According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s (EIA) latest Preliminary Monthly Electric Generator Inventory, the country has installed 20.2 gigawatts utility-scale electric generating capacity from January through June 2024. Of the newly installed generating capacity, solar and battery storage have taken the lead.

The report determined that new solar utility-scale operations made up the largest amount of electric generating capacity added in the U.S. for the first half of the year, equating to 12 gigawatts or 59% of total new electric generating capacity.

The bulk of new solar came from Texas and Florida, which alone contributed 38% of new solar utility-scale electric generating capacity. In Texas, this is in part thanks to one of the largest new solar projects for 2024, the Lumina Solar Facility. According to the developer, Intersect Power, this project generates 828 megawatt-peak (MWp), or enough energy to power about 243,000 houses per year.

The other largest solar project installed this year is the Gemini power plant based in Nevada. This power plant includes 690 MWac solar and 380 megawatts of battery storage capacity, enough to meet about 10% of peak energy demand for the state.

Following new utility-scale solar projects that went online for the first half of the year, battery storage took the No. 2 spot for most capacity additions, making up 21% of the total, EIA reported. Most of the new battery projects for the first half of 2024 were added in California, followed by Texas, Arizona and Nevada. The Nevada-based Gemini project had the highest battery capacity addition in the U.S. for the first half of 2024. The second-largest battery storage project was the Eleven Mile Solar Center, which is based in Arizona and includes 300 megawatts of battery storage and 300 megawatts of solar.

Wind energy and nuclear were also major contributors to new utility-scale electric generating capacity added in the first six months of 2024. Wind energy additions included 2.5 gigawatts, of 12% of the total new generating capacity additions, and nuclear energy was boosted by the 1,114-megawatt Vogtle plant based in Georgia.

Development is nowhere near finished for the year, though. As EIA reported, another 42.6 gigawatts of capacity are slated for the last six months of the year, including 25 gigawatts of solar, 10.8 gigawatts of battery storage and 4.6 gigawatts of wind. This year could reach the highest annual record of new solar capacity, and battery storage capacity could also reach a record high of 15 gigawatts.

While utility-scale electric generating capacity from renewables is increasing, EIA’s new report also noted that retirements are slowing down, with 5.1 gigawatts of capacity retired in the first half of 2024. Most of the retirements were for natural gas, followed by coal. An additional 2.4 gigawatts of generating capacity are expected to be retired before the end of the year.

In December 2023, the U.S. joined the Powering Past Coal Alliance, agreeing to phase out coal, likely by 2035 based on other agreements, The Associated Press reported.

Further, in the first seven months of this year, wind and solar outpaced coal in net electricity generation in the U.S. for the first time.

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The U.S. Department of the Interior has announced $775 million in funding via the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and President Joe Biden’s Investing in America agenda for the purpose of plugging orphaned oil and gas wells.

Orphaned oil and gas wells are considered legacy pollution sites, according to the department. The remnant pollution from these sites can contaminate groundwater, harm local wildlife, increase the risk of flooding and sinkholes, and release harmful pollutants such as methane into the air.

As such, the Biden-Harris Administration on Wednesday announced additional funding for plugging these orphaned wells in 21 states. More than $1 billion has already been distributed toward this initiative, and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law has allotted $4.7 billion in total toward cleaning up these legacy pollution sites.

“President Biden’s Investing in America agenda is enabling us to confront long-standing environmental injustices by making a historic investment to plug orphaned wells throughout the country,” said Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland. “These investments are good for our climate, for the health of our communities, and for American workers. With this third round of additional funding, states will put more people to work to clean up these toxic sites, reduce methane emissions and safeguard our environment.” 

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So far, states have already plugged more than 8,200 orphaned oil and gas wells, the department said.

There are 21 states eligible for this round of funding: Alabama, Alaska, California, Colorado, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Mexico, New York, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wyoming.

According to an analysis published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology in 2022, the states with the highest amount of documented orphaned wells include Ohio, Pennsylvania, Oklahoma and Kentucky. As of April 2022, there were 123,318 documented orphaned wells in the U.S.

Eligible states have until December 13 to apply for this phase of grant funding. Those that apply will be required to measure methane emissions from the orphaned wells that will be plugged through this round of funding, screen for groundwater and surface water pollution, and detail how they will prioritize which sites to plug first, including by considering disadvantaged communities and environmental and public health risks.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law has further allocated $250 million for well cleanup in national parks and other public lands and nearly $40 million has been awarded to Tribal communities for plugging and remediating orphaned wells.

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The biggest cruise ships in the world today have more than doubled in size compared to the biggest cruiseliners in 2000, according to a new report by Transport & Environment.

The report, “‘Cruisezillas’: How much bigger can cruise ships get?” determined that the biggest cruise ship in the world today, Royal Caribbean’s Icon of the Seas, is about five times bigger than the Titanic. The Icon of the Seas, which debuted in January 2024, is longer than 15 blue whales, the organization said. It can carry 7,600 passengers and includes 40 restaurants and seven swimming pools.

“Today’s cruisezillas make the Titanic look like a small fishing boat. How much bigger can these giants get?” Inesa Ulichina, sustainable shipping officer at T&E, said in a statement. “The cruise business is the fastest growing tourism sector and its emissions are quickly getting out of control.”

According to the report, if cruise ships continue to increase in size at the current rate, the largest cruise ships of 2050 could have an estimated 345,000 gross tonnage and capacity to carry 10,500 passengers. These ships would be about eight times larger than the Titanic.

With the bigger ships come bigger carbon footprints. According to the report, the carbon emissions from cruise ships in Europe alone increased 17% from 2019 to 2022, even with COVID-19-related closures. Further, cruise ship-related methane emissions increased 500% during that time.

Not only are cruise ships getting larger, but there are also more of them. Since 1970, the number of cruise ships in operation has increased from 21 to 515, further adding to emissions from cruising.

In response, many cruise liners have switched from heavy fuel oil to liquefied natural gas (LNG), which emits less carbon emissions than traditional fuels. However, as T&E reported, LNG emits more methane, which has a shorter life span in the atmosphere yet is about 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide.

“The only green and scalable solution for decarbonising maritime activities is e-fuels,” Ulichina said. “Cruising is a luxury business and operators must take responsibility for their climate impact. If they want to avoid becoming increasingly unwanted visitors, they must clean up their act.”

Cruise Lines International Association, a trade association, told CNN that it disagreed with the claims made in the report, stating that emissions data from the EU showed a 16% reduction in emissions per ship in the past five years. The association also shared that it had plans to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 through technological advancements on ships and the use of more sustainable fuels as they become available. 

According to the Cruise Lines International Association’s 2024 State of the Cruise Industry Report, global passenger volume increased nearly 7% from 2019 to 2023, and it estimated global cruise capacity to increase at least 10% by 2028. The industry report also noted that the sustainable fuel and energy sources being targeted for use on cruise ships “include green methanol, bioLNG and synthetic LNG, hydrogen fuel cells, photovoltaic/solar (in use on five ships today), battery storage, [and] wind (in use on three ships today).”

As T&E noted, relying on more polluting fuels will soon become more expensive with EU carbon pricing and FuelEU Maritime penalties. Further, the organization noted that cruise ships aren’t currently taxed in the same ways other transportation options are, and that adding a €50 ($54.76) ticket tax could generate €1.6 billion ($1.75 billion) per year for the energy transition.

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Many consumers are familiar with the routine of buying fruits and vegetables, bringing them home and washing them in the sink to remove pesticides and other contaminants from the outer layer before preparing and eating it. But according to new research, washing produce is likely not effective enough at removing the residue from pesticides.

The study, published in the journal Nano Letters, explained how researchers developed a form of surface-enhanced Raman spectroscopy (SERS), resulting in a high-tech method of imaging that they then used to examine levels of pesticide residues on produce. Although the research paper focused on the technology created by the authors, it also raised concerns over pesticides and food safety based on what the technology found in experiments.

The researchers created a flexible and nearly transparent membrane made from a cellulose hydrogel film that was stretched and wrinkled, then coated in silver nitrate solution, as explained by the American Chemical Society. This created a membrane that could use SERS, which can detect trace amounts of certain compounds, specifically for inspecting for pesticides.

After developing this pesticide-detecting membrane, the researchers put their development to the test. To do so, they started by spraying two pesticides, thiram and carbendazim, on apples, then left the apples to dry.

Once the apples had dried, researchers followed the same procedure consumers would after purchasing produce at the store: washing the apples. After washing, they used the membrane over the whole, unpeeled apples and applied the SERS method. This revealed trace amounts of the pesticides that had been applied both on the apple’s skin and even on the outer layer of apple pulp.

“This indicates that the pesticides penetrated the pulp layer and that traditional fruit-cleaning operations cannot wholly remove pesticides,” the authors wrote in the study.

However, when the researchers peeled the apple, it removed enough of the fruit that had detectable pesticide levels. As such, the authors wrote, “… we believe that the peeling operation can effectively avoid the hazards of pesticides in the fruit’s epidermis and near-epidermal pulp, thereby reducing the probability of ingesting pesticides.”

The team’s new imaging method using SERS could also be used on other food products. In their research, the study authors found that their development could be useful in analyzing contaminants on foods such as chili powder, rice, cucumbers and even shrimp.

“This is actually useful for understanding how these pesticides move in,” Michael Hansen, a senior scientist at Consumer Reports, told The Guardian. “This is more science showing that, yes, there are concerns. Don’t just think that washing is going to help you.”

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The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has issued an emergency notice pulling the pesticide dimethyl tetrachloroterephthalate, also known as DCPA or Dacthal.

The chemical was placed under an emergency order to stop further use, the first order of its kind in nearly four decades, because of the risk it poses to fetuses in pregnant people. According to the EPA, when pregnant people are exposed to DCPA, it can change the fetal thyroid hormone levels. 

After birth, the baby may experience low birth weight, impaired brain development and decreased IQ, the agency warned. Later in life, the exposure could also be linked to impaired motor skills. The EPA noted that some of the effects of exposure could be irreversible.

“DCPA is so dangerous that it needs to be removed from the market immediately,” Michal Freedhoff, assistant administrator for the EPA’s Office of Chemical Safety and Pollution Prevention, said in a statement. “It’s EPA’s job to protect people from exposure to dangerous chemicals. In this case, pregnant women who may never even know they were exposed could give birth to babies that experience irreversible lifelong health problems. That’s why for the first time in almost 40 years, EPA is using its emergency suspension authority to stop the use of a pesticide.”

The pesticide is commonly used on broccoli, cabbage, onions, strawberries and Brussels sprouts to mitigate weeds, although it has other agricultural and non-agricultural uses.

Exposure to DCPA is often unknown because of how long it can remain at levels considered unsafe. The EPA explained that DCPA product labels say to wait 12 hours after applying before entering treated areas, but there was evidence that DCPA levels remain high for at least 25 days after application. Wind can also carry the pesticides further from the applied area, exposing more people.

The emergency ban follows years of review and studies on the potential impacts of DCPA exposure. The EPA first requested more information on the chemical from its sole manufacturer, AMVAC Chemical Corporation, in 2013. The request called for 20 or more studies, but the EPA said that the corporation’s provided data from 2013 to 2021 was “insufficient” and that certain requested studies, including a study on the effects of DCPA exposure on thyroid development, were never submitted.

Following an EPA warning of intent to suspend the registration of the pesticide in April 2022, AMVAC Chemical Corporation provided a thyroid study later the same year. The EPA then followed up with an assessment of the study in 2023, highlighting health concerns with DCPA exposure.

^{An advertisement for Dacthal in Time Magazine on March 23, 1962. SenseiAlan / CC BY 2.0}

As USA Today reported, concerns over DCPA were first brought about by the Environmental Working Group (EWG) in the 1990s. At the time, the pesticide was commonly used on turf. AMVAC Chemical Corporation voluntarily canceled most turf-related uses of DCPA in December 2023.

In 1998, the EPA issued a fact sheet on DCPA that said the pesticide was classified as a possible human carcinogen following development of thyroid tumors in rats after DCPA exposure.

The EPA issued the emergency order for DCPA via the Federal Insecticide, Fungicide and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and stated that although the manufacturer has addressed concerns over the pesticide, “there are no practical mitigation measures that can be put in place to allow DCPA’s continued use.”

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