Fossil fuels

Booming power demand is slowing climate progress for US utilities

Sierra Club analysis finds that U.S. utilities are planning a huge expansion of fossil-gas plants — a shift that’s incompatible with climate goals.

By Jeff St. John . 9 October 2024

Turbines from the Mount Storm Wind Farm behind Dominion's Mount Storm coal power plant in West Virginia. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)

Fossil fuels

How states are trying to fit gas utilities into a low-carbon future

California and Colorado are the latest states to boost oversight of how gas utilities spend their customers’ money. The goal: avoiding "stranded assets."

By Jeff St. John . 7 December 2022
Guest essay

LNG exports hurt Americans. It’s time for the Biden admin to take action

The Department of Energy is supposed to assess whether it’s in the public’s interest to ship liquefied natural gas abroad, but the DOE is falling down on the job, argues Tyson Slocum.

By Tyson Slocum . 6 December 2022
Clean energy

Watch this dynamic map of renewable energy growth around the world

Renewable energy is gaining ground around the world. See which countries are shifting most quickly.

By Maria Virginia Olano . 18 November 2022
Wind

World's largest floating wind farm just started producing power

The first of 11 floating wind turbines in Equinor’s project off Norway is now generating clean electricity — which will be used to power an oil platform.

By Maria Gallucci . 16 November 2022
Fossil fuels

Gas plants without the emissions? This startup says it's cracked the code

North Carolina–based NET Power uses a novel combustion cycle that captures its own emissions. Now it's building a 300MW plant in Texas to prove it works at scale.

By Julian Spector . 8 November 2022
Climate crisis

What to watch at COP27: Climate justice, clean technology and money

Will breakthroughs happen at the U.N. climate summit in Egypt? RMI CEO Jon Creyts shares thoughts on the urgency of the moment and opportunities to make gains.

By Jeff St. John . 4 November 2022
Climatetech finance

How will DOE loan out $250B to make dirty energy systems clean?

A new Biden admin program can help replace coal plants with clean energy, switch gas pipelines to hydrogen, upgrade transmission, and more. Here are the wonky details.

By Jeff St. John . 3 November 2022
Heat pumps

Heating will be costly this winter, but much less so with a heat pump

Federal forecasts have warned about high heating bills, yet they don't account for the much greater efficiency of electric pumps, says pro-electrification group Rewiring America.

By Jeff St. John . 31 October 2022
Guest essay

It's time for solar microgrids to replace dirty diesel generators

In rural sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, costly diesel generators are often the only power source. A concerted push to deploy solar microgrids could change that.

By Manoj Sinha, Joseph Nganga . 28 October 2022
Fossil fuels

Charts: Winter heating bills to rise thanks to high natural-gas prices

Increasing U.S. exports of LNG are helping to drive up natural-gas prices, which means more Americans will struggle to pay for heating this winter.

By Canary Staff . 28 October 2022