Environment

Analysis, Environment, Gadgets, Headphones, Health, Report, Science, Tech, Tech News

European retailers yank popular headphones after study reports trace amounts of hormone-disrupting chemicals

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Some European retailers have stopped selling certain headphones after an EU-funded study found that they contained hormone-disrupting chemicals. The study included leading brands such as Apple, Beats, Samsung, Bose, JBL, and Sennheiser. Online stores Bol.com, Coolblue, and Mediamarkt didn’t respond to inquiries from The Verge about which headphones they pulled, but local news outlets report […]

AI, Energy, Environment, Google, Meta, Microsoft, News, OpenAI, Policy, Politics, Regulation, Science, Tech, Tech News, xAI

Trump claims he’ll make data centers pay for their own power supply

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President Donald Trump tried to quell Americans’ concerns about rising electricity costs during his State of the Union speech by claiming that he’s negotiated a “rate payer protection pledge” with major tech companies, which would see them build out or pay for new electricity generation for their data centers. Leaders from Amazon, Google, Meta, Microsoft, […]

AI, Energy, Environment, News, Policy, Politics, Regulation, Science, Tech, Tech News

Trump is making coal plants even dirtier as AI demands more energy

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The Trump administration just tossed out Biden-era restrictions on mercury and other toxic pollutants from power plants. It’s repealing Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) just as electricity demand in the US ticks up with the buildout of new AI data centers. Those standards are particularly impactful when it comes to pollution from coal plants […]

Climate, Environment, News, Policy, Politics, Regulation, Science, Tech, Tech News, Transportation

In one swoop, Trump kills US greenhouse gas regulations

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The Trump administration just eliminated the landmark finding that has underpinned federal regulations on planet-heating pollution since 2009. For nearly the past two decades, the “endangerment finding” has allowed the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to craft rules limiting greenhouse gas emissions under the Clean Air Act. Rather than repealing those rules individually, the Trump administration […]

AI, Energy, Environment, Meta, Report, Science, Tech, Tech News

How an ‘icepocalypse’ raises more questions about Meta’s biggest data center project

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Donna Collins lives about 20 miles from where Meta’s biggest data center is being built, in a house her family has lived in for five generations. Construction has thrown the small agricultural community in North Louisiana into the spotlight as a high-profile example of how the infrastructure behind generative AI could impact nearby residents. For […]

AI, Analysis, Climate, Energy, Environment, Report, Science, Tech, Tech News

The winter storm tested power grids straining to accommodate AI data centers

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The colossal winter storm that swept across 34 states left hundreds of thousands of people without electricity. Bitterly cold temperatures lingering after Winter Storm Fern are still testing power grids, already under stress from a rush of new AI data centers. Over the weekend, wholesale electricity prices soared in Virginia, the state with the most […]

Energy, Environment, News, Policy, Politics, Regulation, Science, Tech, Tech News

Trump is steamrolling global calls for a moratorium on deep-sea mining

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The Trump administration took the next step toward unilaterally jumpstarting deep-sea mining this week, announcing a “consolidated” permitting process for both searching for and commercially extracting minerals that have so far remained relatively untouched. These minerals are found so deep in the sea that they’re beyond any single nation’s national jurisdiction – which is why […]

AI, Climate, Energy, Environment, News, Policy, Science, Tech, Tech News

Trump and Mid-Atlantic governors want tech companies to pay for new power plants

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The Trump administration and a bipartisan group of governors are pressuring the PJM Interconnection, the biggest electricity market in the US, to hold a power auction meant to spur a massive buildout of new power plants. Together, they’re “urging” PJM to hold an “emergency” auction for companies to procure electricity over 15-year contracts. The unusually […]

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