News & Commentary

No fossil fuels, no problem? Texas investments in wind and solar pay off, generating record-breaking renewable power to meet all-time high electricity demand during nearly 10-day heat dome—despite fossil fuel plant failures.

China’s efforts to shift to a new energy system and meet its 2030 climate goals can boost both energy security and climate security.

It wasn’t easy, but the U.S. power grid defied record-breaking heatwaves and doomsday warnings to survive the summer without major service interruptions.

In a month that has seen Texas sizzle under record-breaking heat, solar, and wind power have been key to helping keeping the lights on—and air conditioners humming.

Blaming any one power source is a mistake. We can’t make any one source of power foolproof, but we can make a grid that’s nimble, resilient, and reliable.

New research by NRDC and the Peking University (PKU) Institute of Energy sheds light on the critical role that Chinese provinces can play in phasing out coal power and meeting national targets for carbon peaking and neutrality. 

China’s new announcement has the potential to help promote a clean energy revolution around the world by sending an important signal that China will immediately shift its support for overseas coal power plant projects to work with developing countries to…

Electric grids across the Midwest, South, and in Texas failed a key resilience test during last month’s winter storm, and one key conclusion is clear: The grids connected via transmission lines fared significantly better than those isolated and on their…

Wind and solar power were not the primary cause of the grid failure in Texas—the main culprit was fossil gas plants that went offline. In fact, wind and solar are intrinsically more reliable than fossil power, but not in the…

Although both California and Texas recently faced traumatic weather events, the consequences for electric system reliability were dramatically different. 

Freezing cold temperatures put the Texas electric grid into distress this week, with likely dozens of deaths and other human suffering, more than 4 million losing power, and more than 40% of the state’s gas, coal, and nuclear fleet offline…

As Congress revisits America’s foreign development strategies, it should prioritize clean energy solutions both at home and abroad to chart a more sustainable path forward and provide other countries with a truly clean energy financing alternative to Russia and China.

As climate studies grow more urgent and the Trump administration continues to undermine climate action, all eyes are on the world’s biggest country—and currently its biggest polluter—to model the way forward.