The world is on pace to build as much renewable energy in the next five years as it has in the past 40, driving fossil fuels to peak by 2030, according to the annual World Energy Outlook report from the International Energy Agency (IEA). That, the IEA writes, is in spite of the abrupt u-turn in U.S. energy policy that’s pushing oil and natural gas. “No single country can stop the energy transition,” David Tong, a campaigner at Oil Change International, told The Guardian.
Cluck yeah! Lovers of plant-based chicken got a couple new options this week. Daring Foods has rolled out a pair of new products at Walmart and Albertsons; their microwavable Original Diced and Original Shredded plant chicken are soy-based, have 15 grams of protein per serving, and run $5 for 2.5 servings. Meanwhile, Barvecue Smokehouse just debuted its rotisserie-style mock chicken shreds in the frozen aisle at Harris Teeter stores in the Southeast U.S.
The Trump administration is planning to open up the coast off California to oil drilling for the first time in decades, according to documents reviewed by The Washington Post. In addition to selling six leases along the California coastline between 2027 and 2030, the plan is also eyeing new areas in the Gulf of Mexico and near Alaska. This comes as Golden State governor Gavin Newsom is making the rounds at the annual U.N. climate summit in Brazil; there, he told reporters the plan is ”not going to happen. It’s dead on arrival.”
The end of federal tax incentives on new EVs should have spelled doom for the market, but that doesn’t seem to be the case—at least as far as used EVs are concerned. According to analysis from Edmunds, three-year-old electric vehicles are moving off lots faster than gas-powered cars of the same age. The reason? Affordability. With the exception of Tesla’s Model S, the sticker on most used EVs hovers around $25,000, compared to about $31,000 for a gas-burner.
A Montana-based project is testing a unique climate solution: burying trees killed by wildfires to lock their carbon underground. The project has so far sepulchered more than 10 million pounds of fire-damaged wood in a 22-foot-deep pit lined with gravel and soil. In doing so, it’s kept about 5,000 tons of CO₂ out of the atmosphere—equivalent to the annual emissions of around 1,000 cars. It’s a creative form of biomass storage, but experts warn that it’s difficult to scale because it’s only useful when dealing with burnt-out wood.