Issue Brief Critical Minerals and the U.S. Clean Energy Transition

Critical minerals are key components in a range of products and equipment, from consumer electronics and military technology to solar panels and electric vehicle batteries. Their unique chemical properties make them particularly suitable for energy technologies and irreplaceable for certain purposes. Pursuant to the Energy Act of 2020, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) publishes a revised list of critical minerals every three years.…

Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill, 2026

The Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill provides a total discretionary allocation of $57.300 billion, which is $766.4 million below the Fiscal Year 2025 enacted level. The defense portion of the allocation is $33.223 billion, and the non-defense portion of the allocation is $24.077 billion.

The bill prioritizes funding for agencies and programs that safeguard U.S. national security, unleash American energy dominance, and advance economic competitiveness.…

Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies

The fiscal year 2026 Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies funding bill provides $57.3 billion. Within that amount, the bill provides $24.1 billion for nondefense programs, a cut of over $675 million, or 2.7 percent, below the fiscal year 2025 enacted level, and $33.2 billion for defense programs, a cut of $91 million, or 0.3 percent, below the fiscal year 2025 enacted level. When combined with $3.5 billion in funding for activities related to the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund, the bill as a whole provides $60.8 billion in funding for energy and water development activities.…

Fifth National Climate Assessment

The Global Change Research Act of 19901 mandates that the US Global Change Research Program (USGCRP) deliver a report to Congress and the President not less frequently than every four years that “integrates, evaluates, and interprets the findings of the Program and discusses the scientific uncertainties associated with such findings; analyzes the effects of global change on the natural environment, agriculture, energy production and use, land and water resources, transportation, human health and welfare, human social systems, and biological diversity; and analyzes current trends in global change, both human-induced and natural, and projects major trends for the subsequent 25 to …

Executive Order Accelerates Clean Energy Subsidy Rollback

 July 7, the President issued an Executive Order directing Federal agencies to eliminate taxpayer support for renewable energy sources such as wind and solar, which the Administration described as “unreliable,” “unaffordable,” and dependent on “foreign adversaries.” The new Order directs the Department of the Treasury to enforce strictly the repeal of these credits and restrict the use of safe harbor provisions unless a significant portion of a covered facility has already been built. The Order is intended to implement provisions included in the recently enacted One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA), which repealed a number of Federal tax credits for …

The Science vs. the Narrative vs. the Voters

The relationship between voter opinion, scientific assessment, and media narrative is poorly understood, thereby reinforcing the current overly partisan and tribal discussion about energy and climate. This report focuses on these relationships, in both policy and political terms, in the context of American public opinion.

Both the public’s views and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) scientific analysis differ in important respects from a narrative that has come to dominate the mainstream media discourse and public understandings of climate and energy. On the one hand, the public generally holds views well aligned with IPCC findings, but not media coverage, …

Powering Progress

As we reflect on the growing demand for energy and evolving regional dynamics, data from the World Bank, the IEA Global Energy Review 2025 and Kenya’s Biannual Energy and Petroleum Statistics Report 2024/25 highlight a sector grappling with rising consumption, structural transformation and the urgent need for sustainability.In 2024 alone, global energy demand grew by 2.2%, significantly surpassing the past decade’s average annual growth of 1.3%. Electricity consumption rose even faster by 4.3%, propelled by increased digitalization, the electrification of transport systems and climate-driven extremes that intensified demand for cooling. These trends underline a global shift toward electricity as a …

Significant Cuts to IRA Clean Energy Tax Credits Included in Enacted Reconciliation Bill

President Trump signed the “One, Big, Beautiful Bill Act” (the “OBBB”) into law on July 4, 2025. Congress passed the legislation using the budget reconciliation process to avoid the 60-vote Senate filibuster. In addition to making many of the individual tax cuts from the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act permanent, the bill makes significant changes to many of the clean energy credits included in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (the “IRA”).

Projects that began construction before 2025 and are planning on claiming production tax credits (“PTCs”) or investment tax credits (“ITCs”) under sections 45 and 48 are generally …

One Big Beautiful Bill: New Law Disrupts Clean Energy Investment

July 4, 2025, President Trump signed into law the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (the OBBB), which significantly rolls back many of the core tax incentives that clean energy projects have relied on since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022.

Under the new law, tax credits for wind and solar projects phase out much sooner. To qualify, these projects must either be completed by the end of 2027 or begin construction within the next 12 months. This compressed timeline will likely force developers to accelerate their project schedules or risk losing critical tax credits. In contrast, the …

The Department Of Energy’s Resource Adequacy Report Affirms The Energy Emergency Facing The U.S. Power Grid

The new report reveals, plants closures and overreliance on intermittent energy sources driven by a radical green agenda, and increasing artificial intelligence demand, could lead to a significant increase in U.S. power outages.

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