Climate Point: Did Paris clean up its sewage-laden river?

Welcome to Climate Point, your weekly guide to climate, energy and the environment. From rural New Hampshire, where curtains of rain are drenching the woods outside, I'm Janet Wilson.

Across the globe, Olympians dived into the river Seine on Wednesday, after a pre-dawn notice informed teams that its murky waters were at last safe enough for a triathlon, sparing France the embarrassment of a Paris 2024 promise hitting the rocks.

The pledge, as Reuters' Helen Reid reports, was that the frequently sewage-laden river would be transformed to one clean enough to swim in. Authorities spent about $1.5 billion modernizing the capital's antiquated sanitation works, included digging new pipes to houses and houseboats that once pumped raw sewage into the river.

But rains that soaked the Games' opening ceremony also spiked bacteria in the river above safe levels, forcing the repeated postponement of the men's triathlon until mid-week, and raising questions about the pricey updates. Wednesday's races went ahead despite rain overnight. Olympians last swam in the Seine in 1900.

Sacre bleu! It's hot in Paris too, and rising global temperatures loom large there, just as they have for Games over the past decade in Beijing, Tokyo, Pyeongchang and Sochi.

Finding venues cold enough for winter events and not-too-warm for summer events increasingly challenges the International Olympic Committee and would-be hosts, writes Paste BN's Dinah Voyles Pulver. Sweltering temperatures in recent world competitions raised serious health and safety concerns for athletes. They also sparked questions about whether the summer Games could one day become the fall or spring Games instead.

“It’s extremely noticeable how much hotter it’s gotten and how much more difficult that makes training,” said Samuel Mattis, a discus thrower on Team USA’s track and field team, who has 15 years in the sport.

What, me worry? Athletes regularly contend with dirty water around the globe, and some laugh it off.

Free no more? You may have heard that Project 2025, the ambitious conservative blueprint to rapidly overhaul the federal government by the right-wing think tank The Heritage Foundation, wants people to pay for weather service information and forecasts that are currently free. It's true.

And efforts to study and address climate change impacts and causes would also be stripped away, reports C.A. Bridges with Paste BN Network - Florida. Saying it is "harmful to future U.S. prosperity," the 922-page plan also calls for the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), which provides much of the data that climate change estimations are based on, to be completely broken up (page 674).

Shore it up. Meanwhile, NOAA on Tuesday awarded New Jersey $72.5 million to protect its shoreline from climate change destruction, and Florida recently won $9.4 million to try to grow back a beloved lagoon by planting back seagrass, oysters mangroves and salt marshes.

Both are part of almost $220 million awarded to states by NOAA for 32 "transformational habitat restoration and coastal resilience projects" this year, and $66 million more in future years.

Soaring. With record-setting summer heat waves, most Americans are also facing their highest electric bills ever, as air conditioners are working overtime and electric meters are whirring faster. A Paste BN analysis of U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) forecasts showed a 17% increase this summer compared to 2021, with the average bill in June, July and August expected to hit $173.

Prices are higher because Americans are using more air conditioning as temperatures rise, plus lingering effects of natural gas price spikes due in part to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, writes Suhail Bhat. With an increase in demand, more renewable energy, and more frequent wildfires and storms, utilities are also investing to strengthen the electric grid — and passing the costs along to customers.

Cool it. In impoverished parts of Texas and elsewhere, budgets are stretched thin to help low income customers pay summer power bills. Advocates and researchers say that funding for a federal program dubbed The Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) that largely helps subsidize winter heating bills should be increased to address the impacts of climate change and better reflect the need in hot states like Texas, Florida and Arizona.

Never mind. And in Florida, after rejecting nearly $400 million in energy-efficiency rebates that would have saved Floridians thousands as part of the Inflation Reduction Act last year, Gov. Ron DeSantis has had a change of heart. Now, state energy officials are determining how they can implement two programs overseen by the U.S. Dept. of Energy to allow homeowners to cash in on up to $14,000 in rebates.

Recent years have brought an onslaught of broken heat records, emergency room visits and deaths in the Sunshine State. Experts say the trend will continue increasing, and that's dangerous. According to a new report, Florida has the nation's highest number of heat-related illnesses, with 31,011 emergency room visits and hospitalizations between 2018 and 2022, per data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Stay hydrated everyone, and read on for more, including about exploding watermelons. Some stories below may require a subscription. Sign up and get access to all eNewspapers in the Paste BN Network. If someone forwarded you this email and you'd like to receive Climate Point in your inbox for free once a week, sign up here.