The Danish offshore wind company Orsted was already in trouble. It was looking to raise about half of its market value in new cash because it couldn’t sell stakes in its existing projects. The market hated that idea, and the stock plunged almost 30% following the announcement of … | Continue reading
You can drive your life away and never notice the little arrow on the dashboard — the one next to the fuel canister icon that points out which side of the car the gas cap is on. The arrow is a fun piece of everyday design that has inspired many a know-it-all friend or TikTok. But … | Continue reading
Current conditions: The highest wave measured from Hurricane Erin was 45 feet by a buoy located 150 miles off North Carolina’s Cape Hetteras • Intense rainfall is flooding Rajasthan in India • Wildfires continue raging across North America and southern Europe. THE TOP FIVE 1. Tru … | Continue reading
In the world of climate and energy, “emissions” is often shorthand for carbon dioxide, the most abundant anthropogenic greenhouse gas in the world. Similarly, talk of emissions capture and removal usually centers on the growing swath of technologies that either prevent CO2 from e … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Hurricane Erin’s riptides continue lashing the Atlantic Coast, bringing 15-foot waves to the eastern end of New York’s Long Island • In Colorado, the Derby fire tripled in size to more than 2,600 acres, prompting evacuations in the county north of the ski encl … | Continue reading
This week’s conversation is with Scott Cockerham, a partner with the law firm Latham and Watkins whose expertise I sought to help me best understand the Treasury Department’s recent guidance on the federal solar and wind tax credits. We focused on something you’ve probably been t … | Continue reading
1. Carroll County, Arkansas – The head of an influential national right-wing advocacy group is now targeting a wind project in Arkansas, seeking federal intervention to block something that looked like it would be built. Will Hild, executive director of Consumers’ Research, recen … | Continue reading
Donald Trump’s renewables permitting freeze is prompting solar companies to find an escape hatch from Nevada. As I previously reported, the Interior Department has all but halted new approvals for solar and wind projects on federal lands. It was entirely unclear how that would af … | Continue reading
Electricity prices are going up at about twice the rate of inflation. This is becoming a political problem for anyone currently in power, including President Donald Trump. “Any State that has built and relied on WINDMILLS and SOLAR for power are seeing RECORD BREAKING INCREASES I … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Hurricane Erin is generating waves up to 6 feet high in North Carolina as the storm brings dangerous riptides up the East Coast • Heavy rainfall is causing deadly landslides and flooding in Senegal • Isesaki, northwest of Tokyo, is sweltering in temperatures a … | Continue reading
You’re not imagining things: Electricity prices are surging. Electricity rates, which have increased steadily since the pandemic, are now on a serious upward tear. Over the past 12 months, power prices have increased more than twice as fast as inflation, according to recent gover … | Continue reading
As the cost to charge the Rivian R1S ticked up over $50, then $60, I couldn’t help but recall those “Pain at the Pump” segments from the local news. Perhaps you’ve seen the familiar clips where reporters camp out at the local filling station to interview locals fed up with high g … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Hurricane Erin is lashing Virginia Beach with winds up to 80 miles per hour, the Mid-Atlantic with light rain, and New York City with deadly riptides • Europe’s wildfires have now burned more land than any blazes in two decades • Catastrophic floods have kille … | Continue reading
So far on Shift Key Summer School we’ve covered how electricity gets made and how it gets sold. But none of that matters without the grid, which is how that electricity gets to you, the consumer. Who actually keeps the grid running? And what decisions did they make an hour ago, a … | Continue reading
For almost as long as utilities have existed, they have attracted suspicion. They enjoy local monopolies over transmission (and, in some places, generation). They charge regulated prices for electricity and make their money through engaging in capital investments with a regulated … | Continue reading
Critical minerals are essential to the world’s most powerful clean energy technologies, from batteries and electric vehicles to power lines, wind turbines, and solar panels. But the vast majority of the U.S. mineral supply comes from countries such as China, putting supply chains … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Hurricane Erin’s winds strengthen to 160 miles per hour as the Category 4 storm barrels toward the U.S. East Coast • Temperatures have dropped 20 degrees Fahrenheit in the U.S. Northeast as cooler air and storms sweep in • The death toll in Spain’s wildfires r … | Continue reading
It’s not just you: Summers are getting smokier. For the third year in a row, cities like Detroit, Minneapolis, Boston, and New York are experiencing dangerously polluted air for days at a time as smoke drifts into the U.S. from wildfires in Canada. Smoke has traveled to these pla … | Continue reading
Current conditions: After briefly strengthening into a Category 5 storm, Hurricane Erin continues toward Puerto Rico as a Category 4 • China is reeling from flash floods that killed 10 in Inner Mongolia on Sunday • Spain is battling 20 major wildfires as blazes across Europe disp … | Continue reading
Today, the Inflation Reduction Act would have turned three years old — if it hadn’t been buried alive in a big, beautiful grave. While the IRA was a hodgepodge of programs salvaged from President Biden’s far more ambitious Build Back Better agenda, it still represented the bigges … | Continue reading
The Trump administration issued new rules for the wind and solar tax credits on Friday, closing the loop on a question that has been giving developers anxiety since the One Big Beautiful Bill Act passed in early July. For decades, developers have been able to lock in tax credit e … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Tropical Storm Erin is still intensifying as it approaches the Caribbean • Rare August rainstorms are deluging the Pacific Northwest with a month’s worth of precipitation in 24 hours, threatening floods • Hong Kong has issued its highest-level “black” rainstor … | Continue reading
1. Lawrence County, Alabama – We now have a rare case of a large solar farm getting federal approval. The Tennessee Valley Authority last week quietly published its record of decision formally approving the 200-megawatt Hillsboro Solar project. The TVA – a quasi-federal independe … | Continue reading
This week’s conversation is with Elizabeth McCarthy of the Breakthrough Institute. Elizabeth was one of several researchers involved in a comprehensive review of a decade of energy project litigation – between 2013 and 2022 – under the National Environment Policy Act. Notably, th … | Continue reading
The Bureau of Land Management says it will be heavily scrutinizing transmission lines if they are expressly necessary to bring solar or wind energy to the power grid. Since the beginning of July, I’ve been reporting out how the Trump administration has all but halted progress for … | Continue reading
Electricity prices are up by over 5% so far this year — more than twice the overall rate of inflation — while utilities have proposed $29 billion worth of rate hikes so far this year, compared to $12 billion last year, according to electricity policy research group PowerLines. At … | Continue reading
Electricity prices are up by over 5% so far this year — more than twice the overall rate of inflation — while utilities have proposed $29 billion worth of rate hikes so far this year, compared to $12 billion last year, according to electricity policy research group PowerLines. At … | Continue reading
Current conditions: The Southeastern U.S. is facing flash floods through the end of Thursday • Temperatures in Fez, Morocco, are forecast to hit 108 degrees Fahrenheit • Wildfires continue to rage across southern Europe, sending what Spain’s environment minister called a “clear w … | Continue reading
President Trump has had it in for electric vehicle charging since day one. His January 20 executive order “Unleashing American Energy” singled out the $5 billion National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure program by name, directing the Department of Transportation to pause and revi … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Hurricane Erin is making landfall in the Caribbean as the first major storm of the season, lashing islands with winds of up to 80 miles per hour and 7 inches of rain • More than 152 fires have broken out across Greece in the past 24 hours alone as Europe battl … | Continue reading
Most electricity used in America today is sold on a wholesale power market. These markets are one of the most important institutions structuring the modern U.S. energy economy, but they’re also not very well understood, even in climate nerd circles. And after all: How would you e … | Continue reading
The Inflation Reduction Act sparked a predictable surge in clean energy-related investments from the law’s signing in 2022 through the 2024 election, before President Trump’s second term ushered in an era of cancellations, closures, and downsizing. Of the domestic projects announ … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Hurricane Erin is gathering strength as it makes its way toward Puerto Rico later this week • Flash flooding and severe storms threaten the Great Plains and Midwest • In France, 12 administrative regions are on red alert for heat as temperatures surge past 95 … | Continue reading
In 2027, Ford says, it will deliver a $30,000 mid-size all-electric truck. That alone would be a breakthrough in a segment where EVs have struggled against high costs and lagging interest from buyers. But the company’s big announcement on Monday isn’t (just) about the truck. The … | Continue reading
Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill Act put new expiration dates on clean energy tax credits for business and consumers, raising the cost of climate action. Now some states are rushing to accelerate renewable energy projects and get as many underway as possible before the new deadline … | Continue reading
Orsted is going to investors — including the Danish government — for money it can’t get for its wind projects, especially in the troubled U.S. offshore wind market. The Danish developer, which is majority owned by the Danish government, told investors on Monday that it would seek … | Continue reading
The Fish and Wildlife Service is sending letters to wind developers across the U.S. asking for volumes of records about eagle deaths, indicating an imminent crackdown on wind farms in the name of bird protection laws. The Service on Friday sent developers a request for records re … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Firefighters have contained 78% of a brush fire that put tens of thousands of Los Angeles residents under evacuation order over the weekend • Tropical Storm Ivo continues its westward path away from Mexico, causing dangerous waves on the Pacific coast • Heavy … | Continue reading
It hasn’t attracted much attention, but a document filed by the Trump administration last week admits to something important: The Trump administration believes that it is going to make gasoline more expensive for Americans. That disclosure came in a technical analysis filed by th … | Continue reading
Current conditions: U.S. government forecasters are projecting hurricane season to ramp up in the coming weeks, with as many as nine tropical storms forming in the Caribbean by November • Southern Arizona is facing temperatures of up to 114 degrees Fahrenheit • Northeast India is … | Continue reading
How do you do a bipartisan permitting deal if the Republicans running the government don’t want to permit anything Democrats like? The typical model for a run at permitting reform is that a handful of Republicans and Democrats come together and draw up a plan that would benefit r … | Continue reading
1. Sussex County, Delaware – The Trump administration has confirmed it will revisit permitting decisions for the MarWin offshore wind project off the coast of Maryland, potentially putting the proposal in jeopardy unless blue states and the courts intervene. Justice Department of … | Continue reading
This week, since this edition of The Fight was so heavy, I tried something a little different: I interviewed one of my readers, Heiko Burow, an attorney with Baker & Mackenzie based in Dallas, Texas. Burow doesn’t work in energy specifically – he’s an intellectual property lawyer … | Continue reading
I can now confirm the Trump administration’s recent attacks on renewables permitting appear to be impacting transmission projects, too. Over the past two weeks, the Interior Department has laid forth secretarial orders implementing a new regime for renewables permitting on federa … | Continue reading
Current conditions: A potential tropical storm is barreling toward Georgia and the Carolina coast • The Northeastern U.S. is facing poor air quality due to Canadian wildfire smoke, with the air quality index surging past 135 in Binghamton, New York • South Africa is facing severe … | Continue reading
Whichever way you cut it, this has been an absolute banner year for nuclear deals in the U.S. It doesn’t much matter the metric — the amount of venture funding flowing to nuclear startups, the number of announcements regarding planned reactor restarts and upgrades, gigawatts of n … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Flash flooding strikes the Southeastern U.S. • Monsoon rains unleash landslides in southern China • A heat dome is bringing temperatures of up to 107 degrees Fahrenheit to France, Italy, and the Balkans. THE TOP FIVE 1. The U.S. broke electricity demand record … | Continue reading
The Trump administration has formally declared that carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases are not dangerous pollutants. If the president gets his way, then the Environmental Protection Agency may soon surrender any ability to regulate heat-trapping pollution from cars and tru … | Continue reading