The Fletcher Forum interviewed Mr. Hal Harvey, CEO of Energy Innovation (a San Francisco-based energy and environmental policy firm) at the 2017 Tufts Energy Conference.

Repealing the Clean Power Plan would have significant impacts on the United States’ economy and the health of its citizens, according to new analysis from Energy Innovation, a clean energy think tank.

The Trump administration has prioritized repealing the Clean Power Plan , but new analysis shows that repealing the rule would cost the U.S. economy hundreds of billions of dollars, add more than a billion tons of greenhouse gases to the atmosphere, and cause more than 100,000 premature deaths.

In a new paper, America’s Power Plan laid out a four-step process for utilities and regulators to choose their goals (clean energy and carbon reduction, fair and low prices for all, and utility-specific grid values) and then compare the cost of making smart grid upgrades versus not making them in order to achieve those goals.

As environmental standard-bearer and green technology pioneer, no other state rivals California. For decades, California has been at the forefront of U.S. environmental policies. Now, with the Trump administration poised to attack environmental and climate regulations, California is ready to play a key role in resisting Washington’s hard right turn.

Kevin de León has promised to lead the resistance to President Trump. A new bill could make good on that promise. The California Senate leader has introduced legislation that would require the Golden State to get 100 percent of its electricity from climate-friendly energy sources by 2045.

According to a model created by Energy Innovation, a San Francisco research firm, a freeze of fuel efficiency standards at the current mpg level will cost consumers $64 billion through 2030, and $282 billion by 2040. By 2050, all that extra fuel would add $475 billion to household budgets, or about $1,500 for every American, it says.

Has energy storage’s moment arrived, or is it still just around the corner? As technology costs decline while battery deployments proliferate, existing niche markets for storage will expand, opening new markets and value-streams.

In a recent meeting with U.S. auto executives, President Trump hinted his administration will try to roll back America’s fuel efficiency standards for cars and trucks. This would be a profound disservice to American consumers, military men and women, and the environment. By 2050, a rollback on these standards would cost America nearly half a trillion dollars, add billions of tons of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere, and cause thousands of premature deaths.

California’s cap-and-trade program is starting 2017 on a strong note ahead of its first quarterly auction on February 22. Despite an uneven performance last year, the state’s carbon market is strengthening through rising prices as legal certainty over its future takes shape.

Many states are examining a “value of solar” rate to resolve net energy metering disputes. However, by valuing only solar, they are missing the opportunity to take advantage of other growing distributed energy resources (DER) like energy efficiency, demand response, or energy storage.

The world is turning away from highly polluting, high-carbon energy sources, but America may be at risk of marching in the opposite direction. If we fail to take advantage of clean energy’s potential, we fail to control our fate. Let’s not forfeit our energy destiny to other countries.

Debates about the future of America’s electricity system have long centered on a binary choice between lowering costs or decreasing pollution. But that has changed. In many parts of the country, new renewables are simply the cheapest resource.

California, the world’s sixth-largest economy and a bastion of progressivism, is now being hailed as a kind of great blue firewall—Democrats’ most important bulwark against the retrograde policies of Donald Trump. Here’s what the Golden State is already doing to counter the president-elect on a range of major issues and defend its progressive achievements.

Days before Donald Trump becomes president, fear is running high that climate denial in the White House will accelerate global warming. At this pivotal moment, when the world is committed to fighting climate change through the breakthrough U.N.’s Paris Agreement, California can trump climate denial by pushing forward faster than ever.

According to reports… Trump is preparing for everything from a witch hunt against our government’s foremost climate scientists to de-funding the Environmental Protection Agency. Do the Bay Area’s most level-headed researchers and earth-science experts respond to Trump’s ascension with similarly grabby quips?

The California carbon market could rebound from a sluggish 2016 — assuming it survives the new year. “Emitters have an incentive to buy early, as long as prices are at the floor. In light of this, I would expect an average of at least 80 percent of offered allowances to be sold and perhaps higher,” Energy Innovation director of research Chris Busch said.

The story from Lazard’s 10th annual report on levelized cost of energy (LCOE) is clear. Rapid technology cost reductions mean wind and solar are now the cheapest form of generation in many places around the country, without federal subsidies like tax credits. The time is now to radically adjust for a paradigm where wind and solar form the backbone of our electricity grid.

Two days before the presidential inauguration, scientists are expected to announce that 2016 was the hottest year on Earth since record-keeping began in 1880 ​— news that will test national, state and economic leadership on climate change.

California’s latest carbon allowance auction could be up to 80% subscribed, a pair of analysts predicted, bucking the trend of weak bidder demand seen for much of the past year.