Dear Friends,

Is climate change something we need to stoically accept, simply a price we have to pay for living in a modern world?

The U.S. Secretary of Energy directly said so this month when speaking with financial and energy executives at CERAWeek, the annual international conference of energy leaders.

We appreciate that the administration has moved away from its historic position that climate change is a hoax to admitting that it is a real “phenomenon” impacting our world right now.

But to us, his statement insinuates that burning fossil fuels – which is causing climate change – is the only way to have a modern life. Tell that to Texas, which ran on 76% renewable and battery power earlier this month, or to South Dakota or Iowa, which safely, reliably, and economically got about three-quarters of their power from renewables last year.

Tell that to China, which is adding clean power at a blistering rate – electrifying its manufacturing, transportation, and homes so fast that researchers are calling it the world’s first “electrostate” – gaining energy dominance through electricity rather than fossil fuels.

Tell that to investors who plowed $2T into clean tech last year – twice the amount that was invested in fossil fuels.

And tell the American people how big those “trade-offs” really are, so they know the sacrifices we are being asked to make.

The Secretary of Energy is asking a lot of us. While our economies are currently dependent on fossil fuels, they are turbocharging climate change and will make our world more dangerous and expensive, and much less beautiful as we lose our iconic spaces and species. Is that the modern world we want? Or do we want to double down on the innovation, new processes, and systems that other countries are embracing to create a different kind of future?

I know my vote. What do you think?

Sincerely,
Kathleen Biggins
Founder and President

Notable Quote

“The Trump administration will treat climate change for what it is, a global physical phenomenon that is a side effect of building the modern world. Everything in life involves trade-offs. Everything.”

– Chris Wright, U.S. Secretary of Energy

News of Concern

So we’ll jump right into it – the World Meteorological Organization’s newly released 2024 report paints a sobering picture: it was the hottest year ever recorded and the first year we broke the 1.5°C increase threshold, the limit above which natural system changes are expected to become much more significant and disruptive. The report also tells us that glaciers are melting and sea levels are rising at record levels, and disasters like tropical cyclones, floods, droughts, and other hazards caused a record number of refugees and led to “massive economic and social upheaval.”
 
Another recent report explains why these changes are happening so fast: our overall emissions reached new heights last year, despite the record growth in clean energy. Remarkably, 22 countries decreased emissions while growing their economies – and  emissions in China, the world’s largest emitter, were relatively flat, just a .2% increase. But these gains were offset by increased emissions from developing countries like India. We can still get to “peak emissions” in time to meet our temperature goals, but the world needs to do more and move faster.
 
At the exact time that climate impacts are revving up (last year, the U.S. experienced weather-related disasters at a rate of almost one every four days), the agencies we look to to help us prepare and repair are being significantly cut and deregulated by the DOGE. Consider NOAA, for example, which just lost almost 900 jobs, including hurricane hunters, the pilots who fly into these dangerous storms to gather data for the National Hurricane Center. Climate change is significantly disrupting hurricane patterns: they are intensifying more quickly, reaching higher wind speeds, and forming and staying strong farther from the equator. We are more vulnerable than ever, so cutting our “eyes in the sky” seems like a recipe for disaster.
 
The administration’s across-the-board “canceling” of climate change will make us less prepared for the disruption ahead. Agencies that use federal funds to rebuild are no longer required to factor in updated levels of flooding when they build roads, bridges, and buildings, putting taxpayer dollars at risk. And the U.S. Coast Guard is no longer using the words climate change or educating cadets on climate change at its academy, despite the real fact that they are a frontline defense of our coasts and seas.
 
Another recent setback was Congress’ repeal of the methane tax, designed to force oil and gas companies to cut back on methane leaks from pipelines, drill sites, and oil and gas equipment. Cutting methane, which traps more heat than CO2 but lasts for shorter periods in the atmosphere, is one of the easiest ways we can slow rising temperatures. The tax would have cut emissions equal to removing 8 million gas-powered cars from our roads. 
 
On a more human-sized scale, a recent study on heat and aging caught our attention. It appears that high temperatures are aging some of us more quickly than others. Residents of areas that get hotter and stay warm longer (say, Arizona) could have a cellular age that’s 14 months older than those in cooler regions (like Washington State). The scientists suggested long-term exposure to high heat could have the same negative effects on our bodies as habitual smoking.

And lastly, we are concerned that the natural systems that have normally been our ally are now part of the threat. Vast Colorado forests, decimated by pests and drought, are now emitting more carbon than they are absorbing. We know our forests as places that help clean our air and soothe our souls – they seem invincible but their future, too, is at risk from climate change.

News of Hope

And yet! Though it may slow down here in the U.S., the clean-energy transition will most definitely progress. Last year, for the first time, wind and solar produced more electricity than coal. States are rapidly increasing their solar deployment – Georgia and Illinois, for example, both doubled theirs in 2024, and Texas broke its own records in one week in early March.
 
This explosive growth in power generated by solar and wind is supported by increasing battery storage, which is quickly becoming a favored way to boost grid security. The Energy Information Administration (EIA) says the U.S. could plug in more than 18 gigawatts of new utility-scale energy storage capacity – enough to provide power to almost 16 million households – to the grid in 2025, up from 11 GW last year. Texas and California lead the charge here, but there’s real progress in other states, notably Arizona, which is set to double its battery capacity this year.
 
The economic and job growth from this transition is benefiting Republican districts across the country – and their governors and legislators know it. There is growing Republican support for the policies that are driving the new-energy transition. Clean energy is the cheapest and quickest way to add power to our grid to meet growing demand, and is increasingly seen as adding to our energy security. Many conservatives rightly understand that the global clean-tech “revolution” will impact every sector of the economy – and it will be won by the leaders, not the foot draggers.
 
On the other side of the globe, China continues to step on the gas pedal … er, that is to say, the electric pedal. BYD, a Chinese electric vehicle maker, has built an SUV with a battery that charges in about the same time it would take to fill a tank of gas – about five minutes. This lightning-speed charging will be a game changer and U.S. automakers are sure to follow this path in the coming years.
 
We mentioned above our concerns over how rising temperatures are affecting our health, but here’s some hopeful news on that front. A new study shows that more Americans understand that climate change will affect our health – and that we are more trustful of the scientists and doctors who are delivering the message. Knowledge is power – the more we understand, the better our chances to navigate the risks to stay well.
 
Finally, we love this vignette about a man who kept his lights on after Hurricane Helene by drawing power from his EV. New technology enables energy to flow back and forth –  to and from our homes and cars, but also from our homes back to the grid. This means that when utilities need a burst of additional power, they could harvest it from us (and pay us for it!) versus firing up a new plant. Innovation is coming in all sorts of ways.

Notable Graphic

Source: The New York Times

The tremendous growth of solar and wind power in the United States is truly remarkable. This New York Times animation gives us a great picture of what it looks like from space.

Notable Video

 Source: CNBC