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Aerial view of the National Petroleum Reserve in northwestern Alaska

The Biden Administration Protects Millions of Acres of Arctic Alaska

Latest NewsAlaskaJenny Shalant
The new Special Areas Rule in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska could boost biodiversity and empower Indigenous Peoples to defend the lands they’ve relied on for generations.
Two adults and a child walk along a sandy shoreline

“Forever Chemicals” Called PFAS Show Up in Your Food, Clothes, and Home

ExplainerUnited StatesMolly M. Ginty, Courtney Lindwall
These toxic chemicals are so common in consumer products and manufacturing that they’re everywhere—including inside our bodies.
A river with green trees on either side, with yellow hills in the background

In Planning for Climate Change, Native Americans Draw on the Past

ExplainerUnited States, CanadaTim Vanderpool
Across North America, Indigenous tribes and nations are consulting their traditional ecological knowledge to help prepare for a warming world.

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Oregon Looks to “Reach” Code for Energy, Carbon Savings

Expert BlogOregonRalph Cavanagh
Senate Bill 1518, to be considered during Oregon’s “short” February 2022 legislative session, is a critical pushback against the embedded lowest common denominator aspect of building codes when it comes to energy and climate.

Ending Carbon Pollution: The Energy Efficiency Imperative

Expert BlogRalph Cavanagh
A recommendation for America to “invest in energy efficiency and productivity” leads a new blueprint for “Accelerating Decarbonization of the U.S. Energy System” by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine. This is the latest confirmation of a resounding…

A First: Converting Energy Efficiency Gains into Clean Power

Expert BlogRalph Cavanagh
Can a utility in one region buy some of the pollution-free electricity that a utility in another region saves when its customers improve their energy efficiency? We’re about to find out. And if this effort succeeds, it will be a…

Electric Utilities’ Energy Efficiency Progress in 2019

Expert BlogUnited StatesRalph Cavanagh

America’s electric utilities have emerged as essential partners in the nation’s ongoing clean energy transition, as acknowledged forcefully in a joint statement last year by their principal trade association and NRDC, and that continued throughout 2019 (although we don’t, of…

Clean Energy Progress in America’s Electric Sector in 2018

Expert BlogRalph Cavanagh
Americans are paying less of their incomes for electricity and breathing cleaner air as 2018 draws to a close (electricity bills represent less than 1.5 percent of average household income, the smallest share since 1955). And just this week, a…

Avoiding Another California Electricity Crisis

Expert BlogRalph Cavanagh
The adage about history not repeating itself but rhyming is inescapable in the California debate about potentially ruinous financial liabilities facing electric utilities in the aftermath of disasters worsened by climate change, such as last fall’s wildfires and mudslides. And…

Annual Update on Energy Efficiency from America's Utilities

Expert BlogRalph Cavanagh
America’s electric and natural gas utilities are now investing more than $7.8 billion annually in programs to help customers use energy more efficiently, according to the latest comprehensive survey. The electricity savings alone exceed the annual production of eight giant…

California Regulators Weigh Historic Diablo Canyon Decision

Expert BlogRalph Cavanagh
The historic Joint Proposal to retire and replace the Diablo Canyon Nuclear Power Plant goes before the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) at 1 pm on November 28, at a formal hearing featuring no less than 21 presentations on behalf…

Energy Efficiency: Bipartisan Solution That Needs Support

Expert BlogRalph Cavanagh
Is there anything surprising about a New York Times op-ed co-authored by an environmental advocate and a senior utility executive? Not if the subject is the bipartisan case for federal energy efficiency leadership.

Huge Step for Zero-Carbon Replacement of Diablo Canyon

Expert BlogRalph Cavanagh
Operating California’s Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant past its 2025 license expiration would cost more than twice what many had anticipated, and significantly more than replacing it with energy efficiency and renewable resources, according to an analysis submitted today to…

Natural Gas Isn't Needed To Replace Diablo Canyon

Expert BlogRalph Cavanagh
The historic Joint Proposal to retire and replace Diablo Canyon has led some to contend that California’s use of polluting natural gas will inevitably surge as a result. They just won’t believe that clean energy technologies can fill the gap…