In his first 100 days, allies and adversaries saved Trump and the country from some of his most extreme, ill-considered campaign promises. As for the next 100 days, who will protect us? On the issues I care about most, I’m actually counting on California.

Carbon capture and storage (CCS) has gained support in Congress as an answer to reducing emissions in the power sector – but it’s the most expensive option available. Our analysis shows coal plants equipped with CCS are nearly three times more expensive than onshore wind power and more than twice as expensive as solar photovoltaics (PV).

Top California lawmakers moved yesterday to overhaul the state’s cap-and-trade system to send revenue back to residents as a “climate dividend.” State Sen. Bob Wieckowski (D) introduced the legislation, which would launch a new carbon-trading program in 2021.

A bill that would make it easier to decommission aging coal plants in the state, while also assisting rural communities hurt by any closures, won approval Monday in the Colorado House of Representatives. But support for the measure split along party lines, increasing the odds that House Bill 17-1339 will find itself stranded in the Republican-controlled Senate.

The old utility business model is cracking as competitive energy technologies displace increasing parts of the utility service, taking some of the revenues that go with it. In response, multiple states are investigating models for a “utility of the future” to establish a reliable, resilient, affordable and clean electric grid.

Anxiety is building over whether California will be able to extend its cap-and-trade scheme beyond 2020, with observers warning that failure could severely dent efforts across North America to use markets to fight climate change.

The Trump administration’s rollback of federal climate and clean energy policy has relegated renewable energy development to states (for at least the next four years). Northeast states are among the leaders but states across this region are also some of the most land-constrained in America. Will barriers to siting new wind generation and transmission in a land-constrained region stymie their efforts?

As the renewables transition continues apace, flexibility will become increasingly important. Policymakers and investors will need to watch carefully how flexibility is paid for.

Cheap natural gas and renewables are outcompeting coal-fired power plants on economics, pushing many of them into early retirement and leaving behind coal workers and communities. A newly proposed bill in Colorado aims to turn this economic challenge into an economic engine for utilities, electric consumers, and coal workers and communities.

The Trump Administration’s pro-fossil, anti-climate agenda means states must lead renewable energy development in the near term, but will siting barriers in land-constrained regions impede growth? Siting projects for large-scale renewables is tricky even in leader states. New research seeks to solve the challenge of siting renewable energy and connecting it to the grid.

Eleanor Stein, former Administrative Law Judge for the NY PSC and project manager of New York’s Reforming the Energy Vision, recently authored research to help overcome siting challenges for renewables in the Northeast U.S. She spoke with Energy Innovation’s Mike O’Boyle about how to get steel in the ground and meet America’s ambitious renewable goals.

State judges told the California Chamber of Commerce on Thursday that its members don’t have a right to pollute, rejecting claims by its attorneys that payments required to release greenhouse gases under a marquee climate program are a kind of tax. The state appeals court ruling could have profound implications for the future of the state’s embattled cap-and-trade program.

Cities should be designed for people, not cars. Urban planners can ensure accessibility through mixed-use development, or by connecting neighborhoods through a rich provision of non-motorized mobility options, like bike paths or high-quality public transportation.

The president’s executive order last week directing the reversal of the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan, may well cost the U.S. more clean-energy employment than any coal-mining jobs it restores. But even more worrisome may be the lives lost from the continued burning of coal.

With the Trump administration rolling back environmental regulations, the task of developing renewable energy projects over the next four years has largely fallen to states. While many reports have focused on efforts in California, a new paper highlights how states in the Northeast can boost their renewable generation capacity.

Clean energy goals in more than a half-dozen Northeastern states may flounder unless regulators, elected officials and developers do more to mollify political opposition and build rural public support for wind and solar farms, a new analysis has found.

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Tuesday rolling back Obama-era policies to curb planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions. The order, called the “Energy Independence Executive Order,” begins a review of former President Barack Obama’s signature program to deal with climate change, the Clean Power Plan, which limited greenhouse gas emissions from power plants.

As expected, President Trump issued an executive order today to dismantle the Obama administration’s Clean Power Plan — a policy designed to curb carbon emissions from new and existing power plants by accelerating the adoption of lower-polluting energy resources.

Decades of progress on cleaning up our dirty air took a significant hit on Tuesday, along with hopes for a livable future climate, when President Trump issued his Energy Independence Executive Order. Most seriously, the order attacks the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA’s) Clean Power Plan, which requires a 32 percent reduction in CO2 emissions from existing power plants by 2030 (compared to 2005 emission rates.)

Proactive states and utilities can manage modernize the grid system without the White House, taking advantage of new technologies and a diverse portfolio of electricity sources. If states work together and get rules right, market forces can deliver a modern electric grid.