Today: Geothermal energy’s search for talent; as insurers vacate regions the most at risk from climate change, smaller players are filling the gap; rare earth miners struggle with investors despite Washington's mineral desires.

Welcome back: When President Donald Trump returned to the White House, he promised to reaffirm America's energy dominance—part of that included building out the country’s geothermal energy industry.

But to develop the burgeoning renewable power source, it is going to take a lot more geologists, WSJ Pro Sustainable Business’ Clara Hudson reports.

The talent pool of experts with geothermal experience is currently shallow, as geologists have the option of working in the oil, gas or mining industries. Given that geothermal has been a much smaller sector, talent and expertise has flowed to these other industries.

Geothermal is at a turning point. Tax credits for other renewables—like solar and wind—were cut in the Trump bill, but geothermal was left alone. The industry also has broad bipartisan support. The Biden administration had backed geothermal projects, emphasizing that they have minimal carbon emissions, and Trump in a January executive order declaring a national energy emergency embraced geothermal along with uranium and oil.

See also: Bill Gates Is Backing This Geothermal Company. Will Trump’s Republicans?

In places like Louisiana and Florida which face huge risks from climate change, the insurance industry is slowly backing away. That’s leaving a gap for smaller insurers to fill the void—but they’re being vouched for by one tiny company, the WSJ’s Jean Eaglesham, Susan Pulliam and Caitlin Ostroff report.

Lighthouse Excalibur Insurance, a small Louisiana insurer had an “A” rating for financial stability, a critical stamp of approval from Demotech, a tiny Ohio rating company with a unique take on grading financial stability. It rates 98% of the insurers A, for “exceptional,” or the even better A Prime or A Double Prime.

But Demotech’s rosy outlook doesn’t always pan out. Insurers it rated were 30 times as likely to become insolvent as those graded by its main rivals, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of failures since 2017.

That’s just what happened after Hurricane Ida barreled into southern Louisiana in August 2021. Lighthouse imploded after 16,000 of its 30,000 customers in the state put in claims.

A promising mining find in Wyoming aims for lightning-fast production of a resource that is a key chokepoint in America’s standoff with China. Federal officials have signaled a potential investment in the project of close to $500 million.

Yet the company behind it is a penny stock, the WSJ’s David Uberti and Jennifer Hiller report.

The paradox of American Rare Earths, whose biggest prospect is the Wyoming site about three hours north of Denver, is endemic to the mostly small firms trying to extract rare-earth elements crucial to everything from electric vehicles to jet fighters. Shares often trade on smaller stock exchanges in Canada or Australia. Banks proceed with caution toward projects that can take a decade to materialize, if they ever do.

That has left the U.S. with a quandary as China wields its dominance over global rare-earths production as a cudgel in the countries’ simmering trade dispute. The U.S. has rare earths. What it lacks are investors willing to gamble on an industry dominated by Beijing.

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• China strong-armed Japan over rare earths. It’s a lesson for the U.S. (WSJ)
   
• The country where 76% of cars sold are electric (NYT)
   
• More than 132 million face wilting heat across eastern U.S. (Bloomberg)
   
• Thousands of tons of invasive seaweed ‘overwhelming’ Spanish beaches (Guardian)
   

• Desalination: the costly solution for a thirsty world (FT)
   

• New carbon removals fund aims to spur project development (Trellis)
   

• Refurbishment boom in London as firms seek eco-friendly space (Times of London)

WSJ Pro Sustainable Business gives you an inside look at how companies are tackling sustainability. Send comments to bureau chief Perry Cleveland-Peck at perry.cleveland-peck@wsj.com and reporters Clara Hudson at clara.hudson@wsj.com and Yusuf Khan at yusuf.khan@wsj.com. Follow us on LinkedIn at wsjperry, clara-hudson and yusuf_khan.