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Received — 16 July 2026 ⏭ The Guardian - Energy

Over 1,600 energy department webpages on utility bill savings removed as US temperatures soar

Guardian analysis found the removals coincided with the Trump administration’s push to weaken efficiency rules

As millions of Americans prepare for another brutal heatwave, it’s now harder to find information about ways to stay cool while saving energy and keeping utility costs down.

At least 1,662 Department of Energy webpages offering guidance on protecting the electrical grid during heatwaves have gone dark as of 3 July, according to a Guardian analysis of a list of deleted URLs provided by researchers at the Internet Archive, a non-profit that hosts a repository of more than a trillion archived webpages.

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© Illustration: Guardian Design

© Illustration: Guardian Design

© Illustration: Guardian Design

Britons urged to take ‘small steps’ to prepare for potential national crises

Government to launch campaign to help people cope with events such as weather emergencies or cyber-attacks

The British public should begin taking “small but important steps” to secure and protect water, power supplies and basic phone signal in case of further severe weather emergencies, national crises or cyber-attacks, Downing Street has said.

Darren Jones, the chief secretary to the prime minister, told MPs “the risks we face from climate change cannot be underestimated”, and warned of the “significant and prolonged disruption to essential services” extreme weather events could cause.

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© Photograph: Hugh Hastings/Getty Images

© Photograph: Hugh Hastings/Getty Images

© Photograph: Hugh Hastings/Getty Images

Coalition and One Nation’s plan to ditch net zero would not lower power prices, CSIRO report finds

GenCost report contradicts parties’ claims about abandoning emissions target, and finds nuclear would be most expensive way to generate power

Claims by the Coalition and One Nation that abandoning a net zero climate target would bring down power prices are contradicted in a new CSIRO report on the costs of generating electricity.

Generation costs will probably rise after 2030 regardless of Australia’s policy on net zero, according to the CSIRO’s annual GenCost report, but prices should then stabilise at levels below recent price spikes.

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© Photograph: Philippe Lopez/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Philippe Lopez/AFP/Getty Images

© Photograph: Philippe Lopez/AFP/Getty Images

North Sea oil industry urges Burnham to approve new drilling in UK waters

14 July 2026 at 06:00

Lobby appeals to prospective PM’s reindustrialisation agenda as it pushes for Rosebank and Jackdaw approval

The UK’s North Sea oil industry has made a last-ditch attempt to curry favour with the Labour government by appealing to Andy Burnham’s reindustrialisation agenda just days before he is expected to become Britain’s next prime minister.

Industry lobbyists have written to more than 400 Labour MPs to call on the government’s new leaders to allow more oil and gas drilling in UK waters to support homegrown energy and show “a commitment to UK manufacturing, industrial capability and the skilled workforce that has powered the nation for generations”.

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© Photograph: Rick Wood Photography/Alamy

© Photograph: Rick Wood Photography/Alamy

© Photograph: Rick Wood Photography/Alamy

Lawyers to investigate claims of GB power grid cover-up over blackout risk

Operator brings in independent legal firm to look into whistleblower allegations relating to June heatwave

Great Britain’s grid operator has brought in independent investigators to look into accusations that its staff were involved in a cover-up over the power system being at a greater risk of blackouts during the heatwave.

The government-owned energy system operator will face the scrutiny of an external legal firm after a whistleblower claimed that control room staff were warned against leaving a paper trail relating to efforts to stabilise the power system during record high temperatures in late June.

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© Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA

© Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA

© Photograph: Gareth Fuller/PA

Carbon capture is vital in tackling the climate crisis | Letters

12 July 2026 at 17:50

Prof Myles Allen, Stephanie Loo and Toby Lockwood, and Olivia Powis, respond to an article by George Monbiot about ‘the great carbon capture con’

George Monbiot suggests that we can solve climate change without carbon capture and storage (The great carbon capture con: behold the wasted billions Burnham could claw back, 8 July). Physics says otherwise. The world is going to generate more carbon dioxide than we can safely dump into the atmosphere, and we can’t rely on our stressed biosphere and oceans to mop up the excess. Stopping global warming will therefore require capturing and durably disposing of carbon dioxide on a huge scale, which right now means injecting it back underground.

Where George does make a good point is in questioning whether carbon dioxide disposal should for ever be paid for using public money. Why should private companies be allowed to make large profits taking carbon out of the ground while the taxpayer foots the bill to put it back? The obvious solution: require those who extract fossil fuels to pay for the disposal of the carbon dioxide their products generate. If the fraction they store rises to 100% by mid-century, fossil fuel use would cause no further warming thereafter.

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© Photograph: Richard Saker/The Guardian

© Photograph: Richard Saker/The Guardian

© Photograph: Richard Saker/The Guardian

Britain’s biggest community solar farm forced to shut over grid overload fears

12 July 2026 at 15:00

Timing of Devon switchoff ‘could not be worse’, says board, as members face an estimated £2m in lost revenue

Britain’s biggest community solar project has been forced to shut for the duration of its first summer by the government’s energy system operator to avoid overloading the local grid with renewable energy.

The north Devon solar farm was ordered to shut weeks before record high temperatures across Europe led to power supply warnings, due to concerns that the large amount of rooftop solar in the area could destabilise the power grid by triggering a “thermal overload”.

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© Photograph: Peter Cade/Getty Images

© Photograph: Peter Cade/Getty Images

© Photograph: Peter Cade/Getty Images

Readers reply: Why put solar panels on green space when we could put them over car parks?

12 July 2026 at 14:00

The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts

This week’s question: Why is there no rugby culture in Germany?

I would like to know why we build solar farms over green space, when we could just put them over massive car parks as a popular current internet meme suggests. Chris, Middlesbrough

Send new questions to nq@theguardian.com.

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© Photograph: WePro/Getty Images

© Photograph: WePro/Getty Images

© Photograph: WePro/Getty Images

Datacentres drive up big tech’s carbon emissions to a third of those of France

Microsoft, Amazon and Google say they still aim to achieve net zero output despite construction boom

Microsoft, Amazon and Google’s collective carbon emissions have increased by nearly a fifth in the past year, driven largely by datacentre construction.

In the financial year ending March 2026, the three tech companies emitted 119m mTCO₂e (metric tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent), or about a third of those of France.

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© Photograph: Audrey Richardson/Reuters

© Photograph: Audrey Richardson/Reuters

© Photograph: Audrey Richardson/Reuters

‘A lot of red flags’: plans for New Zealand’s first AI datacentre spark concern as locals demand greater transparency

Plans to build a NZ$3.5bn datacentre in Makarewa in the country’s south has drawn concern about electricity and water use, and potential noise pollution

People living near the site of New Zealand’s first planned AI datacentre are calling for more transparency about the project, especially about how the centre’s huge electricity and water use and potential noise pollution could affect them.

Singapore-based company Datagrid has secured approval to build a NZ$3.5bn (US$2bn) AI datacentre on a 49-hectare site in Makarewa, just north of New Zealand’s southern-most city, Invercargill. Construction is due to begin this year, with the centre becoming operational by 2028.

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© Composite: Datagrid NZ

© Composite: Datagrid NZ

© Composite: Datagrid NZ

Experimental bathtub: the remote lake island trying wave power to boost energy security

Researchers on Beaver Island, in Lake Michigan, are trying to find a more reliable form of power using local resources

Beaver Island sits in the middle of the northernmost end of Lake Michigan, about 70 miles from the maritime border with Canada. The forested island, just a little bigger than San Francisco in size, is a popular summer destination for tourists and home to about 600 permanent residents. Getting there requires a boat or plane ride.

Getting electricity to the island is not as easy. Power comes from mainland Michigan through cables that cross roughly 30 miles of lake bed. Outages are common during extreme weather, or when there are problems with the sensitive wires. The devastating ice storm that walloped the state last year knocked out power to the island for weeks.

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© Photograph: Marcin Szczepanski/University of Michigan Engineering

© Photograph: Marcin Szczepanski/University of Michigan Engineering

© Photograph: Marcin Szczepanski/University of Michigan Engineering

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