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California is wrestling with electricity prices – here’s how to design a system that covers the cost of fixing the grid while keeping prices fair

Environmental News Bits

Liu, Purdue University Small-scale solar power, also known as rooftop or distributed solar, has grown considerably in the U.S. over the past decade.

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Minnesota: Will This Be the Year for a 100-Percent Carbon-Free Electricity Policy?

Union of Concerned Scientists

Now it’s on to the state Senate, where the question is: Will this be the year Minnesota sets a path toward 100-percent carbon-free electricity? Those scenarios showed that the IRA would accelerate solar and wind deployment and reduce carbon emissions to 80 percent below 2005 levels by 2030.

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Building a Better Power Grid for Minnesota

Union of Concerned Scientists

Minnesotans are facing concurrent crises of climate change, high energy prices and inflation, and the inequitable public health impacts of fossil fuel air pollution. Renewable energy will help with all of that—but we need a grid that is designed for wind and solar instead of having to rely on expensive coal and gas plants.

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Banks Continue to Prop Up the Fossil Fuel Industry

Union of Concerned Scientists

The International Energy Agency said the world last year saw record growth in solar power, adoption of electric vehicles, and global clean energy investments that outstripped fossil investments last year by $1.74 million people die prematurely from the ambient air pollution from the burning of fossil fuels.

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California Has a Chance to Ensure EVs Get Even Better With Bidirectional Charging

Union of Concerned Scientists

We are well on our way to an electric transportation future, and that’s a good thing, too. Electrification is a key strategy to reduce climate warming and local air pollution emissions from the transportation sector. EVs can also support the grid by making use of the storage capacity of the vehicles’ batteries.

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Good News—and Bad—about Fossil Fuel Power Plants in 2023 

Union of Concerned Scientists

With the clean energy transition already under way, the US electricity mix is set to continue changing this year. Solar power is expected to make up about half of all additions of US electric generating capacity in 2023, according to data from the US Energy Information Administration (EIA). I’ll start off with the good.

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Ask a Scientist: The US Has to Do More to Meet Its Carbon Emissions Reduction Goals

Union of Concerned Scientists

The legislation committed nearly $400 billion to support, among other things, wind and solar power, battery storage, electric vehicles, and other clean energy technologies that will make a significant dent in US heat-trapping emissions. What are the main solutions?