United States

Over the past 50 years, there have been a couple of significant efforts to move the U.S. towards the widespread adoption of clean energy such as solar power. The first, during last decades of the 20th century, was driven by values. The term “tree huggers” was used to describe the people who believed that protecting the environment was simply the right thing to do. But even after four decades of moral-based clean energy advocacy, only a tenth of one percent of U.S. electricity came from solar power.

Congress is considering a bill that would establish an annual fee to be paid by owners of electric vehicles and plug-in hybrid cars. The purpose is to have owners of these vehicles pay their fair share of the cost to repair roads.

The Environmental Protection Agency – whose name is now become rather ironic – has proposed deregulatory actions to delay compliance deadlines for emissions standards. These regulations that were designed to significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions, nitrogen oxides, particulate matter, and hydrocarbons from vehicles are to be delayed making the vehicles more affordable for Americans.

Americans who own their cars tend to keep them for a long time – 8 to 12 years. But those who lease their cars often only drive them for two or three years. Many people lease cars for just this reason. They want to have a new car every few years to avoid growing maintenance costs and just for the pleasure of having a new vehicle. With hundreds of thousands of electric cars coming off leases, the used EV market is accelerating.

Battery storage is reshaping the U.S. electricity grid. There are more than 900 utility-scale battery storage projects across the country that enhance grid reliability, manage peak electricity demand, and store renewable energy from solar and wind farms. Most of these facilities are located far from urban areas but the Cormorant Energy Storage Project currently being built is located in Daly City, California, a city of 100,000 people located just 8 miles south of San Francisco.

The western American snowpack is nature’s reservoir, providing 60-70% of the region’s water supply. Winter precipitation is stored there and is released slowly during the spring and summer. The snowpack feeds the region’s rivers, fills reservoirs, supports irrigation for agriculture, enables hydropower, and sustains ecosystems. After the warmest winter on record for many states and a major heat wave in March that left almost no snow in many places, there is real trouble ahead.

Over the month of March, renewable energy sources generated more electricity than was produced from natural gas plants for the first time. This is an impressive milestone considering that renewable energy is under attack from the current administration. On an overall basis, emissions-free sources, which include renewables as well as nuclear energy, produced more than half of the country’s electricity. This is only the third time this has happened for an entire month.

The Trump administration has some well-known enemies: wind turbines, electric cars, and climate scientists, among others. Now the iconic American buffalo has joined their ranks.

In mid-March, the final turbine blades of Vineyard Wind, the offshore wind farm sited 15 miles south of Nantucket, were installed. Vineyard Wind is the first large-scale offshore wind project in the U.S. The $4.5 billion project features 62 turbines and is capable of providing clean energy to approximately 400,000 homes.

The sources of U.S. electricity production have changed dramatically over the past 15 years and continue to change as the political winds blow in different directions.