clean energy
Budding U.S. offshore wind industry facing rough seas
BOSTON – Just as the U.S. is plunging into the deep end of offshore wind energy development, the nascent domestic industry is facing major supply chain problems, surging costs, permitting delays and other headwinds that could affect the aggressive installation timelines state and federal governments have targeted. Those obstacles, chiefly triggered by the pandemic, inflation […]
Rural electric co-ops to get $10.7B in USDA funds for clean energy grants, loans
The U.S. Department of Agriculture will begin to administer two loan and grant programs worth nearly $11 billion to boost clean energy systems in rural areas, Biden administration officials said Tuesday. Congress approved the federal spending — $9.7 billion for a grant and loan program the department is calling the New Empowering Rural America program, […]
Here’s where renewable power is increasing (and where it’s not)
Despite supply-chain problems amid the lingering effects of the pandemic, 2022 saw major increases in solar and wind power in the United States, though that growth varied by state, according to a report released last month by a nonprofit focused on climate change. Nationally, electricity generated from solar and wind grew 16% from 2021, with […]
Democratic governors pitch federal funds for housing, clean energy
Roy Cooper joins peers from Maryland, Colorado, Minnesota and New York at D.C. event WASHINGTON — Using the recent influx of federal funds to expand state and local clean energy infrastructure, affordable housing and workforce development will pay long-term dividends, a group of Democratic governors and mayors said Wednesday at an event hosted by a […]
Scientists announce a fusion breakthrough with big implications for clean energy
Scientists at a U.S. national laboratory announced Tuesday that they achieved fusion ignition, a breakthrough decades in the making that could have major implications for clean energy. Researchers at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory near San Francisco said that on Dec. 5, for the first time anywhere in the world, they managed to produce more energy from a nuclear fusion reaction than was needed to produce it.
Monday numbers: A closer look at the daunting challenges NC faces in transitioning to sustainable energy
While the NC Sustainable Energy Association was holding its annual conference last week, the World Meteorological Organization announced some troubling news: Levels of three main greenhouse gases -- carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide -- all reached new record highs in 2021. The United Nations also rang the alarm. The planet is on pace to increase global average temperatures by 2.1 to 2.9 degrees Celsius (3.7 to 4.8 degrees Fahrenheit) over pre-industrial levels, by 2100...
Report says many utilities are slow-walking clean energy goals
Duke Energy Carolinas and Duke Energy Progress ranked among the nation’s worst DENVER – A report released this week by the Sierra Club faults dozens of utilities that provide a major chunk of U.S. electric generation for failing to speed up their decarbonization efforts. “For the sake of our communities and planet, we must do […]
Democrats from the West push update of 150-year-old federal mining law
Democrats in Congress are hoping to overhaul the nation’s 150-year-old system for mining the elements needed for battery manufacturing, as high gas prices and Russia’s war in Ukraine underline the need to transition from oil and gas to renewable energy sources. U.S. House Natural Resources Chairman Raúl Grijalva of Arizona and U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich […]
3 big reasons why the Biden climate agenda is floundering
President Joe Biden’s climate agenda took a hit this month when the Interior Department said it would open 144,000 acres of federal land up for oil and gas development to comply with a court order to restart fossil fuel development. The announcement marked yet another setback for a presidential climate plan that was once seen as historically ambitious.
Electricity CEOs tout Biden clean energy tax credits, despite stalled plan
Duke Energy’s Lynn Good among those in attendance at White House gathering Clean energy tax credits President Joe Biden proposed in his massive domestic spending and climate measure last year would help electric utilities build resilience and transmission lines, utility CEOs told Biden at a White House event Wednesday. But the $1.9 trillion budget measure, […]
GOP Sens. Newton, Sawyer, McInnis lambaste Gov. Cooper’s clean energy order, call it “political theater”
Gov. Cooper signed Executive Order 246 on Jan. 7 at NC A&T University (Screenshot: Governor’s Facebook page) This story has been updated with a statement from the governor’s office and Duke Energy. In an icy letter to Gov. Roy Cooper, three Republican state senators — Paul Newton, Vickie Sawyer and Tom McInnis — lambasted the […]