Union of Concerned Scientists

DECEMBER 22, 2022

Lithium-ion batteries are essential for decarbonizing transportation through electric vehicles and building a resilient, renewable energy grid through energy storage batteries. Nearly every part of a renewable energy grid can be circular, with all outputs circulating back as inputs in a regenerative cycle.

Recycling 285

Recycling Clean Energy Renewable Energy Electricity 285

Legal Planet

SEPTEMBER 17, 2024

You don’t have to look beyond the front pages of newspapers , or beyond rooftops in your neighborhood to know that we are in the midst of a clean energy revolution, with renewable energy technologies dramatically decreasing in price and increasing in availability.

Law 325

Law Renewable Energy Clean Energy Fossil Fuels 325

Union of Concerned Scientists

JULY 22, 2022

Minnesotans are facing concurrent crises of climate change, high energy prices and inflation, and the inequitable public health impacts of fossil fuel air pollution. Renewable energy will help with all of that—but we need a grid that is designed for wind and solar instead of having to rely on expensive coal and gas plants.

Renewable Energy 363

Renewable Energy Fossil Fuels Solar Power Electricity 363

Union of Concerned Scientists

APRIL 16, 2024

Much of our electricity system is 50 to 70 years old, yet current plans for domestic manufacturing, electric vehicle fleets, community solar gardens and more clean energy all depend on a modern grid. In some states, when the legislature created new clean energy goals they also started transmission planning to help meet those goals.

Electricity 298

Electricity Renewable Energy Clean Energy Law 298

Legal Planet

AUGUST 5, 2021

With some notable exceptions, they’ve tended to drag their feet on the energy transition. The proposed Clean Energy Standard is one effort to deal with this problem. In those states where rates are regulated, regulators can do some things to shift these incentives. The Problem.

Fossil Fuels 299

Fossil Fuels Regulations Clean Energy Renewable Energy 299

Law and Environment

JULY 2, 2021

On June 29, 2021, a cohort of New York local governments (including many where large-scale solar projects are currently proposed), community organizations, and avian interest groups filed a lawsuit in the New York State Supreme Court (the State’s trial-level court) against the Office of Renewable Energy Siting (“ORES”).

Renewable Energy 130

Renewable Energy Regulations Law 2021 130

Law and Environment

AUGUST 11, 2022

5060 ), titled An Act Driving Clean Energy and Offshore Wind, into law on Thursday August 11, 2022. DPU is directed to promulgate updated regulations in accordance with the legislation. Renewable Energy. Governor Baker signed the climate bill ( H.5060 4524) and the Senate’s proposed omnibus climate bill (S.2819).

Clean Energy 147

Clean Energy Fossil Fuels Renewable Energy 2027 147

Union of Concerned Scientists

APRIL 3, 2023

Last year’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) included a clean hydrogen production tax credit (known as “45V”) that is one of a slew of new incentives intended to help catalyze the next and necessary phase of advancing the nation’s clean energy transition as a whole. The costs will be too great otherwise.

Clean Energy 264

Clean Energy Fossil Fuels Electricity Renewable Energy 264

Law and Environment

NOVEMBER 3, 2022

The Massachusetts Executive Office of Energy and Environmental Affairs (EEA) and Department of Environmental Protection (MassDEP) announced that proposed amendments to the state’s Clean Energy Standard (CES) were finalized earlier this month without substantive changes from draft language initially proposed by the agencies in April 2022.

Clean Energy 130

Clean Energy Electricity Renewable Energy 2030 130

Union of Concerned Scientists

AUGUST 13, 2024

As electric vehicle charging stations sprout like mushrooms along our roads and clusters of new wind turbines come online, these two clean energy solutions to the climate crisis are becoming more commonplace. The United States needs to speed its transition to clean energy in order to stave off even worse impacts of climate change.

Fossil Fuels 288

Fossil Fuels Clean Energy Electricity Climate Change 288

Union of Concerned Scientists

JUNE 13, 2022

We already have so many of the foundational technological building blocks of the clean energy transition at hand: renewables, energy efficiency, energy storage, and pathways to electrifying a vast array of energy end uses. Now we need to rapidly accelerate the clean energy momentum already underway.

Technology 264

Technology Technology Climate Change Fossil Fuels 264

Law and Environment

JUNE 11, 2021

As Anne Reynolds, executive director of the Alliance for Clean Energy – New York (“ACE-NY”) stated when the law was enacted, “[Section 94-c] improves the process and will hopefully get people to work, building wind and solar projects.”

Renewable Energy 130

Renewable Energy Law Regulations Clean Energy 130

Union of Concerned Scientists

MARCH 16, 2022

It’s widely viewed as the “gold standard” for energy projections, even though there’s much debate in the energy community about the validity of the assumptions behind these projections. Source: US Energy Information Administration, Annual Energy Outlook 2022 (AEO2022). This year’s projections are a bit grim.

Natural Gas 290

Natural Gas Renewable Energy Climate Change Electricity 290

Legal Planet

DECEMBER 9, 2021

Here are the options going forward for regulating existing power plants. Switch to another legal basis for regulation. The Clean Power Plan was based on section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act. There are some very promising ideas for how to regulate coal plants that could result in significant emission reductions.

Fossil Fuels 246

Fossil Fuels Clean Air Act Carbon Emissions Renewable Energy 246

Union of Concerned Scientists

DECEMBER 5, 2022

Reliance on fossil natural gas and the slow adoption of renewable energy contributed to electricity bills in New England in the first nine months of 2022 that are $5 billion higher than the prior year. Renewable energy policies are how we manage risks. That reduction comes from the fixed-cost nature of renewables.

Natural Gas 277

Natural Gas Renewable Energy Electricity 2022 277

Union of Concerned Scientists

JUNE 12, 2023

Three decades of deregulation allowed private companies, as opposed to public regulators, to make critical decisions about reliability. In many places state and federal utility regulators delegated decisions about energy supplies to the market. Market forces are moving private investment to renewables. Can we fix this?

Fossil Fuels 266

Fossil Fuels Renewable Energy Electricity Regulations 266

Union of Concerned Scientists

APRIL 19, 2023

Change #1: 100% clean energy goals have spread At the beginning of 2018, the only state in the country with a 100% clean or renewable energy goal was Hawaii. Now, 22 states plus the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have 100% clean energy goals on the books.

2018 278

2018 Clean Energy Renewable Energy Electricity 278

Union of Concerned Scientists

APRIL 25, 2022

Grid modeling tools have a significant real-world impact because utilities, grid operators, regulators and policymakers rely on these tools to make investment and policy decisions. Capacity expansion models are the ones that get all the glory these days because utilities, grid operators and regulators use them to make investment decisions.

Electricity 279

Electricity Clean Energy Fossil Fuels Renewable Energy 279

PA Environment Daily

MARCH 19, 2025

By Matthew Carroll, Penn State News Moving from fossil fuels to renewable energy sources like wind and solar will require better ways to store energy for use when the sun is not shining or the wind is not blowing. The problem is that sometimes when we need energy, there is no sunshine or there is no wind, Taleghani said.

Technology 71

Technology Technology Renewable Energy Clean Energy 71

Union of Concerned Scientists

DECEMBER 22, 2022

Batteries are key to enabling the renewable energy transition. When the sun isn’t shining or the wind isn’t blowing, batteries help store clean energy to continue supplying electricity to the grid and to customers consistently and reliably. A fossil fuel energy grid extracts and expends finite resources.

Renewable Energy 216

Renewable Energy Fossil Fuels Clean Energy Recycling 216

Union of Concerned Scientists

MARCH 17, 2025

The notion that an existing power plant can serve a data center, and not use the grid, is now before regulators for consideration. Tech companies are so hungry for new data centers that they are pursuing deals to reopen shuttered nuclear plants, or build new ones with untried designs.

Electricity 259

Electricity Nuclear Power Technology Technology 259

Union of Concerned Scientists

OCTOBER 16, 2024

This needs some thought, as both the laws of physics and the principles of supply and demand will apply, even if legislatures and regulators have not yet spoken about allocating costs and resources related to data center energy demands.

Electricity 287

Electricity Clean Energy Nuclear Power Renewable Energy 287

Union of Concerned Scientists

OCTOBER 19, 2022

There is presently no federal law or regulation regarding residential or utility-scale solar panel reuse or end-of-life management. Meanwhile, a California law reclassified PV modules as “universal waste” as opposed to “hazardous waste,” which involves less stringent handling regulations. Use regulation to increase solar panel reuse.

Recycling 299

Recycling Government Renewable Energy Regulations 299

Union of Concerned Scientists

APRIL 1, 2024

But in trying to shape a regulation that would mollify opponents—largely industries responsible for the heat-trapping gases that cause climate change—the SEC failed to relieve investors of responsibility for determining how companies will fare in the clean energy transition.

Regulations 293

Regulations Clean Energy Sea Level Greenhouse 293

Enviromental Defense

APRIL 3, 2023

To no one’s surprise it contained zero funding to address climate change – not even for clean energy – which the document referred to multiple times. Early in its first term, it canceled over 750 renewable energy projects , some of which had already been built. It will be something to watch.

Clean Energy 101

Clean Energy Government Electricity 2017 101

PA Environment Daily

OCTOBER 7, 2024

On October 7, the Ohio River Valley Institute released the results of a new poll which found 90% of Pennsylvania voters support stricter regulations on the fracking industry, according to the poll conducted by Upswing Research for the Ohio River Valley Institute. Click Here for poll results narrative. Click Here for poll results narrative.

Regulations 132

Regulations Natural Gas Clean Energy Electricity 132

Legal Planet

OCTOBER 2, 2023

At the global level, however, Germany has its own claim to a leadership role, particularly in its early support for renewable energy. Although its track record has some complexities, this timeline of German actions shows just its early and sustained attention to clean energy policy: 1990. Renewables are 6% of power.

Nuclear Power 203

Nuclear Power Renewable Energy 2030 Carbon Emissions 203

PA Environment Daily

MARCH 18, 2025

Discover how Renewell Energy is pioneering gravity energy storage to transform inactive wells into critical components of a sustainable energy future. The Renewell mechanical energy storage system can capture energy by lowering a weight down a well, producing clean energy by turning a regenerative winch.

Renewable Energy 84

Renewable Energy 2025 Technology Technology 84

Legal Planet

FEBRUARY 27, 2023

It’s also worth noting that utilities are allowed to buy clean energy credits to fulfill these obligations. Another judge thought it was preempted because it regulated power purchases, and the third judge dissented. The bill also contains several other features that are worth noting: Social cost of carbon.

Renewable Energy 246

Renewable Energy Law Clean Energy Electricity 246

E2 Law Blog

FEBRUARY 9, 2024

8308)) includes two pivotal energy proposals: the Renewable Action Through Project Interconnection and Deployment Act and the Affordable Gas Transition Act. This post summarizes the key provisions of these proposals and discusses their potential impact on New York’s energy landscape.

Natural Gas 105

Natural Gas Renewable Energy Electricity Clean Energy 105

Legal Planet

DECEMBER 29, 2022

The Supreme Court heard the Sackler case, which will have a huge impact on federal regulation of wetlands. EPA , which reinvigorated the “Major Question Doctrine,” axed Obama’s Clean Power Plan, and increased barriers to future EPA regulation. The oral argument suggested that the Justices were looking for a middle ground.

Carbon Emissions 246

Carbon Emissions Clean Energy Politics Regulations 246

Law and Environment

JULY 22, 2021

These efforts mark an emerging trend of legislative bodies directing utility regulators to help advance climate policies. This enhanced vision of utility regulation gives me hope in the fight against climate change. Public Utility Regulatory Authority decisions are statutorily guided by the state’s energy strategy.

Regulations 130

Regulations Climate Change Greenhouse 2018 130

Law Columbia

JUNE 27, 2023

Direct pay – which is already in effect as of January 1, 2023 – allows tax-exempt entities, including local governments, to claim the value of certain clean energy and other tax credits as a cash payment, rather than as an offset to tax liability that they do not have.

Regulations 111

Regulations Renewable Energy Government Clean Energy 111

Union of Concerned Scientists

JULY 27, 2022

For stationary storage, companies such as RePurpose Energy and B2U Storage Solutions are repurposing these batteries to be used for renewable energy generation support. As the grid becomes cleaner, added grid storage becomes more necessary to support the generation variability of renewable sources.

Recycling 362

Recycling Electricity Renewable Energy Technology 362

Union of Concerned Scientists

MARCH 30, 2022

Replacing fossil fuels with renewable energy from wind and solar will depend on upgrading the electric power grid, which is currently plagued by planning delays and gridlock. Transmission has always been a monopoly with regulations meant to ensure cost and service are reasonable and non-discriminatory.

Fossil Fuels 264

Fossil Fuels Renewable Energy Electricity Regulations 264

Union of Concerned Scientists

AUGUST 31, 2022

As California decarbonizes its economy, the state will build enormous amounts of renewable energy and energy storage to clean up the electricity sector. And to clean up buildings and industry, many residences and businesses will switch to electricity-powered heating systems (e.g., heat pumps !).

Solar Power 299

Solar Power Fossil Fuels Electricity 2020 299

Energy and Climate Law

OCTOBER 22, 2020

Buildings, both houses and buildings that are used for other purposes, can be retrofitted and isolated to reduce the energy consumption (energy efficiency) and they can be equipped with small-scale renewable energy production units, such as solar cells (energy production).

Electricity 246

Electricity Renewable Energy Law Regulations 246