Science Friday - $8B Of Climate Tech Projects Canceled | In Louisiana, A Successful, Growing Wetland

Episode Date: April 25, 2025

How will market uncertainty and a lack of federal support for climate efforts affect the future of clean energy in the United States? Plus, many wetlands are disappearing, but Louisiana’s “accidental” Wax Lake Delta is growing—and informing coastal restoration techniques.$8 Billion Of Climate Tech Projects Were Canceled In 3 MonthsIn the first three months of the Trump administration, officials have been aggressive in cancelling climate change related efforts, from enacting layoffs at large agencies to withdrawing from the Paris Climate Agreement and rescinding federal funding for green research and infrastructure.Joining Host Flora Lichtman to break down the changes we’re starting to see in climate policy and clean tech on the ground is Casey Crownhart, senior climate reporter at MIT Technology Review. They also talk about other science news of the week, including a Florida-based startup that’s recycling solar panels, an update on the growing measles outbreak in the Southwest, signs of a US science brain drain, humanoid robot participants in the Beijing half marathon, and how bats manage to drink on the fly.In Louisiana, A Chance To Study A Successful, Growing WetlandAmid the rapid erosion of Louisiana’s coast, something hopeful is happening where the Atchafalaya River meets the Gulf. A flow of sediment from a decades-old river diversion has accidentally given birth to new wetlands.While that small delta is dwarfed by what’s washing away all around it, researchers have gained knowledge from Wax Lake Delta that could help save the rest of Louisiana’s coast and contribute to a better understanding of wetland science across the globe.Read more at sciencefriday.com.Transcripts for each segment will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com. Subscribe to this podcast. Plus, to stay updated on all things science, sign up for Science Friday's newsletters.

This is Science Friday. I'm Flora Lickman. Late yesterday, the head of the National Science Foundation, Satharama and Punchanathan, announced that he's resigning. His decision comes as the Trump administration slashes the agency's budget, cuts hundreds of jobs, and terminates active research grants. We'll continue to follow what this means for NSF. But those aren't the only cuts to science we're watching. The administration has also canceled climate change efforts from layoffs at large science agencies, to leaving the Paris Climate Agreement and rescinding federal funding

for green research and infrastructure. So what did those federal policy changes mean for clean tech development and adoption? Here to break it down is Casey Crownhart, senior climate reporter at MIT Technology Review. Welcome back to Science Friday, Casey. Thanks so much for having me. Great to be here.

Okay, so how is clean tech being affected by these priority shifts that we're seeing in Washington? Yeah, you really kind of laid it out there at the top. But we have seen, you know, since the first days of the Trump administration, that they would be kind of taking, let's call it, a different approach to climate than what we've seen in the past few years, you know, pulling out of that Paris climate agreement, the global treaty that aims to limit global warming to less than 2 degrees C,

canceling a lot of climate research, firing scientists at agencies like NOAA. And I think we're starting to see very early effects from it. A new report that came out last week from Group E2 found that About $8 billion worth of clean tech projects have been canceled, downsized, or shut down just in the first three months of this year. Give me a sense of the trajectory of green tech like solar panels and wind turbines before the new Trump administration. I would say that the kind of atmosphere was very positive. You know, we saw hundreds of billions of dollars from the federal government investing into projects like factories for batteries and huge solar installations. the biggest change that I've seen is this injection of uncertainty. There's been, you know, fights over, you know, the Trump administration trying to pull back some of that funding.

We talked about a lot of firings and a lot of kind of changes within the government. Whereas, you know, a few months ago, the kind of outlook for the next 10 years was a lot of tax credits, a lot of support. And now there's kind of questions about, you know, will that money be there? how will things like tariffs affect efforts to build projects? So I would say we've gone to a very, very quickly into a very uncertain time. Yeah, you reported this week that $8 billion of clean tech projects in the U.S. have been canceled so far this year. Can you put that number in context? Like it sounds really big, but is it a big percentage of all clean tech projects? Yeah. So that's a really good point. So we've seen, you know, much more than that be announced over the past few years since August 2020. 22 is when a lot of groups kind of started tracking this. That's when the Inflation Reduction Act was

passed with all of that money for tax credits and the like. I will say from August 2022 to the end of 24, there were about $2 billion worth of projects that got canceled. Just in the first few months of this year, we've seen almost $8 billion get canceled. So just a much larger number. I'll note that again, like there are more projects going forward, so there are more to get canceled. But experts that I spoke with said that, you know, this uncertain policy landscape is definitely leading to kind of this higher number of canceled and scaled back and shut down projects. Is that the main driver of the uncertainty? I think uncertainty in kind of all of its forms is one of them. I'll note that all of these

cancellations come before things like the tariffs, which were announced earlier this month. But I think that that is really a big part of it. You'll see companies in these announcements, They'll mention, you know, changing market conditions. They're shifting production to other countries. So I think there's definitely a range. And some of this is just like the normal case of business. You know, companies go bankrupt all the time. Not everybody makes it.

Right. But I think that that uncertainty is certainly contributing to this really high number that we're seeing. You know, I've heard solar and wind are some of the cheapest ways to make energy now. Despite what the administration is doing, do you think capitalism will, continue to drive these projects forward? Yeah, I don't think that we'll see, you know, these technologies absolutely crash and burn or anything like that. I think that we'll still continue to see some projects succeed. We'll still see some, you know, solar installation. We'll still see some, you know, factories being built. But I think it'll be, you know, it might be shifted. I think one of the big

questions that I have is, you know, how much all of this will cause the U.S. to fall behind. I think we'll see a lot of, you know, folks moving to Europe or to China for a lot of this. So I don't think the energy transition is stopping. But I think that maybe what role the U.S. and U.S. companies play in it is kind of the big question. Speaking of clean tech, tell me about this new startup that's recycling solar panels. Yes. I love, I'm fascinated by trash caused by clean tech. I think it's a really interesting kind of problem that as we're seeing energy

sources shift, there are challenges that come with this. So this company called One Planet is based in Jacksonville, Florida, and they recently raised some money to build a solar recycling plant in the state. They say that this will be one of the largest plants to recycle solar panels in the U.S. It's expected to be a $90 million facility, and they can recover things like the glass, the silicon, the plastic, and metals like aluminum and copper from solar panels. Is there a reason why it's based in Florida? Absolutely. So Florida has emerged as kind of a big place for solar power in the U.S. Florida built more large-scale solar than California in 2024. It's also, as you might know,

a place that sees a lot of hurricanes. So I think we'll see a lot of solar panels just kind of coming off ready to be retired in the coming years, but then also a lot of damaged panels that need to be dealt with. So I think it's a really kind of smart fit for that state right now. Let's switch gears and check in on the measles outbreak. It is breaking records, unfortunately. Tell us about it. Yeah, so this is the largest single outbreak of measles in the U.S. since 2000, which is when measles was declared to be eliminated in the U.S. We're seeing cases mostly across Texas, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. And there have been over 600 cases of measles in Texas alone since late January, with two people having died. So there have been cuts to public health agencies. Has that affected the outbreak? Yeah, it's really expensive and very difficult to deal with outbreaks like this.

You know, the state has to do things like contact tracing to try to get a handle on this outbreak because you can be infectious or contagious with measles before you show symptoms. The state is doing that. They're running vaccine clinics. They're getting extra CDC support. And so there's a lot of concern that, you know, those cuts to public health can really impede the ability of the state agencies to deal with. outbreaks like this. Do we know if the scale of this outbreak is prompting new people to get vaccinated? The state has been running vaccine clinics and they have been vaccinating people. Getting a vaccine even after exposure can help lessen the severity of the disease. But this is largely happening in a county called Gaines County where there's a really large Mennonite community there that has very historically low vaccination rates. And so that's absolutely kind of one of the major things here is we know

these vaccines are safe. We know that they're effective. And it's really important to preventing outbreaks like this. Moving on, a new analysis in nature suggests that we're starting to see the beginning of a scientific brain drain in the U.S. Can you tell us about it? Yeah. So we talked about, you know, some of this at the top with things like research grants getting canceled. And so nature did an analysis of job boards data. And they found that U.S. scientists are really looking to get out of the U.S. and look for jobs abroad. U.S. scientists submitted 32% more applications for jobs outside the U.S. in the first three months of this year compared to the same period a year ago. And things really started to heat up in March when we saw more news about kind of the administration targeting

science views of job postings abroad rose by almost 70% compared to March in 2024. So it's like a warning sign of a brain drain and we'll see what happens. Absolutely. Yeah, it's early. You know, we don't know if people, will actually, you know, get jobs, move abroad. But, you know, other countries are really looking to capitalize. There's one university in France that started something called the Safe Place for Science Initiative. And they had about $17 million to sponsor, you know, a handful of researchers working in climate health environment. They had to shut the applications down because they got so many applications and 70 percent of them were from U.S. scientists. Let's head to China. In lighter news,

there was a half marathon in Beijing last Saturday. And 21 of the participants weren't human at all. What was going on there? I love this story. I know. There were 12,000 humans that ran this half marathon and the robots are getting all of the attention. So yeah, a handful of companies developed humanoid robots that attempted to start the half marathon. 21 started. Only six of them finished the course, largely much slower than the humans did. Solidarity with the ones who didn't finish and the slow robots. But yeah, keep going. I know. I know. The fastest one finished in two hours and 40 minutes. It got its batteries changed three times and it fell down once, which I don't know. I think that's very relatable. Did you watch the video, Casey, of these robots? I didn't, but I bet they're

amazing. They're amazing. First of all, some of them seem to be wearing shoes, like running shoes. And they look a lot like me trying to run a half marathon. It's like C3PO mall walking after hip surgery. Like it's just highly recommend. Amazing. You know, it's, it's, it's. It's, it's. It's, it's, it's, It's good signs that, you know, just a few years ago, robots couldn't really reliably walk. So it does show progress, but I do feel a little better about my abilities. Athletic abilities. Yeah. Speaking of athletic abilities, a study about bats was amazing this week.

Tell us about it. Yeah, so scientists have observed that bats tend to drink on the fly. Waterholes can be very dangerous. That's kind of a gathering place for animals. And so most species of bats have developed this ability to, you know, kind of just swoop down over sources of water to take a drink. And so researchers really wanted to understand how they're doing this without crashing. And so they focused on a few bat species that tend to fly over water sources and lap up water with their tongues. And they set up all of these cameras around and

use stereoscopic imaging to track the bats bodies to better understand, you know, how they were able to do this multipassing. What did they find? Yeah, they found a few common techniques. they tend to reduce their flight speed as they approach the water, reduce kind of how far they're flapping their wings or their wing stroke, and then also use kind of a higher angle with their wings to counterbalance them moving their head down. What I found really fascinating about this is that they had to be really precise with this because bats, a lot of the times they do echolocation kind of in their nose area. So if they were to get water up their nose, it would kind of interfere with their ability to, you know, quote unquote, see.

So this is really important that the bats are able to do this really precisely. You know, I feel like bats really don't always get their due. I mean, they are mammals, like our, you know, our relatives that can fly. And now they can drink and fly at the same time. I don't know. I'm like just, I'm team bat here, I guess. Me too, always. Especially as someone, again, I'm one of those people who can barely walk and chew gum at the same time.

So props to them. There's also something about these videos that of these bats drinking on the go that, like, like really reminds me of my personal ideal happy hour. Just like swooping through. You're kind of a quick one. Swip through, grab a drink and go. Just like in and out, you know? Thanks, Casey, for coming on.

Thanks so much for having me. Great to be here. Casey Crownhart is a senior climate reporter at MIT Technology Review. After the break, a trip to Louisiana where a thriving wetland is teaching scientists how to rebuild these fragile ecosystems. Even though we have the tool, to build more wetlands, we're not necessarily implementing them. Stay with us. And now it's time to check in on the state of science.

This is KERNNO. St. Louis Public Radio News. Iowa Public Radio News. Local science stories of national significance. Wetlands across the country are in trouble. Pollution, climate change, and development are threatening them, and more than half of the wetlands in the lower 48 states have disappeared. We rely on these ecosystems to filter water, protect us from

storms and provide habitat for a variety of plant and animal life. So that's why scientists have their eyes on Louisiana's Wax Lake Delta, because unlike the rest of the state's wetlands, this one is growing. It's being used as a living laboratory to study what makes a healthy wetland. Joining me to talk about this story is Eva Tesfai, Environment Reporter for WWNO's Coastal Desk. She reported this story in collaboration with Elise Plunk at the Louisiana Illuminator for the Mississippi River Basin Ag and Water Desk. Eva, welcome to Science Friday. Thanks for having me.

Okay, tell me about the Wax Lake Delta. Where is it? What should I picture? So if you think of the Mississippi River in Louisiana, there's an offshoot river of that called the Achevalaya. And Wax Lake Delta is the end of another offshoot of that that was manmade. It's like a straight canal that goes into the Gulf and then opens up into the Gulf. So if you picture that, at the end of that are these arrow-shamed. islands at the end, and those are wetlands that have been built by that canal.

So Louisiana's coastal wetlands are disappearing because of sea level rise and erosion. Why is this delta staying strong? Yeah. So to understand that, I want to talk about like what's no longer happening with the Mississippi River. The Mississippi River Delta used to deposit sediment and build wetlands out into the Gulf of Mexico. But all the engineering we've done on the river has made that not. possible anymore. So it's not building more land. So what's happening with Wax Lake Delta is it's

carrying sediment from the Atchafalaya River into the Gulf and then depositing that. And eventually, that sediment builds up and it creates these islands and then there's plants and wildlife moves in and it turns into wetlands. And basically, most rivers do this. The Mississippi River used to do this, but all the engineering we've done on the Mississippi River has made that not possible anymore. So because the Mississippi River is not building land and then there's coastal erosion and sea level rise, that means everywhere else in Louisiana is losing land. And I talked to Alicia Renfro. She's a scientist with the National Wildlife Federation. She explains it like this. We've had a lot of changes to the Mississippi River over time.

There's dams that have reduced the amount of sediment. We have sea level rise. We have storms. But yet the Wax Lake Delta remains and continues to grow and build robust, healthy wetlands. So even though Wax Lake Delta was kind of like this man-made accident, the way it's depositing sediment and building these wetlands is mimicking how a river Delta would naturally. build wetlands. What kind of research is going on there? Yeah, I visited Wax Lake Delta to meet with a bunch of Louisiana State University researchers. And what I thought was really interesting that they were doing is they've already kind of studied how Wax Lake Delta has built land. So now they're mostly focusing on the benefits of wetlands. And they're monitoring greenhouse gases to see how much carbon the wetlands are storing to, you know, keep it out of the atmosphere and help with our

global warming problem. And they're also seeing how much nitrogen wetlands filter out of the water that's coming through that's being released into the Gulf. And that's huge because the Gulf has this huge problem with nitrogen coming down the Mississippi River and creating what's known as the dead zone. So while we were out there, I talked to Ivan Vargas Lopez-Lopez. He says there's a term that they like to use for Wax Lake Delta. Living lab. So it's a breathing system.

It's forming really, really fast. I think that that gives us to the scientists, a lot of tools to understand the Delta formation processes. in our lifetime. So because these wetlands are building so fast and basically happening before our eyes, it makes it a great place for them to study. Are there lessons that we can take from the Wax Lake Delta that can be applied to other wetlands? Yeah, so what scientists learn from how rivers build wetlands from Wax Lake Delta has actually already informed some coastal restoration projects in Louisiana.

These are called sediment diversions. The idea is to send that freshwater carrying sediment from the middle. Mississippi into bays, and then they'll build up those wetlands like Wax Lake Delta did. And scientists are also finding in Wax Lake Delta that the older parts of Wax Lake are better at providing those benefits I mentioned earlier, like storing carbon and filtering nitrogen. So once that research comes out, it can inform conservation efforts of wetlands across the United States. You're an environmental reporter.

Is it fun to have a good news story for a change? It is fun to have a good news story for a change. especially with coastal Louisiana's land loss crisis. I mean, we're losing massive amounts of land in Louisiana and we're always talking about our coastal land loss problem. So it is really nice to have a good story for a change. At the same time, I reported this in a time where there's a lot of controversy around those sediment diversions that I mentioned earlier, specifically one called mid-Berataria because of the way that that one would affect the oysters and fisheries in Beretaria Bay. So this isn't completely a positive story because, you know, we have all this science for that, but that project has been paused and there's a lot of controversy around it.

So even though we have the tools to build more wetlands, we're not necessarily implementing them. That's interesting because it could hurt the oyster fishery. Yes, because when you do that, you're bringing in a bunch of freshwater and oysters, they live in estuary ecosystems. So they need like a certain balance of fresh and salt water. It's complicated. Yeah. I mean, what about in terms of federal protections, where do wetlands stand? Yeah. So what's really important to know about federal protections when it comes to wetlands is that in 2023, there was a Supreme Court ruling. The case was Sackett versus the EPA. And that ruling determined that wetlands have to be connected to a federal waterway for them to be protected as one of what is called, quote unquote, the waters of the United States. And that's important because a lot of the protections under the Clean Water Act only apply to waters of the United States.

So now that these wetlands are not considered that thousands of acres of wetlands are now unprotected. And is that changing in this administration? Yeah, this administration is actually changing things to align with that ruling more. Under Trump, the EPA administrator Lee Zeldin announced that the EPA is rewriting the definition of waters of the United States, which has been, re-wain many, many times already. They're rewriting it to align with the sacket ruling. So the listening sessions for that are actually starting next week. Oh, something to tune into.

Yeah, for sure. Thanks, Eva. Thank you. Eva Tesfi, environment reporter for WWNO's Coastal Desk, she reported the story in collaboration with Elise Plunk at the Louisiana Illuminator. This story is part of the series Down the Drain from the Mississippi River Basin Ag and Water desk. And that is about all we have time for. Lots of folks helped to make the show happen, including Shoshana Buxbaum. Beth Ramby. Danielle Johnson. Jackie Hirschfeld. I'm Flora Lickman. Thanks for

listening.