Clean Power Quarterly Report Q1 2021

Our Clean Power Quarterly provides a snapshot view of the latest U.S. utility wind, solar, and battery storage industry activity and trends. The report includes new clean power capacity installations in 2021, projects under construction and in advanced development, new power purchase agreements, OEM market share, project acquisition activity, offshore wind energy activity, and more.…

Zero, Then Negative: The Congressional Blueprint for Scaling Carbon Removal

Building on recent momentum, US Congress has a rare window of opportunity to catalyze the next wave of transformation for carbon removal solutions. Key federal actions taken over the next one to three years, including increased RD&D funding and deployment incentives, new infrastructure, and equitable and actionable regulations, will be essential to overcoming barriers to achieving full scale and realizing the field’s climate, social, and economic potential.

This report outlines the key actions Congress should take over the next one to three years to rapidly develop and deploy carbon removal. The recommendations in this report focus on how we can …

Advancements in Coordinated Transmission Approaches

The Briefing provides updates to the Network’s 2020 Transmission White Paper and offers immediate and long-term recommendations for strategic actions that policymakers should take to ensure the U.S.  deploys 30 GW of offshore wind energy capacity by 2030.

The Network released this Briefing  just one day after the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management’s issued the Record of Decision for Vineyard Wind, the first major offshore wind project in U.S. waters and a historic day for clean energy in America. Overall, the Biden Administration is making significant progress on both offshore wind and broader grid expansion and modernization. The industry is …

The Climate and Community Investment Act: An Engine for Good Job Creation

This study from NY Renews shows that investment in climate programs and infrastructure under the Climate and Community Investment Act (CCIA, S4264-A/A6967) would create and sustain 160,000 jobs over a ten-year period. These jobs would reach beyond the renewable energy sector and include jobs in public transportation, manufacturing, agriculture, the care economy and schools, professional services, and pollution remediation. The jobs would be created in all regions of New York State.

Under the CCIA, an emissions fee on corporate polluters would generate an additional $10-$15 billion per year in state revenue, to be spent in four categories: 30% of the …

Global Methane Assessment

The Global Methane Assessment shows that human-caused methane emissions can be reduced by up to 45 per cent this decade. Such reductions would avoid nearly 0.3°C of global warming by 2045 and would be consistent with keeping the Paris Climate Agreement’s goal to limit global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius (1.5˚C) within reach.

The assessment, for the first time, integrates the climate and air pollution costs and benefits from methane mitigation. Because methane is a key ingredient in the formation of ground-level ozone (smog), a powerful climate forcer and dangerous air pollutant, a 45 per cent reduction would prevent …

Big Oil Agrees to Accept Equal Tax Treatment

Today, Rep. Ro Khanna, Chairman of the Subcommittee on the Environment, released a Fact Sheet detailing reasons to repeal fossil fuel subsidies. The fossil fuel industry plays by different tax rules than the rest of American business, spends over $100 million in political contributions to preserve their preferential treatment and prevent government action to curb climate change, and receives billions of dollars in tax giveaways as a result.

The Fact Sheet was published following a hearing held by the Environment Subcommittee on Earth Day to review the impact of fossil fuel subsidies on climate action. During the hearing, witness Mr. …

Keeping the Lights and Water On: COVID-19 and Utility Debt in Los Angeles’ Communities of Color

The COVID-19 public health crisis has deepened existing economic and environmental justice crises in the United States. Previous research by the UCLA Center for Neighborhood Knowledge and its partners shows that the pandemic has exacerbated pre-pandemic health and economic inequalities for disadvantaged neighborhoods. Communities of color in particular have shouldered a disproportionate share of interrelated health and economic risks due to widespread job and income loss, increased housing vulnerability and food insecurity, a lack of basic resources to shelter in place, and less access to critical utilities such as broadband internet service. The pandemic’s economic impacts have also exacerbated the …

Under Pressure: Gas Utility Regulation for a Time of Transition

The way we use fossil gas as a fuel for heating buildings and other end uses is rapidly changing. Efficiency gains and improved electric end-use technologies are constraining demand for gas. At the same time, the urgency to address climate change is increasing, with the new U.S. national target to cut greenhouse gas emissions by more than half by 2030 adding to existing state-level decarbonization policies. Increased awareness of the health and safety risks of fossil gas is also accelerating the transition to other sources of energy. These shifts are happening as gas utility distribution systems in many places are …

The Role of Critical Minerals in Clean Energy Transitions

Minerals are essential components in many of today’s rapidly growing clean energy technologies – from wind turbines and electricity networks to electric vehicles. Demand for these minerals will grow quickly as clean energy transitions gather pace. This new World Energy Outlook Special Report provides the most comprehensive analysis to date of the complex links between these minerals and the prospects for a secure, rapid transformation of the energy sector.

Alongside a wealth of detail on mineral demand prospects under different technology and policy assumptions, it examines whether today’s mineral investments can meet the needs of a swiftly changing energy sector. …

Supporting the Nation’s Coal Workers and Communities in a Changing Energy Landscape

Analysis by the Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) and the Utility Workers Union of America (UWUA) finds that, not only it is possible to support coal workers in the shift to a low-carbon economy, but these comprehensive policies are affordable.

UCS and UWUA estimated the number of coal miners and coal-fired power plant workers at risk of losing jobs before reaching age 65 as the coal industry declines, and identified the number of US counties at risk due to their direct link to coal.

Comprehensive support for these workers would include five years of wage replacement, health coverage, continued employer …