Press Archive

California Senate leader’s new bill: 100% clean energy

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.

Trump’s Fuel Efficiency Rollback Will Cost America Billions At The Pump

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.

Three Investor Strategies For Energy Storage’s Exponential Growth

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.

Don’t Let Auto Fuel Efficiency Standards Go In Reverse

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.

Carbon Prices Rise In California’s Cap-And-Trade Program As Legal Certainty Grows

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.

Harnessing The Power Of The People Through “Value Of Solar”… And Beyond

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.

Clean Energy Is At The Core Of American Strategic Interests

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.

Wind and Solar Are Our Cheapest Electricity Generation Sources. Now What Do We Do?

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 Mobilizes for War Against Trump

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.

California’s power to trump climate denial

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.

Trumping Science: Bay Area Experts on How Trump Will Impact Climate Change Policy & Research

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?

Viewpoint: CCA market set to recover, if it survives

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.

Wind and Solar Costs Are Plummeting: Now What Do We Do?

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.

2016 to break heat record, challenging climate change skeptics

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.

Analyst duo predicts rebound in latest WCI auction

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.

Power Play: How gaming is changing the energy industry

The power industry has always had to visualize scenarios. Many have used simulation games as part of their training processes. But never before has gaming been positioned to have the kind of impact on the energy system as it does today.

Clean Power Plan repeal or reform hangs on appeals court ruling

Any changes or repeal of President Obama’s signature Clean Power Plan will depend heavily on the outcome of a legal challenge by a federal appeals court in Washington D.C. If the court rules that the EPA does not have the power to regulate, Pruitt and the Trump administration could try and simply rip the plan up. But if the rule is found to be legal, then Pruitt will have to find a way to either change some provisions or begin the long and laborious process of writing an entirely new plan with much less ambitious targets.

Trump and the Climate: His Hot Air on Warming Is Far From the Greatest Threat

President-elect Donald J. Trump has long pledged to undertake a profound policy shift on climate change from the low-carbon course President Obama made a cornerstone of his eight years in the White House. But will a President Trump noticeably affect the globe’s climate in ways that, say, a President Hillary Clinton would not have?

California, at Forefront of Climate Fight, Won’t Back Down to Trump

President-elect Donald J. Trump has packed his cabinet with nominees who dispute the science of global warming. He has signaled he will withdraw the United States from the Paris climate agreement. He has belittled the notion of global warming and attacked policies intended to combat it. But California, a state that has for 50 years been a leader in environmental advocacy, is about to step unto the breach.

Was 2016 the Year for Wholesale Power Market Reform?

Back in January, I suggested 2016 was the year for wholesale power market reform. So, was it? While shifts in these kinds of institutions take longer than one year, we’ve seen real progress on the four factors that made 2016 a turning point, and we believe progress will continue in 2017.