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The Trump administration on Friday announced that it plans to stop requiring more than 8,000 polluters to report greenhouse gas emissions. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agencys proposal would see industrial facilities like coal-burning power plants, oil refineries, and steel mills no longer have to track and report the amount of carbon dioxide, methane, and other emissions they emita requirement that had been in place since 2010. The agency said that U.S. businesses could save as much as $2.4 billion in regulatory costs over the next decade as a result of the change. Some experts have argued that the societal costs of emissions from companies in the U.S. could run into the tens of trillions by 2050. The EPA in its release said that requiring facilities to report emissions had no material impact on improving human health and the environment. It comes after months of work by the Trump administration to dismantle various federal programs designed to combat climate change and cuts to research funding to study the phenomenon. The administrations efforts to pull back on climate change is at odds with the broad scientific consensus that human-driven warming is linked to extreme weather and health risks. A study published in Nature this past week, for example, showed that 180 of the worlds biggest fossil fuel and cement producers made 213 extreme heatwaves between 2000 and 2023 more likely and more dangerous. What does greenhouse gas reporting do? Since 2010, the greenhouse gas reporting program has collected emissions data from about 8,000 of the largest industrial facilities in the U.S. from 47 different source categories. In turn, this information has historically been shared with the United Nations, but for the first time in nearly 30 years, the Trump administration missed an April deadline to submit data on U.S. climate emissions. As part of the 2015 Paris Agreement, the United Nations has required industrialized countries to reduce their emissions to combat climate change. U.S. President Donald Trump announced on his first day in office that the U.S. would withdraw from this agreement for the second time (Trump pulled the U.S. out of the agreement during his first term). The Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program is nothing more than bureaucratic red tape that does nothing to improve air quality, Lee Zeldin, the EPA administrator, said in a statement. Instead, it costs American businesses and manufacturing billions of dollars, driving up the cost of living, jeopardizing our nations prosperity and hurting American communities. Unlike other mandatory information collections under the Clean Air Act, the Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program is not directly related to a potential regulation and has no material impact on improving human health and the environment. By reducing the overall regulatory burden, current regulated parties will be able to focus compliance expenditures on actual, tangible environmental benefits, an EPA spokesperson told Fast Company in a statement. Certain oil and gas facilities will still be required to report emissions data as part of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, although the EPAs proposal would allow these facilities to suspend reporting until 2034. Critics point to cost of losing data Environmental advocates criticized the proposal as hampering future policy making. With this move, theyre taking away the practical and material capacity of the federal government to do the basic elements of climate policymaking, a former EPA official under the Biden administration told The New York TImes. The proposal would eliminate data that the public, states, and local policymakers have depended on for more than 15 years, leaving Americans in the dark about where pollution is coming from, David Doniger, a senior strategist at the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group, told The Associated Press. Before this proposal is finalized, the EPA will hold a virtual public hearing and accept public comments for 47 days after the proposal is published in the Federal Register.
Category:
E-Commerce
This week served up a sampler platter of business stories with a little bit of everything: food recalls that had shoppers double-checking the fridge, a high-stakes immigration raid that spilled into international diplomacy, and a splashy fintech IPO testing investor appetite. Housing data hinted that the balance of power is (slowly) tilting back toward buyers in parts of the country, while a blue-chip tech veteran reminded Wall Street that AI demand can paper over a messy quarter. Overseas, Argentinas markets were whipsawed by politicsagainunderscoring how quickly sentiment flips when reform agendas wobble. Theres a common thread running through it all: resilience under pressure. Food companies are racing to pull risky products before they cause harm; automakers and suppliers are navigating the fine print of U.S. work visas; and growth-hungry firms are courting the public markets even as valuations come back to earth. At the same time, nonprofits are turning into content studios to build community (and revenue), builders are using incentives to keep homes moving, and investors are trying to separate real AI tailwinds from hype. Its a reminder that business isnt just earnings and chartsits people, policy, logistics, and timing. With that, lets dig into the biggest moves and what they could mean next. Cheese recall over Listeria fears The Food and Drug Administration flagged multiple cheeses from both Middlefield Original Cheese Co-Op and Sunrise Creamery this week after listeria was detected on finished product and cutting equipment. Impacted items range from Gouda and Swiss to pepper Jack and shredded blends, with some sell-by dates stretching into 2026. No illnesses have been reported, but consumers are asked to return or toss affected products and check pantries for long-dated packs. ICE raid at Hyundai battery site sparks a diplomatic scramble On September 4, roughly 300 South Korean workers were detained during a Georgia raid tied to a $4.3 billion Hyundai-LG Energy battery project, the largest single-site action of its kind by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Seoul arranged a charter flight to return the workers to South Korea and is pushing for smoother U.S. visa pathways for technical staff. The incident could complicate trade ties and serves as a cautionary tale for foreign firms staffing fast-moving U.S. projects. Frozen foods salmonella recall widens Chetak LLC expanded its voluntary recall to dozens more Deep-brand frozen veggies and fruits after a positive salmonella test. The outbreak has sickened 11 people across 10 states and led to four hospitalizations. Its part of a broader run of salmonella alerts this season; retailers are urged to pull impacted lots immediately. NYC Marathon nonprofit launches a content studio New York Road Runners is spinning up East 89th St Productions to capture the marathons built-in drama and community. First up: Final Finishers, a documentary premiering at Tribeca that celebrates those last epic hours at the finish line. Beyond storytelling, NYRR sees content as a way to diversify revenue and deepen ties with runners and donors. Housing tips toward buyers in 14 states Active listings are up year over year, and in 14 states inventory has climbed back above 2019 levelsgiving buyers a bit more leverage. Sunbelt and Mountain West markets that ran hot during the Pandemic Housing Boom are seeing softer pricing as builders dangle incentives. Nationally were still below 2019 inventory, but the trend is moving away from sellers complete control. Klarna finally listsat a slimmer valuation BNPL heavyweight Klarna priced its New York Stock Exchange debut at $40 a share, above guidance but well below its 2021 peak valuation. The company is profitable again, but investors will watch whether growth can continue without fueling consumer debt concerns. For the IPO market, its another data point that public is open, just not at 2021 prices. Argentinas markets stumble after local election shock A big loss for President Javier Mileis party in Buenos Aires sent the peso to new lows and hammered stocks and bonds. The setback clouds the path for reforms in the South American country and raises questions about its foreign exchange policy ahead of national midterms. With International Monetary Fund support in the backdrop, investors are bracing for more currency and debt volatility. Oracle pops on AI cloud optimism Austin-based Oracle Corp. missed on earnings and revenue in its first quarter, but shares ripped higher on September 10 thanks to eye-popping AI-driven cloud bookings and long-term revenue targets. CEO Safra Catz touted multibillion-dollar deals with marquee AI names and a massive jump in remaining performance obligations. Investors shrugged off recent layoffs, focusing instead on the growth runway through the decade. Ford recalls ~1.5 million vehicles for backup-camera glitch Ford issued yet another recall this week. This one, announced September 9, is due to a faulty rear-view camera that can display a blank or distorted image across a wide range of 2015 to 2019 Ford and Lincoln models. The company will inspect and replace cameras at no charge; regulators cite 18 accidents and no injuries. Owners will get mailed notices with service instructions.
Category:
E-Commerce
A lot of the Cool Tools we feature here are about maximizing productivity, but this week, lets focus instead on a way to budget your precious downtime. As someone who watches the streaming TV space closely, Im well aware of how many choices exist when you sit down in front of the TV. Between Netflix, HBO Max, Hulu, Disney+, Peacock, and more, there are endless things to watch, and not nearly enough time to get through them. So before you commit to a new show, heres a resource to figure out how many hours (or days) of total watch time youre in for. After all, theres nothing worse than being stuck on a cliffhanger. This tip originally appeared in the free Cool Tools newsletter from The Intelligence. Get the next issue in your inbox and get ready to discover all sorts of awesome tech treasures! Estimate watch times the easy way To see how long itll take to get through the next show youre streaming, check out a resource called Bingeclock. Bingeclock is a free website that lists the total runtime of any TV series or movie. Looking up a show takes just a few seconds; theres no login or registration required. To find a total watch time, just type the name of the show or movie into the search box. Directly on the search results page, youll see how many days, hours, and minutes itll take to watch. You can also hit the Cut credits button to see what the watch time would be if you skipped that part of the presentation. Precise streaming planning is never more than a few clicks away. Clicking on a show title leads to a page with more options, including a handy Daily planning button that asks how many episodes you intend to watch per day. Choosing a number will update the watch time, showing how many days youd need to get through the entire series. Bingeclock lets you get incredibly nuanced with mapping out your streaming schedule. While you dont need an account to use Bingeclock, creating one unlocks some interesting extra featuresincluding a watchlist, a log of your past binges, and a way to plan Marathons of multiple movies or TV shows. (You can also head to the Leaderboards tab to see popular Marathons from others, like the two-day Marathon of every Godzilla movie.) Streaming marathons, in stylethanks to Bingeclock’s intelligent estimates. The site has a few other charming oddities. The Bingerdie game is essentially Wordle, but with terms from popular TV shows, and the Are We Trek Yet? subsite shows how many fictional Star Trek advancements have become reality. And if all this leaves you feeling even more indecisive about what to watch, just head to the Your Antennas menu. Here, youll be given a virtual tube TV with dozens of seemingly random streaming channels to flip through, from Grateful Dead concert footage and Disney theme park walkthroughs to recent robotics demos. You never know what you might find in Bingeclock’s on-demand “channels.” Its nice to know that while Bingeclock can help meticulously plot your TV time, it can help you waste it as well. Bingeclock is completely web-based and will work in any browser, on any device, without any downloadsthough the service does also offer an Android app and a beta-level, TestFlight-requiring iOS app if youd rather go that route. Its completely free to use without any limitations. And you dont have to provide any personal info whatsoever to use itthough if you do opt to create an account, the < href="https://www.bingeclock.com/privacy/">sites privacy policy is pretty standard and straightforward about how it does and doesnt use any associated details. Treat yourself to all sorts of brain-boosting goodies like this with the free Cool Tools newsletterstarting with an instant introduction to an incredible audio app thatll tune up your days in truly delightful ways.
Category:
E-Commerce
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