Data Center Impacts in the West: Policy Solutions for Water and Energy Use

The rapid growth of data centers, fueled by artificial intelligence, is creating major challenges for the Interior West. Utilities in Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah are now forecasting electricity demand to grow more than four times faster than in the past decade, driving up greenhouse gas emissions and straining the grid.

At the same time, water demands for cooling could reach 7 billion gallons annually by 2035 in a region already facing scarcity. These pressures risk undermining clean energy goals, overburdening other ratepayers, and threatening fragile water resources.

Western Resource Advocates (WRA) recommends policies to turn this challenge …

A Modern and Powerful Tool to Provide Clean, Healthy, Flowing Waters

With less access to clean water, and rivers drying up, floods, droughts, and pollution are taking a toll on ecosystems and people. And while climate change is impacting our waters, another truth lies behind it: Europe’s growing water crisis stems from the failure to fully implement existing EU water laws. The Water Framework Directive (WFD), adopted in 2000, has been the legal backbone of freshwater protection. It requires all Member States to achieve good status for all water bodies by 2027 – a goal that remains unmet. Today, only 39.5% of surface waters are in good ecological status. This is …

Solar Power or Forests?

This study conducts a cost–benefit analysis of replacing forest land with a large-scale solar (LSS) photovoltaic (PV) facility, using data from a proposed 9.35
project in the Northeastern United States. The analysis quantifies and monetizes key impacts over a 20-year timeframe, including reductions in carbon dioxide emissions from solar electricity generation, lost carbon storage and sequestration from deforestation, lost ecosystem services, and potential reductions in nearby property values. The results under various scenarios show positive net present values ranging from 2.7 to 12.7 million US dollars at 3% discount rate, indicating that the benefits of the solar PV project outweigh …

Integrating Energy Justice and Economic Realities Through Insights on Energy Expenditures, Inequality, and Renewable Energy Attitudes

Energy justice is a cornerstone of the European Union’s pursuit of climate neutrality by 2050, addressing both environmental and societal challenges. This research employs a representative survey to analyze household expenditures on electricity, natural gas, and heating, evaluating the extent of energy inequality and its implications for affordability and access across income groups.…

Evaluating Hydrogen for Long Duration Energy Storage

After two decades of relatively flat consumption, energy demand in the United States grew by 2 percent in 2024, a trend that is expected to continue in 2025 and 2026. While new renewable generation is being built to meet this demand, energy storage resources, both hourly and long duration energy storage, will be necessary to maintain a balanced grid. 

This Clean Energy Group report contains new analysis evaluating the feasibility of hydrogen power plants as long-duration energy storage resources, based on cost competitiveness as well as equity and environmental impacts.  …

Socioeconomic Status and Partaking in Air Pollution Monitoring are Associated with Cookstove Usage Across Three Peri-Urban Communities in Sub-Saharan Africa

While transitioning from polluting cooking fuels (e.g. wood, charcoal) to cleaner fuels, like liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), can lead to time savings, the amount of time saved is uncertain due to minimal stove use monitoring (SUM) data. Approximately three months (mean:82 days (SD:41)) of SUM data from Geocene temperature sensors was collected from 186 households in Mbalmayo, Cameroon; Obuasi, Ghana and Eldoret, Kenya. Households exclusively using LPG (mean:1 h 22 min/day) cooked for two hours/day less than those stacking LPG and polluting fuels (3 h 19 min/day), and almost three hours/day less than those exclusively using polluting fuels (4 h …

“Strengthening American Energy: A Review of Pipeline Safety Policy”

The Subcommittee on Energy has scheduled a hearing on Tuesday, July 22, 2025, at 10:30 a.m. (ET) in 2322 Rayburn House Office Building. The title of the hearing is “Strengthening American Energy: A Review of Pipeline Safety Policy.” This hearing will examine reauthorization of the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration’s (PHMSA) pipeline safety program.…

Evaluating Hydrogen for Long Duration Energy Storage: Costs, Risks, and Equity Considerations

After two decades of relatively flat consumption, energy demand in the United States grew by 2 percent in 2024, a trend that is expected to continue in 2025 and 2026. While new renewable generation is being built to meet this demand, energy storage resources, both hourly and long duration energy storage, will be necessary to maintain a balanced grid.

This Clean Energy Group report contains new analysis evaluating the feasibility of hydrogen power plants as long-duration energy storage resources, based on cost competitiveness as well as equity and environmental impacts.…

Electrification Pathways for U.S. Passenger Vehicles

As electric vehicle (EV) adoption continues to accelerate, we explore the implications of different adoption trajectories that achieve a full transition to EVs by 2050 for U.S. light-duty passenger vehicles (LDVs). Using a vetted transportation system model, we find that achieving 100% EV sales by 2040 would decrease tailpipe greenhouse gases (GHGs) by 90% between 2022 and 2050, leaving about 45 million gasoline vehicles on the road. Achieving 100% sales by 2035, tailpipe emissions decrease 93%, with about 28 million gasoline vehicles on the road in 2050 (9% of stock). Slower EV adoption, reaching 100% sales by 2045, would result …

Financing Zero-Emission Trucking Infrastructure in India

This report explores strategies to finance the expansion of charging infrastructure to meet the power demands of ZETs. It maps the lending landscape to identify the most suitable financiers for different types of charging and examines how financial tools such as debt, equity, blended finance, and government intervention accelerate infrastructure development. Finally, it outlines practical implementation pathways, offering guidance on how public and private stakeholders can effectively coordinate efforts to accelerate the deployment of charging infrastructure and requisite grid upgrades at scale.…