Climate, in brief

SpaceXAI, the company Elon Musk formed when SpaceX bought his AI firm xAI this year, runs a data centre called Colossus 2 in the Whitehaven neighbourhood of Memphis, Tennessee. [1]

The local grid could not deliver enough electricity on the company's timetable, so it put portable gas turbines on a site in Southaven, Mississippi, just over the state line. The gas burns in one state and the electricity crosses into the other. [1]

Mississippi's pollution regulator decided portable equipment could run for up to a year without an air permit, so no permit was applied for and no public hearing was held. [1]

State inspectors counted 46 turbines in May, 60 in June and 69 by July. In January the company had said it was running 27. [1]

By July the turbines could produce about 1,775 megawatts, which rivals the biggest power stations in Mississippi and is enough for more than 1.4 million homes. [1]

Researchers led by Kevin Gauld at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology used NASA's TEMPO satellite, which watches air pollution over North America, to measure nitrogen oxides above the site. [2]

Emissions averaged about 730 kilograms an hour from February to August and peaked at 1,180 kilograms an hour in August. A nearby gas power plant in the same state averaged 21 kilograms an hour. [2]

Nitrogen oxides inflame the airways, make asthma worse and help form smog. Most of the portable turbines have no catalytic converters, the devices that strip those gases out of the exhaust. [2]

SpaceXAI and local authorities dispute the satellite finding. The company has promised to remove all 69 temporary turbines by July 2027 and replace them with 41 permanent ones that do have pollution controls. [2]

The NAACP, the oldest civil-rights organisation in the United States, sued in April, arguing that dozens of portable machines working together are one power plant and need a permit under US clean-air law. [1]

In June the US Justice Department asked the court to throw the case out, saying that cutting Colossus 2's power would harm AI progress and national security. [1]

Taylor Logsdon, who lives in Colonial Hills about a mile away, put up three air monitors herself. Over four months, fine soot around her house went above the US health limit about a third of the time. [1]

SpaceXAI has also built what may be the largest battery in the United States at the same hub. Canary Media counted 720 Tesla Megapack containers on a satellite photograph; a company manager told a utility board it holds 3.3 gigawatt-hours. [4]

Why it matters. The next thing that would settle this is the court deciding whether dozens of portable machines count as one power plant, because that is what decides whether the next company to try this has to ask first.

Saudi Arabia's energy ministry said on Friday that the East-West pipeline had been hit several times the day before and was shut down as a precaution. [5] The line carries crude from the Persian Gulf across the desert to Yanbu on the Red Sea, and it exists so Saudi oil can reach buyers without passing through the Strait of Hormuz. [6] Iraq's prime minister's office dismissed a military commander in Maysan province on Saturday after investigations found the drones came from Iraq. [10] Iran's foreign ministry said Gulf states plan to meet Iran in Oman on Monday to talk about the strait. [5]

Why it matters. This was the main way out for Saudi oil after Iran choked off most traffic through Hormuz. With it closed, tankers from Yanbu now head north to the Suez Canal instead, which is slower and dearer for buyers in Asia. [6]

The average price of diesel in the United States reached $6 a gallon on Thursday, a record. [8] Brent crude, the international price marker, briefly touched about $110 a barrel on Friday before settling near $105. [5] The war with Iran began in late February and has cut the amount of crude reaching buyers ever since. [8] Prices eased back through the afternoon, with the US marker West Texas Intermediate trading as high as $104 before falling to about $99. [5]

Why it matters. Diesel is what lorries, trains, tractors and ships run on, so its price works its way into the cost of almost everything that moves. This is the first time the US average has reached $6. [8]

A US federal appeals court struck down the US Energy Department's order forcing the 64-year-old J.H. Campbell coal plant in West Olive, Michigan, to keep running past its planned May 2025 retirement. [11][12] Judge Cornelia Pillard, writing for a unanimous three-judge panel, said the emergency section of the Federal Power Act is a narrow last resort and there was no emergency within the meaning of the law. [11] The states of Michigan, Illinois and Minnesota had sued, joined by environmental groups. [11] Keeping the plant open has cost about $259 million so far, according to new financial filings. [11]

Why it matters. The US Energy Department has used the same emergency power to keep about half a dozen coal plants and one oil and gas plant running in Indiana, Colorado, Florida, Pennsylvania and Washington state. [11] Those costs land on electricity bills in the Midwest. [11]

Dominion Energy, the largest electricity company in the US state of Virginia, wants to build one of the country's biggest gas plants in rural Cumberland County. [13] Virginia's 2020 climate law bars new fossil-fuel plants and orders the existing ones shut within two decades, but regulators may waive that if they judge the grid's reliability is at stake. [13] Dominion used the same clause last year to win approval for a gas plant in Chesterfield County that is about a third the size. [13] Virginia strengthened the law earlier this year rather than weaken it, as New York and Hawaii have wavered on theirs. [13]

Why it matters. Virginia hosts more data centres than anywhere else in the world, and the demand from them is the reason offered for the plant. A waiver granted twice starts to look less like an exception than a route. [13]

The United Arab Emirates is quietly redrawing plans for a five-gigawatt artificial-intelligence data centre project, one of the largest outside the United States, six people told Reuters. [16] It was to be a single 26-square-kilometre campus in Abu Dhabi; it will now likely be a network of smaller data centres spread across the country. [16] Officials are also weighing air defences and building underground. [16] The Emirati firm G42 says work is progressing as planned and that details are under continuous review. [16]

Why it matters. The Iran war turned a question of cost and cooling into a question of what a missile can reach. Splitting one campus into many costs more to build and to power, and that cost shows up in the price of AI computing. [16]

Speaking at a University of Texas energy conference, Chevron chief executive Mike Wirth said the crude buffers that limited price rises earlier in the Iran war have been played out. [8] Since the war began in late February, several countries released crude from their strategic stockpiles, and the United States allowed oil that had been floating at sea under sanctions to reach the market. [8] Wirth said the risks now point upward over the next few months. [8] Chevron will fund a $7bn expansion in Venezuela from cash in its existing joint ventures. [8]

Why it matters. A stockpile can only be emptied once. When it is gone, the next supply shock reaches the price with nothing in between. [8]

Saudi oil exports fell last month to their lowest level in at least 13 years, according to the New York Times. [7] The International Energy Agency, the energy watchdog for rich countries, put Saudi supply down 2.3 million barrels a day to 6 million, which it called the lowest in three decades. [6] Red Sea loadings fell from 3.8 million barrels a day to 2.2 million over the same month. [6] At least 23 ships were hit near Oman in July and August, and at least 22 sailors have been killed in the region since the war began. [7]

Why it matters. Saudi Arabia has long been the most important oil producer in the Middle East, the one whose spare barrels covered a shortage somewhere else. [7] When its own exports fall this far, nobody else has the spare barrels to cover it. [6]

The Trump administration is weighing how to use the Defense Production Act, a law from 1950 that lets a US president direct industry in a national emergency, to expand the country's oil refining capacity, two people told Reuters. [9] The idea came up at a recent meeting between President Donald Trump and nearly a dozen US refiners. [9] The refiners said the money should go on expanding or improving existing plants rather than building a new refinery. [9] US refineries are already running at 98% of capacity. [9]

Why it matters. A refinery takes years to build and the fuel shortage is now, which is why the industry's own answer was to squeeze more out of what exists. [9]

The International Energy Agency lowered its forecast for world oil demand this year, now expecting a fall of 2.5 million barrels a day, a steeper drop than it had predicted before. [5] The agency blamed the continuing deadlock between the United States and Iran, which it said delays any return to normal oil flows into next year. [5] It expects demand to rebound in 2027, narrowly making up this year's losses. [5]

Why it matters. Demand is falling because governments, businesses and drivers are cutting back rather than because anything got cleaner, and the agency expects most of it to come back. [5]

HyperVault, a subsidiary of Tata Consultancy Services, and its partners will invest up to 700 billion rupees, about $7.4bn, in an AI data centre campus in Telangana state. [17] It has secured 264 acres in Hyderabad and will build in phases. [17] The site is aimed at AI firms and large cloud companies running dense racks of graphics chips. [17] At full size it is expected to rank among India's largest AI facilities. [17]

Why it matters. A gigawatt is roughly the output of a large power station, committed by one company for one campus. India's grid has to find it somewhere. [17]

Three Massachusetts electricity companies, Eversource, National Grid and Unitil, are suing Hydro-Quebec, the Canadian state power company, over twelve days in January and February when it largely stopped sending power down the new New England Clean Energy Connect line. [14] Temperatures in Quebec had plunged well below zero Fahrenheit and its own demand surged. [14] The utilities say they are owed $40 million. [14] Hydro-Quebec is suing them back for withholding payment for the power it did deliver. [14]

Why it matters. The line opened in January and was meant to carry Canadian hydropower into New England exactly when it is coldest. Both places get cold on the same days. [14]

A judge in Minas Gerais state ordered the suspension of environmental licences and all mining at Sigma Lithium's Grota do Cirilo mine. [19] The case was brought by the Federation of Quilombola Communities of Minas Gerais, which said the project sits within the area of influence of the Bau Quilombola community. [19] Quilombolas are communities descended from people who escaped slavery, and their territories carry extra consultation requirements under Brazilian law. [19] Judge Antonio Lucio Tulio de Oliveira Barbosa said constant blasting and earthmoving risked harming the community. [19]

Why it matters. Lithium is the metal in almost every electric-car and grid battery. This mine was stopped not over pollution or safety but over who should have been asked first. [19]

The West Virginia Public Service Commission refused its own legal staff's request to delay hearings on the MidAtlantic Resiliency Link, a 107.5-mile transmission line proposed by NextEra Energy Transmission. [15] Hearings stay set for 26 October to 2 November. [15] Staff had wanted more time to look at the route, at whether the line is needed at all, and at a federal ruling that might affect it. [15] The grid operator PJM chose NextEra for the 500-kilovolt project in 2023, and expects West Virginia's summer peak demand to rise 8% to 12% over ten years. [15]

Why it matters. The line is meant to serve customers in four US states, and PJM expects West Virginia's summer peak demand to rise 8% to 12% over ten years. [15] A hearing date that holds is one of the few things that moves a power line along. [15]

The United Arab Emirates has promised to invest 40 billion euros in German industry, on top of 34 billion already committed, after a meeting between the two countries' leaders. [18] Companies from both countries signed deals worth more than 9.4 billion euros. [18] About a gigawatt of data centre capacity is part of the package. [18] The announcement came during a state visit by UAE president Sheikh Mohamed bin Zayed Al Nahyan to German chancellor Friedrich Merz. [18]

Why it matters. A gigawatt of data centres is a power station's worth of new demand, landing on a German grid that has to find it. [18] Gulf oil money is buying into the thing that will use the most new electricity. [18]

Black carbon is the dark particle matter given off by burning, and climate assessments have treated it as a single substance. [21] Researchers used about 2,500 laboratory measurements of carbon fractions from different sources to split it into two kinds: char, which absorbs less light, and soot, which absorbs more. [21] The soot share of human-made black carbon rose from 16% in 1750 to 35% in 2019, driven mostly by burning more fossil fuel. [21] That means today's black carbon warms more per tonne than it did at the start of the industrial era. [21]

Why it matters. Black carbon leaves the air within weeks, so cutting it changes temperatures fast. Knowing which sources make the soot-rich kind tells you which fires and engines to go after first. [21]

Satellite records of leaf cover show the world's dry lands have been getting greener steadily from 1982 to 2020, faster than the main vegetation models predict and contradicting reports that the greening had slowed. [22] The same records show the swing between good years and bad years growing across about 82% of global dry lands, with the best years better and the worst years worse. [22] Rainfall sensitivity is the main driver. [22] The models analysed could not reproduce the growing swings at all. [22]

Why it matters. Dry lands feed and graze a large share of the world, and an average that improves while the bad years get worse is a harder thing to farm than a steady decline. [22]

The Atlantic hurricane season reaches its usual peak this Friday and not one hurricane has formed, the latest that has happened since weather satellites went up in the 1960s. [23] Oceanographers expect a historic El Nino this year, the pattern in which warmer-than-usual Pacific water shifts rainfall and wind patterns around the world. [26] Josh Willis, project scientist for the Sentinel-6B satellite, said this El Nino started late and is only now reaching the strength seen in 1997 and 2015. [26] Two Sentinel-6 satellites are flying thirty seconds apart, measuring sea surface height to sharpen hurricane forecasts. [26]

Why it matters. An empty Atlantic is not a calm world. The El Nino running now scrambles rainfall across whole continents, which is why the same satellites that watch for storms are watching sea level. [26]

Alexander De Croo, the United Nations' third most senior official, said in Ukraine that the country faces its toughest winter since Russia's full-scale invasion began. [24] He accused Russia of systematically attacking Ukraine's energy infrastructure and described a race against the clock to repair the power network before temperatures fall. [24] Russia has begun using faster jet-powered drones that are harder to shoot down, hitting factories, warehouses, petrol stations and power sites. [24] Ukraine is striking gas, oil and distribution sites deep inside Russia. [24]

Why it matters. Both sides now aim at the other's energy system rather than its front line, and the people who feel it are households trying to heat a flat in January. [24]

Rescue teams in Nepal are focused on workers believed trapped inside tunnels at hydroelectric projects after this month's floods. [25] Dharma Raj Upreti, head of the country's disaster authority, said the biggest focus is the Chilime hydroelectric project, where a canteen and living quarters stood. [25] Teams are also working on the linked tunnels of the Upper Trishuli 3A and 3B projects. [25] Oxygen is being piped in while equipment is moved up to open a passage. [25]

Why it matters. Nepal makes almost all its electricity from running water, so its power stations sit on rivers. [25] Those are the rivers that flooded this month, and the tunnels being searched are part of the power stations. [25]

Copper is the conductor in every major clean technology and cannot be swapped for anything else, while supply is tight and demand is accelerating. [20] Digging and smelting it is carbon-heavy, so each tonne carries a climate cost before it does any good. [20] Researchers propose measuring a mine and smelter by how much carbon the copper it recovers will save once it is installed in solar, wind, batteries or cars. [20] Small increases in recovery rates, they argue, unlock large lifetime carbon savings. [20]

Why it matters. Roughly a third of the copper in an orebody is commonly left behind, and the argument here is that leaving it has a climate price as well as a commercial one. [20]

A study of Tasmania, an Australian island state building renewables and grid infrastructure quickly under national climate targets, interviewed 27 people across its training and energy systems. [27] It found the supply of skilled workers has become a limit on how fast climate plans can move, and that small regions face problems the research has largely missed. [27] Most of those problems trace back to uncertainty about when work will actually arrive, so training cannot be timed to it. [27] The responses that helped were advisory forums, flexible training formats and local networks. [27]

Why it matters. A target names megawatts and a year. Nobody writes down the electricians, and the electricians take four years to train. [27]