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
The Trump administration is widening its efforts to restrict wind power, proposing new nationwide land use restrictions and laying what some say is the groundwork for targeting wind facilities under construction or even operation. Since Trump re-entered the White House, his admin … | Continue reading
The Environmental Protection Agency plans to cancel grants awarded from the $7 billion Solar for All program, the final surviving grants from the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, by the end of this week, The New York Times is reporting. Two sources also told the same to Heatmap. So … | Continue reading
America’s federal tax credit for buying an electric car was supposed to be the great equalizer, an incentive meant to solve for the fact that EVs have long been more expensive than the polluting fossil fuel vehicles they must replace. That tax credit is now dead. Thanks to the Re … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Tropical Storm Dexter has formed in the Atlantic, sending rough surf and rip currents to beaches along the U.S. East Coast • Heavy rainfall threatens flooding in southern Taiwan and northern Vietnam • Storm Floris is battering Scotland with winds of up to 80 m … | Continue reading
Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency has moved to abdicate the federal government’s responsibility to regulate greenhouse gas emissions for vehicles. At this point it’s only a proposal, and legal challenges to the shift could take years to resolve even after the change gets fi … | Continue reading
Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency has moved to abdicate the federal government’s responsibility to regulate greenhouse gas emissions for vehicles. At this point it’s only a proposal, and legal challenges to the shift could take years to resolve even after the change gets fi … | Continue reading
Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley wants “begin construction” to mean what it means. To that end, Grassley has placed a “hold” on three nominees to the Treasury Department, the agency tasked with writing the rules and guidance for implementing the tax provisions of the One Big Beautiful … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Wildfire smoke in Alberta, Canada, is so thick that the airport had a visibility of just about 650 feet, and the air quality index hit 2241, 10 times higher than “hazardous” levels • At least 10 Chinese provinces are on alert for heavy rainfall this week, with … | Continue reading
The Interior Department released a new secretarial order Friday saying it may no longer issue any permits to a solar or wind project on federal lands unless the agency believes it will generate as much energy per acre as a coal, gas, or nuclear power plant. Hypothetically, this c … | Continue reading
Over the past few months, you could put together three different — and somewhat conflicting — pictures of the American economy. For companies exposed to the AI boom, business has been good — excellent, even. The surge in ongoing capital investment into data centers and electricit … | Continue reading
This week’s conversation is with Heather O’Neill, CEO of renewables advocacy group Advanced Energy United. I wanted to chat with O’Neill in light of the recent effective repeal of the Inflation Reduction Act’s clean electricity tax credits and the action at the Interior Departmen … | Continue reading
The anti-renewables movement is now coming for transmission lines as the Trump administration signals a willingness to cut off support for wires that connect to renewable energy sources. Last week, Trump’s Energy Department with a brief letter rescinded a nearly $5 billion loan g … | Continue reading
Current conditions: Coastal storms are pushing water levels on New England’s shores two feet above normal levels • Japan just set a new temperature record of more than 106 degrees Fahrenheit • A cold front is settling over South Africa, bringing gale-forces to KwaZulu-Natal on th … | Continue reading
1. Nantucket County, Massachusetts – The fight over Vineyard Wind is back with a vengeance. But can an aggrieved vacation town team up with conservative legal activists to take down an operating offshore wind project? The offshore wind project, which was completed in 2021 and cur … | Continue reading
1. Nantucket County, Massachusetts – The fight over Vineyard Wind is back with a vengeance. But can an aggrieved vacation town team up with conservative legal activists to take down an operating offshore wind project? The offshore wind project, which was completed in 2021 and cur … | Continue reading
When a federal judge put an injunction on the Trump administration’s efforts to freeze Inflation Reduction Act funding back in April, many grantees were able to pick up their clean energy projects where they left off. But not everyone. Some 100 low-income housing providers that w … | Continue reading
When a federal judge put an injunction on the Trump administration’s efforts to freeze Inflation Reduction Act funding back in April, many grantees were able to pick up their clean energy projects where they left off. But not everyone. Some 100 low-income housing providers that w … | Continue reading
Current conditions: The U.S. Northeast faces more flash flooding as cooling temperatures usher in rainfall • Scandinavia’s weeks-long heatwave continues, with temperatures reaching nearly 90 degrees Fahrenheit • The death toll from China’s heavy rains rose to 34, with as many as … | Continue reading
Interest rate relief isn’t coming anytime soon for renewables. As widely expected, the Federal Reserve chose to keep rates unchanged on Wednesday, despite intense pressure from President Trump and two Republican Fed governors to lower rates. The Fed maintained the benchmark short … | Continue reading
Trump’s One Big Beautiful Bill took a huge bite out of the climate economy. One segment that emerged largely unscathed, however, is advanced climate tech. Companies working on nuclear, geothermal, battery storage, biofuels, and carbon capture may be shaken by the volatile busines … | Continue reading
Current conditions: From Japan to California, the Pacific is preparing for tsunamis after one of the strongest earthquakes ever recorded struck the eastern coast of Russia • The Deep South is bracing for stifling temperatures • Hurricane Iona, the first named storm of the 2025 hu … | Continue reading