Climate & Energy News: 30 October 2026

Governor Mark Gordon and Federal Permitting Improvement Steering Council Executive Director Emily Domenech signed a deal to expedite permitting for large energy and industrial projects in Wyoming, including data centers. The memorandum aims to prevent unnecessarily long reviews, while the council will add Wyoming actions to its permitting dashboard. Some expedited reviews have already raised local concerns.

New data center developments in Texas are essentially on pause until after November's elections, as land, energy and water use has drawn strong community protest. Developers say the state's once welcoming stance has cooled, with one executive describing the governor's office as unresponsive in 2026. Analysts and developers say Gov. Greg Abbott has led some companies to rethink major data center investments in the state.

Tesla has changed its US referral program so owners can earn Full Self-Driving rewards instead of car discounts. A referred owner who starts paying gets one free month of FSD, and the referrer gets a free month or a 99 dollar credit. Vehicle purchases no longer qualify for buyer or referrer rewards, with buyer benefits now applying only to solar panels.

Toyota has introduced five lifted Woodland concepts based on the RAV4, Grand Highlander, Sienna, Crown Signia and bZ electric SUV. The concepts add lift kits, over-fenders, All-Terrain tires, roof racks and a Horizon Blue paint inspired by 1960s models. They will be displayed at the 2026 SEMA Show, with the 2027 bZ Woodland starting at 45,380 dollars and offering 375 horsepower.

Hyundai has opened orders in the UK for the new IONIQ 6, starting at 33,240 pounds including the Electric Car Grant. The base Premium model uses an 84 kWh battery and a 225 horsepower rear-wheel drive powertrain, with up to 422 miles of range. Higher N-Line and N-Line Evo trims add design and comfort features, with AWD versions offering up to 354 miles.

Volkswagen has paused development of the electric Golf at its Wolfsburg plant after reporting a 5.9bn euro third quarter operating loss, its largest since the 2015 Dieselgate scandal. The loss followed a Porsche stake write-down, weak China sales and lower electric vehicle margins. The pause is part of Future Plan 2030 cost controls, which include cutting 100,000 jobs, while the electric Golf is still expected to launch in 2030.

Heating oil prices are rising because the war in Iran is disrupting global energy markets, and US families that heat with oil could face bills 50 percent higher this winter. That could add nearly 900 dollars to the cost of keeping homes warm, hitting low-income households especially hard. Higher diesel prices are also raising the cost of moving food, goods and farm and construction equipment.

Waymo and Toyota will build a custom bZ4X robotaxi at Toyota's Takaoka plant in Japan, with the Waymo Driver integrated on the line. A test fleet is expected to start operating in Japan in 2027, ahead of later UK and other Waymo markets. The vehicle adds rear legroom, automatic doors, a power liftgate and ambient lighting, while the companies continue work on autonomous tech for personal Toyota vehicles.

A tornado in Antalya killed four construction workers this week, and authorities in Greece and Turkey have issued severe rainfall and flood warnings. A further 100 to 150mm of rain is expected in central Greece and western Turkey, with locally higher totals possible. Elsewhere, Cyclone Arnab prompted more than 180,000 evacuations in India, while Typhoon In-fa was upgraded to super typhoon status.

Chancellor John Healey has cut more than £3bn from the energy department's budget, including £741m from the boiler upgrade scheme that subsidises heat pumps. The scheme, which has fitted about 60,000 heat pumps a year, was expected to reach 250,000 by 2030, but funding will now rise only in line with inflation. Experts warn the UK is unlikely to hit its clean heating targets, while officials say longer-term changes will encourage cleaner power.

The Ardingly reservoir near Haywards Heath is 19% full, while the next-closest reservoir is unusable because of broken treatment works. It is managed by South East Water and serves about 95,000 properties in and around Haywards Heath and Uckfield in Sussex. Severe drought has been declared in parts of Sussex and other counties after the UK's hottest summer on record, with the Environment Agency expecting storage near 75% at this time of year.

Scientists describe two permafrost detachment slides in Canada's Northwest Territories, one three-quarters of a mile long and the other two miles long, that together moved 30 million cubic yards of earth. The slides started during a wildfire three decades ago and collapsed along the Johnson River in 2017 and the Redstone River in 2018. Researchers say thawing permafrost is producing a new type of thermokarst and an abrupt change in the landscape.

More than 4.6 million acres have burned across Indonesia since August, producing thick smoke that has spread to neighboring countries. Government data show more than 300,000 Indonesians have sought treatment for acute respiratory problems, and some days air quality is more than 13 times the unhealthy threshold. A super-strong El Niño has dried out flammable peatlands, and a fire researcher calls the haze a public health catastrophe.

LiveWire, the electric motorcycle brand born from Harley-Davidson, said it has substantial doubt about its ability to continue as a going concern and withdrew full year guidance. Its stock fell more than 40% on Thursday morning after the warning, even though third quarter revenue rose 38% to $7.9 million and unit sales rose 21%. The company has formed a restructuring committee to explore financing, partnerships, investments or a sale.

At biodiversity Cop17 in Yerevan, environment ministers appear on track to miss nearly all the targets they agreed four years ago. The UN environment programme is working with governments to streamline the sprawling set of agreements and bodies that make up the global environmental calendar. Inger Andersen, the executive director of the UN environment programme, said the process is delivering but going too slowly.

An early owner of the ALSO TM-B deliberately ran the pedal by wire electric bike down to an empty battery to test what happens when the drive system loses power. As the charge fell, the bike progressively reduced its maximum assist, dropping from Level 8 to Level 5 between 23% and 13% charge and reaching Level 1 before assistance disappeared at 4%. The simulated gears mostly kept working, but at 4% the bike shifted randomly in manual mode.

A one year study of eight gardens near busy London roads found that hedges and plentiful vegetation had the lowest particle pollution. The best performing garden had up to 80% lower particle pollution than paved gardens, while paved gardens were the hottest in summer, up to 6C hotter than gardens with abundant vegetation. Scientists called for incentives to preserve front garden planting.

Illegal miners, known as zama zamas, have returned to abandoned shafts around Roodepoort as gold prices soar, taking water from an animal charity's tanks. Police said the scale is too big for them to handle, though they reported 71 arrests across South Africa in the previous week. Researchers put the number of illegal miners in the tens of thousands, and drivers include poverty, unemployment, corrupt politicians and police, and unsealed shafts.

An El Niño drought is affecting as many as 8 million people in Papua New Guinea, with rivers drying up, food gardens failing and schools and health facilities closing early. A coalition of churches, trade unions and business groups called the situation a national crisis and said there appears to be no coordinated plan to protect vulnerable communities. Some areas have had less than a quarter of usual rainfall since August.