California utilities crater; UK stockpiles for El Niño — SkimNews
Get the Energy newsletter
Daily energy & climate — solar, EVs, oil, the policy fights and tech bets shaping the transition. Free.
- California rejected Gov. Newsom's SB 492 amendment to cap utility wildfire liability, sending PG&E down 20% and Edison International down 23% Monday — Edison's worst single-day drop in 25+ years.link ›
- Bank of America downgraded Edison from buy to neutral and slashed its price target from $81 to $51, citing 'no policy clarity likely for another year.'link ›
- Angela Eagle is telling UK households to stockpile food and water ahead of what she called 'probably the largest El Niño that has ever been seen.'link ›
- Pacific ocean temperatures at the heart of El Niño are already 2.6°C above the 30-year average, with 14 forecast models averaging a ~4°C peak in November.link ›
- Julia Cole's University of Michigan team published a 1,000-year Galápagos coral record in Science showing El Niño variability is now ~37% above preindustrial, with a sharp break after 1982.link ›
- Havant Thicket will be the UK's first new reservoir since 1992, part of Eagle's farming adaptation plans for a wetter, stormier winter.link ›
- California passed SB 868, AB 1738, and AB 1813 — legalizing balcony solar, remote inspections for home projects up to 15 kW, and a 5 MW community solar cap.link ›
California lawmakers rejected Gov. Newsom's amendment to SB 492 that would have capped utility wildfire liability, sending PG&E down 20% and Edison International down 23% Monday — Edison's worst single-day drop in over 25 years. Bank of America responded by slashing Edison's price target from $81 to $51 and downgrading the stock to neutral. Across the Atlantic, UK Environment Secretary Angela Eagle is telling citizens to stockpile tinned food for what she called 'probably the largest El Niño that has ever been seen,' with Pacific temperatures already 2.6°C above the 30-year average and 14 forecast models averaging a peak of 4°C in November. Two energy stories, one message: the bill for a warming climate is coming due in capital markets and grocery aisles at the same time.
The stories behind this week
UN Warns Climate Overshoot Is Inevitable Without Immediate ActionWith warming already causing deadly extremes in wealthy nations like Germany, the gap between current action and what’s needed to limit peak temperatures threatens to lock in irreversible ecological and societal damage, making near-term emissions cuts a decisive factor in global resilience.
Melting Ice Fuels Quakes, Floods and Volcanoes WorldwideThe roughly 200 Himalayan glacial lakes already flagged as threats, combined with awakening faults in Greenland, volcanoes under Iceland's retreating Vatnajökull, and destabilized slopes in Alaska, mean the next disaster comes from the ground itself — as the 2010 Eyjafjallajökull eruption showed when it grounded European aviation.
When ocean temperatures increase, so does child malnutrition on landFor coastal low- and middle-income nations where small-scale fishing underpins food and income, even modest increases in marine heatwaves now translate into measurable spikes in child deaths and malnutrition — though researchers still don't know if the mechanism is lost fish, lost income, or both.
Macfox X1S e-bike: moped thrills, pedals optionalUrban riders seeking a throttle-driven, street-legal moped-style e-bike without crossing into e-motorcycle territory get a $1,399 option in the Macfox X1S — but anyone expecting real cycling from it should look elsewhere, since the reviewer found the cadence sensor, fixed bench seat, and moped geometry make the bike borderline unpedalable.
UK Tells Citizens to Stockpile as 'Supersized' El Niño LoomsA UK government minister is publicly telling citizens to prepare for self-sufficiency during emergencies, an unusual level of alarm framing tied to a specific climate forecast. With the El Niño forecast peak of ~4°C arriving in November and 2027 projected to be the hottest year on record, the government's reservoir and farming adaptation plans — the first major UK reservoir since 1992 — represent a tangible infrastructure response to a phenomenon already driving food insecurity for an estimated 50 million people globally.
California Rejects Wildfire Liability Cap; Utility Stocks PlungePG&E and Edison International told lawmakers they need tens of billions in annual private investment to reduce wildfire risk and meet clean energy goals, warning that California investors "face risks…unlike in any other state" — meaning higher returns or capital flight. Bank of America captured the market verdict when it cut Edison's target from $81 to $51 over "no policy clarity likely for another year," putting ratepayers on the hook for whatever premium utilities demand to keep building in California.
Electric vs Gas Motorcycle: What I Missed on VacationThe Philippines relies heavily on short motorbike commutes, electricity is easier to distribute than liquid fuel, and Cebu City's air quality was bad enough that the author stopped at a pharmacy to buy masks — framing electric two-wheelers as a public health upgrade, not just a comfort one.
Cole's coral record fingerprints Godzilla El NiñoCole's 1,000-year coral record hands climate litigators and humanitarian agencies the cleanest attribution data point yet — El Niño intensification is now demonstrably fossil-fueled, reshaping adaptation budgets and climate-liability arguments for the rest of the decade.
Why it matters: California utilities now have every reason to demand a higher cost-of-capital premium from ratepayers, which is exactly what BofA's downgrade implies — wildfire risk lives in shareholder returns until regulators or lawmakers write a check, and SB 492's rejection leaves ratepayers as the only backstop.
Ask SkimNews
