Don't worry if the lack of a federal tax credit put you off from buying certain Tesla Model Y variants or other EVs — they might now qualify. The Treasury Department has revised its classification standard to treat more vehicles as SUVs rather than sedans, raising the price threshold from $55,000 to $80,000 and making more EVs eligible for the Internal Revenue Service's (IRS) full $7,500 credit under the Inflation Reduction Act. As Autoblogexplains, that should cover five-seat versions of the Model Y (only seven-seaters qualified before) as well as the Cadillac Lyriq, Ford Mustang Mach-E, Ford Escape Plug-in Hybrid and VW ID.4.

The Treasury expanded the classification by using the Environmental Protection Agency's public-oriented Fuel Economy Labeling standard rather than the Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE). This will help treat crossovers "consistently," the department says. This also helps the credit classifications line up with what you see both on the car label and the US government's FuelEconomy.gov website.

You can claim the full amount for any qualifying EV bought and put into service in 2023, including those that weren't eligible under the CAFE standard. Any vehicle that could receive the credit before will still pass muster, the Treasury says.

The change of heart comes after the IRS invited public comments on a proposed change. Tesla chief Elon Musk encouraged input from his Twitter followers soon afterward. It's unclear how much of a role Tesla's fanbase played, but the decision isn't surprising. Under the old criteria, some of the best-known EVs didn't qualify. The credits were meant to spur EV adoption and further the Biden administration's climate goals — that was going to be harder if customers couldn't get deals on the most popular models.

Amazon told lawmakers it wouldn’t build storm shelters in its warehouses after a December 2021 tornado killed six employees at an Illinois location. Although the company changed its severe-weather response strategy after the incident, it essentially told the elected officials that since building storm shelters isn’t required by law, it won’t do that.

The company responded to lawmakers Senator Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Representatives Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) and Cori Bush (D-MO), who sent a letter on December 15th, questioning the company’s lack of storm shelters or safe rooms at its warehouses. “Amazon’s apparent unwillingness to invest in a storm shelter or safe room at its Edwardsville facility is made even more concerning by the fact that installing one could be done by Amazon at relatively low cost,” the lawmakers wrote. “This cost is negligible for a company like Amazon, which brought in more than $500 billion in revenue over the 12-month period ending September 30, 2022 and clearly has the resources necessary to protect its workers should it have the will to do so.”

Company vice president of public policy Brian Huseman responded (via CNBC), “Amazon requires that its buildings follow all applicable laws and building codes. We have not identified any jurisdiction in the United States that requires storm shelters or safe rooms for these types of facilities.”

Lawrence Bryant / reuters

Huseman added that Amazon follows Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) and National Weather Service guidelines and will continue using a “severe weather assembly area” for sheltering in place instead of the requested storm shelters. The six employees and contractors who died at the warehouse tried to protect themselves in a bathroom; the surviving workers took refuge in an assembly area.

OSHA investigated the incident last April and ordered Amazon to review its severe weather policies, but it fell short of penalizing the company for its response. Additionally, Amazon hired a meteorologist, launched an internal center for monitoring severe weather and created emergency cards pointing out evacuation points and assembly areas.

Amazon reportedly began rebuilding the warehouse last June. The families of two of the employees killed there have sued the company for wrongful death.

Most electric vehicles get upgrades to boost performance or range, but Antarctica's one and only EV has received a tune-up due to the realities of climate change. Venturi has revealed that it upgraded its Venturi Antarctica electric explorer early last year due to warmer conditions on the continent. The original machine was designed to operate in winter temperatures of -58F, but the southern polar region is now comparatively balmy at 14F — and that affected both crews and performance.

The company has added a ventilation system and air intakes to the front of the Antarctica to prevent overheating in the cockpit, while additional intakes keep the power electronics from cooking. Redesigned wheel sprockets were also necessary to maximize the tracked EV's capabilities. The warmer snow was sticking to the sprockets, creating vibrations as it compacted and hardened. Future upgrades will help restore range lost to changing snow consistency. The Antarctica is built to cover 31 miles, but scientists have been limiting that to 25 miles.

Ars Technicanotes Venturi's EV has been in use at Belgium's Princess Elisabeth Antarctica Station since December 2021. It has two modest 80HP motors and just a 52.6kWh battery (plus an optional second pack), but raw power isn't the point. The design lets station residents perform research without contributing to emissions or polluting a relatively pristine region.

You might not see Venturi make similar climate-related upgrades for a while. However, the refresh shows how global warming can affect transportation in subtle ways. Venturi and other manufacturers may have to design their next explorers on the assumption that Antarctica won't be as chilly as before.

Energy generated from solar and wind power reportedly overtook natural gas in the European Union (EU) for the first time last year. The data comes from UK clean-energy think tank Ember (via Bloomberg), which projects the gap to grow.

Solar and wind energy rose to an all-time high of 22 percent of the EU’s 2022 electricity use. Meanwhile, Ember projects fossil-fuel generation to drop by 20 percent this year — with gas falling the fastest.

The shifts stem largely from reducing reliance on gas and coal after Russia invaded Ukraine. President Vladimir Putin ordered the cutoff of natural gas exports to the EU as retaliation for Western sanctions. Ember says the resulting high costs helped lower energy demand by around eight percent in Q4 2022 compared to the same quarter the previous year.

“There is now a focus on rapidly cutting gas demand — at the same time as phasing out coal,’’ the report said. “This means a massive scale-up in clean energy is on its way.” It expects nuclear power to remain flat in 2023, with a planned phase-out of German nuclear reactors canceling out a ramp-up from France. However, it projects hydropower to rise by around 40 terawatt-hours this year following a severe drought in 2022.

Swiss scientists have developed a proof-of-concept method to collect environmental DNA (eDNA) from high-arching forest canopies, an under-observed habitat. Rather than hiring skilled climbers to risk their lives to grab a little bug and bird DNA, the team flew a collection drone into the trees to capture genetic material — giving them a clearer picture of the area’s organic breakdown.

The researchers used a quadcopter equipped with a sticky collection cage. But since tree branches can bend at the slightest touch — and the drone needs to touch the branches to collect DNA — it has a haptic-based control scheme using force sensors to measure the pressure between the drone and the branch. Then, it adjusts its landing accordingly, leaning against the branch gently enough to avoid flinging valuable material to the ground.

The drone’s cage then grabs samples with a sticky surface made from “adhesive tape and a cotton gauze humidified with a solution of water and DNA-free sugar.” The cage spends around 10 seconds leaning on each branch and collecting eDNA before zipping back to the base, where the scientists retrieve the samples and ship them to a lab. The experiment’s drone successfully collected enough genetic material to identify 21 animal classes ranging from insects and mammals to birds and amphibians.

Science

However, the scientists make it clear this is a work in progress. For example, on the last research day, the team noticed a drop in eDNA detection because of rainfall the night before — suggesting the method only tells them which creatures visited since the last downpour. Additionally, they noted unexplained differences in the performance of their two collectors, highlighting the need for more research on equipment variations.

The researchers hope their work will make it easier and cheaper for environmental biologists to learn which critters live in some of the hardest-to-reach places. The approach could eventually help the scientific community understand how environmental changes affect biodiversity, perhaps helping identify endangered or vulnerable species before it’s too late.

New York City’s first flood-monitoring network is set to expand. Thanks to $7.2 million in funding from the city, the number of flood-prone areas FloodNet monitors with its sensors will increase from 31 to 500 across all five boroughs. The expansion is expected to start next month and take up to five years.

Data from the sensors is fed into a free web dashboard that residents, city agencies, researchers and anyone else can use to stay on top of and react to flood threats. The dashboard receives water-level readings from the sensors in real time. An interactive map shows where, when and how rapidly water is rising, whether that's due to seawater surges at the coast or stormwater drains not being able to handle floods. The dashboard also includes historical data, which can help people to track the frequency and severity of floods over time.

Researchers from New York University, The City University of New York, Brooklyn College and the Science and Resilience Institute developed FloodNet. They had assistance from the mayor's Office of Climate & Environmental Justice, the NYC Office of Technology & Innovation and neighborhood community groups.

FloodNet's solar-powered sensors are low cost and open-source. They use ultrasound to measure changes in water levels and wirelessly transfer data to a gateway hub, which then sends the information to FloodNet's servers and the dashboard.

Sea levels in the city have risen by a foot in the last century, according to the New York City Panel on Climate Change. They're expected to increase by between another eight and 30 inches by around 2050, and between 15 and 75 inches by the end of the century. More detailed flood data can help city planners and others prepare for permanent water level rises, along with weather events like hurricanes that can quickly wreak havoc.

Researchers say they have determined a way to make agrivoltaics — the process of growing crops underneath solar panels — more efficient. They found that red wavelengths are more efficient for growing plants, while the blue part of the spectrum is better for producing solar energy. Solar panels that only allow red wavelengths of light to pass through could enable farmers to grow food more productively while generating power at the same time.

Previous studies have found that agrivoltaics can reduce the amount of water required for crops, since they're shaded from direct sunlight. Researchers at Michigan Technological University determined in 2015 that shading can reduce water usage by up to 29 percent. Majdi Abou Najm, an associate professor at University of California, Davis' department of land, air and water resources, told Modern Farmer that by splitting the light spectrum, crops can get the same amount of carbon dioxide with less water while shielding them from heat.

The researchers put the idea to the test by growing tomatoes under blue and red filters, as well as a control crop without any coverings. Although the yield for the covered plots was about a third less than the control, the latter had around twice the amount of rotten tomatoes. Abou Najm noted that the filters helped to reduce heat stress and crop wastage.

Majdi Abou Najm/UC Davis

For this approach to work in practice, though, manufacturers would need to develop translucent solar panels that capture blue light and allow red light to pass through. Matteo Camporese, an associate professor at the University of Padova in Italy and lead author of a paper on the topic, suggested that translucent, carbon-based organic solar cells could work. These cells could be applied onto surfaces such as glass.

There are other issues, including the fact wavelength-selective agrivoltaic systems may need to account for different crop types. Harvesting those crops efficiently might require some out-of-the-box thinking too. Still, the research seems promising and, with a growing global population, it's important to consider different approaches to using our resources more productively.

“We cannot feed 2 billion more people in 30 years by being just a little more water-efficient and continuing as we do,” Abou Najm said. “We need something transformative, not incremental. If we treat the sun as a resource, we can work with shade and generate electricity while producing crops underneath. Kilowatt hours become a secondary crop you can harvest.”

What could become only the second lithium mine in the US received backing from the Biden administration this week. In an announcement spotted by Bloomberg, the Department of Energy said it would provide mining company Ioneer with a conditional loan valued at up to $700 million to develop the Rhyolite Ridge Lithium-Boron Project in Nevada’s Esmeralda County. Once operational, the mine is expected to produce enough lithium for about 370,000 electric vehicles annually. Ioneer already has supply agreements with automakers like Ford and Toyota, though the project likely won’t start producing lithium until 2026.

The Biden administration made the funding available through the Energy Department’s Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing Loan Program. To secure the money, Ioneer must obtain all the necessary permits from relevant state and federal agencies. The Center for Biological Diversity has come out against the project due to the risks it poses to a species of endangered wildflower in the area known as Tiehm’s buckwheat. The US Interior Department has yet to bless the project for that same reason. The Department of Energy said Ioneer revised its plans for the site to avoid direct impacts on the plant. However, it’s worth noting lithium mining requires a lot of water to carry out.

Still, the mineral is essential to many technologies needed to transition the world to a zero-emissions future. What’s more, lithium supply is expected to fall short of global demand by 2030. That gap will make it difficult for the Biden administration to meet its goal of ensuring half of all cars sold in the US by the end of the decade are electric vehicles.

Electric cars tend to need extra bulk for their gigantic battery packs, and that's raising eyebrows at the National Transportation Safety Board. In a keynote speech, NTSB chair Jennifer Homendy said she was worried the size and weight of modern EVs could increase the risk of serious injuries and death. A Hummer EV is over 9,000lbs, the board leader said, while electrified versions of vehicles like the Ford F-150 and Volvo XC40 are far heavier than their gas engine equivalents.

Homendy stressed that she supported the Biden administration's environmental goals, and that transportation represented the largest contributor to American greenhouse gas emissions. She just felt that automakers had to be wary of creating "unintended consequences," such as more road fatalities.

There is some data to suggest that EVs' added weight may pose a danger. Green Car Congresspointed to a 2021 commentary in Nature where researchers calculated that the mortality costs of the F-150 Lightning's extra 700kg (1,543lbs) over the gas model 'rival' its zero-emissions benefits. The chances of passengers dying in a collision increase 12 percent with every 500kg (1,102lbs) of weight difference, the research team said. While those issues might diminish as more EVs reach the market, they could remain a problem as long as combustion engine and electric cars have to share the road.

Technical solutions might help. Scientists are already developing lighter batteries, and the first EVs with denser solid-state batteries (which can achieve similar range with smaller packs) are only a few years away. While EVs with this technology are still likely to be heavier than their fossil fuel-burning counterparts, the weight reduction could improve safety in addition to range.

The sleep mode on modern consoles lets them wake up quickly, but it also consumes a significant amount of energy as the system never really shuts off. Microsoft thinks it can offer a compromise, however. It's releasing an Insider test that gives Xbox Series X, Series S and One owners an "active hours" sleep option. Choose that and your console will shut down at times when you aren't likely to use it, cutting your energy use. You can manually schedule the hours if you know when you play, but an automatic option is available if you want the console to adapt to your habits.

The feature will be automatically enabled and scheduled on Xbox Series X/S systems. The Xbox One will default to always active, and you'll have to configure the hours yourself.

The company is also introducing a "shutdown (energy saving)" option that reportedly uses up to 20 times less power than sleep while still allowing overnight updates to your Xbox and its games. If you don't mind the longer startup times and the absence of remote wake, you can reduce your energy footprint and potentially shrink your bills. The update will be automatic for Xbox Series X/S users in the Insider program, and it should be available as early as today for One models.

The Xbox is also borrowing "carbon aware" downloads from Windows 11. If carbon intensity data is available in your region, the machine will schedule OS and game updates for those times when it's most likely to rely on local renewable energy, rather than simply grabbing files in the early morning. Insiders will have this perk right away if the Xbox Series X/S is configured for automatic updates, while the One will have multiple test options to help with feedback.

It's unclear how much energy these features might save in the real world. Microsoft estimates that two Xbox consoles using the eco-friendly shutdown feature will save carbon equivalent to that a tree removes in a decade, but that also assumes your device is powered down for 20 hours per day. Carbon aware downloads only matter if renewables have a significant presence in your area, we'd add. Combined with Apple's Clean Energy Charging, though, it's evident tech brands now see software as a way to advance their environmental goals.