United States

Home as Refuge, Fewer Reusables, Less Privacy: The Consumer Trends Emerging From Coronavirus Lockdowns

This article posted on the Wall Street Journal takes a timely look at global consumer trends since the start of Coronavirus Lockdown. The information summarized discusses emerging trends such as activism, pride, and mobility that are heavily influencing how consumers are shopping as...Read more

Renewable Energy Is Suddenly Startlingly Cheap

This article provides a great overview of the changes and transitions in energy that are being witnessed at the moment and that have made more than significant advances in the last three years. A non-profit, environmentalist agency (Carbon Tracker) has documented the steady decrease in prices...Read more

Senators call for quick release of LIHEAP funds

This article includes background information on how the three stimulus bills passed to provide economic relief due to COVID-19 impacts LIHEAP. It describes a letter produced by a collective of 28 U.S. senators, based on data from a report produced by NEADA. Read more

The U.S. Will Need a Lot of Land for a Zero-Carbon Economy

In a reversal of Trump's anti-climate policies, Biden's administration has decided to re-instate net-zero emissions goals to 2030. The article brings to light how power generation, transportation, and manufacturing will need to implement radical changes in order to meet this goal, especially...Read more

Vulnerable Census Tracts

Map showing the most vulnerable Census Tracts in the area of Los Angeles, i.e. the areas most vulnerable to heat.Read more

6 Maps That Show How Bad Energy Poverty Is and Reveal 2 Ways to Make it Better

Things that attracted me to this article is the use of the term 'energy burden' and the fact that the maps were created by DOE. I also liked how the author talked about the differences between progressive and regressive policies. I learned some new terms too: split incentive and green lease. Read more

DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY MANAGEMENT OF CULTURAL RESOURCES Policy Document

This policy document lays out practices for the preservation of cultural resources and artifacts. It was approved and certified by the United States Department of Energy (DOE) to support national legislation to preserve and protect historical and archeological sites related to Native...Read more

Caught in a patchwork of policies and pledges, some utility customers may still be awaiting electricity restoration or racking up fees

This article reports on the state of disconnections across the United States in March 2020. One of the major points of the article is that, although many states have suspended utility shut-offs during the pandemic (sometimes for an unspecified length of time) there is little data on whether...Read more

New report finds Texas utility-scale solar growth may push remaining coal plants into retirement

This article talks about the vulnerability of coal plants across the country. An energy generation market powered by Electricity Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) is set to be at risk by 2022, coal fleet is now going to be down by October. The viable option seen by many in the south is to...Read more

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