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While most of the news media were laser-focused on the Democratic National Convention in Chicago, NetZero Insider reporters were digging into state climate policy, like John Cropley’s coverage of the New York Public Service Commission’s order that will require the state’s utilities work together on a coordinated plan for anticipated demand growth.
Cropley also drills down into some key numbers from the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories new report on state renewable portfolio and clean energy standards, which found that while state standards were an early driver for solar and wind expansion ― and remain important ― market-based factors have become a major impetus for growth.
We also have a killer Stakeholder Soapbox column from Mike Jacobs of the Union of Concerned Scientists, laying into PJM for what he calls a rigid view of energy storage as demand while looking at data centers as potentially flexible grid assets. The RTO can’t have it both ways, Jacobs argues.
Flipping to our curated content, The New York Times has a spot-on story on the down-ballot races ― from congressional and state representatives, to utility commissioners ― that could have major impacts on energy policy, especially at the state and local level where solar, wind, storage and transmission projects are permitted and built.
A second Times story reports on a new study that finds only 4% of the 1,500 climate policies implemented in countries worldwide have made a significant dent in greenhouse gas emissions in the past two decades, while also noting the most effective approaches to cutting emissions rely on multiple, complementary policies, rather one-shot strategies.
The Hill has a good article on the uncertain fate of the Manchin-Barrasso permitting reform bill as Democrats square off over the bill’s compromises and whether the clean energy projects that could benefit will outweigh the emissions produced by the fossil fuel and mining projects it could allow on federal lands.
How would a second Trump administration treat the dozens of clean energy projects in the federal permitting pipeline? Based on the record of the first, a slowdown, if not a rollback, could be expected, and investors are already delaying decisions on new projects until after the election, according to E&E News.
So why have Vice President Kamala Harris and other Democrats in Chicago been downplaying climate in their big speeches, focusing instead on jobs and the economy? A Washington Post analysis notes that Harris appears to be counting on support from environmental and clean energy groups while courting blue-collar voters in swing states like Pennsylvania and Michigan.
On the AI beat, a Bloomberg article slams tech giants Microsoft, Amazon and Meta for their purchase of unbundled RECs to “inaccurately erase millions of tons of planet-warming emissions from their carbon accounts” and calls for new carbon accounting standards.
Meanwhile, Power Engineering reports on Google’s latest announcements of 2.3 GW of new solar power purchases in PJM’s service territory.
Read on for this week’s Intelligence Report:
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