There's a Cybertruck burning in front of the Trump hotel

PRESENTED BY THE GILFEATHER TURNIP

Welcome to 2025. The year 2024 was the hottest in human history, and our politics now reflect the growing breakdown of the global climate system, just as scientists predicted during the Jimmy Carter administration.

Today is the first day of the 119th Congress! The Speaker of the House of Representatives for the second half of the 118th, Rep. Mike Johnson (R-La., no relation), is planning to be re-elected Speaker again of the closely divided House, which has 219 Republicans and 215 Democrats. Rep. Tom Massie (R-Ky.) is refusing vote for Johnson, but Johnson was endorsed by Donald Trump and is close to his needed majority. But before he gets it, the burn-every-thing-down GOP members will engage in theatrics for the benefit of C-SPAN sickos and maybe to get a personal call from the more-openly-fascist-by-the-day-shadow-president Elon Musk.

(As I hit send, Johnson failed winning the first ballot by two votes.)

After the Speaker election, the House sets its rules. Daniel Schuman has taken a look—the House is promoting the use of AI in the drafting of legislation and is renaming the Office of Congressional Ethics to the Office of Congressional Conduct. Among expedited bills is one to “prohibit a moratorium on the use of hydraulic fracturing.”

In Democratic National Committee election news, now-Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) is backing Wisconsin state chair Ben Wikler for DNC chair, praising Wikler's abilities in organizing, communicating, and “formidable” fundraising. The other top candidate, Minnesota chair Ken Martin, was profiled on NPR’s All Things Considered. Meanwhile, Marianne Williamson is running for DNC chair, looking to replicate her level of success with DNC members that she had with the national electorate. Here’s a spreadsheet with all the known candidates for the elected offices—there are still only two candidates for National Finance Chair, the current incument Chris Korge and the vice finance chair Chris Lowe. The first public forum for DNC candidates is on January 9th in Detroit.

There’s your insider politics, now back to the Universal Paperclips beat! The Treasury Department has finally gotten out its guidance on the Inflation Reduction Act’s tax credit for the hydrogen boondoggle.

Kate Aronoff notices that the projected demand for data centers is completely absurd. If it’s real, then it’s ecologically ruinous. If it’s vaporous, it’s economically ruinous. But in the meantime, the myth of endless AI growth is good business for electric utilities and Big Tech companies:

Virginia is ground zero for the AI data center boom, subsidized with a billion dollars of tax exemptions every year. It’s absolutely crazy there. A new state report projects a “tripling of the state’s electricity usage over just the next decade and a half.” Meeting that demand would be “very difficult to achieve,” even if the state’s climate-pollution rules are abandoned. Ivy Main, the Sierra Club's renewable energy chair, explains:

That’s it for now, we’ve got a lot coming for you this year, more Book Club, more U.S. Climate Politics Almanac, and other fun surprises.

Thanks for subscribing and spreading the word. If you’ve got job listings, event listings, or other hot news, I want to hear it. Connect with me—@[email protected], @climatebrad on Threads, and @climatebrad.hillheat.com on BlueSky.