I have mostly been getting Global Warming news from Bluesky lately, and I have been preoccupied with COP30. I find that I have a backlog of climate-related e-mails. So today I am giving you the best of what I have received in the last month, with links in case you want to subscribe yourself.
Bloomberg Green e-mail: Trump can't have AI without renewables
President Donald Trump is pro-AI and anti-renewables. But those two stances are increasingly contradictory: Data centers need quick power on the cheap, and that’s exactly what renewables offer.
Today’s newsletter takes you inside the mismatch and why opposing renewables might do more than hinder the US in the battle for AI supremacy. Plus, a look at the staggering economic and human toll of floods that left large parts of Asia underwater last month and a new report indicating some Arab countries are getting “too hot to handle.”
Renewable energy so far remains the fastest and cheapest option to add power to the grid. Nearly 80% of the planned power plant capacity in the pipeline is tied to renewable sources, according to filings with federal regulators and grid operators compiled by Cleanview.co, an energy data company.
The number of applications for natural gas and nuclear facilities, the options President Donald Trump is embracing to power the AI surge, is much smaller, making up about 14% of planned capacity.
The World’s Biggest Consumers of Electricity Are Hidden in Plain Sight
Producers of industrial gases use as much power as the biggest oil and tech companies, with only a fraction of it coming from renewables.
Everyday items like toothpaste and life-saving treatments like MRIs are among the countless parts of modern life that hinge on access to gases such as nitrogen, oxygen and helium. Producing and transporting these gases to industrial facilities and hospitals is a highly energy-intensive process.
What an ‘Elegant’ Notice of Proposed Rulemaking Looks Like, According to Neil Chatterjee
The former FERC chair explains why Chris Wright is likely to succeed where Rick Perry failed.
Eight years ago, Chatterjee was the chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, and Trump was the president. When Trump’s then-Secretary of Energy, Rick Perry, asked the commission to ensure that generators able to store fuel on site — which in the U.S. largely means coal and nuclear — get extra payments for doing so, thus keeping struggling power plants in business, it rejected the proposal by a unanimous vote.
Now there’s a new Trump administration, with a new Secretary of Energy and a new FERC — and on Thursday, Energy Secretary Chris Wright asked the commission to do something else. He put forward what’s known as an advance notice of proposed rulemaking, directing FERC to come up with ways to help to make sure the grid can deal with another large-scale transition.
No. This is BO-O-O-O-OGUS. Data centers must be regulated, requiring sufficient renewable energy and storage to go live BEFORE any of the computers can be started.
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US Energy Secretary Chris Wright urges FERC to limit the process for connecting data centers to power grids to 60 days, a process that typically takes years (Bloomberg)
Main Link | Techmeme Permalink
— Techmeme (@techmeme.com) October 23, 2025 at 8:21 PM
The fall of the CBS News climate team
David Ellison, the new pro-Trump chief executive of Paramount Skydance, has dismantled the best climate change reporting team in cable news.
Who Will Pay for Data Centers’ Energy? Not You, Utilities Say.
Utilities are bending over backward to convince even their own investors that ratepayers won’t be on the hook for the cost of AI.
The Solar Industry Is Begging Congress for Help With Trump
A letter from the Solar Energy Industries Association describes the administration’s “nearly complete moratorium on permitting.”
24 AI Startups to Watch in 2026
Open AI may get most of the attention, but these two dozen companies are finding their way in AI by making vibe-coding software, building robots and developing drones.
The Data Center Backlash Is Swallowing American Politics
Activists on both the left and the right are pushing back against AI development.
A New Plan to Treat Texas Data Centers Just Like Texas Solar Farms
Energy procurement expert Arushi Sharma Frank wants to apply “connect and manage” to AI development.
Climate Tech Pivots to Europe
With policy chaos and disappearing subsidies in the U.S., suddenly the continent is looking like a great place to build.
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Climate Tech
Climate Tech Pivots to Europe
With policy chaos and disappearing subsidies in the U.S., suddenly the continent is looking like a great place to build.
Europe has long outpaced the U.S. in setting ambitious climate targets. Since the late 2000s, EU member states have enacted both a continent-wide carbon pricing scheme as well as legally binding renewable energy goals — measures that have grown increasingly ambitious over time and now extend across most sectors of the economy.
So of course domestic climate tech companies facing funding and regulatory struggles are now looking to the EU to deploy some of their first projects. “This is about money,” Po Bronson, a managing director at the deep tech venture firm SOSV told me. “This is about lifelines. It’s about where you can build.” Last year, Bronson launched a new Ireland-based fund to support advanced biomanufacturing and decarbonization startups open to co-locating in the country as they scale into the European market. Thus far, the fund has invested in companies working to make emissions-free fertilizers, sustainable aviation fuel, and biofuel for heavy industry.
