The problem may only grow. The agency\u2019s existing mandates \u201cperversely incentivize plant owners to claim they plan to retire so they can receive a ratepayer subsidy to remain open,\u201d the report points out. <\/p>\n
2. The electrical transformer shortage is worsening<\/p>\n
With electricity consumption hitting new records in the U.S., demand for transformers is surging. The years-long supply shortage for power and distribution transformers is now set to hit a deficit below demand of 30% and 10%, respectively, in 2025, according to a new report<\/a> from the energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie. Complicating matters further for manufacturers scrambling to ramp up supply, Trump\u2019s One Big Beautiful Bill Act is throwing clean-energy projects into jeopardy and sending mixed signals to factories on what kinds of transformers to produce. At the same time, tariffs are raising the price of materials needed to make more transformers. <\/p>\n \u201cThe U.S. transformer market stands at a critical juncture, with supply constraints threatening to undermine the nation’s energy transition and grid reliability goals,\u201d Ben Boucher, a senior supply chain analyst at Wood Mackenzie, said in a statement. \u201cThe convergence of accelerating electricity demand, aging infrastructure and supply chain vulnerabilities has created constraints that will persist well into the 2030s.\u201d<\/p>\n Get Heatmap AM directly in your inbox every morning: <\/p>\n 3. China\u2019s patents on clean energy tech are booming<\/p>\n For years, China was known for ripping off the West\u2019s technology and patenting cheaper but more easily manufactured copies. Not anymore. China applied for twice as many high-quality clean energy patents as the U.S. in 2022, according to a New York Times<\/a> analysis of the most recently available public data. The European Patent Office, which supplied data to the Times, defines a \u201chigh quality\u201d patent as one that has been filed in two or more countries, indicating that the company or individual involved has a strong competitive interest in protecting its idea. <\/p>\n The growth in China\u2019s intellectual property ambitions is a sign that Beijing\u2019s strategic push to ramp up academic research and industrial innovation is maturing. \u201cIt is the opposite of an accident,\u201d said Jenny Wong Leung, an analyst and data scientist at the Australian Strategic Policy Institute, which created a database of global research on technologies that are critical to nations\u2019 economic and military security, including clean energy.<\/p>\n 4. Half of New Yorkers support building a new nuclear power plant <\/p>\n In June, New York Governor Kathy Hochul directed the New York Power Authority, the nation\u2019s second-largest government-owned utility after the federal Tennessee Valley Authority, to support the construction of the state\u2019s first new nuclear plant since the 1980s. Albany has plenty to sort out between now and the 15-year deadline for completing the project, including selecting a site, picking from one of the many new reactor designs, and finding a private partner. But one thing isn\u2019t a problem, at least for now: Public support. <\/p>\n New Siena polling I covered in my Substack newsletter<\/a> yesterday shows that 49% of registered voters in New York support the effort, with just 26% opposed. Both sides of the political spectrum are largely in lockstep, with Republican support outpacing that of Democrats by a margin of 55% to 49%. That\u2019s lucky for Hochul, who will need support from the more politically conservative upper reaches of the state where the facility is likely to be built. For more on the technical and political considerations in play, here\u2019s<\/a> Heatmap\u2019s Matthew Zeitlin on the plan.<\/p>\n 5. A major insurer vows to stick to net zero goals<\/p>\n It seems like everyone is abandoning their net zero goals. But not insurer Aviva. The company\u2019s chief executive, Amanda Blanc, said the British giant remained committed to its carbon-cutting goals in the U.S. and the United Kingdom, The Guardian<\/a> reported. With rising profits propelling shares in the company to their highest level since the 2008 financial crisis, Blanc said, \u201cextreme weather conditions, climate change, and the impact that that has on our insurance business that actually insures properties\u201d meant Aviva needed to \u201cremain committed to our ambition.\u201d<\/p>\n THE KICKER<\/p>\n The red-headed wood pigeon once seemed on the verge of extinction. The population, endemic to Japan\u2019s Ogasawara Islands, fell to below 80 individuals in the 2000s. But once its main predator, the feral cat, was removed, the bird made a remarkable comeback. A team of researchers at Kyoto University set out to find out why the expected problems from inbreeding never occurred. Per a press release<\/a>: \u201cTheir results revealed that the frequency of highly deleterious mutations in the red-headed wood pigeon was lower than in the more widespread Japanese wood pigeon. This suggests that, rather than hindering it, the pigeon’s success was likely rooted in its long-term persistence in a small population size prior to human impact.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Current conditions: Tropical Storm Erin is still intensifying as it approaches the Caribbean \u2022 Rare August rainstorms are…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":85998,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[47],"tags":[1687,101,5040,1872,192,1708,79],"class_list":{"0":"post-85997","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-environment","8":"tag-climate","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-electric-vehicles","11":"tag-energy","12":"tag-environment","13":"tag-homepage","14":"tag-science"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85997","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=85997"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/85997\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/85998"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=85997"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=85997"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=85997"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}![\"\"\/](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/1755304329_140_image.jpg\")