Support for labor unions highest since 1965 - August 30, 2022

U.S. households will install a record amount of solar this year to help cut electricity bills, with residential solar installations increasing by about 5.6 gigawatts in 2022. Higher electricity prices and tax credit extensions in the Inflation Reduction Act are fueling the rebound in residential solar adoption. The tax credits contained in the bill are expected to help double the capacity of installed wind and solar by 2030. First Solar, the biggest U.S. solar-panel maker, said it plans to spend as much as $1.2 billion to boost manufacturing capacity at home by about 75%. The Greenland Ice Sheet is on course to lose hundreds of trillions of metric tons of ice and contribute close to a foot in average global sea level rise by 2100, regardless of the magnitude of greenhouse gas emissions cuts during the period. Current sea level rise has already exacerbated coastal flood events in cities like Miami and Charleston and an increase could mean destructive floods taking place five times as often. Water-related natural disasters could cause a $5.6 trillion hit to global GDP between 2022 and 2050, a new study found. All natural disasters combined in the past 50 years have caused $3.6 trillion in losses worldwide. A group of large U.S. freight railroads reached tentative agreements with unions representing about 11% of workers in an effort to avoid a widespread strike. The White House and federal regulators have been scrambling to prevent a possible strike from jamming up a vital part of the supply chain network, stemming back to July when the Biden administration formed a presidential emergency board to keep 115,000 rail workers across the country from striking. The most recent settlement would include a 24% pay bump, succeeding three years without a raise. While the settlement marks a historic development, critics say it fails to address one of the biggest concerns – overwork and lack of time off. An arm of the U.S. Agriculture Department attempted to roll out its updated system for reporting weekly export sales