Author: caaver

Virginia Environmental News

Fresh off a decisive election win, Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger is promising a sharp turn in Virginia’s energy policy, vowing energy affordability for regular ratepayers, boosting in-state power generation, and forcing data centers to “pay their fair share.”

House Democrats, with their new majority, are making energy efficiency a key priority for the 2026 legislative session. They have filed bills to create an energy efficiency task force and to mandate that utilities give qualified customers efficiency upgrades. This fits nicely with local nonprofit Renew Rocktown’s launch of an Energy Check program for low-income households.

Abigail Spanberger has appointed her energy policy transition team to head up her start of an energy policy shift. The team members have lots of experience in sustainable energy.

Now that Virginia Democrats have won control of state government, they’re faced with the challenge of figuring out how to meet surging power demand from booming data centers and rural opposition to solar farms without abandoning the state’s clean energy mandate.

As Virginia’s data center boom strains the grid, a new proposal from Rewiring America shows that tech giants could free up power by footing the bill for residential energy upgrades and still come out ahead.

Dominion Energy is seeking regulatory approval of its largest slate of solar and battery storage projects yet, at nearly a dozen facilities totaling $2.9 billion.

The Washington Post, owned by the world’s largest data center operator, Jeff Bezos, recently claimed that data centers actually lower power costs. This is disingenuous!  While discounted rates for big commercial power users (including data centers) have remained stable or decreased slightly in Virginia, they have risen significantly for everyone else.

The Virginia State Corporation Commission approved Dominion Energy’s controversial 944 megawatt gas peaker plant in Chesterfield along with higher electricity rates to pay for it.

Our Climate Crisis

Rising global temperatures have made Earth’s atmosphere more waterlogged, providing fuel for wetter and more dangerous storms. Some regions are more susceptible than others. In the past 85 years, the amount of water vapor moving through the atmosphere has increased 12%.

Antarctica’s Hektoria Glacier retreated five miles in two months, 10 times as fast as the previous record. This has implications for the stability of other glaciers and the pace of sea-level rise on a warming planet.

Showing some progress, the UN Paris Agreement has reduced the projected maximum global warming to less than 3°C degrees by the end of the century, which is down from prior projections of about 5°C. Even 2°C of global warming would, however, make many low-lying islands uninhabitable and swamp millions of square miles of coastal regions around the world.

Despite surging renewable energy, global carbon emissions from fossil fuels are projected to rise to an all-time high this year. Increases are expected to accelerate in the US and the EU but slow in China and India. At this rate the world will blow past the UN climate goal of 1.5°C of global warming in four years.

Politics and Policy

Under intense resistance from fossil fuel interests, the COP30 climate summit in Brazil fell short on drawing up a roadmap for a global transition away from oil, gas and coal. It did agree to launch limited initiatives to strengthen emissions-cutting plans, as well as tripling finance to help poor countries cope with worsening climate change impacts.

The Trump administration is arguing that abandoning fossil fuels is just too expensive and betting that the world will buy American oil and gas for decades to come. Meanwhile, China’s worldwide exports of clean energy technology have more than tripled in the last five years.

The founders of the fledgling Texas nuclear energy startup Fermi America have become billionaires because of its connections to Trump even though it has yet to produce an electron, split an atom, and has little more to show than a glossy, aspirational marketing brochure.

Nations were poised to approve the first fee on pollution from ships. The Trump administration then began threats, including tariffs, sanctions and the revocation of diplomats’ U.S. visas, which effectively killed the agreement.

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright condemned the UN COP30 climate summit as harmful and misguided, saying, “It’s essentially a hoax. It’s not an honest organization looking to better human lives.”

This November was a very good election for the planet, with climate-friendly initiatives and candidates winning nationwide. Voters backed funding renewables, reining in energy costs, and building out mass transit—and the people promising to deliver those policies.

At this year’s UN COP30 Climate Summit, the U.S. is out and Europe is struggling. Emerging countries are, however, embracing renewable energy thanks to a glut of cheap equipment from China.

More than 1,600 fossil fuel lobbyists were present at the COP30 climate negotiations in Brazil. This is 60% more than the delegates from the 10 most climate vulnerable countries.

The environmental group 350.org will temporarily suspend programming due to funding woes.  President Trump’s threats to investigate left-leaning organizations and his rapid-fire dismantling of environmental rules have hamstrung green groups.

Gov. Shapiro is pulling Pennsylvania out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, bowing to fossil fuel industry claims that it is leading to higher utility bills. Environmentalists see the decision as ‘shocking reversal’ on fighting global warming.

Parking lots in South Korea with more than 80 spaces will be required to install solar canopies. This new law doesn’t just apply to new construction—existing lots will have to comply as well.

Energy

Nuclear power is back due to the skyrocketing demand for electricity, driven by big tech’s hundreds of artificial intelligence data centers. The Trump administration aims to quadruple nuclear output over the next 25 years. This does not address the exorbitant upfront costs of building nuclear plants or the old issue of safely storing radioactive waste.

So much solar power is being generated in the middle of the day in Australia that the federal government will mandate power companies to offer free electricity during those three hours. This provides an incentive to install batteries and to switch electricity use to those hours.

Hyundai still plans to invest $6 billion in a low-carbon steel plant in Louisiana despite the Trump administration’s cuts to tax credits for the green hydrogen needed to produce clean iron and a recent immigration raid on a factory the automaker is building in Georgia.

Germany is investing billions on nuclear fusion for its energy future. Critics say it’s a waste of money as the still unproven technology won’t solve near-term climate and energy problems.

Large manufacturers are increasingly participating in a demand response program in which their industrial facilities agree to power down and switch to local backup sources such as batteries during times of high demand on the grid. They, in turn, receive financial compensation from the grid operator.

People can do a lot to reduce energy use and carbon emissions in their own lives, even in the absence of government action. The recent Energy Smart Home Expo, organized by Electrify Central Ohio, demonstrated what people can do in their own households and communities.

The International Energy Agency forecasts that an oversupply of oil could create a glut of 4 million barrels a day next year. It also forecasts that renewable energy is expected to at least double globally over the next five years.

Global demand for power is growing fast, but hydro plants, the oldest source of clean energy, are struggling because of droughts, floods and other extreme weather linked to climate change.

Tapping energy from “superhot rock” could produce cheap, clean, constant geothermal energy almost anywhere—if drills and wells can survive infernal heat and pressure.

The world’s first highway that can wirelessly charge trucks and other electric vehicles as they drive has been switched on in France.

Land, Food, and Agriculture

In spite of bipartisan agreement on eliminating food waste, the U.S. still squanders roughly a third of its food supply. It’s a huge problem. Globally, if food waste were a country, it would be the world’s third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases.

While the world continues losing huge areas of forest in the tropics, they are making a comeback in some countries including India, China, the U.S., Canada, Russia, and much of Europe. Leading in this, China has added forest the whopping size of Texas since 1990.

Climate Justice

The world’s response to the climate crisis risks deepening inequality rather than addressing it. Less than 3% of international aid to cut carbon emissions is supporting a “just transition” away from polluting industries.

What does the just energy transition mean for Africa where around 600 million people lack even basic access to electricity? Investment in the continent’s abundant sources of solar, wind and geothermal power could meet most of the continent’s energy needs.

Student and Indigenous activists clashed with UN security when they tried to force their way into the COP30 climate conference venue to protest oil drilling in the Amazon.

Pacific island countries won a landmark case at the International Court of Justice, ruling that every nation on earth has a legal obligation to limit greenhouse gas emissions. Now they want countries to act.

In a groundbreaking initiative, the Brazilian COP30 leadership included the Global Ethical Stocktake, which elevates the spiritual, ethical and cultural dimensions of the climate crisis. It organized regional dialogues of diverse voices to reflect on deeper values that should guide climate action.

Rising home insurance premiums are eating into home values in disaster-prone areas of the U.S.  As insurance costs more than doubled in various areas, home values have fallen and many owners are stuck.

“Every dollar spent on the military produces over twice the greenhouse gas emissions of a dollar spent elsewhere,” writes Marijke van Duin, a member of the Dutch Mennonite Conference representing the World Council of Churches at the COP30 conference in Brazil.

Iowa City made its buses free and, as a result, traffic cleared and so did the air. “The transit system is one of the greatest tools communities have to combat climate change and reduce emissions,” according to the city’s transportation director.

Earl Zimmerman
Climate Action Alliance of the Valley

Local Climate Action

The Climate Action Alliance of the Valley is organizing a Climate Action Celebration and Call to Action at the Massanutten Regional Library on Tuesday, November 11, at 5:30 pm. Join us for a celebration of climate action for the last 17 years, and a collaborative discussion of what we can do into the future. Whether you’ve been involved since the start, or you’re curious about what you can do to make this a better world, join us! For planning purposes it will be helpful if you RSVP here.

Shenandoah Valley Faith & Climate is joining with the Mennonite Central Committee and people of faith around the world to pray and fast during this year’s UN COP 30 global climate summit from November 10-21. It’s our way to find strength and hope in collective action and to let policymakers know our eyes are on them. Click here to find out more and to join us.

Virginia Environmental News

At the Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions’ annual Virginia Climate Crisis Forum, a panel of activists and experts discussed the rapid expansion of power hungry data centers. What’s at stake is what this means for our electric bills as well as their environmental and community health impacts. You can watch the livestream here.

The Hampton Roads Planning District Commission is finalizing a plan that outlines how the region could cut climate pollution by up to 90% by 2050, compared to 2022 levels.

Northern Virginia’s “Data Center Alley”—the  world’s largest cluster of data centers—is adding billions of dollars to ratepayers’ electricity bills and raising the risk of persistent inflation in the economy and potential power shortages. Virginia’s current data center infrastructure and slate of future projects are deep enough that no other region will overtake it any time soon.

Dominion Energy has been building its huge offshore wind farm off the coast of Virginia Beach at a breakneck pace. It plans to begin generating electricity by March 2026 and be completed by the end of 2026.

Governor Youngkin is touting a Henrico firm that is powering Virginia’s data center boom. The firm is manufacturing more energy-efficient equipment that will help to meet the data center driven surging demand for electricity.

PJM is seeking to fast track a large 1.5 gigawatt gas power plant in Fluvanna County to its multi-state grid increasingly stressed by power-hungry data centers. They’re getting pushback from residents concerned about health effects, noise and transparency.

Clean Virginia is taking its “The Energy Bills are Too Damn High” tour across the state in this election season. The concerns they’re raising include politicians taking money from electric utilities they regulate and the rising costs of electricity due to power hungry data centers.

Our Climate Crisis

In an interview before next month’s Cop30 climate summit, UN secretary general António Guterres acknowledged the inevitability that humanity will overshoot the target in the Paris Climate Agreement to limit global heating to 1.5C and must change course immediately.

Heat-trapping carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere jumped by the highest amount on record last year, soaring to a level not seen in human civilization. This is “turbo-charging” the Earth’s climate and causing more extreme weather.

Switzerland’s glaciers melted 3% of their total volume this year—the fourth-largest annual drop on record. They have declined by one-quarter over the last decade.

The National Flood Insurance Program is sinking deeper into the red. Earlier this year, it borrowed $2 billion from the US Treasury to help cover claims from major storms in 2024. It’s total debt is now more than $22.5 billion, and is likely to rise further as claims from floods this year are processed.

The death tolls and the billion-dollar losses from wildfires have been stacking up around the world. Of the 200 most damaging fires since 1980, 43% happened in the last 10 years.

The first half of 2025 was the costliest on record for major climate disasters in the U.S. Led by the huge wildfires in Los Angeles, there were 14 separate weather-related disasters that each caused at least $1bn in damage.

Hurricane Melissa blew through the Caribbean, fueled by prime conditions to create a monster tempest. Extra warm ocean water, created by global warming, super-charged the storm’s intensity and rapid growth, meaning that we will see more storms like this in the future.

Politics and Policy

The Trump administration scuttled the largest solar project in the U.S. on federal land in the Nevada desert, which was set to generate enough electricity to power 2 million homes. The move drew rare criticism from politicians of both parties.

The US Department of Energy has told employees to avoid using the words “climate change” in what seems to be the latest incident in a crackdown on discussing the climate crisis in the U.S. government.

The Trump administration is offering $625 million to rescue the coal industry. The effort includes opening 13.1 million acres of federal land for mining. Officials claim is that it is part of their strategy to win the “AI arms race” against China.

A handful of congressional Republicans are breaking with Trump and party leadership over their renewed push to boost coal-fired power generation. They warn that the industry’s long-term struggles can’t be solved by federal funding or executive action.

California Governor Gavin Newsom has vetoed three bills that aimed to boost the use of virtual power plants to expand the state’s use of clean power and energy efficiency. This undermines an opportunity to decrease the state’s fast-rising electricity costs and increase its grid reliability.

For decades, the Pentagon viewed climate change as a national security threat because it undermined operations and readiness. Now Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth is dismissing this as “climate change crap” as they cut climate research funding and abandon adaptation plans.

After scoring a surprising victory over a proposed United Nations climate fee on shipping, the Trump administration is now ramping up pressure on the European Union to repeal or weaken regulations on greenhouse gas pollution. The European Commission made it clear that their regulatory authority is not up for discussion.

In response to changing federal policies, clean tech firms have abandoned or scaled back close to $24 billion in new projects, from solar farms to battery plants to electric vehicle factories, costing 20,000 jobs. This will likely push these investments overseas.

Energy

Utilities across the U.S. anticipate electricity generation will grow 24% by 2035, largely due to data center demand. Emissions are still projected to drop because of the gradual conversion to cleaner energy, but not nearly as much as previously anticipated.

Analysts widely expect the United States to add record amounts of renewable energy and batteries through 2027. This is in spite of Trump administration efforts to stop it by taking back clean energy tax credits and throwing up roadblocks to renewable energy projects.

Global oil and gas exploration has shrunk dramatically. Expenditures now hover around $50 billion to 60 billion per year—down from a peak of around $115 billion in 2013. This pivot reflects pressures such as investor scrutiny, the need to maintain earnings, and climate policies.

Australia has put itself on a realistic path to running its power grid entirely on renewable energy. As old coal-fired power stations are retired, they’re getting replaced by the least-cost energy, which is renewable energy, backed with storage, connected in with transmission.

Base Power, a Texas startup, hauled in $1B for mass deployment of huge home batteries. The dispersed fleet of batteries can profit from in the state’s competitive energy market.

Transportation

As more electric vehicles hit the road, the temptation is to invest heavily in the infrastructure that will preserve the status quo of prioritizing cars over people. Meanwhile, the e-bike market is skyrocketing and providing an even more environmentally friendly travel option. Can we rethink cities to encourage people to ditch four wheels for two?

Parallel Systems has created a new electric train concept without a locomotive. It, instead, equips individual railcars with their own batteries and operating systems. They can travel in groups of 20–30 cars and then peel off in smaller groups towards separate destinations.

India’s railways are electrifying fast. It will achieve its net-zero targets by the end of this year,  five years ahead of its 2030 target.

Food and Agriculture

A small demonstration agrivoltaics project in Aldie, Virginia, has big implications for the future of farming. The solar panels, mounted on 6 foot high racks, co-exist with strategically situated rows of vegetables on a relatively small plot of land.

The nonprofit Zero Foodprint began as an effort to reduce food waste in restaurants. It has now grown into a movement  with chefs, farmers, scientists, and regional governments working to change the food system from the ground up.

Biofuel demand continues to grow despite being responsible for 16% more CO2 emissions globally than the fossil fuels they replace. Growing crops to be burned as fuel uses up 32 million hectares of land—roughly the size of Italy—to meet just 4% of global transport energy demand.

Agrivoltaics is the overwhelming winner in a contest with corn-based ethanol. Solar is 20 times more efficient than ethanol. Furthermore, it leads to less pollution from fertilizer runoff and less erosion from tillage while providing a new drought resistant revenue stream.

Climate Justice

In his address to participants in an international conference on climate justice, Pope Leo asked the question: “God will ask us if we have cultivated and cared for the world that He created, and if we have taken care of our brothers and sisters. What will be our answer?”  

The kids who sued America over climate change in 2015 aren’t done yet. They are now taking their case to an international human rights body to hold the U.S. accountable—and are spotlighting Indigenous communities on the frontlines.

Indonesian nickel mining boomtowns are the ugly underside of the world’s green energy transition. Chinese migrant workers work alongside hundreds of thousands of Indonesian coworkers under brutal and dangerous working conditions and great environmental costs.

Large financial institutions are pouring money into land clearance and undermining efforts to stop the destruction of forests that are vital to the environmental health of our planet. US institutions, led by Vanguard, JPMorgan Chase, and BlackRock, earned the most globally.

Earl Zimmerman
Climate Action Alliance of the Valley

Local Climate News

About 20 people joined the sustainable farm event organized by Shenandoah Valley Faith & Climate on Saturday, September 20. We toured the farm operations at Jubilee Climate Farm and Second Mountain Farm and had energetic discussions about obtaining land, labor demands, developing markets, improving soils, and value added processing.

On Saturday, September 20, GiveSolar gathered with their partners to celebrate solar systems powering Central Valley Habitat for Humanity townhomes. It was the launch of their national campaign: a $40 million effort to install 10,000 solar systems on Habitat homes by 2030.

Virginia Energy News

Virginia, the data center capital of the world, offers a crucial test case for electric utilities: Can they meet power demand from the explosion of AI while keeping bills affordable and slashing carbon emissions? So far, the utilities are failing the test.

Gov. Youngkin has been a champion of the Dominion Energy wind farm under construction off the coast of Virginia. He is quietly pushing back against Trump’s war on wind energy and is trying to persuade the president to leave the nearly 60% completed project alone.

Renewable energy developers planned dozens of solar projects on former coal-fields owned by The Nature Conservancy. Then president Trump signed his budget reconciliation bill upending an unprecedented effort to revitalize southwest Virginia.

Our Climate Crisis

This summer was the United Kingdom’s hottest on record. The UK’s hottest five summers on record have all occurred since 2000.

Syria is being pushed to the brink with the worst drought in decades as its fledgling government is trying to stitch the country back together following a 14-year civil war that left millions impoverished.

The sea keeps claiming more houses in the Outer Banks. Twelve houses collapsed in Rodanthe in the last 5 years. This area has experienced some of the most rapid rates of erosion on the East Coast, and seas there have risen by 4.6 inches since 2010.

The world is producing too much coal, oil and natural gas to meet the targets set 10 years ago under the Paris Agreement. Countries plan to produce more than twice the amount of fossil fuels in 2030 than would be consistent with limiting global heating to 1.5 degrees Celsius.

Politics and Policy

At the UN Climate Summit, China asserted green leadership and committed to reducing its greenhouse gas emissions by 7 to 10% over the next 10 years. The U.S. completely retreated as Trump, in his speech before the general assembly, dismissed climate as a ‘con job.’

Though they heavily backed Trump in the presidential election, oil and gas executives are beginning to sour on their cheerleader-in-chief. That’s because their economic outlook has worsened because of the policies of the Trump administration.

A federal judge ruled that Danish offshore wind developer Orsted can restart work on the nearly finished Revolution Wind project off the coast of Rhode Island. Trump halted the project last month and this is the first major setback to his war on wind energy.

ICE arrested and detained about 300 South Korean citizens helping to build the Hyundai and LG Energy Solution’s new EV battery factory in Georgia. This reveals the Trump administration’s competing interests as a push to expand U.S. manufacturing collides with an aggressive crackdown on foreign workers.

The U.S. federal government currently subsidizes the fossil-fuel industry to the tune of nearly $31 billion per year and this is likely a vast understatement due to the lack of transparency. These government handouts have more than doubled since 2017.

The EPA now claims that the long-standing Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program “has no material impact on improving human health and the environment.” It, therefore, intends to stop collecting all greenhouse gas emissions data.

U.S. solar industry’s biggest annual gathering was surprisingly optimistic this year despite severe policy setbacks under the Trump administration. That’s because of positive market trends.

Energy

Even as the U.S. is gutting support for renewable energy, the world is still pushing ahead on the shift to solar energy, with installations up 64% in the first half of this year. Solar is now the fastest-growing source of electricity worldwide.

AI is driving the rapid increase in demand for electricity while also driving the gains in the U.S. stock market. A research note recently sent to clients by Deutsche Bank warns that the AI bubble is the only thing keeping the US economy together, and when it bursts reality will hit far harder than anyone expects.

Solar-powered electricity shot up by over 30%, while wind grew by almost 14% in the U.S. in July even as the Trump administration has been gutting support for renewable energy.

Texas created a $7.2B fund for gas plants in 2023. Now hardly any are being built because the energy market has turned against the development of gas-fired power plants.

The largest U.S. oil companies, contending with persistently mediocre economic realities, are laying off many workers in hopes of squeezing more fuel from the ground at lower cost. ConocoPhillips said it will cut up to 25% of its work force by the end of the year.

Wave energy is an emerging industry that’s largely still focused on research, demonstration and pilot projects. But the potential is big. The first U.S. onshore wave energy pilot installation began operating this month at the port of Los Angeles.

China’s clean energy surge is starting to transform the world’s energy systems. The country’s massive investments in solar, wind, storage, and electrification are cutting fossil fuel use at home while sending clean tech around the globe.

Fracking technology may have a new life in clean geothermal energy. Advanced drilling technologies have no problem reaching down to 8,000 feet, where vast swaths of the earth underneath the United States are hot enough to produce power.

There is lots of interest in small modular nuclear reactors as a constant source of clean energy but there are big questions about cost and nuclear waste.

Australian mining corporation Fortescue is moving towards zero emissions across its global operations. And that investment is already paying off. Their massive electric haul trucks and excavators are saving the company almost $400 million each year in fuel costs alone.

California refineries are closing as gasoline demand slips into permanent decline. Gasoline consumption in California peaked in 2015 and declined 11% over less than ten years.

ExxonMobil, America’s largest oil company, is ramping up investments in renewable energy as global demand for oil begins to slow down. It is now making EV battery breakthroughs and is on track to become a lithium supplier.

Buildings

Mass timber construction has already proven its climate case compared to reinforced concrete construction. In addition, speed of construction and smaller, more specialized crews create economic benefits that go beyond carbon accounting.

Food and Agriculture

In some of the most flood- and drought-prone parts of the country, federal subsidies are keeping farmers on land that is no longer productive. But the Trump administration cut federal employees who manage programs that could help pull troubled farmland out of production.

As the federal policy on solar shifts, states are increasingly exploring community solar programs that can include farms and rural businesses. Agrivoltaics (combining solar installations with agriculture) is being explored as a way of bringing on low-cost power quickly.  

Growing tall trees to provide shade for cocoa plantations in west Africa could sequester millions of tons of carbon. The additional carbon stored in shade trees, such as banana and palm trees, could entirely “offset” cocoa-related emissions.

Climate Justice

Indonesia is fast-tracking a massive agricultural project that is turning 7 million acres of tropical forest (the size of Maryland) into rice and sugarcane farms. This is the world’s largest deforestation project, which will upend the lives of thousands of Indigenous people.

Residents in the poorer neighborhoods of Charleston worry that new developments—including a sea wall planned to shield the city’s historic center from rising seawater—could push floodwaters into their communities.

Latinos are nearly three times more likely than white individuals to live in communities with poor air quality. Latino communities are now ramping up their own air quality monitoring as Trump’s EPA moves to weaken pollution regulations.

Environmental activists across the world are brutally murdered almost every day for their political speech.

Climate Action

Bike buses—convoys of parents and children who ride to school together—are becoming the rage. About 470 bike buses are now active around the world along routes anywhere from three blocks to three miles.

Pope Leo XIV opened the historic papal residence south of Rome as a center dedicated to the principles of care for creation and human dignity.

African leaders recently met in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, for the second African climate summit.  There are hopeful indications that the continent’s green economy may be under way, driven by solar power and an increase in low-carbon investment.

The EU has introduced 30% reduction targets on food waste generated by households, retailers and restaurants. Food waste has a significant climate impact, generating about 16% of the total greenhouse gas emissions from the EU food system.

Norway, the leading country for electric cars, is now turning to electric planes. There are dozens of short daily flights to the country’s remote islands for which electric planes make sense. They’re quitter, simpler, and easier to maintain, in addition to cutting carbon emissions.

Uruguay decarbonized its grid in just five years, with 98% of its energy coming from renewable sources. Ramón Méndez Galain, Uruguay’s energy secretary who led the transition now has a vision for replicating their success in other countries.

Earl Zimmerman
Climate Action Alliance of the Valley

Local Climate News

James Madison University revealed its new electric “Gus Bus” that provides books, tutoring, and mobile classrooms to elementary schools throughout Harrisonburg. Virginia Clean Cities helped secure the funding for the bus through the Mid-Atlantic Electrification Partnership.

Virginia Energy News

Google announced plans to invest $9 billion in Virginia, largely for construction and expansion of data centers. The company claims it is committed to 100% carbon-free electricity by 2030 and that 95% of its operations in Northern Virginia have already achieved that goal.

Massachusetts Institute of Technology startup Commonwealth Fusion Systems has raised nearly $1 billion in funding as it tries to commercialize nuclear fusion, with plans to build a Virginia plant to supply Google, which they hope will be operational by 2030.

Dominion Energy plans to install a 1,700-panel solar installation on the new baseball stadium set to open next year in Richmond. It will generate about 1 megawatt of carbon-free electricity, enough to power 250 Richmond homes at peak output.

Solar installers in coastal Virginia are racing to meet surging demand for rooftop installations as customers try to secure a federal tax credit before it expires.

Dominion Energy announced that its offshore wind project is 60% complete and is on track to begin delivering electricity early next year. Trump’s tariffs will, however, add $500 million to the cost, half of which will be passed along to ratepayers.

Community members are sustaining their opposition and voicing their concerns as the Department of Environmental Quality is reviewing Dominion Energy’s proposed methane gas power plant in Chesterfield, Virginia.

The Trump administration clawed back the $156 million in funding that Virginia was supposed to receive for the Solar for All program—which aimed to help lower- and moderate-income households build solar panels on their roofs.

Our Climate Crisis

Hundreds of wildfires burning across Canada and parts of the US prompted air quality alerts in 14 states from the Great Lakes region to the north-east, affecting 81 million people last month.

Wildfires burned in parts of Europe this summer as millions of people across the continent struggled to adapt to the record summer heat, with temperatures in some areas soaring past 104°F. Europe is warming at twice the speed of the global average since the 1980s.

The melting of sea ice in the Arctic has slowed dramatically in the past 20 years. It appears that natural variability is cancelling out sea ice loss even with increased CO2 in the atmosphere. This has bought us a bit more time but it is a temporary reprieve.

The rapid loss of Antarctic sea ice could be a tipping point for the global climate, causing sea level rises and changes to ocean currents. Antarctic sea-ice extent is far below its natural variability of past centuries, and its decline is more abrupt and potentially more irreversible than Arctic sea-ice loss.

Nordic countries are being affected by unprecedented heat. A weather station in the Norwegian part of the Arctic Circle recorded temperatures above 86°F on 13 days in July, while Finland has had three straight weeks with 86 °F heat. This is the longest streak in records going back to 1961, and 50% longer than the previous record.

Politics and Policy

With tariffs and threats, Trump is trying to strong-arm other countries to retreat on their climate goals and instead burn more gas, oil, and coal.

A “critical assessment” report published by the US Department of Energy to justify a rollback of US climate regulations contains at least 100 false or misleading statements, according to a Carbon Brief factcheck involving dozens of leading climate scientists.

China dominates the global market for clean energy technology like electric vehicles, batteries, and solar panels, which were all invented in the U.S. Since the early 2000s, a suite of Chinese government incentives and policies has swept it to the forefront of the market.

Americans are used to whiplash in their climate policy, but it has become more extreme. In his second administration, Trump is moving to destroy the methods by which his or any future administration can respond to climate change.

Grassroots climate organizers from Sunrise Movement to Third Act are pouring volunteers and money into Zohran Mamdani’s bid to become New York City’s next mayor.

Facing a summer of intense blazes across the West, the U.S. Forest Service is short more than one-quarter of its firefighting force after layoffs and retirements. A sweeping reorganization will close nine regional offices and relocate many staff, a shift expected to trigger fresh resignations as above-normal fire activity looms.

Sweden has reversed many environmental commitments, mirroring a broader retreat across Europe as emissions rise and forest protections weaken. Carbon emissions rose 7% last year, the largest increase in 15 years, after cuts to green funding and higher fossil fuel subsidies.

Large U.S. banks are slashing their fossil fuel financing by 25% this year as market forces outweigh politics. This is happening in the face of an administration that is telling them to keep the money flowing.

As Trump curbs wind farms, the Danish renewable energy developer Orsted plans to raise $9.4 billion in funds by selling more stock instead of divesting a stake in a wind farm off the New England coast. The Trump administration has now halted the construction of the 80% completed wind farm, claiming unspecified security concerns.  

The EPA will stop updating a widely used greenhouse gas emissions database after suspending its creator for signing a letter critical of the Trump administration’s science policies.

The Trump administration rejected the “Net-Zero Framework” proposal by the International Maritime Organization, which is aimed at reducing global greenhouse gas emissions from international shipping, They are also threatening to retaliate against countries that support it.

After losing in court, the Transportation Department says it will lift its freeze of $5 billion in federal funds allocated by Congress to build out EV charging stations on highways.

Republicans who voted for Trump’s anti-environment tax and spending bill have accepted more than $105 million in political donations from the fossil fuel industry. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act includes billions of dollars in giveaways to oil and gas companies and their executives.

Energy

US solar plant construction is on a record-breaking spree as developers race to complete installations before Trump’s policy changes pull the rug out from under the industry. It will contribute more than half of the expected new power capacity additions this year.

One of the world’s largest offshore wind farms, off the coast of Scotland, has been approved by the Scottish government. With the goal of being operational by 2030, it would generate enough electricity to meet the annual energy needs of every household in Scotland twice over.

Commercial rooftop solar is set to explode, even without clean energy credits, because it is the fastest and least expensive way to add more electricity to the nation’s electricity grid.

Residential rooftop solar could crash with the Republican tax credit repeal. It is already far more expensive in the U.S than anywhere else. It is estimated that Americans will install 33% less rooftop solar next year than they would if federal incentives were still in place.

India’s EV market is developing rapidly in a context where two-wheelers dominate personal mobility, and three-wheelers are integral to urban transport. They account for roughly three-quarters of all registered vehicles, and are easier to electrify than passenger cars.

Ford plans to invest nearly $2 billion into building more affordable EVs at its Kentucky assembly plant and to roll out a $30,000 mid-sized electric pickup truck by 2027.

Natural hydrogen deposits could be a clean energy “game changer,” but it’s still too soon to bank on them. That isn’t stopping dozens of companies from trying to find such deposits along the Midcontinent Rift stretching from Ontario all the way down to Kansas.

Food and Agriculture

Close to 40% of small and mid-sized farms operated at a loss the previous year, according to a 2024 U.S. Agriculture Department report. After losing money for several years, a struggling Texas farmer traded cotton for sheep. Grazing them on solar farms is paying off big.

Agriculture Secretary Brooke L. Rollins declared that banishing solar panels from two USDA loan programs is needed to save our vanishing farmlands. Solar projects, however, are not the problem by a long shot. The real problem is decades of urban and suburban sprawl.

Climate Justice

Environmental Groups and the EPA are sparring in court over Trump’s cancellation of $3 billion in funding for flood mitigation and other climate resiliency funding in Southwest Virginia.

The Trump administration seeks to kill the $7 billion ​“Solar for All” program just as it starts to deliver low-cost solar and battery installations for thousands of people.

The Trump administration’s scheme to keep old fossil-fuel plants running could saddle utility customers with nearly $6 billion a year in unnecessary costs.

Climate Action

Joanna Macy, an American environmental activist, author and scholar of deep ecology, recently passed away at 96 years of age. There will be a celebration of her life and work at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco on October 3. You can register here to join by livestream.

Here is an easy opportunity for renters and other people who are unable to invest in rooftop solar. For a few hundred dollars, portable panels that hang on any sunny surface can pump free solar electricity into your home via a wall socket.

The town of Calistoga in Northern California has struggled to keep the lights on when wildfires strike the region. Now it’s got a brand-new microgrid to run the whole town for days on end without any onsite fossil fuels, just batteries and liquid hydrogen.

The Harbor Charger, a hybrid diesel-electric ferry is now cruising New York Harbor, cutting down on CO2 and diesel pollution. The vessel joins a tiny but growing U.S. fleet of cleaner ferry boats, including in the cities of Galveston and Seattle.

China’s carbon dioxide emissions fell 1% year-on-year in the first half of 2025. Power sector emissions fell by 3% during this period, due to growth in solar power.

More Americans are choosing natural burials to minimize their environmental impact. They reduce toxic waste, conserve energy, and often involve loved ones directly in burial rituals.

Earl Zimmerman
CAAV Steering Committee

Virginia Energy News

Virginia solar installers are bracing for the rollback of the federal rooftop solar tax credit and a potential decision from state regulators to allow Appalachian Power and Dominion Energy to reduce net metering rates.

Albemarle County now allows solar installations without permission as long as they are smaller than 500 square feet. In the rural area, solar installations could be on as much as 21 acres without approval, unless more than 10 acres of forest or prime farmland would be disturbed.

Dominion Energy’s latest long-range resource plan stops at 2039 without addressing how it will meet the state’s 2045 deadline for achieving 100% carbon-free electricity. The utility commission called the 15-year forecast flawed but ​“legally sufficient,” ordering major changes for the next one due in 2026.

A Virginia regional planning commission’s “Fight the Flood” program connects local property owners with practical solutions to flooding and other problems that stem from climate change and sinking land.

Our Climate Crisis

Intense downpours like those in Texas are more frequent, but where they occur and whether they cause catastrophic flooding is largely a matter of chance. Even so, a warming atmosphere and oceans due to the burning of fossil fuels make catastrophic storms more likely.

In less than a week in July, there were at least four 1-in-1,000-year rainfall events across the U.S.—intense deluges that are thought to have roughly a 0.1% chance of happening in any given year. First the river rose in Texas, then, the rains fell hard over North Carolina, New Mexico and Illinois. This is clear evidence that climate change is accelerating.

The extreme rainfall that occurred in the U.S. Northeast in July will likely occur more often in the future as a result of climate change, research shows. This region has experienced the largest regional increase of extreme precipitation with a 60% increase in recent decades.

The January wildfires in Los Angeles County caused $65 billion in damages, making them the costliest fires in U.S. history and reshaping expectations for wildfire season. Weather whiplash is shifting fire season patterns, as climate extremes accelerate vegetation growth and then fuel catastrophic fires.

Turkey has been hit by a record high temperature of 122.9 degrees Fahrenheit as southeastern Europe reels under a heat wave. This heat exacerbated by strong winds and dry conditions, has led to dozens of wildfires across the country.

Politics and Policy

The Environmental Protection Agency unveiled a proposal to rescind the 2009 landmark legal opinion that underpins virtually all of its regulations to curb climate change. Administrator Lee Zeldin argues that Congress, in the Clean Air Act, does not give the agency the authority to regulate greenhouse gas emissions.

In a self-inflicted tragedy, Congress passed Trump’s so-called “Big Beautiful Bill” that deeply cuts America’s social safety net and decimates our country’s only federal climate strategy.

Trump’s ​“Big Beautiful Bill” tethers the US to the past by taking a sledgehammer to key pieces of American industrial policy, threatening the development of clean energy, which has become a vital 21st century technology. Jobs will be lost, energy will get more expensive, and billions more tons of carbon dioxide will escape into the atmosphere.

China and the European Union, pledged to work together to slow down planetary heating as they together called the Paris Agreement “the cornerstone of international climate cooperation.”

The Trump administration has halted the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s effort to model future rainfall extremes linked to climate change, leaving cities and engineers without critical data as storms intensify nationwide.

Climate change data is being erased from U.S. government websites. The Trump administration has dismantled key climate science programs, removed publicly accessible reports, and cut research funding, as it moves to calculated data suppression.

Brazil’s increasingly powerful Congress passed a bill that weakens the country’s environmental licensing framework amid a political crisis with President Lula da Silva. Environmentalists have dubbed it the ‘devastation bill’ and see it as a major environmental setback.

Energy

The UN reports that renewable energy has passed a “positive tipping point” where solar and wind power will become even cheaper and more widespread. The three cheapest electricity sources globally last year were onshore wind, solar panels and new hydropower. Solar power now is 41% cheaper and wind power is 53% cheaper globally than the lowest-cost fossil fuel.

Electric vehicles will decimate big oil even without U.S. tax credits. They are already displacing millions of barrels of oil per day globally and oil demand is expected to fall spectacularly over the next decade. Countries without their own oil reserves are especially eager to get out from under the thumb of big oil.

Over the past year, EVs accounted for 76% of all passenger vehicles and half of the light commercial vehicles sold in Nepal. Five years ago, that number was essentially zero. The swift turnover is the result of policies aimed at leveraging Nepal’s wealth of hydropower, easing dependence on imported fossil fuels, and clearing urban smog.

Google’s carbon emissions went up by 65% between 2019 and 2024. In 2021, the company set a lofty goal of achieving net-zero carbon emissions by 2030. In the years since then, it has moved in the opposite direction as it invests in energy-intensive artificial intelligence.

Dean Solon, the self-made solar billionaire, is forging ahead with a new U.S. solar and battery manufacturing business, despite tariff uncertainty and the loss of tax credits.

Solar and wind made up 95.7% of new US power generating capacity in first third of 2025. Natural gas provided just 4.2%; the remaining 0.1% came from oil.

Record volumes of solar helped to keep Europe’s electricity grids stable through a heatwave in late June and early July.

It’s been a bad several months for the U.S. energy transition but the global transition moves on. Wind and solar capacity overtook coal and gas in China in the first quarter of 2025. Solar was the largest source of electricity in the European Union in June. And, across the entire world, $2 is now invested in clean energy, efficiency, and the grid for every $1 invested in fossil fuels.

India has hit its target for 50% of its installed electricity generating capacity to come from non-fossil fuel sources five years early.

Over 37,000 residential batteries are being put to work in Puerto Rico as the island’s electric grid faces a summer of high temperatures and energy shortfalls. The home batteries are being used to prevent rolling blackouts when demand spikes and power plants can’t keep up.

Food and Agriculture

Residents in California’s Central Valley are pushing back against a state-backed program that incentivizes methane digesters at industrial dairies, arguing it locks in pollution and worsens environmental health in poor communities, while benefiting Big Oil.

Ugandan farmers are turning to agroforestry and Indigenous planting to protect their land and livelihoods and to fight deadly landslides and climate change.

Climate Justice

Brazil chose Belem, a high-poverty Amazon city, for the UN COP30 climate summit this fall to spotlight deforestation and inequality rather than hide them behind tourist destinations.

Mahi G, an Indian rapper, is spitting bars about climate justice, caste, and Indigenous rights. “The one whose sweat builds your house himself wanders homeless,” she raps in Hindi. “But who cares about the one who died working for you in the sun?”

Ancient Himalayan villages in Nepal need to relocate as climate shifts reshape daily life. Declining snowfall and retreating glaciers cause springs and canals to vanish and when it does rain, the water comes all at once, flooding fields and melting away the mud homes.

Catholic bishops from Asia, Africa and Latin America demanded climate justice for the parts of the world most affected by rising temperatures, in a first-ever joint ecological appeal.

Zohran Mamdani, who won New York City’s Democratic mayoral primary, has built a political platform that connects environmental justice to housing, utility costs, and school infrastructure, aiming to reshape how the city tackles climate and inequality. He says, “Climate and quality of life are not two separate concerns. They are, in fact, one and the same.”

Jeff Bezo’s $500 million superyacht comes with all kinds of luxuries: a pool, gym, a private helicopter, and even a private submarine. Its carbon emissions are comparable to that of a small coal-fired power plant.

In South Memphis, an area long plagued by air pollution, Elon Musk’s massive AI data center called the “Colossus” is powered by the illegal operation of 35 gas-fueled turbines.

Climate Action

Climate activist and Buddhism scholar Joanna Macy, who died last month, leaves behind a blueprint for overcoming climate despair and anxiety. She says that we will not be able to solve the climate issue, and its intertwined problems, with technology and policy alone. We need spiritual renewal.

Cities are quietly outpacing nations in climate progress by cutting emissions, greening streets, and adapting to climate threats. This matters because urban areas now house over half the world’s population. They are more nimble because they are less politically divided and officials are more in tune with the immediate needs of their residents.

The Vatican released a new Mass titled “Mass for the Care of Creation.” A Vatican official said it demonstrates the church’s commitment to environmental protection, especially climate action. Pope Leo XIV appears determined to carry forward his predecessor’s engagement on the issue.

Denmark is pushing the European Union to tie climate goals to the new focus on defense and economic strength in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and Trump’s tariff threats. They argue that energy independence is critical to Europe’s security and competitiveness.

The GOP’s “Big Beautiful Bill” is eliminating tax credits that cut the costs of solar, EVs, heat pumps, and more — but if you act fast, you can still get discounts.

Vietnam will begin phasing out fossil-fuel motorcycles in central Hanoi starting July 2026, as the country attempts to improve air quality and reduce climate emissions.

In a meeting headed by President Xi Jinping, China marked a shift away from large-scale urban expansion to more sustainable development focused on building green and low-carbon cities.

Earl Zimmerman
CAAV Steering Committee

Local Climate News

Jeff Heie, the founder and director of the local nonprofit GiveSolar, received a Faith Alliance for Climate Solutions 2025 Sustainability Champions Award. GiveSolar raises funds for solar installations on Habitat for Humanity houses across the country.

“The Elephant in the Room” Art Exhibition: Paintings exploring climate crisis and migration by local artist Charlotte Shristi. Arts Council of the Valley Smith House Galleries, 311 South Main St., Harrisonburg, VA.

• Thursday, July 3 – Exhibition Opening Reception, 5-7 pm, Artist will not be in attendance
• Saturday, July 12 – Second Saturday, Meet the artist, 10 am-2 pm
• July 3-25, open weekdays 11 am -4 pm

Wayne Teel, a recently retired professor of agroecology and sustainability at James Madison University, wrote a Substack article, “The Problem is the Car,” which lays out the embedded costs in our car culture and how this a major factor in the challenge to effectively address climate change.

Virginia Energy News

The Virginia Breeze bus route between Roanoke and Washington DC, with stops locally in Staunton and Harrisonburg, has had a 25% increase in riders in the past year. In March, it logged its highest ridership ever. It is a fast, cheap and convenient option to travel to DC.

The Democratic primary for Virginia’s attorney general became a “proxy fight” between Dominion Energy and Clean Virginia as they funneled hundreds of thousands of dollars to the two candidates. Clean Virginia won this round as Jay Jones, who they backed, won the race.

Residents of rural Pittsylvania County, Virginia, successfully fought a developer’s efforts to build a 3,500 MW gas-fired power plant and 84 warehouse-sized data centers.

The Clean Economy Act mandates a carbon-free electric grid in Virginia by 2050. Republicans never liked the bill, but now even some Democrats are saying it should be tweaked. What is driving this discussion is the huge energy demands of data centers in the state.

Our Climate Crisis

June is the new July. Intense summer heat is arriving earlier across Canada, the U.S. and northern Europe. Between 1979 and 2000, the average Northern Hemisphere temperature would break the 69.8 degrees F threshold around July 10 and continue for about five weeks. Last year, the average temperature held above 69.8 degrees F from June 13 until Sept. 5.

A group of scientists has demonstrated that if the world stays on course to warm up to 1.5 degrees—or even stays at its current level of 1.2 degrees above preindustrial levels—polar ice sheets will probably continue to quickly melt, causing seas to rise and displacing coastal communities.

After a year of catastrophic flooding, flood-prone Vermont towns are weighing economic survival against climate-driven home buyouts.

Politics and Policy

A U.S. Senate committee advanced a version of Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” that retains a phase-out of solar and wind energy tax credits by 2028. It would eliminate consumer tax credits for solar panels, electric vehicles, electric heat pumps, and induction stoves. It also imposes a new tax on existing wind and solar farms if they include materials from a foreign entity like China—a huge blow for the renewables industry.

A wave of state bills pushed by fossil fuel interests aims to label methane gas as “clean” energy, undermining climate policies and misleading the public.

The U.S. EPA proposed repealing rules that limit pollutants and carbon emissions from coal and gas plants across the country, claiming that they ​“do not contribute significantly” to ​“dangerous” air pollution. They’re actually the second-largest source of carbon emissions in the country, and they’re responsible for a lot of health-harming pollutants.

Trump and Republicans’ massive “Big Beautiful Bill,” as written, would force the U.S. Postal Service to sell off its EV fleet and undo billions of dollars in EV investments. The Senate parliamentarian, fortunately, ruled against this provision in the bill.

Investments in EV battery plants in the U.S. may be stranded as EV sales slow and Republicans take aim at tax credits. At the same time, China has enough manufacturing to meet the entire world’s demand for batteries and may be looking to off-load them onto other markets.

The U.S. government skipped a major round of United Nations climate negotiations in Bonn, Germany, in June, leaving other nations and U.S. civil society groups to navigate the talks without them. This is the first time that the U.S. government has been absent.

UK officials sat down with Chinese counterparts in June to discuss the next steps of climate cooperation between the two countries.

Energy

The world’s largest banks boosted the amount of financing given to fossil fuel companies last year in keeping with their fraying, environmental commitments. Four of the five largest fossil fuel financiers last year were American banks JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America, Citigroup and Wells Fargo.

The billion-dollar U.S. green hydrogen boom ended before it ever began. The emerging industry was struggling because of soaring costs and low demand even before Trump and fellow Republicans began pulling the financial rug out from under it.

Hyundai announced plans to build a $6 billion hydrogen-integrated steel mill in Louisiana. It will begin by using blue hydrogen created from natural gas and eventually transition to green hydrogen. It is expected to drive jobs, emissions cuts, and clean energy adoption.

Fervo Energy, a geothermal energy company, has drilled 15,765 feet into the earth and is projected to hit a bottomhole temperature of 520 °F. This is a big step in the further development of geothermal energy as a clean and renewable energy source.

U.S. ethanol has been largely a failure. Roughly a third of corn and soybeans grown in the U.S are now grown to produce ethanol despite accounting for only 6% of our country’s transportation fuel. Furthermore, ethanol produces more greenhouse gases than the fossil fuels it replaces.

In a turning point in the clean energy transition, batteries have now hit the price point that lets solar power deliver affordable electricity almost every hour of the year in the sunniest parts of the world. It lets solar carry much more of the load and helps avoid costly grid expansions.

The risk of rising oil prices has grown amidst military action in the Middle East. This has heightened EVs’ advantages as lower fuel and operating costs are lifting sales—particularly in emerging economies that are reducing their reliance on those costly oil imports.

LG is opening a massive Michigan factory to make lithium iron phosphate (LFP) batteries for the grid. The $1.4 billion investment onshores production of a popular battery chemistry that had been almost exclusively made in China, amid tariff and tax policy uncertainty.

Food and Agriculture

Small-scale farms in Vermont are part of a broader movement resisting industrialized agriculture by focusing on local food systems that prioritize soil health, economic resilience, and community relationships.

A surge in dust storms across California’s Central Valley is linked to expanding tracts of fallowed farmland, as growers abandon irrigation to conserve water. Dust from the fallowed fields has wide-reaching consequences including respiratory problems and cardiovascular disease.

Dried-up and fallow California farmland in Fresno County is set to become the site of the largest world-record solar facility combined with battery storage.

Bee populations, vital to pollinating our food crops, are collapsing in the U.S. under the stresses of the widespread use of pesticides, habitat loss, and rising temperatures. The top federal lab on native bees is now set to close under President Trump’s proposed “Big Beautiful Bill.”

Earth’s most productive farmlands, including those in the U.S. Midwest, are likely to face sharp declines in food output due to climate change. It is already disrupting harvests through extreme weather, and while farmers are adapting, these efforts are unlikely to fully offset the damage.

Climate Justice

Wind turbines kill fewer birds than cats or windows, but they still pose a serious threat to vulnerable species like raptors and migratory seabirds. Climate change also poses a threat to birds. Scientists are researching bird behavior near turbines and devising and testing new technologies to keep birds safe.

A year of flooding exacerbated by climate change, poisoned waterways from illegal mining, and rising violence has deepened poverty and food insecurity for rural Afro-Colombian and Indigenous communities in the Salaquí River basin in Colombia.

A rush to mine nickel in Indonesia’s Raja Ampat archipelago, driven by the electric vehicle boom, has damaged one of the world’s richest marine ecosystems—harming farming and fishing livelihoods—despite recent government action to curb operations.

Thousands of Navajo and Hopi residents who relied on federal grants for safer, cleaner home heating now face uncertainty after the Trump administration terminated key environmental justice funding. Many families on the reservations rely on outdated coal- and wood-burning stoves, which contribute to high rates of respiratory illness and unsafe indoor air.

Climate Action

Mark Zuckerberg was hit with a backlash after pulling into a remote port in Norway with his $300 million superyacht. Locals blew whistles and staged a demonstration, calling out what they saw as a jarring example of climate hypocrisy.

AI is straining power grids and producing harmful emissions. Being thoughtful about when and how you use chatbots such as ChatGPT can help. A Google search takes about 10 times less energy. You can avoid prompting Google’s default AI-generated summaries by switching over to the “web” search tab, which is one of the options alongside images and news.

The Inter-American Development Bank plans to boost climate finance by having development banks purchase performing renewable energy loans in developing countries, freeing up capital for new projects. These loans, though relatively low-risk, often sit idle because credit rules prevent private institutions like pension funds from investing in them.

Vienna, Austria, is a model for how to tackle the housing crisis and climate change. About half of Vienna’s 2 million residents live in affordable social housing. The city is using energy efficiency upgrades in its housing stock as one way to get its climate pollution down to zero by 2040.

Mitsubishi will make an estimated $3.9 billion investment in community solar energy development in the U.S. It will invest in Boston-based community solar developer Nexamp and in distributed community scale solar projects for Walmart in 31 solar projects across five states.

Earl Zimmerman
CAAV Steering Committee

Local Climate News

The Vine & Fig Educational Outreach program, called the “The Fresh Veggie Series,” purchases fresh local food from regenerative farms. They deliver the veggies and educational materials each week through five partner farms and 30 regional networks like health clinics, after school youth programming, and section 8 housing locations.

The Rockingham County Board of Supervisors turned down a request for a special use permit that would have allowed a battery facility to be built in Timberville. The battery facility would have been used to store energy from a nearby solar facility when the power grid didn’t need it and release it when needed in high-usage periods.

Virginia Energy News

Clean Virginia is again going head-to-head with Dominion Energy to thwart its dominance as the most powerful donor in Virginia politics. Clean Virginia supports candidates that do not take money from Dominion Energy, the state’s biggest utility. Clean Virginia contributed $250,000 to Abigal Spanberger’s campaign for governor.

Dominion Energy reports that the data center boom in Northern Virginia, the world’s largest market, is not slowing down. There is, however, some Wall Street speculation that investment in data centers may decline significantly as President Donald Trump’s tariffs make it more difficult to source parts and raise the risk of a recession.

Dominion Energy plans to install 7,200 solar panels on a closed landfill in Albemarle County. The three-megawatt solar facility will generate enough energy to power as many as 750 houses.

Dominion Energy says that Trump’s tariffs could add $500M to the cost of its Virginia Beach offshore wind farm. To offset these costs, the utility plans to increase customers’ monthly energy bills by an average of 4 cents over the life of the project.

Dominion Energy and Appalachian Power are both pushing Virginia to end net-metering (crediting the surplus electricity that solar installations supply to the grid at the same retail rate they pay for electricity). Clean energy advocates and solar installers are putting up fierce opposition.

 Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoed two bills for the development of small solar projects and energy storage that had won bipartisan votes and support from Dominion Energy, environmental groups and farm and forestry representatives.

Gov. Glenn Youngkin is working with Democrats who control the General Assembly to increase geothermal energy created by boring deep into the ground to release heat from the earth’s crust.

Our Climate Crisis

Extreme heat has arrived weeks early in India and Pakistan this year as climate change accelerates. Scorching temperatures above 40C (104F) signal a troubling shift toward longer and more intense heatwaves across South Asia.

Politics and Policy

The Trump administration halted work on the next National Climate Assessment, dismissing the more than 400 volunteer scientists and scholars who were working on it. The Congressionally mandated report, produced roughly every four years, summarizes the data and science on how the climate is changing and how that affects agriculture and natural resources.

Trump’s push to save the fading coal industry is getting a warm embrace in West Virginia even though experts say it isn’t possible. That’s because market forces are driving the conversion to cheaper alternative energy sources such as natural gas and clean energy.

The Environmental Protection Agency is planning to eliminate its Energy Star program. This would end a decades-old program that gave consumers a choice to buy environmentally friendly refrigerators, dishwashers and other electronics and save money on electric bills.

Methane leaking from abandoned coal mines and oil and gas wells is the fourth-largest emitter of the potent greenhouse gas globally. Most governments are, however, reluctant to invest in capping them as there’s little economic return and weak political momentum.

A Republican-led effort to repeal major clean energy tax credits threatens more than $500 billion in pending investment from the Inflation Reduction Act. Many Republican districts, which stand to benefit most from these incentives, are caught between party lines, as business interests and job growth clash with ideological opposition to clean energy.

Energy

More than 90% of the new energy capacity built worldwide last year was clean energy due to plummeting costs and global decarbonization policies. Nevertheless, largely due to increased demand, greenhouse gas emissions from the global power sector rose by 1.7% last year compared with 2023.

PJM, the largest grid operator in the U.S, is partnering with Google to use artificial intelligence to overhaul how it runs its electricity system across 13 states.  This has major implications for renewable energy, fossil fuels and an interconnection backlog stalling projects.

For the first time, fossil fuels accounted for less than half of U.S. electricity production as clean power generation surged in March. Gas and coal made up just over 49% of power generation, while solar, wind, hydropower, biofuels and other renewables, and nuclear met 51% of demand.

Pakistan is rapidly scaling up solar energy because it is the cheapest and most available source of energy.  Last year, it installed an incredible 22 gigawatts of solar power—more than the UK has added in the past five years combined. It is now the world’s sixth-largest solar market.

An 800-megawatt solar farm, the biggest east of the Mississippi, is now powering Chicago. The city is sourcing around 70% of the power for its municipal operations from the facility. That includes big energy users like O’Hare and Midway airports.

Europe’s biggest power blackout in over 20 years unleashed hours of chaos for people in Spain, Portugal and parts of France. As nations race to decarbonize their energy supplies and reduce dependence on fossil fuels, power grids face mounting challenges as wind and solar power introduce variability and complexity to grid operations.

Pedro Sánchez, Spain’s prime minister, says the cause of the recent massive power outage remains unknown, but that renewables are not to blame. He stressed that he will not deviate from his commitment to renewable energy, calling it “our country’s energy future” and “our only and best option.”

A huge new liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminal is moving forward in southwest Louisiana as the Trump administration fast-tracked the project’s approval. This expanded LNG infrastructure is harming the gulf coast, damaging air and water quality, and destroying property values.

US produced more than three times as much solar, wind, and geothermal power in 2024 as it did in 2015. Progress has happened everywhere as Americans are realizing that renewable energy – power from the sun and wind doesn’t pollute, never runs out, and shows up for free.

The European Union plans to end all Russian gas imports by the end of 2027. They plan to do this through the rapid deployment of renewable energy.

Food and Agriculture

Farmers in California’s water-stressed Central Valley are fallowing land and installing solar, providing financial stability and saving water. Some are even growing crops beneath and between solar panels, which is great for plants stressed by too many rays. Still others are letting that shaded land go wild, providing habitat for pollinators and fodder for grazing livestock.

Billed as a type of food system that works in harmony with nature, “regenerative” agriculture is gaining popularity as a way to improve the health of soil, water, and ecosystems. Some no-till regenerative programs, however, are being used to “greenwash” the routine use of synthetic fertilizers and dangerous herbicides on farm fields.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture will bring back deleted climate content on its website following a lawsuit filed on behalf of farmers and environmental groups. The removed content created information blackholes for farmers navigating unpredictable weather and seeking sustainable practices.

Climate Justice

Research by the Union of Concerned Scientists shows that half of global temperature rise and a third of sea-level rise can be attributed to the world’s 122 largest fossil fuel and cement producers. They insist that corporate accountability be among future climate action measures.

Climate Action

“Deep Change Theory”  indicates that many sustainability projects are superficial because they focus on small changes within the system without changing the system itself. A new U.N. report maps a path toward a more sustainable future and challenges society to question basic assumptions and values about the environment, consumption, and waste.

The Edinburgh Street Stitchers take to the streets with their banner inviting people to #stitchitdontditchit. They repair their garments in public and teach interested passers-by how to do the same. The fashion industry emits more carbon than aviation and shipping combined; extending a garment’s life by nine months can cut its environmental footprint by up to 30%.

Major scientific societies will independently publish research for the stalled National Climate Assessment after the Trump administration removed the project’s scientific teams.

A coalition of aviation professionals warns that the industry must urgently control flight growth and adopt deeper emissions cuts. Aviation’s environmental toll is growing and, if we do not act, will be about a quarter of all human-caused emissions by 2050.

Vienna has the goal of getting its climate pollution down to zero by 2040. In addition to mandating solar panels and energy-efficient buildings, it is heating thousands of homes with geothermal energy. Cities all over the world can make a big difference because 70% of global carbon dioxide emissions come from cities.

A small startup in Massachusetts has built and road-tested a solid-state battery that has the potential for faster charging, greater range, and improved safety. The batteries still have significant manufacturing challenges but if the technology can be pushed into mass production, the ripple effects could be vast.

Maine’s new energy-efficiency plan is projected to lower electricity bills for the state’s residents. It is heavily focused on getting electric heat pumps in as many homes as possible. A low-income household can get rebates of up to $9,000 for heat pump installations, and homes at high income levels qualify for up to $3,000.

Would you swap your plane ticket for a seat on a zeppelin airship? Nearly a century after the Hindenburg, a new generation of airship companies say they have a greener alternative for tourism and cargo flights.

Earl Zimmerman
CAAV Steering Committee

Local Climate News

Renew Rocktown, an emerging local umbrella environmental organization, hosted an Earth Day luncheon that drew together 100 environmental leaders to celebrate past accomplishments. Renew Rocktown development director Everett Brubaker characterized the event as, “A chance to collaborate and build pathways, build relationships, and continue doing the work together.”

The Harrisonburg Public Works’ Urban Forestry Program is working hard to build an environmentally friendly city. The city’s 26% tree canopy is an average nationally but low for our part of Virginia. Because of an emerald ash borer invasion, 1,500 ash trees had to be removed from the city parks alone. The goal is to proactively replant and manage trees.

Virginia Climate News

Students at five Virginia universities rallied on Earth Day to address the climate crisis and demand that their schools do more to reduce carbon emissions.

A bipartisan bill to boost green building materials has glided through the Virginia House of Representatives. The legislation, which passed in a 350-73 vote, would give the Department of Energy a clear mandate to develop a full program to research, develop, and deploy clean versions of building materials such as concrete and asphalt.

Dominion Energy is among the utilities that asked for and received a two-year exemption from a rule aimed at reducing coal pollution from power plants—the Trump EPA granted the exemption. In a separate recent regulatory hearing, Dominion indicated that none of its coal plants would be retired before 2045. This violates the Virginia Clean Energy Act.

Our Climate Crisis

The amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere grew at the fastest rate in recorded history last year. This dramatic spike has scientists concerned that Earth’s ecosystems are so stressed by warming they can no longer absorb much of the pollution humanity emits.

Harmful bleaching of the world’s coral has grown to include 84% of the ocean’s reefs and is the most intense event of its kind in recorded history. It’s the fourth global bleaching event since 1998 and it’s not clear when the current crisis, which began in 2023, will end.

About 80,000 homes may be lost to flooding due to rising sea levels in the New York area by 2040. This will make the present housing crisis even worse. Swaths of land in every borough will likely become impossible to develop, helping push the area’s housing shortage to a staggering 1.2 million homes.

Central Asia is getting warmer year after year, running out of water and, consequently, food. Fertile lands are rapidly decreasing while the region’s population is growing.

The Trump administration cut funding to one of our nation’s top climate modeling programs because they claim it creates climate anxiety among young people. But experts say that this will not make us less anxious—it will just give us less information about the threats we might face.

Politics and Policy

Nearly 2,000 top U.S. scientists are sounding the alarm about the Trump administration’s deliberate campaign to dismantle scientific research and suppress scientific findings it doesn’t like.

EPA head Lee Zeldin has justified his rollback of environmental protections by claiming, “We are driving a dagger through the heart of climate-change religion and ushering in America’s Golden Age.” Jewish and Christian faith leaders are pushing back saying that he managed to denigrate religion, science and efforts to address the climate crisis all in one fell swoop.

Texas and other Republican-led states are advancing legislation that could slow or block new renewable energy projects. While Texas leads the nation in wind and solar electricity generation, lawmakers have filed bills to curb new renewable projects. Similar efforts are advancing in Oklahoma, Arizona, Ohio, and Missouri.

President Trump signed a new executive order instructing the Department of Justice to go to court against state climate change laws aimed at slashing planet-warming greenhouse gas pollution from fossil fuels.

A sweeping White House proposal would slash science budgets at NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, dismantling key climate research efforts.

The Interior Department is halting an offshore wind project already under construction off the coast of Long Island because of Trump’s animus toward wind energy. New York Gov. Kathy Hochul decried it as “federal overreach,” saying that she “will fight this every step of the way.”

Energy

China has abruptly suspended all LNG imports from the United States. Losing China as a customer completely upends the industry’s plans for rapid expansion at a time when Europe is seeking to wean itself off of LNG in preference to other sources of energy.

Africa increased its renewable energy capacity by 6.7% last year according to an International Renewable Energy Agency report. Egypt, Ethiopia and South Africa were among the countries that built the most clean power.

Market trends have accelerated the shift to wind and solar power in states across the political spectrum. Over the past decade, the costs of deploying wind and solar have fallen by 70–90%. They are now cheaper to deploy than coal, gas, or oil.

Energy demands from artificial intelligence is projected to quadruple by 2030 and consume more electricity in the U.S. than all major industrial manufacturing sectors combined. This is a flashing light warning us about the environmental cost of poorly managed growth.

Food and Agriculture

Solar-powered irrigation is quietly transforming small farms across Africa, helping farmers boost yields, cut costs, and ditch dirty diesel. While upfront costs remain high, financial support and falling tech prices are making renewable energy solutions more accessible and economically viable for farmers, helping them to become less dependent on unpredictable weather patterns.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture canceled a $3.1 billion grant program that sought to advance climate-friendly farming practices.

It requires about 31 acres of corn ethanol to produce the same amount of energy generated by one acre of land covered in solar panels. Solar energy expansion is often viewed as a threat to US food security, yet an area the size of New York State is currently devoted to corn crops that are farmed for fuel rather than for food.

Climate Justice

Pope Francis made climate justice a pillar of his legacy as he called for urgent action on global warming and spotlighted its disproportionate impact on the poor. His 2015 encyclical Laudato si’ was a watershed moment, aligning Catholic doctrine with climate science and influencing key international talks like COP21 which produced the Paris Climate Agreement.

“Mobility for Africa,” a Zimbabwean start-up, is making EV tricycles available to women in rural Africa. Being able to lease or buy an EV tricycle has been an economic gamechanger for many rural women entrepreneurs.

The Mountain Valley Pipeline is pressing to build a 31-mile extension into North Carolina. Opponents are organizing against the plan because of environmental concerns and the pipeline company’s history of construction violations and safety issues.

Seven Indigenous nations in Michigan have walked away from federal talks over a proposed oil pipeline tunnel, citing a lack of meaningful engagement and treaty violations. The Army Corps of Engineers recently fast-tracked permitting under President Trump’s energy emergency order.

A lithium mining boom in Chile’s Atacama Desert is depleting water resources and transforming the lives of Indigenous communities, who now face worsening drought, ecological loss, and cultural disruption. Lithium is a key ingredient in batteries that power electric vehicles and store renewable energy.

Rethinking our relationship with nature is key to solving the climate breakdown, according to a new United Nations report. A shift in values and collective mindset—not just new technologies—is essential to confronting the environmental crises threatening our planet.

Climate Action

Two-thirds of attendees at the Hands Off rally in Washington, D.C., named climate change as one of their top motivations for participating. Studies show that protests sway public opinion toward the climate cause, without appearing to backfire, even when disruptive tactics are used.

A Jesuit priest in Germany says he prefers going to prison rather than paying a 500-euro fine for participating in a climate activists’ street blockade in the southern German city of Nuremberg.

With the first U.N. climate talks in the Amazon approaching later this year, thousands of Indigenous people marched in Brazil’s capital last month. They are demanding that the state guarantee and expand their rights to traditional lands as part of the solution to the world’s climate crisis.

A new study has found that 90% of American Christian leaders believe in the reality of human-induced climate change but are typically silent in their beliefs. Rank-and-file Christians are, therefore, hesitant to even discuss climate change with their fellow churchgoers.

Paris has undergone a major physical transformation over the past 20 years, trading automotive arteries for bike lanes, adding green spaces and eliminating 50,000 parking spaces. Part of the payoff is clean air because pollution fell substantially.

Nepal’s rapid embrace of electric vehicles is bringing cleaner skies and contributing to longer life spans. More than 70% of four-wheeled passenger vehicles – largely cars and minibuses – imported into the country last year were electric, one of the highest rates in the world.

Municipal politicians across Canada are urging federal party leaders to embrace climate-related actions they say would improve the country’s resilience to environmental calamities.

Electric hydrofoil ferries cut through the water with very little resistance, allowing them to travel faster than the diesel ferries, while using much less energy and creating 98% fewer carbon emissions.

Global EV sales surged in March as the EV market continues its robust growth despite the tariff turmoil. Year-over-year sales jumped 29% and marked an impressive 40% month-over-month leap from February.

A growing number of evangelical churches in Indiana are embracing renewable energy and environmental stewardship. They are installing solar panels, planting native gardens, and hosting events like the Indy Creation Fest to promote environmental stewardship.

Earl Zimmerman
CAAV Steering Committee

Local Climate News

Climate STARR (Strategies for Trauma, Action, Resilience, & Regeneration) training in response to our climate crisis is being held at Eastern Mennonite University, May 14-16, 2025. To learn more and to register, check out the Climate STARR website here.

Federal funds for the Local Food Purchase Assistance program were frozen. The program, coordinated by the Harrisonburg nonprofit Vine & Fig, buys high-quality produce from local farmers and distributes it to schools, food pantries, and health clinics. The funds for the 2025 growing season were later released but will be eliminated in 2026.  

The federal funding freeze threatens Shenandoah Valley farms and is disrupting the broader agricultural economy. It has stalled conservation projects and cost-share programs that help farmers implement sustainable practices. For farmers facing frozen contracts, the situation isn’t just a temporary setback—it’s a warning about the long-term viability of farming.

Virginia Energy News

Dominion Energy has completed the construction on a new large scale solar facility in Powhatan County, south of Richmond. The 18 megawatt facility can power up to 4,500 homes at its peak output, and spans across 150 acres.

About 20 bills to deal with data centers were introduced in the Virginia General Assembly this year but only 4 survived. They were meant to address issues including energy and water consumption, land use and location of data centers.

The Virginia General Assembly passed legislation to increase the carve-out for small solar in Dominion Energy’s renewable portfolio requirement from 1% to 5%. The bill expands the amount of clean energy under Virginia law that can go towards increasing solar energy in places such as rooftops of homes and schools, or small property.

Dominion Energy submitted an application with the Virginia State Corporation Commission to install four natural gas-fired turbines at the utility’s Chesterfield Power Station. The turbines can run on natural gas or fuel oil and have the capability to blend hydrogen.

Mecklenburg County in Southside Virginia is drawing up an ordinance to ban utility scale solar installations. These kinds of local policies could drive legislation in the Virginia General Assembly to take that kind of authority away from local governments.

The push to expand electric vehicle charging stations in Virginia has hit a major roadblock in the federal funding freeze. State leaders are pushing back and urging legal action to keep the expansion of new charging stations on track.

Valley Metro in Roanoke recently unveiled its first electric buses, marking a significant step forward in sustainable, clean transportation. The electric buses bring numerous environmental and operational benefits. They offer a quieter ride, lower maintenance costs, and increased fuel efficiency, ensuring a more reliable and cost-effective service for passengers.

Our Climate Crisis

Wildfires are spreading across the eastern U.S. amid an unseasonably dry spring and lots of debris from Hurricane Helene. As climate patterns evolve, wildfires are no longer just a Western problem and they’re no longer just seasonal.

Sea ice cover across Earth’s polar regions hit a record low in February. The Arctic has continued a steady trajectory of less sea ice over time and has warmed at several times the global average. While the Antarctic has not experienced the same warming trajectory, that is now beginning to change.

Rising sea levels are threatening Philadelphia’s drinking water supply. An interstate agency is warning that existing measures to keep saltwater at bay may fail due to rising sea levels and worsening droughts.

Politics and Policy

The Trump administration is working to produce a federal report that portrays climate change as beneficial. Climate scientist Michael Mann calls the effort “ideologically motivated anti-science.” The report will be used to justify rolling back environmental regulations.

America’s six largest banks, Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo, have exited a UN backed climate initiative. They were facing criticism and investigation from right-wing lawmakers and state attorneys general promoting fossil fuels.

Tennessee lawmakers are considering reclassifying natural gas—already defined in state law as “clean energy”—as also “green” and “renewable” to block local attempts to require certain amounts of energy to come from clean or renewable sources. This is dishonest because gas accounts for nearly 40% of total planet-warming emissions from fuel burning in the U.S.

A group of House Republicans is pushing to preserve clean energy tax credits, arguing they are essential for economic growth and U.S. energy dominance. The tax credits have fueled major investments in manufacturing, energy production, and infrastructure in GOP-led districts.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency administrator Lee Zeldin announced a sweeping rollback of environmental regulations. It may not survive court challenges, but the attempt alone could create enough disruption to slow climate policy for years.

The United Kingdom is working to form a global clean energy coalition with China, the European Union and developing nations. This will counter President Trump’s rejection of climate policies and his alignment with fossil fuel countries like Russia and Saudi Arabia.

Republican plans to scrap nearly all federal support for electric vehicles could kneecap the industry. Existing trade barriers with China are already keeping cheaper Chinese EVs off American roads and raising the price of going electric. This will delay but not prevent the gradual shift from gas-powered cars and trucks to EVs.

Energy

U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright’s claim that wind and solar energy have significantly increased electricity prices is a lie that is not borne out by the data. Modeling and analysis for nonpartisan think tank Energy Innovation has found that clean energy is key to keeping U.S. electric bills in check.

The U.S. installed 50 gigawatts of new solar capacity in 2024, the largest single year of new capacity added to the grid by any energy technology in over two decades. Furthermore, domestic solar module production tripled last year and can now produce enough to meet nearly all demand for solar panels in the U.S.

Atlanta has overtaken Northern Virginia as America’s new darling for data centers. The growth is unprecedented, bringing fierce opposition because of their power and water use.

President Trump’s trade war with Canada will escalate U.S. electricity prices. All U.S. power grids except for Texas’ have some level of interconnection with grids in Canada, the largest energy supplier to the U.S. In addition, northern states are depending on imported Canadian hydropower to clean up their grids and this upends their climate plans.

A commercial-scale tidal energy pilot project in Normandy, France is due to supply thousands of locals with clean electricity. An advantage to generating clean energy from tides is that, unlike wind or solar, tides are relentless and don’t fade when the weather shifts. That kind of reliability makes them an enticing option for a stable, low-carbon energy future.

Growing cannabis indoors uses about 1% of U.S. energy and pollutes more than cryptocurrency mining. The industry could cut three-quarters of its emissions by growing outdoors, where sunlight and rain are free.

Food and Agriculture

The freeze on federal funding has left small farmers across the U.S. struggling to cover essential costs. That funding has been a lifeline for farmers facing slim margins and climate disasters. Now many are questioning whether they can stay in business.

Biochar, created from biomass like trees and crops, improves crop yields and better retains water, all while locking away carbon when applied to the soil. Scientists are now discovering that it locks away carbon for thousands of years, making it a better and cheaper method of removing carbon in comparison to technologies such as direct air capture.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture has axed two programs that gave schools and food banks money to buy food from local farms and ranchers, halting more than $1 billion in federal spending. This comes as school nutrition officials are becoming increasingly anxious about their ability to afford healthy food with the current federal reimbursement rate for meals.

Climate Justice

A North Dakota jury ordered Greenpeace to pay more than $660m in damages to an oil company for its role in the protest against the Dakota Access Pipeline on the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. Greenpeace in the U.S. could be forced into bankruptcy and the verdict will have a chilling effect on environmental and climate action.

The federal funding that commercial fishermen were depending on to switch to more energy efficient boat engines and refrigeration systems has been frozen. The full extent of the cuts is unclear, and fishermen affected by them described the situation as chaotic and confusing. Some fishermen were depending on the funds to help pay costs they already committed to.

The EPA is cutting staff and funding for environmental justice programs. These programs have long served as a lifeline for communities where smokestacks, highways, and hazardous waste sites are often just a few blocks away from schools and homes.

Climate Action

Environmentalist Paul Hawken says that the climate movement is talking about carbon all wrong. Carbon isn’t an enemy to “combat” or “tackle” but the animating force of life. The problem is that the unrestricted burning of fossil fuels releases inordinate amounts of carbon into Earth’s atmosphere, where it traps heat and alters the climate.

The green sector of Britain’s economy is growing three times faster than the overall economy. The UK energy secretary comments, “These numbers speak for themselves. Net zero is essential to growth, a strong economy, and money in working people’s pockets.”

European cities are scaling back their relationship with the car by removing parking spaces, creating dedicated bike lanes, and implementing restrictions on personal car use. This reduces greenhouse gas emissions and makes the cities more livable.

Butterflies in the U.S declined by 22% this century, a collapse with potentially dire implications. This is part of a troubling downturn in the number of other insects like bumblebees and fireflies. You can help to reverse this trend by joining the Homegrown Nation Park movement and plant native plants in your backyard.

For decades, the Swiss city of Basel has been transforming its skyline and now has thousands of gardens perched on otherwise unused roofs. This is now creating tension with placing solar panels on unused roof space. One solution is elevated solar panels that shade and protect the plants beneath them.

Mark Carney, the newly elected leader of the Liberal party in Canada, has advocated for the financial sector to invest in net-zero and held the position of UN special envoy for climate action and finance in 2019. 

The California Heat Pump Partnership announced a statewide blueprint to achieve the state’s ambitious goals for deploying heat pumps, a critical technology for decarbonizing buildings and improving public health. This is a crucial step in the goal to be carbon neutral by 2045.

Tesla, the dominant EV maker, is now a partisan lightning rod because of CEO Elon Musk’s inflammatory politics. It’s losing value fast and most of the damage was self-inflicted. Even so, Tesla’s swoon is probably bad for the U.S. EV market.

Earl Zimmerman
CAAV Steering Committee

Local and Virginia Climate News

It is still not clear how the Trump administration’s move to freeze federal grants might affect Harrisonburg. The city often receives federal funding for city programs and projects, including a recent grant from the EPA for clean-energy school buses.

Democratic lawmakers are clashing with governor Youngkin over the Virginia’s membership in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). Youngkin withdrew Virgina from RGGI, a move that a court ruling judged was illegal and is now tied up in an appeal process.

Dominion Energy executives say they expect the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project to be completed and operational next year. They say it offers one of the best chances to meet potentially soaring energy demands from an explosion of data centers. The energy demand from data centers in Virginia almost doubled in the last half of 2024.

This was supposed to be the year the Virginia General Assembly did something about data centers. It has, however, largely failed to regulate the rapid expansion of data centers despite mounting concerns over their strain on energy, water and infrastructure.

Loudoun County executives told business leaders at a Chamber of Commerce meeting that the county now has 199 energy thirsty data centers on the ground with another 117 in the pipeline. They said data centers are a crucial part of Loudoun’s economy, but that concerns about electrical grid capacity are valid.

The Virginia General Assembly passed a bill to build EV charging stations in rural locations beyond interstate highways. The $1.5 million allocated to the effort makes it a pilot project. The goal is to provide more funds over the next five years.

Our Climate Crisis

Temperatures at the north pole rose 68°F above average and beyond the ice melting point in early February. While this is probably not the most extreme weather swing ever observed in the Arctic, it is still at the upper edge of what can happen.

State Farm, the largest insurer in California, is asking state regulators to approve a 22% rate increase after the devastating Los Angeles wildfires, warning that failure to do so could put 2.8 million policies at risk.  The company has already paid out over $1 billion in claims from the fires and expects to pay much more.

Scientists say that rising global temperatures are fueled, in part, by declining cloud cover. It could be a potential climate feedback loop, which leads to more warming.

Surprisingly little is being said about the centrality of war in the creation of global environmental threats and our climate crisis. Armed conflict threatens the fragile ecosystems that sustain us all. Furthermore, the world’s military carbon footprint accounts for an estimated 5.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions, with the US military far in the lead.

Politics and Policy

The Trump administration’s freeze on climate and energy funding has disrupted businesses, nonprofits and local governments, with rural projects in conservative-leaning states facing stalled reimbursements and financial strain. Federal courts have ordered the administration to restart funding, but agencies have yet to comply, creating uncertainty for grantees.

The Trump administration has taken unprecedented steps to shutter or remake federal offices focused on the environment, causing turmoil and confusion for employees. It plans to close the Environmental Protection Agency’s environmental justice office and remake the Justice Department’s environmental division.

Tesla sales have plummeted 63% in France and 59% in Germany. Elon Musk has inserted himself into alt-right European politics and it appears to be taking a toll on demand. Tesla stock continues to trade at about a bazillion times earnings, but these are flashing warning signals for what lies ahead for the company.

The Trump administration has ordered states to rework plans for using $5 billion in federal funding for EV-charging installations nationwide. This potentially halts plans to put obligated but as-yet unspent dollars to work. Experts say the order is illegal.

President Trump’s halt on federal clean energy funding is stalling billions in investments, with most of the economic fallout affecting Republican-led states that had benefited from the climate incentives. Grants for renewable energy projects, battery factories and grid modernization have been frozen despite court orders to release the funds.

Environmental organizations are gearing up for a wave of legal challenges as the Trump administration moves to weaken climate policies, cut agency staff and roll back environmental regulations.

President Trump’s fossil fuel push is influencing global energy policies. In an effort to avoid Trump’s threat of tariffs, countries including India, Japan and South Korea are agreeing to boost imports of American fossil fuels. Other countries such as Indonesia, Argentina, and South Africa are walking back their own commitments to decease carbon emissions.

American Secretary of State Marco Rubio snubbed the G-20 meeting in South Africa to protest what he said was an attempt to promote diversity, equity and inclusion, and tackle climate change.

Energy

Thermal batteries promise to provide a cheaper, cleaner alternative for roughly 20% of global energy consumption. They convert low-cost, low-value hours of electricity production into energy stored for long durations as high temperature heat, delivering industrial heat and power cost-effectively and on demand, day or night, solving this crucial problem.

The share of electricity from solar and wind is growing twice as fast in the Global South as in the Global North. These countries are endowed with 70% of the world’s renewable energy potential. These resources keep getting cheaper and cheaper, outcompeting fossil fuels on price. When incentives are clear, markets move—and cleantech is moving.

The U.S. solar energy industry has now built more than enough factories to meet the country’s demand for solar panels. Solar cell factories are coming next but may be hindered if Trump kills a key tax credit.

Clean energy installations in the U.S. reached a record high last year, with the country adding 47% more capacity than in 2023. Solar led the way and is expected to do the same this year. Renewables will continue growing this year but at a slower pace. The rate of continued progress will depend heavily on the Trump administration.

Japan is increasing its reliance on nuclear energy, reversing previous plans to reduce its use after the Fukushima meltdown more than a decade ago. This is part of a plan to increase energy from renewables to 40-50%, while energy from coal will drop from 70% to 30-40%.

China’s construction of new coal-power plants reached a 10-year high in 2024 and is undermining its clean-energy progress. It stands in direct conflict with President Xi Jinping’s pledge to “strictly limit the increase in coal consumption.”

Food and Agriculture

Decades of work on adapted apple tree varieties at the University of Maryland could help sow the seeds of future climate-resilient crops. Growers are on the front lines of shifting weather patterns, such as warm winters followed by brutal spring frost, and extended summer droughts, that threaten harvests.

Sheep are grazing solar farms in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, as part of Dominion Energy’s efforts to find agricultural uses for its solar farms. In January, local farmer Marcus Gray moved his herd of 165 sheep to the 1,000-acre solar farm and plans to expand it to 400 sheep.

Hurricane Helene inflicted huge losses on western North Carolina farms and some farmers wonder whether they can or should begin again. Farmers were already confronting a brutal year for agriculture involving a severe drought followed by fields waterlogged by Tropical Storm Debby. Less than two months later, Helene arrived and brought unprecedented destruction.

Livestock account for 12% of global greenhouse gas emissions, with the largest portion coming from methane that cattle release when they burp. Feeding dairy cows a small seaweed supplement can reduce the amount of methane they emit by 80%. Adding seaweed pellets to grazing beef cattle diets cuts methane output by 40%.

Global coffee prices have hit a 50-year high. Even so, many farmers are still struggling to make a profit as they deal with droughts, erratic rainfall and plant diseases exacerbated by climate change.  While large coffee companies pass rising costs to consumers, small farmers often see little of the increased revenue.

Climate Justice

The Women in Renewable Energy (WIRE) Network, is designed to empower women in the renewable energy sector, particularly in island nations where energy challenges are acute. WIRE is fostering mentorship, technical training, and peer learning, equipping women to drive the clean energy transition in their communities.

The Bezos Earth Fund has halted funding for the Science Based Targets initiative, which monitors companies’ decarbonization efforts. This comes amid broader concerns that US billionaires are “bowing down to Trump” and his anti-climate action policies.

Diplomats from the developing world are pushing rich nations to defy US President Trump and make stronger climate commitments. According to the chair of the African group of climate negotiators, “Africa, responsible for less than 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions, remains disproportionately affected by the intensifying impacts of climate change.”

A pipeline company is bringing a $300 million lawsuit against Greenpeace for alleged damages  in the fight over the Dakota Access pipeline nearly a decade ago near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. Many environmentalists are convinced the lawsuit is an intimidation tactic, intended to instill fear throughout the broader climate action movement.

Climate Action

The dismantling of US climate policies is climate action in reverse. The rollback of climate protections will have lasting consequences for public health, energy costs, and the nation’s ability to combat climate change. It is locking in decades of damage.

China now eclipses every other country in the world in the green technologies of the future. It has done so through a rush of entrepreneurship and unwavering government support.

Global EV sales in January 2025 still saw an 18% jump compared to the same month last year. Continued robust sales are expected even though some speed bumps lie ahead.

Ten new EV battery factories are on track to go online this year in the United States. If they all open on schedule, our country’s EV battery manufacturing capacity will increase by 90% from the end of 2024.

Peatlands constitute only 3% of Earth’s surface but they store more carbon than all of the world’s forests combined. Few of them are, however, protected in comparison to other natural areas. Increasing the protection of peatlands is a crucial climate action.

Earl Zimmerman
CAAV Steering Committee