Renewable energy generation is surging across many of the country’s red-leaning states, positioning some to outpace their bluer peers in a national drive toward grid decarbonization. Their emerging leadership in the area in some ways defies the political battle lines that have been drawn on energy in recent years. On the federal level, Democrats have...
On Chile’s coast, a rare earths mining operation seeks to uplift locals and counter China
While the hilltop overlook here boasts a splendid view of the Pacific coast, the land all around us is far less impressive. Municipal garbage trucks rumble along gravel roads to an adjacent landfill. Stumps and branches of dead eucalyptus trees form huge piles, refuse left behind by a former commercial forestry operation. Aclara Resources, the...
The United States Can Beat China on Solar
China dominates solar power supply chains, but the era of American energy dominance could change that. Recent domestic manufacturing investments in the solar industry have totaled more than $40 billion since 2022, further unleashing the industry’s potential here at home. Solar has firmly cemented itself as a key part of our all-of-the-above energy strategy and has steadily grown in...
Low-Energy Fridays: Does climate policy matter?
Put another way, while productivity gains in the economy reduce emissions by letting us consume more with fewer inputs, the taxes and regulations that accompany climate policies carry a “deadweight loss” that trades productivity improvement for direct emission abatement. This creates a tradeoff typically not included in analysis and potentially explains why having many regulations...
China launches limited tariffs after Trump imposes sweeping new levies
China imposed targeted tariffs on American imports on Tuesday and put several U.S. companies, including Google, on notice for possible sanctions, in a measured response to the sweeping duties on Chinese imports imposed by President Donald Trump. Beijing’s limited reply to Trump’s imposition of a 10% tariff on all Chinese imports underscored the attempt by Chinese policymakers to...
Trump’s Second-Term Playbook: Lower Oil Prices to Curb Inflation, Boost Growth, and Pressure Russia
At home, lower energy prices—particularly at the pump—are central to Trump’s strategy for reducing consumer inflation and stimulating economic growth. The President has set an ambitious goal of reducing retail gasoline prices to below $2 per gallon, a significant drop from the current national average, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA).
Trump transition slowing, not stopping, US cleantech boom
US cleantech projects are being delayed and restructured since climate critic Donald Trump’s election in November. But advisors warn that examples of foreign-owned cleantech projects being halted in recent months do not foreshadow an end to the sector’s momentum under the new government. On January 22, two days after the president signed executive orders targeting cleantech...
Investment in agtech startups plummeted in 2024
It was a tumultuous year for the agtech sector, with a string of once-promising startups declaring bankruptcy or downsizing in the face of a tough economic environment. Investors gravitated toward more established startups amid market uncertainty, with biostimulant maker Sound Agriculture raising $25 million in venture funding and Carbon Robotics nabbing $70 million for its laser-powered, weed-killing robot. An...
Chevron Joins Race to Generate Power for A.I.
The artificial intelligence boom has turbocharged demand for electricity, and everyone who is anyone in the U.S. energy industry wants a piece of the action. The latest entrant is Chevron, the country’s second-largest oil and gas company, which sees opportunity in building natural gas-fueled power plants that will feed energy directly to data centers. Chevron...
Liberty Energy, DC Grid partner on off-grid power for data centers and EV hubs
A new partnership between off-grid power systems provider DC Grid and energy services firm Liberty Energy seeks to provide data centers and EV hubs with modular, scalable off-grid power solutions in a matter of months, the companies announced Jan. 7. The partners expect to be able to deploy “small scale power output” within three months for fleet EV charging hubs...