A polar vortex is expected to bring snow over the next few days to parts of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic and record-challenging cold temperatures from the Upper Midwest to New England, the Washington Post reports.
The big picture "A lobe of the tropospheric polar vortex will pinch off from its main circulation closer to the Arctic, sagging southeast across the eastern Great Lakes and New England, translating to numbingly cold surface temperatures for May," the Post writes.
The coronavirus crisis highlights why the security of supply of key minerals used in renewable power and electric vehicles can't be taken for granted, International Energy Agency analysts say in a new commentary.
Why it matters: Ample supplies of materials including copper, cobalt, lithium, molybdenum and more are needed for wind turbines, electric car batteries and other applications.
U.S. demand for gasoline rose again last week, per Energy Information Administration data that provides the latest sign of fuel consumption recovering a bit.
Why it matters: EIA's weekly data is preliminary and can be noisy, but it was the latest of several weeks of increases, and it's consistent with other signs of driving starting to pick back up.
Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas President Robert Kaplan told Yahoo Finance Wednesday that he expects a substantial number of bankruptcies in the U.S. oil sector despite the recently expanded access to Fed's Main Street Lending Facility.
How it works: "[T]hat program will be designed for companies that would be already be creditworthy," said Kaplan, whose district has a large number of energy companies.
A new research initiative will track the carbon emissions effects of massive economic recovery packages that governments worldwide are crafting in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Driving the news: Johns Hopkins University yesterday announced plans for rigorous "climate impact assessments" of the efforts as part of a much wider set of pandemic-related research grants.
In the short term, the coronavirus pandemic is reducing global emissions and helping clear out smog around the world, but it may end up doing more damage to the environment in the long term.
The big picture: The pandemic is helping reduce the use of fossil fuels, but it is decreasing investments in things like wind and solar power and financial assets like green bonds, says Jessica Ground, global head of stewardship at Schroders.
In the age of the coronavirus, makers of one thing are suddenly turning to make other things to help fight the pandemic.
Driving the news:Automakers are making ventilators, oil and liquor companies are making hand sanitizers, and a climate-change communications group within Yale University has adapted its survey expertise to the pandemic.
Oil prices have rallied sharply in recent days, but the market remains depressed and the gains are too small and too late to prevent deep pain for the industry.
Why it matters: The general upward trend of late is nonetheless a sign that the worst of the pandemic-fueled collapse in prices and demand — which is stressing oil storage capacity — may be over.
There's at least a small movement brewing to ensure telework remains widely permitted and encouraged in the post-pandemic era as a way to help the climate.
Why it matters: Driving creates lots of air pollution, and transportation (not just from passenger cars) is the nation's largest source of CO2 emissions.
