Investors Want Companies to Disclose Environmental...

There’s a growing push from large investors in publicly traded companies to hold the companies accountable for the environmental impact of their practices. In the latest salvo, global companies worth more than $10 trillion are urging companies to disclose their environmental impact to investors, as Forbes reported. Activist campaigns have proven remarkably effective recently, as major investment firms...

With Ohio bailout law secured, FirstEnergy Solutio...

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Leaders of a former FirstEnergy subsidiary, which Ohio electricity customers will soon begin paying $150 million annually to subsidize under a nuclear bailout law Ohio officials passed last year, have moved to spend an extra $300 million on repurchasing the company’s own stock. The stock buybacks, meant to benefit corporate shareholders, come less than a year after an aggressive multi-year lobbying...

The Trump Administration Is Reversing Nearly 100 E...

After three years in office, the Trump administration has dismantled most of the major climate and environmental policies the president promised to undo. Calling the rules unnecessary and burdensome to the fossil fuel industry and other businesses, his administration has weakened Obama-era limits on planet-warming carbon dioxide emissions from power plants and from cars and trucks, and rolled back many more rules governing...

A dirty battle for a nuclear bailout in Ohio

Last July, Ohio’s governor signed House Bill 6 (HB6) to provide FirstEnergy (now Energy Harbor), a large electric utility, with subsidies of nearly $150 million per year to keep its Perry and Davis-Besse nuclear power plants operating. Ohio is only the fifth US state to offer such subsidies; other states include New York, Illinois, New Jersey, and Connecticut. Although the subsidies are justified by some as necessary for...

A website about the U.S. electricity grid offers a...

For a voyeuristic view of electricity consumption patterns, look no further than the federal government’s Hourly Electric Grid Monitor. While millions of Americans hunker down, work from home, and try to stay busy and entertained amid a pandemic, much of our infrastructure hums along as normal, unseen and unappreciated. The electric grid is one such behemoth, supplying a steady stream of electrons, on demand for every...

What Would an Accelerated Global Energy Transition...

The Accelerated Energy Transition (AET) reflects the potential for heightened preferences across society to meet the challenges presented by climate change. This is our realistic assessment of how the transition could progress much faster. It is a 2.5-degree pathway. But obviously this is not enough. For the first time, we’ve also created a scenario to quantify how the world can shift to a 2-degree trajectory — what we...

Stanford Researchers Have an Exciting Plan to Tack...

Things are pretty dire right now. Giant swaths of my country are burning as I write this, at a scale unlike anything we’ve ever seen. Countless animals, including koalas, are perishing along with our life-supporting greenery. People are losing homes and loved ones. These catastrophes are being replicated around the globe ever more frequently, and we know exactly what is exacerbating them. We know we need to rapidly...

Significant Renewable Energy Growth in U.S. Very S...

After revising its three-year U.S. power forecast, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) has predicted major declines for fossil fuels and nuclear power alongside strong growth in renewables by 2022, according to a review of the data by the SUN DAY Campaign, a pro-renewables research and education nonprofit. “FERC’s latest three-year projections continue to underscore the dramatic changes taking place...

Editorial: Murray bankruptcy exposes folly of Ohio...

A perfectly predictable disaster is a step closer to happening in Ohio, and if it does we’ll have decades of bad Statehouse policy to thank. The precarious financial position of Murray Energy Corp. means Ohio could find out, sooner rather than later, what happens when a giant coal company goes bankrupt and forfeits its abandoned mine sites without reclaiming the land. Likely it won’t be pretty. For decades, Ohio hasn’t asked...

Dark Money Is Pouring in to Protect the “Worst Ene...

In Ohio, the fight over a nuclear and coal bailout is getting weirder by the day. This summer, Ohio’s beleaguered nuclear and coal plants got a major gift in the promise of a big bailout. Now, the fight over that promise has escalated into one of the most dramatic and bizarre showdowns of the 2020 election cycle. It all started back in July, when the Ohio state legislature passed a law—called HB6—that, starting next year,...

Poll: Most Ohio voters support renewable energy de...

By Connor Smithee A new George Mason University poll shows that most voters in Ohio support renewable energy development. Registered voters in that state were asked by the university’s Center for Climate Change Communication what is the most important strategy to address Ohio’s energy needs. Of those who answered, 63% said it was more sources of renewable energy. Another 13% said it was development of natural gas power...

HB 6 is headed to defeat if it makes it to the Nov...

Ohio voters will kill House Bill 6 – a bill that would require Ohio’s electricity customers to subsidize the Perry and Davis-Besse nuclear power plants – if they get the chance. That’s a big “if.” And it’s why the powerful interests who rammed House Bill 6 through the General Assembly last summer are doing all they can to keep voters from signing petitions to place HB 6 on Ohio’s November 2020 ballot. The nuclear plants are...

The Hope of the Green New Deal

There is significant talk in the U.S. now concerning the replacement of fossil fuels with renewable energy sources to reduce the U.S. impact on global warming.  Politically, a Green New Deal is being promoted for achieving the goal of full replacement of fossil fuels with renewable energy. The Green New Deal sounds like an admirable endeavor but, realistically, once fully implemented the U.S. would still consume huge volumes...

Solar Company Sees Some Benefit From Ohio’s ...

While critics of Ohio’s recent nuclear bailout are moving toward a referendum to repeal the law, the new policy has won some support from an unusual source. Greg Kuss, president of Solar Vision in Worthington, says that increased charges to electric customers will make solar an economical option. “Now, the price of installing solar is comparable with what you’d be paying your local utilities,” Kuss says. Kuss says the cost...

Here are the winners and losers on climate policy ...

State lawmakers across the country either have wrapped up their legislative sessions or are on the verge of what they refer to as sine die. The result is a panoply of policy that’s mostly good, but also bad and ugly when it comes to our nation’s economy, environment and sustainability. For the most part, states continue to be beacons of hope lighting and leading the way for our nation on climate and clean energy amid lack of...