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With more electric vehicle choices than ever, EV sales in the US are hitting new heights. In just the first half of 2023, over 670,000 EVs were sold with over 80 percent of those fully-electric battery electric vehicles (BEVs ). EV sales in the US are accelerating and are on pace to exceed one million vehicles per year.
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. New demands for electricity and the need to reduce climate-changing emissions are driving new grid planning efforts.
All political leaders should be bolder on climate. Still, they were able to implement carbon pricing, a climate accountability act, an electric vehicle sales standard, clean electricity rules, a sustainable jobs act and methane reduction regulations – and thats not even an exhaustive list.
The key to shifting away from fossil fuels is for consumers to begin replacing their home appliances, heating systems, and cars with electric versions powered by clean electricity. The challenges are daunting, but the politics will change when the economic benefits are widely felt. Read more on E360 ?.
Our electricity system will be crucial to decarbonization efforts, both because much of our current energy comes from electricity, and because decarbonizing sectors like transportation will require significant electrification. Restructuring generally addresses one of two parts of the electricity industry: generation and retail.
What are the political implications of the fact that climate change will continue after emissions cease, or even potentially grow worse? Does this mean that we don’t need to worry about political backlash? Those kinds of impacts could provoke real political backlash. Some models show a potential for a rise of up to 0.3
California is the only state in which those standards are in effect in model year 2024, and manufacturers are overcomplying with both standards at this time, thanks in large part to electric truck sales that well exceed what is required by ACT and flexibilities in the Omnibus rule that were agreed to with the manufacturers.
However the Midcontinent Independent System Operator, or MISO, the Midwest’s regional grid manager, has stepped up to approve long-awaited upgrades that will improve the reliability of the electricity system across the region, including Minnesota as well as Illinois and Michigan. That’s not a Minnesota utility…is it?
Climate Alliance (USCA) can meet all of their electricity needs with renewable energy—while decarbonizing other sectors of the economy and ensuring equitable benefits to all communities. And we’re already seeing the prominent role that renewables are starting to play in our electricity mix. by 2035 is needed.
This choice reveals how the electric grid, and the work to cut global warming emissions, are shaped by our political structures. The federal government’s role is dominant in interstate commerce and the flow of electricity between states. By contrast, planning the electric grid just isn’t what most state and local governments do.
electricity to about one-fifth today. In fact, there was a surge in construction of new coal plants after 1970 due to high electricity demand. electricity use hit a ceiling , and it has risen only slightly since then. The reasons why electricity peaked in developed countries (including the U.S.) In 2010, U.S.
In the Nile River basin last week, a political power shift in Sudan could turn up the heat on a long-simmering dispute over a major dam in the region. This hotly contested referendum is focused on the future of electric power in the region. Rhode Island followed in 1987, and was the last state to do so.
The Department of Energy estimates the cost of an electric vehicle lithium-ion battery pack declined 89% between 2008 and 2022. Different batteries may be ideal in settings where charging speed is not a factor, such as utility-scale electricity storage. Prices for battery storage have declined even more sharply.
There are a lot of moving pieces, but it starts with decarbonizing the electricity sector and powering the economy with a diverse combination of clean energy resources—primarily wind, solar, and battery storage—connected with a modernized bulk transmission system that can reliably deliver electricity to consumers all 8,760 hours of the year.
Together with other modes of transportation, our vehicles emit the most heat-trapping gases in the US economy: 28 percent, followed closely by the electricity sector. In our study, by 2035 all new vehicles sold are either battery-electric vehicles (BEVs) or fuel-cell electric vehicles (FCEVs).
The City of Los Angeles is going into the new year with a big new building-decarbonization ordinance : starting this year, nearly all new buildings in the city will have to be entirely electric. All-electric as the new normal. And getting buildings to use electric appliances isn’t enough.
Climate change wasn’t a central issue in the campaign, but resistance to climate action no longer provided a political advantage. It promises AU$20 billion to upgrade the grid, lower taxes on electric vehicles, AU$3 billion to cut emissions from heavy industry, building of 85 solar farms and 400 utility-scale storage facilities. (In
They just released their 2022 “Annual Energy Outlook” (AEO), which is a big deal: it tells us where electricity is headed over the next 30 years. Here are five key takeaways from this year’s AEO, focused primarily on the electricity sector: 1. Relying on market trends is nowhere near enough to do the job. Carbon emissions remain high.
The post TCI Update: Final Model Rule Addresses EJ, but Political Will May Be Lacking first appeared on Law and the Environment. TCI will be an effective regional structure for making those investments, and it makes sense for New York to act in concert with other states in the region.
Earlier this year, UCS experts worked with community groups to produce a report, On the Road to 100 Percent Renewables , which shows that two dozen states can reliably meet 100 percent of their electricity needs with renewable energy. degrees goal is threatened by political inaction. Why not just start with renewables?
Climate action is limited by political will (not technology) In this pivotal moment of history, where the imperative to avert the worst impacts of climate change is clear, the world stands at the cusp of a transformative shift toward a renewable energy paradigm. What’s lacking is political will.
I work in the electric utility sector, specifically on the grid issues that shape our energy supply choices. I heard some early warnings of data center growth running into grid limits first from tech companies and then from electric utility planners. This growth is a jolt to the usually slow-moving electricity sector.
The LA Times’ inestimable Sammy Roth reports on the attempt of California’s investor-owned utilities to end “net metering,” whereby utilities must pay customers with rooftop solar for their excess electricity. And we will need lower-income communities to use electricity to get them into EVs. I don’t know what the PUC will do.
The political dynamics of decarbonization that Ive sketched out are very specific to time, space, and economic sector. The policy approaches that may work to advance decarbonization in the electricity sector will not be identical to the ones that may work to advance decarbonization in the transportation sector, or the agricultural sector.
With less water in reservoirs, generators crank out fewer megawatt-hours, raising the cost of electricity and increasing the risk of summer blackouts. This year, Glen Canyon Dam is operating at just 60 percent of its maximum electrical generating capacity due to the drying of Lake Powell. 4) Drought Is Political.
For example, equity weighting would increase the social cost of carbon but would also raise questions about regulations that raise the price of electricity, an important expense for poor people. Second, there are political and legal problems with equity weighting.
Beyond the climate harms of fossil fuels, they also impose a terrible toll on human health, as numerous recent studies show—including the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change , a BMJ study on global deaths from air pollution caused by fossil fuels, and a study on US deaths attributable to coal-fired electricity generation.
Emissions trading systems are often launched with relatively lenient design features, typically justified as giving the system a chance to “learn-by-doing” and to gain political buy-in for approval of a program. . – Continual reform to improve ambition, integrity, and buy-in. Most ETS have fallen on the prices-too-low side.
Yet, in 2022, almost 40% of electricity in the US was generated by power plants fueled by natural gas. We need more electricity to transition our homes and cars off fossil fuels, but we can’t afford to let that electricity come from more gas power plants. States remain widely varied on their reliance on gas for electricity.
Like many other public-serving institutions throughout society, electricity and gas utilities are facing calls to be more equitable in their operations, planning, and treatment of customers. For example, think of how unequal burdens manifest themselves amid Danger Season , when a range of climate impacts hit increasingly hard.
The program has been so successful in replacing high carbon petroleum-based fuels with lower emissions vehicle fuels that interest groups from all sides of the political spectrum have come forward to demand radical changes that they argue will fix problems.
Fifteen percent of electricity is renewable. Renewables are a third of electricity consumption. Renewables are 42% of electricity. My foray into Germany climate policy left me with unanswered questions: What was the politics behind Germany’s history of climate action? How much of a role did the Green Party play?
The sale of new electric trucks, buses, and vans in California doubled in 2023 from 2022 , and one of every six medium and heavy-duty vehicles sold in the state today produces zero pollution. Manufacturers are stepping up to meet fleet operators’ growing interest in highly efficient electric technologies.
EPA lacked expertise on running the electricity system. Q: When does an issue have “major political significance”? . A: “Political significance” seems to have a narrow meaning. . Nothing about at all the political rhetoric on both sides regarding the plan. Congress needs to say so clearly if that’s what it intends.
Geopolitical conflicts and internal political turmoil within OPEC member nations and other oil producing countries can all end up affecting the global supply and price of crude oil. People might think about trading in that gas-guzzling SUV for a fuel-efficient hybrid or an electric vehicle. UCS/Jeremy Martin.
Senate Bill (SB) 271 requires utilities to achieve, at a minimum, renewable energy-generated electricity sales of 50 percent in 2030 and 60 percent in 2035. percent of electricity sales, but at a lower level than the 2 percent clean energy advocates proposed and that utilities have previously achieved. What’s In the Bills?
At the same time, 2021 was also a year when renewable electricity generation reached a record high globally. Under this scenario (which the IEA calls the Net Zero Emissions by 2050 or NZE scenario), renewables reach 60% of global electricity generation in 2030 and no new conventional coal plants are needed.
The petitioners who brought this case include state-level political officials and coal companies who are single-mindedly determined to block climate action and perpetuate fossil fuel dependence to serve their narrow political or business interests.
California’s leadership on reducing truck pollution has been on full display the past few years, passing critical regulations requiring 90 percent reduction in smog-forming nitrogen oxide (NO X ) emissions from diesel trucks and requiring manufacturers sell an increasing share of electric trucks to move away from fossil fuels altogether.
This post was originally published on the Law and Political Economy blog as part of a symposium on inflation. To understand the scale and scope of these price increases, in other words, we also need to look at the rules that have been adopted to govern the specific ways of price making in natural gas and electricity markets.
Third, enacting policy is necessarily a political process. Thus, what is politically feasible is an essential component to climate policy. All five of these goals emissions reductions, economic efficiency, technological innovation, political economy, and equity are important. But they will also involve choices.
Whether you call it updating, modernizing, or reforming, changes to the water rights system have long been considered a political third rail —the electric kind you don’t touch. Earlier this summer, I wrote about three bills that were poised to make long overdue changes to California’s outdated and inequitable water rights system.
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