or Retreat? Conference Will Explore Questions of Habitability in a Changing World

    As sea levels rise, fires rage, and temperatures continue to increase around the globe, it is understood that certain areas may no longer be habitable in the not-so-distant future, and that people now living in these area will have to retreat to more accommodating areas — in what is called “managed retreat.” But what does it mean to be habitable? And who gets to decide what happens to these areas under threat?

  • U.S. Critical Infrastructure May Not Be Resilient Enough to Fend Off, Survive Chinese Cyberattacks: CISA Director

    Americans “need to be prepared” for Chinese cyberattacks, U.S. cyber official said, because the United States may not be resilient enough to fend off and survive Chinese attacks on its critical infrastructure should the present great power competition between Washington and Beijing evolve into an actual conflict.

  • Railways Could Be Key “Utility Player” for Backup Power

    The U.S. electric grid faces simultaneous, evolving pressures. Demand for power from the grid is increasing as people adopt electric cars and building energy is transitioned from gas to electricity. New research points to a flexible, cost-effective option for backup power when trouble strikes: batteries aboard trains.