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Big oil and climate tech startups are sparring over who is best positioned to lead the low-carbon transition.

State of play: To hear CEOs like Exxon’s Darren Woods tell it, their companies are ideally equipped to implement large-scale, low carbon infrastructure, such as carbon capture and storage facilities (CCS) and hydrogen production and distribution. 

Meanwhile, clean energy startups maintain they are already poised to lead decarbonization efforts. 

Why it matters: The vision that ultimately prevails in the real world will determine whether net zero emissions goals are met, and therefore how much the planet will warm compared to preindustrial levels. 

The big picture: Woods recently downplayed the role that climate tech startups may play in the energy transition. In an earnings call last week, he told analysts regarding Exxon’s “low carbon solutions” division: "I think we're very well positioned there. This is not a game for startups," he said.

"These are large scale projects that require the kind of project expertise that we have, require the kind of size and balance sheet capacity that we have, require the technology and operating experience that we have," Woods said.

Exxon plans to invest $17 billion in low carbon solutions through 2027.

The other side: These comments have landed with a thud among the broad community of climate tech funders, who say they miss the billions in investments coming into the sector and rapid deployment of renewables and other technologies. 

Flashback: Woods’ comments echoed those of then-Shell CEO Ben van Beurden, who in 2021 also minimized clean tech startups’ role in an interview with Axios. 

Between the lines: In the view of Exxon and Shell, the giant companies are best equipped to deploy the most complex low and zero carbon solutions, such as CCS, hydrogen and large-scale biofuels, at the commercial scale. 

This is because they have the advantage when it comes to engineering skills, cash and geological experience, among other factors.  

The intrigue: Climate tech funders see Woods’ vision as myopic. 

In 2022, $70 billion went to climate tech venture funding, demonstrating the sector’s momentum, said Dawn Lippert, CEO of Elemental Excelerator, a program to help early-stage climate startups get up and running, 

That, plus the $1 trillion investment in low-carbon power last year, vastly outweighs what Exxon plans to invest in the energy transition on an annual basis, she told Axios in an interview.

“They're just dwarfed by what's actually happening in the market and attempting to kind of minimize startups,” she said of Exxon in particular.

Zoom in: Lippert says Exxon and Shell’s emphasis on CCS and hydrogen indicate they may be placing the wrong clean energy bets.

“Those actually aren't the sectors that we see being the biggest in driving climate technology,” Lippert said. 

She pointed to International Energy Agency numbers showing renewables, electric grid and storage now make up more than 80% of total power sector investments. 

Our thought bubble: There is an irony in fossil fuel companies seeking to claim the climate action mantle, given that their industry is responsible for most of the planet-warming greenhouse gases in the first place.

The bottom line: Andrew Beebe, managing director at Obvious Ventures, told Axios that history shows startups play a leading role when it comes to deploying clean technologies. 

There is a role for both major incumbent companies and new ventures in advancing the clean energy economy, Beebe said. “This is an all hands on deck moment." 

Big oil stirs up a battle over leading the clean tech arms race

The dueling narratives points to key tensions in the drive to lead the energy transition.

Illustration of two hands shaking, one of the hands has an oil barrel as a suit sleeve. 

Energy

A Volkswagen e-Golf charges at a electric vehicle (EV) charger in California

Climate change

Ominous forecasts about the impact of climate change serve as the backdrop for the world — led by U.S. lawmakers and companies — to debate big action on the problem, which could upend energy systems and our way of life.

Energy & Environment

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Oil giants for years have said that they'll pave the path toward energy transition, investing in everything from renewable projects to climate tech startups. 

Now, some of them are sounding more like speed bumps. 

Driving the news: BP plans to "dial back" some of the company's renewable energy initiatives, due to disappointment over return on investment, per the WSJ. 

Dutch rival Shell said it will keep renewable energy investments at 2022 levels, despite blockbuster profits.

Exxon CEO Darren Woods argued that energy transition "is not a game for startups," despite the energy industry's significant participation in venture capital rounds for climate tech startups. 

Zoom out: We're guilty of a little conflation here. European energy companies have focused most of their investment on utility-scale renewables, like solar and wind, whereas U.S. energy companies have gone more toward decarbonization technologies (capture, storage, etc.).  

The commonality, however, is that both seem to be making a 2009-era sort of argument that the ROI is lacking. 

The big picture: There's justifiable skepticism that oil majors have sincere interest in energy transition, given that they continue to earn billions of dollars by burning dinosaurs the old fashioned way. 

For evidence, critics would point to the amount of capital invested in  renewables and/or climate tech, compared to oil and gas spend.

Look ahead: There continues to be growing political and societal pressure toward decarbonization, no matter the short-term spending strategies of legacy industry. 

These recent pronouncements may make upstarts less likely to partner with incumbants, or to accept their investment. They also could spark some brain drain. 

Or perhaps the oil majors will again reverse course, as quickly as they're doing now, deciding that their own survival depends on it.

Oil giants slow down their energy transition talk

BP is cutting renewable energy investments, while Shell won't increase despite record profits.

Illustration of a road with a dollar sign hole in the middle

After a record economic expansion, the coronavirus pandemic sent the U.S. economy into a recession as unemployment soared to staggering heights. The country now faces urgent questions about how much stimulus is needed for reeling consumers and businesses, and what a recovery might look like.

Economy & Business

Extreme cold broke longstanding records Friday into Saturday as the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic U.S. continues dealing with temperatures in the single or negative digits, along with gusty winds. 

Driving the news: The life-threatening cold is impacting millions living in New York, Vermont, New Hampshire, Maine, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island. Boston, for example, saw its coldest low temperature reading in decades.

The latest: The high winds on Friday caused a tree branch to fall on a vehicle in Winstead, Connecticut, and kill an infant, NBC reports, citing the Hampden district attorney’s office.

A 23-year-old woman was driving the vehicle and was taken to the hospital with serious injuries. 

Threat level: Extreme temperatures are forecast to remain into Saturday afternoon for much of the region. In Maine, windchill warnings will remain in effect until 1am Sunday.  

Forecasts from the National Weather Service warned of "dangerously cold windchills" ranging between -25°F to -65°F below zero. 

On the summit of Mount Washington, New Hampshire, a windchill of minus-108°F and an actual temperature of minus-47°F were reported on Friday night. 

The minus-108°F is the lowest windchill on record in the U.S. since the current windchill scale began to be used about two decades ago.

The cold and high winds knocked out power to several thousand people in New England overnight Friday, and there were reports of frost quakes and the sounds of trees snapping as moisture abruptly froze and expanded. 

By the numbers: Boston hit minus-10°F on Saturday morning, the coldest temperature in the city since 1957. According to Fox Weather, a negative 39-degree windchill was recorded earlier in the morning. This is the coldest windchill recorded in Boston since at least 1944.

NWS Boston called the polar vortex "a historic arctic outbreak for the modern era. This is about as cold as it will get in southern New England."

In eastern Maine, a minus-62°F windchill was reported in Hancock County's Cadillac Mountain to the National Weather Service. In Aroostook County, a -61°F windchill was also recorded on Saturday morning. 

New York's Central Park bottomed out at 3°F, and cold records were set at La Guardia and JFK airports as well as Bridgeport, Connecticut.

What's next: The cold snap comes courtesy of a lobe of the polar vortex that had been located over Hudson Bay, Canada. It is only making a brief visit to New England, however. 

The coldest air is currently situated above northern Maine. A blizzard warning is in effect for Northern Penobscot and Southeast Aroostook counties until this evening for blowing snow lowering visibility to near zero at times.

Temperatures for most of the Northeast region will warm into the 10s and 20s throughout Saturday. Most of Maine and portions of northern New Hampshire will remain bitterly cold until the vortex moves off to the northeast on Sunday.

Context: Human-caused climate change is making extreme cold more rare across much of the U.S. and other parts of the Northern Hemisphere. In fact, the coldest months are warming faster than the warmest months in most states.

A new analysis from Climate Central finds that 204 U.S. weather stations have seen a marked decline in the annual number of nights below 32°F since 1970.

Editor's note: This story has been updated with new details throughout.

Arctic outbreak shatters records in Northeast, including -108°F wind chill

On Mount Washington, N.H., a wind chill of -108°F and an actual temperature of -47°F were reported on Friday night.

Visible satellite image of the Northeastern U.S. amid freezing temperatures and below-zero windchills on Feb. 4. Credit: NOAA

extreme weather

Extreme weather

A look at the scientific breakthroughs changing the world, explorations in space and in worlds beyond our own and the threats posed to us by our own planet, both out of our control and of our own making.

Science

January 2023 temperature rankings

Data: Southeast Regional Climate Center; Note: Between 37 and 156 years of data are available per station; Chart: Kavya Beheraj/Axios

January featured what meteorologists referred to as a "blowtorch" pattern in the East, with consistently milder than average weather conditions and barely any snow. 

By the numbers: Most cities, particularly those east of the Mississippi River, saw a top 15 warmest January. 

In New York City, it was the warmest January on record, with an average temperature of 43.5°F — a whopping 10°F above normal. Every day of the month was above average there.

In a sign of the warmth, New York actually saw more lightning strikes than it did inches of snow during the month.

Boston saw its fifth-warmest such month, Washington its third and Philadelphia second. 

Why it matters: Climate change raises the odds of a milder than average January, as the coldest months are warming the fastest in many parts of the U.S. 

A new analysis from Climate Central finds that 204 U.S. weather stations have seen a marked decline in the annual number of nights below 32°F since 1970. 

The big picture: In addition to climate change, other factors worked to yield such an unusually warm month. Waves of atmospheric river storms slammed California, bringing relatively mild Pacific air across the Lower 48 states. 

An area of high pressure across the East also directed storms northward across the Midwest and Great Lakes, dragging mild air up the East Coast. 

What's next: Despite a short-lived, fierce Arctic blast in New England, February is forecast to be another milder than average month in the East.

January was the warmest on record for millions

In New York City, the month was a whopping 10°F above average.

Increasingly hungry tribal nations are facing an uncertain future, as expanded food assistance benefits are about to run out and it's not clear whether they'll find a stable funding source for future aid. 

The big picture: Anti-hunger activists warn that this month's expiration of increased SNAP benefits will hurt food-insecure populations — and temporary federal pilot programs don't have any guarantees of enough funding to fill the gaps. 

What they're saying: Heather Dawn Thompson, director of the USDA's Office of Tribal Relations, tells Axios that without food assistance pilot programs that empower local and regional food systems, "we are in trouble." 

One example is the LFPA, or Local Food Purchase Assistance program, a pilot that provides funds for state, territory and tribal governments to purchase foods directly from local producers to distribute to community members.

The LFPA is in its second funding cycle, with tribes competing for $100 million. 

"[The amount] is historic, for sure, but certainly not enough to maintain it long-term," says Thompson. 

Yes, but: Given the LFPA's status as a temporary program, it would have to be institutionalized and fully funded by Congress in the 2023 farm bill. 

The 2023 farm bill will be one of the most significant congressional spending packages this year, with food and climate provisions expected to be among the most divisive, reports Politico.

While the USDA has yet to take any public policy positions on the farm bill, Thompson tells Axios that tribal nations support the expansion of the pilot projects.

Meanwhile: The Food Distribution Program on Indian Reservations (FDPIR) provides monthly food packages intended to supplement meals in food-insecure households, acting as a more accessible alternative to SNAP for rural reservations. 

Tribal leaders nationwide are calling for Congress to expand the FDPIR in this year's farm bill, per Public News Service, while the tribes helping operate the program report not having much say in their diet, according to Roll Call. 

The 2018 farm bill established a fund allowing tribes to buy foods from local vendors for the packages under the FDPIR, which launched in 2021 as a pilot project. 

Thompson describes both food assistance programs — the LFPA and the FDPIR pilot — as "off to really good pilot project starts," but in need of "institutional investment long-term." 

The backstory: Food insecurity is a serious problem facing Indigenous communities in the U.S., where nearly half of Native Americans and Alaskan Natives are thought to be food-insecure, per a 2022 study. 

"[Food insecurity] is very much exacerbated in Indian Country where most of our reservations are very rural and isolated, and are food deserts," Thompson, a member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe, tells Axios. 

Historic reasons — such as land loss and the destruction of many Indigenous foodways — play a part in why the tribes were put in the locations that they are, Thompson says. 

A legacy of policies like these compound with present-day legislation in further exacerbating the problem, as anti-hunger activists warn that federal changes will significantly impact impoverished communities.

While some states have already ended increased pandemic emergency allotments, or EAs, that served as additional benefits issued to SNAP-eligible households, more than half maintained them into 2023.

But under the omnibus bill, all of those will universally expire at the end of the month.

Joel Berg, CEO of Hunger Free America, says that while a provision of the omnibus bill did end the extra food assistance benefits, the funding will "theoretically" be reallocated to pay for added investments in child nutrition, like a permanent Summer EBT program.  

"But that was paid for by cutting SNAP," Berg tells Axios. "You will see a significant decline in the money people have to pay for food."

Of note: Around a quarter of Indigenous peoples in the U.S. receive a form of federal food assistance. In some tribal communities, the rate can be higher than 50%.  

Context: From marine heatwaves decimating species of salmon in the Yukon River to the decline of Alaskan snow crabs, climate change is contributing to the loss of traditional food sources, escalating food insecurity for Indigenous communities.

Coastal tribal nations in particular are experiencing dramatic climate-fueled impacts to their food sources, which is "significantly increasing their food insecurity," says Thompson.   

"They are the canary, if you will, in the coal mine."

What we're watching: Tribal nations are "very clear" in their messaging that they do not want to be incorporated as subsets of state, as they are with food programs like SNAP that are currently run by state agencies, Thompson tells Axios.

"[Tribal nations] don't simply want increases in federal nutrition programs, although that's very important and key for a lot of folks. They really want to rebuild their own food systems." 

Exclusive: Tribal nations face threats to food security funding

Increasingly hungry tribal nations are facing an uncertain future.

Photo illustration of silhouettes of Yurok fishermen, a member of the Haida/Tlingít nation harvesting traditional plants and the US Capitol building.

Photo illustration: Shoshana Gordon/Axios. Photos: Salwan Georges/The Washington Post, Bernard Friel/UCG/Universal Images Group, Michael Macor/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images

Food security

Energy Policy

Energy Policy Alerts

A key House Republican is putting forward a plan to make the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) an independent agency outside the Department of Commerce. 

Why it matters: Removing the agency from a Cabinet-level department could diminish its clout when it comes to securing funding and weighing in on key policy decisions, former senior NOAA officials tell Axios.  

It would also hollow out the Commerce Department, where NOAA comprises more than 50% of the budget.

NOAA plays an outsized role in American daily life, since it is responsible for forecasting the weather and issuing warnings for severe storms. The agency also regulates fisheries and runs some of the top climate change research centers in the world. 

State of play: A bill being circulated within the House Science, Space and Technology Committee by chairman Frank Lucas (Okla.)  would authorize NOAA and its mission in law for the first time. Lucas plans to formally introduce it this spring.

Committee Democrats, led by ranking member Zoe Lofgren (Calif.), are open to supporting the measure but are waiting to see all the details before deciding whether to back it, according to a Democratic committee aide. 

NOAA, which was created by an executive order in 1970, has always been an awkward fit in the Commerce Department. It was placed there because of a dispute then-president Richard Nixon had with his Interior secretary. 

However, making it an independent organization could deprive it of Cabinet-level influence. 

Yes, but: There is also precedent for the Commerce secretary to meddle with the agency due to political pressure, as occurred during the “Sharpiegate scandal” during Hurricane Dorian in 2019. 

In that instance, pressure from the White House and Commerce Department leadership forced NOAA to back away from its original forecast for Hurricane Dorian’s impacts, in order to support President Trump’s contention that the storm would threaten Alabama. 

Between the lines: A GOP Science Committee aide told Axios that Lucas’ effort is about ensuring that NOAA’s existence and mission is enshrined into law and reorganizing its structure to make its research operations more efficient. 

“Do we need all the existing line offices here? Do we need to consolidate? Do we need to combine?” the aide said. “We’re not really looking to have some massive reorientation of the agency, but partly it is somewhat of an organizational issue.” 

The bill would enter at least one polarizing area: it would require a study on moving NOAA’s endangered species and marine protection responsibilities to the Interior Department, which helps regulate energy development.

That is likely to encounter opposition on the Senate side, where Sen. Maria Cantwell, chair of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, plans to introduce her own bill to enshrine NOAA into law, according to Democratic committee staff members. 

The Senate bill is unlikely to push for NOAA's independence. 

Some of NOAA’s responsibilities also fall under the purview of the House Resources Committee. 

What they’re saying: Two past agency leaders told Axios that making NOAA independent would likely be a net plus for the agency, since the Commerce Department controls many of its policy, spending and messaging decisions. 

“The principle of moving NOAA to be an independent agency, I support 1,000%,” said Tim Gallaudet, who served as an acting NOAA administrator under former President Trump. “I cannot tell you the number of times where progress was impeded by having to go through the bureaucratic layer of the Department of Commerce.“ 

But one former NOAA senior staff member, who spoke anonymously because they still do business with the agency, expressed reservations about NOAA’s ability to continue to secure adequate funding and maintain its visibility if it were an independent agency. 

For more content like this, join the waitlist for Axios Pro Energy Policy, launching Feb. 13.

House Science chair seeks to carve out an independent NOAA

NOAA has always been an awkward fit in the Department of Commerce.

NOAA satellite image showing Hurricane Ian nearing the coast of Florida on Sept. 28, 2022.

Congress

A long-duration ice storm impacting portions of the Southern Plains and mid-South is expected to last until Wednesday, bringing the potential for power outages, tree damage and dangerous road conditions to several states.

The big picture: About 3.3 million Americans were under an ice storm warning on Tuesday morning, with 16.5 million under a winter storm warning, according to the National Weather Service. Many more were under other types of winter weather alerts, such as wind chill advisories. 

State of play: "A glancing blow of arctic air mixed with a surge in moisture is setting the stage for an extensive and very dangerous ice event," the National Weather Service warned in an update on its website

"The most likely corridor of icing with a mixture of sleet will occur from west-central Texas to the Tennessee and Lower Ohio Valleys. The ice accretion from Texas into Mid South may approach a half inch or more through Wednesday and cause power outages and travel issues."

Zoom in: Frigid air in the Upper Midwest and Great Plains headed South, where it's encountering moisture along a frontal boundary, and leading to this treacherous stretch of icy precipitation.

NOAA's Weather Prediction Center forecast several rounds of wintry precipitation, including light freezing rain and sleet from Monday to Wednesday. Ice accumulations may be greater than a quarter of an inch, the prediction center said.

The ice "will lead to tree damage and power outages across the hardest-hit regions," it added.

The dangerous weather had already led to hundreds of flight delays and cancelations by Monday afternoon.

Winter storm and ice storm warnings were in effect across several states, from Texas to Arkansas to Kentucky, according to the National Weather Service. 

“Travel could be nearly impossible in some areas,” the NWS said.

Sleet and freezing rain has fallen across Texas on Monday. Much of the Dallas-Fort Worth metro area is under a winter storm warning until Wednesday morning.

Moderate to heavy sleet, possibly accompanied by thunder, is expected in both Arkansas and Oklahoma, according to the NWS' Tulsa office. 

Freezing rain and sleet are expected in Kentucky, too, making "travel treacherous" through Tuesday morning, per the NWS' Paducah, Kentucky, office.

An icy mix of precipitation is expected across at least 15 states from Monday to Wednesday, according to the NWS’s Weather Prediction Center.

More than one-quarter inch of ice accumulation is forecast in states such as Texas, Oklahoma, Arkansas and Tennessee, the NWS said. 

Memphis is currently under an ice storm warning until noon on Wednesday with “significant icing expected" and ice accumulations predicted to reach one-quarter to one-half inch, according to the NWS Memphis office.

In western Kentucky, one- to two-tenths of ice accumulation is expected, according to the NWS' Paducah office.

Temperatures could hit 20 to 30 degrees below average throughout the Great Plains and Intermountain West to start the week, too, NOAA said. The Dakotas and Minnesota could see wind chill temperatures drop to minus-40°.

Temperatures were in the single digits Monday afternoon in South Dakota cities Sioux Falls, Rapid City and Aberdeen.

Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, had single-digit temperatures, too.

Details: By 9 p.m. on Monday, more than 5,100 flights into, within or out of the United States were delayed, with around 1,100 flights canceled, according to data from FlightAware.

Most of the flights were from Southwest Airlines and were out of Dallas-Fort Worth International and Dallas Love Field airports.

Southwest Airlines said travelers with flights to, from and through some cities in Texas, Arkansas, Kentucky, Tennessee and Oklahoma can rebook flights without additional charges. This applies to flights from Jan. 30 to Feb. 1.

American Airlines also issued a waiver for DFW airport that applies to flights from Jan. 29 to Feb. 2.

Axios' Andrew Freedman contributed to this report.

Editor's note: This article has been updated with further details on the storm.

Dangerous ice storm underway as Arctic air surges south

As of Monday night, 3.3 million Americans are under an ice storm warning, with 14.5 million under a winter storm warning.

An image of the winter weather hitting the United States.

Satellite image shows the winter storm from Texas to the Mississippi River Valley. Source: NOAA

Weather

A new study relying on machine learning methods finds the climate thresholds enshrined in the Paris Agreement may be coming up faster than previously anticipated.

Why it matters: The world is already suffering the impacts of 1.1°C (1.98°F) to 1.2°C (2.16°F) of warming to date, and passing 1.5°C or 2°C above preindustrial levels could dramatically increase the risks to society and ecosystems. 

The big picture: The study, published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, uses neural networks trained on climate model simulations to predict the time remaining until the Paris targets will be reached. 

The data-driven approach involves identifying patterns in historical temperature observations that provide clues to the time remaining until a warming level is exceeded.

The researchers from Stanford University and Colorado State University found the world has about a decade until the 1.5-degree target is reached and then exceeded, which is consistent with previous findings. 

Notably, it finds that even the lowest emissions scenario, featuring steep cuts to fossil fuel use in the next few decades, has a significant chance of breaching the 2°C target. The timeline for hitting 2°C ranges from 2043 to 2058, with a central estimate of 2050, the study finds. 

Between the lines: The study has some significant caveats, including the fact that the machine learning techniques may be biased by the computer models they were trained on. 

Study lead author Noah Diffenbaugh, a climate scientist at Stanford, told Axios the new paper took multiple steps to try to minimize the likelihood of such biases. 

The AI-enabled study is part of a trend in climate science toward focusing on developing new data analysis techniques. Some scientists are concerned this may come at the expense of potential new discoveries about how the climate system functions. 

What they're saying: "It's always a bit tricky to know how much faith to put in machine-learning methods like this given the absence of physical modeling of the systems involved," Zeke Hausfather, climate research lead at payments company Stripe, who was not involved in the new study, told Axios via email. 

He said it offers "another reason for caution" that an emissions scenario assumed to hold warming to under 2°C may in fact "have a real chance of resulting in higher warming than we expect." 

Critical climate thresholds may be nearer than thought: study finds

The study concludes that even with steep emissions cuts, we're likely to reach or pass 2°C of warming.

Illustration of a metal dial with the Earth on it, turned upward.

Global warming

Auckland authorities are urging residents to stay home if possible ahead of a second atmospheric river event forecast to hit Tuesday after record rainfall flooded much of New Zealand's largest city Friday. 

The impact: At least four people have died after Auckland officials declared a state of emergency late Friday, after floodwaters inundated much of the city and many areas recorded their wettest-ever day. Further flooding was reported after more heavy rain over Sunday night.

The severe storm has also caused landslides, while flooding has closed roads across New Zealand's upper North Island.

New Zealand's education secretary directed all Auckland region schools to close for on-site classes until Friday as the state of emergency remains in place amid the threat of further weather disruptions and to minimize traffic "while vital infrastructure is urgently repaired," per a Ministry of Education statement Monday.

New Zealand's flood-hit largest city braces for second atmospheric river

Auckland has recorded more than 769% of its normal January monthly rainfall and  over 38% of its entire annual rainfall as rains continue.

Climate change

The big picture

Big oil stirs up a battle over leading the clean tech arms race

January was the warmest on record for millions

Exclusive: Tribal nations face threats to food security funding

House Science chair seeks to carve out an independent NOAA

Critical climate thresholds may be nearer than thought: study finds

Horn of Africa may see record sixth straight failed rainy season

All Climate change stories

Big oil stirs up a battle over leading the clean tech arms race

Oil giants slow down their energy transition talk

Arctic outbreak shatters records in Northeast, including -108°F wind chill

January was the warmest on record for millions

Exclusive: Tribal nations face threats to food security funding

House Science chair seeks to carve out an independent NOAA

Dangerous ice storm underway as Arctic air surges south

Critical climate thresholds may be nearer than thought: study finds

New Zealand's flood-hit largest city braces for second atmospheric river