Climate – TheNewsHub

Rafael weakens to tropical storm over Gulf of Mexico after barreling through Cuba as a hurricane

Aseem — Sat, 09 Nov 2024 22:53:48 +0000

Satellite image showing Hurricane Rafael in the Gulf of Mexico on Nov. 8th, 2024.

Source: NOAA

Rafael weakened Saturday to a tropical storm and was expected to dissolve over the Gulf of Mexico in the coming days after barreling across Cuba as a Category 3 hurricane.

Rafael was located 290 miles (470 km) north-northwest of Progreso, Mexico on Saturday. It had maximum sustained winds of 50 mph (85 kph) and was moving west-northwest at 6 mph (9 kph), according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami.

It was forecast to continue moving south toward southern Mexico in the coming days as it weakens. Forecasters warned that swells from the storm were likely to cause “life-threatening surf and rip current conditions” in that region.

The hurricane tore through Jamaica and the Cayman Islands earlier in the week, knocking out power and fueling mudslides. On Wednesday evening, it barreled into Cuba, causing yet another headache for the island.

Rafael’s fierce winds knocked out Cuba’s electric grid, forced the evacuation of 283,000 people and collapsed 461 homes. It also left trees, power lines and rubble strewn across flooded streets. Many were still without power over the weekend, though Cuba’s government said it was working to restore power to homes.

On Friday, state media in Cuba reported that Russia said it would donate 80,000 tons of diesel to Cuba, and offered a shipment of equipment for $62 million as the communist-led government struggled to pick up the pieces after the hurricane.

Rafael followed a rocky few weeks in the Caribbean nation, after island-wide blackouts stretching on for days and another powerful hurricane that killed at least six people.

What Trump's election to the White House could mean for EVs

suimt — Wed, 06 Nov 2024 21:19:02 +0000

Production is now set to begin at the former Detroit-Hamtramck assembly plant, less than two years after GM announced the massive $2.2 billion investment to fully renovate the facility to build a variety of all-electric trucks and SUVs.

Photo by Jeffrey Sauger for General Motors

DETROIT – President-elect Donald Trump’s victory over Vice President Kamala Harris is expected to send the U.S. electric vehicle industry into a period of uncertainty.

Republicans, led by the former president, have largely condemned EVs, claiming they are being forced upon consumers. Trump has vowed to roll back or eliminate many vehicle emissions standards under the Environmental Protection Agency as well as incentives to promote production and adoption of the vehicles such as the Biden administration’s Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.

Auto industry insiders and other officials have said it would be difficult for Trump to completely gut the IRA, but he could defund or limit EV subsidies through executive orders or other policy actions.

Several people said they would expect Trump to target federal consumer credits that currently offer up to $7,500 for the purchase of an EV rather than target industrial production credits for companies.

“The IRA will probably have some adjustments … I don’t think the IRA will go away,” David Rubenstein, co-founder and co-chairman of The Carlyle Group investment firm, told CNBC on Wednesday. “It has some really good things in it that I think Republicans and Democrats will like.”

Many of the investments into EV production under the IRA having been taking place in Republican states such as Ohio, South Carolina and Georgia.

Automotive executives are also quick to say they don’t base investment decisions on who holds the White House, but there are natural adjustments with new administrations.

“Anytime there’s an administration change, it’s an interesting time for the industry because we have to go through new policies and regulations and have to bring new people up to speed on who we are and what we do,” David Christ, group vice president and general manager of the Toyota Division in North America, said Wednesday during an Automotive Press Association event near Detroit. “Administrations sometimes change every four years, so we don’t really do a lot of modifying the strategy.”

General Motors, Ford Motor and Chrysler parent Stellantis — would be the biggest winners of a second Trump term and Republican control of Congress.

“We see F and GM as the main beneficiaries from the Trump administration,” BofA Securities analyst John Murphy said in a Wednesday investor note. “The current environmental regime would pressure the core business of legacy [automakers, trucks,] to decarbonize by the end of the decade while shifting quickly to an EV portfolio.”

GM’s aspirations for an “all-electric future” and profitable EV business in the near term are highly reliant on federal tax credits.

Analysts had indicated EV startups such as Rivian Automotive and Lucid Group would benefit more with a Democratic win.

Toyota could also be a winner if EV regulations are reduced or eliminated, as the Japanese automaker has been slow to invest in all-electric models compared to hybrid vehicles.

Shares of GM and Ford closed Wednesday up 2.5% and 5.6%, respectively. Stock prices for Toyota and Stellantis, which is experiencing significant problems in the U.S., were essentially level. Lucid and Rivian were each down, 5.3% and 8.3%, respectively.

Shares of automakers after President-elect Donald Trump’s victory.

An outlier is U.S. electric vehicle leader Tesla. CEO Elon Musk heavily campaigned in swing states for Trump, who has discussed making the billionaire a government efficiency czar.

Shares of Tesla soared Wednesday by 15% and earlier notched a new 52-week high.

“We see RIVN and LCID challenged, which is largely reflected in the stocks,” Murphy said. “We don’t expect meaningful issues for TSLA since it has already reached profitability and will introduce more entry level products that could be attractive for the larger public.”

Several automakers did not immediately return request for comment after NBC News and several other media outlets called the election for Trump.

Others such as the Detroit automakers and Hyundai Motor congratulated Trump and the newly elected officials across all levels of government.

“We look forward to working with the new Administration and Congress on policies that strengthen the U.S. automotive industry, which supports 9.7 million American jobs and drives more than $1 trillion into the economy each year,” Ford said.

“We congratulate and look forward to working with the President-elect, Congress, and all elected officials to ensure that the U.S. continues to lead the world in technology and innovation, to the benefit of American workers and consumers alike,” GM said.

“Advanced Clean Cars II” regulations of 2022 call for 35% of 2026 model year vehicles, which will begin to be introduced next year, to be zero-emission vehicles. Battery-electric, fuel cell and, to an extent, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles qualify as zero emission.

Before the election, automotive officials said regardless of who won the White House, many automakers will push for the mandates to be postponed.

The California Air Resources Board reports 12 states and Washington, D.C., have adopted the rules; however, roughly half of them did so starting with the 2027 model year. They are part of CARB’s Advanced Clean Cars regulations that require 100% of new vehicle sales in the state of California to be zero-emission models by 2035.

EVs made up 10% or more of local market shares in just 11 states and the District of Columbia to begin this year, according to the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a trade association and lobby group that represents most major automakers operating in the U.S.

Auto executives and industry experts also expect Trump could roll back or freeze the Corporate Average Fuel Economy, or CAFE, standards for model years 2027-2031.

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Delta says travelers are trading scorching summer Europe trips for fall getaways

suimt — Thu, 10 Oct 2024 16:50:07 +0000

A woman uses an umbrella to protect herself from the sun as she passes past the Colosseum during an intensely hot day in Rome, Italy, on July 11, 2024.

Riccardo De Luca | Anadolu | Getty Images

Summer trips to Europe are getting too hot for thousands of tourists.

Delta Air Lines President Glen Hauenstein said travelers are opting out of flying to Europe during the traditional summer peak travel season. Instead, they are shifting trips to cooler months, a trend that airline officials have been noticing over the past couple of years as consumers look to escape crowds and record heat of popular destinations.

“The weather in Europe in August is really hot, and that people who have choices when they can take their vacations are moving into let’s call it more temperate months,” Hauenstein said Thursday on an earnings call. Corporate [travel] we haven’t seen much change year over year but it’s continuing to shift travel to Europe in particular from July and August peak to a September and October peak.”

Summer this year in the Northern Hemisphere was the hottest on record, according to the European Union’s climate monitor.

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Hurricane Milton makes landfall in Florida as Category 3 storm

Aseem — Thu, 10 Oct 2024 00:52:21 +0000

A satellite image shows Hurricane Milton progressing in the Gulf of Mexico before its expected landfall in Florida, Oct. 9, 2024.

CIRA | NOAA | Via Reuters

The National Hurricane Center said Hurricane Milton has made landfall near Siesta Key, Florida as a Category 3 storm on Wednesday evening.

This is a breaking news story. CNBC’s previous story is below.

Several tornadoes and heavy rain hit south-central Florida on Wednesday afternoon as residents rushed to make last-minute preparations for Hurricane Milton. The storm is currently a Category 4 hurricane but is “growing in size” as it approaches the state’s west coast, according to the National Hurricane Center.

The NHC said Monday that Milton had intensified into a Category 5 storm, but by Wednesday morning it had dropped down to a Category 4, with sustained winds of up to 155 mph. The NHC said the storm will remain a hurricane as it crosses the Florida peninsula.

A storm surge warning is in effect for the central to southern west coast of Florida, including Tampa. The NHC warning indicates “a danger of life-threatening inundation, from rising water moving inland from the coastline, during the next 36 hours in the indicated locations.”

As of 2 p.m. Wednesday, the storm was about 150 miles southwest of the Tampa metropolitan area and moving northeast at about 16 mph, with sustained winds of 130 mph. The hurricane will likely make landfall late Wednesday night or early Thursday morning, according to the NHC.

Vehicles move through a partially flooded street in Dunedin, Florida, ahead of Hurricane Milton’s expected landfall tonight, Oct. 9, 2024.

Bryan R. Smith | AFP | Getty Images

Milton rapidly intensified as it crossed the Gulf of Mexico due to the heat of the gulf’s surface waters. When a storm forms into a hurricane it absorbs energy from the heat in surface waters and, with 2024 on track to have the warmest average global air temperature on record, Milton’s ability to grow stronger in such a short amount of time was “a near-certainty,” according to physical oceanographer Gregory Foltz at the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Millions of people in 15 counties are under mandatory evacuation orders. The Federal Emergency Management Agency wrote Wednesday: “Your life is at serious risk if you don’t take action immediately — every second counts.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis said people near the coast still have time to evacuate inland and recommended they head to one of the 149 general population shelters open throughout the state.

“The current total shelter population is just 31,000 individuals. We have room in those shelters for a total population of almost 200,000 individuals. So there is space available in these shelters,” DeSantis said in a storm briefing Wednesday morning. He said he expects more people to head toward shelters Wednesday afternoon and night.

Rown Williamson secures a gas pump at a Costco store before the arrival of Hurricane Milton on October 08, 2024 in Naples, Florida.

Joe Raedle | Getty Images

DeSantis also said the Florida Highway Patrol has facilitated 106 long-distance fuel tanker escorts to transport close to one million gallons of gasoline into Tampa and other areas.

Gas stations around the state have already run out of fuel as people attempt to either leave the state or have fuel on stock for at-home generators. Around 23% of the state’s 7,900 gas stations are currently without fuel, up from around 17% on Tuesday, according to data from GasBuddy.

FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell recommended Wednesday that Floridians in areas under storm surge watch should still try to evacuate, even if only a few miles inland. “Milton is going to be a deadly and catastrophic storm,” Criswell said in a press briefing.

Criswell also said she will travel to Florida on Wednesday to help with recovery efforts once the storm hits. “I want people to hear from me directly, FEMA is ready,” she said.

The NWS issued a tornado warning Wednesday for most of central and southern Florida, including Miami-Dade County. The warning also includes hail up to a half inch in size and isolated gusts of up to 70 mph.

At 11 a.m., the NHC reported tornadic supercells across southern Florida. The NWS reported a tornado along I-75 near Miami as outer bands of the hurricane moved through the area.

Another tornado was recorded near the Everglades, wetlands on the southern tip of the Florida peninsula.

The rushed preparations for Milton come as Floridians are still recovering from Hurricane Helene, which made landfall Sept. 26. More than 225 people died from the storm and recovery efforts lagged as the storm isolated communities. Helene also highlighted the unpredictability of hurricanes, as the storm transitioned into a tropical storm and still ravaged the inland city of Asheville, North Carolina.

The Justice Department warned Floridians and other consumers Wednesday to watch out for any potential fraud or price-gouging schemes during and following the hurricane. Price gouging is the practice of retailers artificially inflating prices when the retailer’s costs have not increased. Consumers are particularly vulnerable to price gouging during natural disasters, such as hurricanes.

As Tampa prepares for the arrival of Hurricane Milton, a flood barrier is erected around a wastewater facility on October 09, 2024, in Tampa, Florida.

Spencer Platt | Getty Images

The department said people are not required to pay a fee to get disaster relief, and that only scammers will repeatedly push for somebody to pay for services by wire transfer, gift card, payment apps, cryptocurrency or cash.

“Companies are on notice: do not use the hurricane as an excuse to exploit people through illegal behavior,” said Manish Kumar, deputy assistant attorney general of the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division. “The Antitrust Division and its law enforcement partners will act quickly to root out anticompetitive behavior and use every tool available to hold wrongdoers accountable.”

President Joe Biden backed up this sentiment in a hurricane briefing Wednesday, saying, “I’m calling on the airlines and other companies to provide as much service as possible to accommodate evacuations and not to engage in price gouging, to just do it on the level.”

The Department of Transportation told CNBC it is already in talks with airlines around affordability of flights in areas affected by the storm.

Biden said Milton could be the worst storm to hit Florida in over a century and that his administration has already deployed thousands of federal personnel across the Southeast to aid in recovery.

Rivian shares fall after EV maker slashes production forecast, misses Q3 delivery expectations

suimt — Fri, 04 Oct 2024 20:46:18 +0000

Workers assemble second-generation R1 vehicles at electric auto maker Rivian’s manufacturing facility in Normal, Illinois, U.S. June 21, 2024.

Joel Angel Juarez | Reuters

Shares of Rivian Automotive dropped by as much as 8.9% in intraday trading Friday after the electric vehicle startup delivered fewer vehicles in the third quarter than analysts had expected and lowered its annual production forecast for 2024.

The company said the lower production target — down from 57,000 units to between 47,000 and 49,000 — was because of a “production disruption due to a shortage of a shared component” for its R1 vehicles and commercial van.

“This supply shortage impact began in Q3 of this year, has become more acute in recent weeks and continues. As a result of the supply shortage, Rivian is revising its annual production guidance to be between 47,000 and 49,000 vehicles,” the company said in a statement.

Shares of the Rivian, assisted by an expectation-defying jobs report that boosted markets, recovered some earlier losses to close down by 3.2% to $10.44.

A Rivian spokesman said the component causing the problem is part of its in-house motors, but he declined to disclose any further details.

Rivian CEO RJ Scaringe during a Morgan Stanley investor conference last month alluded to problems with a number of suppliers: “We’ve had a couple of supplier issues of recent that have been challenging and in particular, a few issues around our in-house motors with some of the components that have been painful and a reminder of just how a multi-tiered supply chain can be difficult.”

Shares of Rivian, Tesla and GM in 2024.

Despite the shortage, the company reaffirmed its annual delivery outlook of low single-digit growth as compared with 2023, which it expects to be in a range of 50,500 to 52,000 vehicles.

Rivian disclosed the component shortage as part of reporting its vehicle production and delivery for the third quarter.

The company produced 13,157 vehicles at its manufacturing facility in Normal, Illinois, during the period ended Sept. 30 and delivered 10,018 vehicles in that time. Analyst estimates compiled by FactSet expected deliveries of 13,000 vehicles during the third quarter.

Shares of Rivian are down by 56% in 2024, as EV demand has been slower than expected and the company has burned through a significant amount of cash.

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Zillow adds climate risk data to home listings as threats rise

suimt — Fri, 04 Oct 2024 19:29:20 +0000

Insured losses for Hurricane Helene are now estimated at over $6 billion, but the uninsured losses are far higher. That’s because the vast majority of homes impacted by the storm, especially in hard-hit North Carolina, did not have flood insurance.

New risk-assessment technology is designed to help change that for the future.

Most homeowners in North Carolina do not have flood insurance, because they are not in flood zones designated by the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Government-backed mortgages require flood insurance in those designated areas.

Just 4% of North Carolina homes are in a FEMA flood zone. But climate risk firm First Street, which incorporates the effects of climate change into its property risk scores, shows nearly 12% of homes in the state at flood risk.

First Street just launched a suite of climate risk data for every for-sale property listed on Zillow.

“Climate risks are now a critical factor in home buying decisions,” said Skylar Olsen, chief economist at Zillow, in a release. “We’re providing buyers and sellers with clear, property-specific climate data so they can make informed decisions. As concerns about flooding, extreme temperatures, and wildfires grow, this tool also helps agents inform their clients in discussing climate risk, insurance, and long-term affordability.”

A house along the Broad River in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene on October 1, 2024 in Bat Cave, North Carolina.

Sean Rayford | Getty Images

Each for-sale listing on Zillow now displays First Street risk scores for flood, fire, wind, air and heat. They also show those same risk percentages estimated 15 years and 30 years into the future — the standard lengths for fixed-rate mortgages.

On properties with some risk now, it often shows that risk rise over time, as First Street incorporates the effects of climate change. This is especially true for the flood risk, because climate change is already intensifying the severity of rainfall, even in minor storms.

The data also includes a recommendation as to whether the homeowner should have flood insurance and a link to the First Street site, which will help estimate insurance costs.

“A lot of people think that they are safe from flood if they’re not in a FEMA flood zone, and that’s decidedly not true. Heavy rainfall can affect many, many people across the country, and there’s no indication from the FEMA flood zone designation that that is a risk for you,” said Ed Kearns, chief science officer at First Street. “We’ve created these new flood maps that do bring that into account, that will allow consumers to make that informed choice about whether they need flood insurance.”

More than 80% of buyers now consider climate risk when purchasing a home, according to a survey by Zillow. Respondents ranked flood risk as their highest concern, followed by fire.

A Zillow analysis of August listings found that more homes nationwide had a major climate risk than did those listed for sale five years ago. That was true across all five climate risk categories, the analysis found. For new listings in August, 16.7% are at major wildfire risk and 12.8% show a major risk of flooding, according to Zillow and First Street data.

As more and more consumers consult these climate scores in their purchase decisions, the effect on home values will surely increase. The cost of insurance is already factored into home prices, and as both the cost and necessity of insurance rise, home values in the most affected areas will fall.

“I think that’s going to be the most direct impact of having scores on homes that quantify risk is that there may be some direct impact on real estate values, but a lot of that is going to go through the amount of insurance necessary to cover that home,” Kearns added.

Climate – TheNewsHub

Rafael weakens to tropical storm over Gulf of Mexico after barreling through Cuba as a hurricane

What Trump's election to the White House could mean for EVs

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Delta says travelers are trading scorching summer Europe trips for fall getaways

Read more CNBC airline news

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Hurricane Milton makes landfall in Florida as Category 3 storm

Rivian shares fall after EV maker slashes production forecast, misses Q3 delivery expectations

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Zillow adds climate risk data to home listings as threats rise