Welcome to the Overnight News Digest with a crew consisting of founder Magnifico, regular editors side pocket, maggiejean, Chitown Kev, eeff, Magnifico, annetteboardman, Besame, jck, and JeremyBloom. Alumni editors include (but not limited to) Interceptor 7, Man Oh Man, wader, Neon Vincent, palantir, Patriot Daily News Clearinghouse (RIP), ek hornbeck (RIP), rfall, ScottyUrb, Doctor RJ, BentLiberal, Oke (RIP) and jlms qkw.
OND is a regular community feature on Daily Kos, consisting of news stories from around the world, sometimes coupled with a daily theme, original research or commentary. Editors of OND impart their own presentation styles and content choices, typically publishing each day near 12:00 AM Eastern Time
Plastics, taxes, and expensive desserts: Grist reporters weigh in on the climate trends that will shape the year ahead.
As we enter a new year, we asked Grist reporters what big stories they’re watching on their beats, 24 predictions for 2024. Their forecasts depict a world on the cusp of change in regard to climate — both good and bad, and often in tandem. Here’s what we’re keeping an eye on, from hard-won international financial commitments, to battles over mining in-demand minerals like lithium, to the expansion of renewable energy.
1 A new climate corps will turn young people’s anxiety into action
The American Climate Corps will officially kick off in the summer of 2024, sending 20,000 18- to 26-year-olds across the country to install solar projects, mitigate wildfire risk, and make homes more energy-efficient. President Biden’s New Deal-inspired program is modeled after Franklin D. Roosevelt’s Climate Conservation Corps and attracted 100,000 applicants...
2 Despite rising temperatures, climate change takes a backseat during the 2024 election
Although more than a decade of surveys and polls show that a growing proportion of Americans are concerned about climate change, it has never been a defining issue in a general election — and will likely remain that way in 2024, at least on the main stage. Put simply, there are too many immediate concerns that will dominate the campaign trail…
7 A push for public power takes root in communities nationwide
Across the country, close to a dozen communities are exploring ways to replace their investor-owned electric utilities with publicly owned ones. Advocates say they want to lower electricity costs, improve reliability, and speed up a clean energy transition. While a referendum in Maine to create a statewide publicly owned utility failed this past November, supporters elsewhere are just getting started...
Bill Clinton and Donald Trump are mentioned in the documents but are not accused of wrongdoing connected to the late sex offender.
Newly unsealed court papers related to Jeffrey Epstein include the names of a handful of famous men whose associations with the late sex offender were previously known, but the documents provide few new disclosures about the nature of their relationships.
The hundreds of pages of documents made public in federal court Wednesday included references to a number of wealthy and powerful people, including former Presidents Bill Clinton and Donald Trump, as well as Prince Andrew and the prominent lawyer Alan Dershowitz. But most of those mentioned have been publicly linked to Epstein for years.
Trump appears in just a handful of stray references, including in one passage in which a deposition witness says she was never asked to have sex with him. Clinton, who sometimes flew on Epstein’s private jet, is mentioned more frequently in the documents. Neither Trump nor Clinton is accused of any wrongdoing linked to Epstein...
...In national and early primary state polling, Ramaswamy is hovering in the single-digit doldrums, which is the reason he's failed to qualify for the GOP primary debate next week. His campaign recently revealed its plan to suspend all spending on TV ads, right as the primary season is set to take off.
And Ramaswamy, who has demonstrated a stunning level of pro-Trump obsequiousness since announcing his candidacy, is now attempting to encourage fellow GOP candidates to pull their names from Colorado and Maine’s primary ballots in solidarity with Trump, who was ruled ineligible to run in both states over his encouragement and aiding of the Jan. 6 insurrection.
...As a candidate, Ramaswamy appears cooked. But as a pro-Trump stooge? There’s a future for him yet.
As seasonal virus activity surges across the United States, experts stress the importance of preventive measures – such as masking and vaccination – and the value of treatment for those who do get sick.
Tens of thousands of people have been admitted to hospitals for respiratory illness each week this season. During the week ending December 23, there were more than 29,000 patients admitted with Covid-19, about 15,000 admitted with the flu and thousands more with respiratory syncytial virus, or RSV, according to data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Nationally, Covid-19 levels in wastewater, a leading measure of viral transmission, are very high – higher than they were at this time last year in every region, CDC data shows. Weekly emergency department visits rose 12%, and hospitalizations jumped about 17% in the most recent week.
...Buying solar panels and having them installed typically costs tens of thousands of dollars. While there’s a substantial federal tax credit to mitigate that cost, for individual households it can only offset a tax liability — if you don’t owe very much on your taxes, or you typically get a tax refund, you can’t benefit from the credit.
But a recent law could change that. Under the Inflation Reduction Act, nonprofits like Capital Good Fund can now claim the tax credit as a direct refund, then pass those savings on to the customers who sign on to the Georgia BRIGHT program. It’s especially important to provide solar for the moderate-income households the program is seeking, organizers said, because those families often have to spend a greater share of their income on energy.
“This program levels the playing field for those families who are facing those energy burdens to help them reduce their energy costs,” said Lee.
While solar leasing isn’t new, in the past it’s been offered mostly by for-profit companies. The change in tax law, however, has opened the field to nonprofits, who can often charge less, said Capital Good Fund founder and CEO Andy Posner.
I just wrapped up reports on new power capacity in the United States and electricity generation in the United States. Clearly, the trend is toward more renewables and less coal. Aside from showing power capacity additions from month to month by energy source, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) includes a section in its monthly reports that shows expected power capacity retirements in the coming 3 years. It’s a fascinating forecast to look at.
First, though, let’s set the stage for total installed power capacity in the United States. Renewable energy sources have risen to about 30.7% of total installed power capacity across the country in October 2023, based on FERC data and a CleanTechnica estimate for small-scale solar. That’s up from 29% of total installed power capacity across the country in October 2022. Solar power now accounts for about 10.2% of US power capacity, and wind power accounts for another 11.3%. Hydropower accounts for about 7.7%, while nuclear power accounts for 7.8%.
The big dog, fossil gas (aka “natural gas”), accounts for about 42.8% of US power capacity, down from 43.1% in October 2022. The former big dog, coal, is down to 15.8%, compared to 17% in October 2022. But let’s look back a bit further on coal and also look forward a few years.
The complicated chemistry happening inside electric vehicle batteries makes them difficult to repair, according to experts interviewed by Grist.
But that doesn’t mean repairing them is a doomed concept. In fact, specialized mechanics are fixing power packs, extending their lifespans. If the concept can be made more common, it could help the industry reduce the amount of rare and expensive materials that are pulled from the ground to manufacture new batteries.
It’s also part of the way we can better use or recycle the vast amount of products we make. When talking EVs, that’s about 10 million a year (in sales), a number likely to grow, per the International Energy Agency.
Science!
On April 8, 2024, the U.S. will witness a total solar eclipse, when the moon moves in front of the sun to cause daytime darkness and a chance to see the sun's corona. The last time that happened in the U.S. was on August 21, 2017, and memories are fresh.
Seven years ago, the path of totality was relatively remote. This time, it will pass by some vast cities and metropolitan areas, ranging northeast from Texas through Maine. Only from within this path will it be possible to witness totality for up to 4 minutes and 26 seconds.
For each U.S. state, where the path of totality intercepts, we've included three of the best places to observe from. These recommendations come from a variety of sources, including data on the longest possible duration of totality in that state, places on or near the centerline, climate data on where is most likely to have a clear sky, choice scenic spots, areas that could be quiet, but also organized events. We've not included information for Kentucky, Tennessee or Michigan because the path of totality only enters a tiny portion of these three states.
...“The dark matter problem has now become serious,” Bellinger and his team write in their paper. “Numerous lines of evidence […] indicate that most of the matter in the Universe is invisible. Yet despite nearly a century of research, the origin of this matter remains unknown, and no compelling evidence has emerged for a solution.”
Ever since the 70s, though, there’s been one potential explanation that keeps resurfacing: primordial black holes. First proposed all the way back in 1966, these babies have never been proven to actually exist – but if they did, the hypothesis is that they formed within the first microseconds after the Big Bang, when the universe was still just a thick, dense sludge of particles.
Why should we care whether these ancient cosmic quicksands exist? Well, the suggestion is that – if there were enough of them out there, created at the right instant and hovering around the right sizes – then they might actually be what functions as the dark matter of the universe.
...the researchers could scan the skies for strange red giants – ones that are cooler than they ought to be. That low temperature might be a sign of a hidden black hole at the center of the star, rather than a normal stellar core, and here’s the really exciting part: we already know of around 500 of them.
What are YOU excited about for 2024? Tell us all about it in the comments!