In Kingman Park, the heat was especially acute. That’s because this Northeast Washington neighborhood is a “heat island,” an urbanized area with less tree coverage and green space that experiences higher temperatures than surrounding locations. When neighborhoods have more impervious surfaces, such as buildings, sidewalks, vehicles, and roadways, they absorb heat rather than reflect it. On some heat islands, temperatures can be up to 10 degrees higher than in other areas with more tree coverage. Other such neighborhoods in D.C. include Brightwood and Brightwood Park, Columbia Heights, and Near Northeast.
See the full story at the Washington Post.
More DMV News
Ongoing Spending on Gas Infrastructure Can Worsen Energy Poverty, Impede Energy Transition, Maryland Utility Advocate Says
Inside Climate News
Maryland utilities are averaging more than $700 million a year on gas infrastructure spending, worsening the energy burden among low-income communities and hampering the state’s efforts to hit its ambitious clean energy and emissions reduction targets.
Virginia Offshore Wind Project Underway as Environmental Studies Continue
The Bay Journal
Many scientists are eager to fill in the remaining knowledge gaps around how the country’s growing offshore wind industry affects the environment.
Youngkin Circumvents Legislature to Upend Virginia Climate Policy
E&E News
Along with his move to weaken auto standards, Youngkin has withdrawn the state from the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, the cap-and-trade system for the Northeast’s electricity sector, despite a 2020 statute requiring the state’s participation.
Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Aiding Virginia Energy’s Abandoned Mine Cleanup
Virginia Mercury
Called AMLs for short, abandoned mine lands are patches of earth dug up by previously existing mining operations that weren’t restored when the businesses left prior to the Surface Mining Control and Reclamation Act of 1977, which stopped that practice from continuing. Virginia Energy, the state’s agency tasked with finding and cleaning up the AMLs, was supercharged in 2023 with about $23 million in funding over the next 15 years.
National and International News
The Supreme Court Overturns Chevron Doctrine, Gutting Federal Environmental Protections
Grist
The Supreme Court on Friday threw into question the future of climate and environmental regulation in the United States, scrapping a decades-old legal precedent that gave federal agencies leeway to interpret laws according to their expertise and scientific evidence. The impact of the decision to scrap the so-called Chevron deference will take years to become clear, but it could allow for far more legal challenges against regulations by agencies like the EPA and the Department of the Interior that have a huge role in the climate fight.
Supreme Court Blocks Enforcement of EPA’s ‘Good Neighbor’ Rule
Utility Dive
The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday put on hold the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s “good neighbor” plan to reduce nitrogen oxides emissions from power plants and industrial sources while challenges to the rule play out in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
How Water Could Be the Future of Fuel
Washington Post
Turning hydrogen into liquid fuel could help slash planet-warming pollution from heavy vehicles, cutting a key source of emissions that contribute to climate change. But to fulfill that promise, companies will have to build massive numbers of wind turbines and solar panels to power the energy-hungry process. Regulators will have to make sure hydrogen production doesn’t siphon green energy that could go towards cleaning up other sources of global warming gases, such as homes or factories.
The US Announces a Big Offshore Wind Sale in the Central Atlantic
Electrek
The Central Atlantic Wind Energy Areas have the potential to generate 6.3 gigawatts (GW) of clean energy – enough to power over 2.2 million homes. The Final Sale Notice is the last step required of the DOI to hold a lease auction for the area, which is scheduled for August 14. Seventeen companies have qualified to participate in the August sale.
Climate Adaptation Plan Updates Released by 20+ Federal Agencies
Smart Cities Dive
More than 20 federal agencies last week released updated climate adaptation plans for 2024 through 2027, building on plans first developed in 2021.