** A new study has found that integrating Texas’s self-contained electrical grid with the broader national grid could prevent mass power outages like those suffered in 2021. The research, from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, found that if such a law had been enacted ahead of the 2021 event, Winter Storm Uri, up to 80 percent of the blackouts caused by the storm could have been averted.
** The U.S. Energy Department’s weekly inventory release showed that natural gas supplies increased more than expected. The bearish inventory numbers notwithstanding, futures settled with a gain week over week on signs of production pullback, resurgence of LNG exports and robust summer demand.
** Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer (D) and Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers (D) will appear in ads touting the Biden administration’s green investments in ads running in their state. The $1.4 million total buy from climate group Evergreen includes an ad with each governor, highlighting the impact of the Biden administration’s investments in their state.
** Many Americans are still hesitant of switching to electric vehicles despite the administration’s push to move to climate-friendly cars, according to a new survey. About 46 percent of Americans said they are unlikely to purchase an electric vehicle, according to a poll released Tuesday by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago (EPIC) and The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
** Crews lifted the last large piece of the Francis Scott Key Bridge blocking the Patapsco River’s main shipping channel Tuesday morning, according to the Army Corps of Engineers.
** California is one step closer to building its largest water storage facility in nearly 50 years, after a court ruled in favor of the Sites Reservoir project following a challenge by environmental groups.
World
** The rate Earth is warming hit an all-time high in 2023 with 92% of last year’s surprising record-shattering heat caused by humans, top scientists calculated. The group of 57 scientists from around the world used United Nations-approved methods to examine what’s behind last year’s deadly burst of heat.
** By 2050, humanity must durably remove four times as much CO2 from the air as today to cap global warming below the crucial target of two degrees Celsius, researchers said Tuesday.
** Toyota will recall about 100,000 vehicles over concerns that loose debris inside the engine could cause it to stall or otherwise fail, federal regulators announced last week. The recall covers about 3,500 Lexus LX SUVs made in 2022 and 2023 and nearly 100,000 Toyota Tundra pickup trucks from the same time frame, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) said.
** The European Commission is expected to levy provisional duties on made-in-China electric vehicles from July 4, EU officials told Chinese carmakers on Monday. An EU investigation into subsidies in China’s EV industry has threatened to tear new ruptures in an already tense bilateral relationship. The commission is expected to inform companies privately next week about the level of import duty that will be applied.