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The U.S. transition to carbon-free energy has never been a one-size-fits-all proposition ― as shown in this week’s mix of regional stories from NetZero Insider’s reporters.
In New England, Jon Lamson covered the debate over the future role of natural gas in the region at the Northeast Energy and Commerce Association’s 2024 Fuels Conference.
Lamson also was on the spot at Raab Associates’ New England Electricity Restructuring Roundtable, where several state regulators argued that increasing electricity prices should be met with a greater effort to reduce peak loads and protect low- and moderate-income ratepayers.
In New York, James Downing digs into a new report from the Brattle Group looking at the pros and cons of letting the state’s utilities own new renewable energy projects, which they are currently not allowed to do.
The California Air Resources Board has reported that greenhouse gas emissions have been trending down in five of seven key economic sectors since 2000, correspondent Elaine Goodman writes. In 2022, California scored another 2.4% year-over-year drop.
Moving over to our curated content, Grist has a great piece on the impacts of climate change on home insurance premiums and on insurance commissioner elections in states ― like North Carolina ― where rates have skyrocketed because of extreme weather events, and voters are angry.
But the big action this past week was in New York City, where the U.N. General Assembly held its annual meeting, and climate advocates and energy nerds from all over the country and the world descended on the city for their own Climate Week. Ahead of COP29 in Azerbaijan, in less than two months, developing countries are still pushing hard for developed countries that produce most of the world’s GHGs to increase their financial support for adaptation and loss and damage, Reuters reports.
The New York Times did some high-profile name-dropping about the speakers at its Climate Week events, including National Climate Adviser Ali Zaidi and Heritage Foundation President Kevin Roberts. Protesters disrupted an on-stage conversation with Occidental Petroleum CEO Vicki Hollub, who gamely returned to the stage once they had been arrested.
Speaking of Kevin Roberts, the Times also had a piece on his ongoing denial of the scientific evidence of climate change and his defense of Project 2025, the Heritage blueprint for a second Trump administration, in which both EPA and the Department of Energy would be gutted.
Let’s end with Canary Media’s report on Colorado’s first-of-its-kind efforts to use cutting-edge technologies to monitor methane emissions from the state’s 80 landfill sites, thanks to a $129 million grant from EPA.
Read on for this week’s Intelligence Report:
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