On Thursday, @airresources.bsky.social "approved the adoption of the California Greenhouse Gas Reporting and Climate Financial Risk Disclosure Initial Regulation, an initial step in meeting the regulatory requirements of SB 253 and 261." ww2.arb.ca.gov/news/carb-ap... #ClimateSky

Last week, @theclimatecenter.bsky.social convened an event to talk about successes and lessons learned from four "advanced energy communities" pilots. I wrote about policy barriers highlighted by the projects: www.quittingcarbonmedia.com/heres-what-i... via @quittingcarbon.bsky.social 🔌💡

Pay for however many newsletters you want, please, give all those writers money But you can't replace a whole journalism ecosystem with a series of freelancers, you just can't. There also needs to be support for serious papers, magazines, online newsrooms, and nonprofit reporting

Last week, @theclimatecenter.bsky.social convened an event to talk about successes and lessons learned from four "advanced energy communities" pilots. I wrote about policy barriers highlighted by the projects: www.quittingcarbonmedia.com/heres-what-i... via @quittingcarbon.bsky.social 🔌💡

My latest at @quittingcarbon.bsky.social: Solvable policy barriers are holding back the adoption of proven technologies that are the building blocks of all-electric, zero-carbon, grid-flexible communities: www.quittingcarbonmedia.com/heres-what-i... 🔌💡

"The Interior Department could be softening its hard-line stance on solar energy," reports Scott Streater: subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eene... 🔌💡

"As of mid-February, more than 50 bills related to plug-in solar were under consideration in 29 states and DC." www.dsireinsight.com/blog/2026/2/... via @nccleantech.bsky.social 🔌💡

"The Environmental Protection Agency announced what it called a 'revamp' of the [Clean School Bus] program, signaling it would no longer favor electric school buses, where 95% of the money had been spent under President Joe Biden," reports @mlavelle.bsky.social: insideclimatenews.org/news/2002202...

"As electricity affordability has become the issue on every politician’s lips, a coalition of New York state lawmakers and organizations in the Hudson Valley have proposed a solution: Buy the utility and operate it publicly," writes Benjy Sachs: heatmap.news/energy/hudso... 🔌💡

Solar is cheap, exhibit 3,141,592,653.

Dominion Energy "said this week it’s completed more than 70% of the wind farm and is on schedule to finish early next year. In the meantime, the turbines installed so far should start sending electricity to the grid by late March." www.whro.org/environment/... via Katherine Hafner 🔌💡

"The installation of the first wind turbine at Ørsted’s Sunrise Wind ... is expected to start soon, as Cadeler’s vessel Wind Scylla, which was installing Revolution Wind turbines and is now in port, is planned to deploy to Sunrise Wind next." www.offshorewind.biz/2026/02/24/t... 🔌💡

"In an attempt to end a long row over the decarbonisation of Germany's buildings sector, the coalition of chancellor Friedrich Merz has decided to drop a mandatory renewable energy quota for new heating systems." www.cleanenergywire.org/news/german-... via @cleanenergywire.bsky.social 🔌💡

"America’s largest offshore wind project is about to begin generating electricity. Dominion Energy said Monday it expects Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind will start producing electricity before the end of March." subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eene... via Ben Storrow 🔌💡

A federal judge in Virginia rejected the Justice Department’s request to search through a Washington Post reporter’s electronic devices as part of a national security leak investigation, ruling that the court would instead be responsible for conducting the search.

"For all of 2025, I believe the installed capacity [added to the grid] in the entire U.S. was 57 gigawatt-hours. And in one project, we’re going to install 30 gigawatt-hours," Form Energy CEO Mateo Jaramillo told @kbrigham.bsky.social: heatmap.news/climate-tech... 🔌💡

I have heard over and over that wind power happens at night, so it complements solar production. I pulled up the CAISO 2025 data and sure enough, hourly output is 50% higher at night than in the day. (annual totals, may differ by season)

"A project taking shape near Boston could help make the case for an alternative to expanding the grid: big, strategically placed batteries," reports @jeffstjohn.bsky.social: www.canarymedia.com/articles/bat... 🔌💡

Study: "Eliminating interregional constraints would have reduced electricity generation costs across the lower US 48 states by $5.8 to 7.1 billion in 2022 and $3.4 to 5.0 billion in 2023." www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.... 🔌💡

JD Power: "Overall satisfaction among current battery electric vehicle owners is at its highest level since the study’s inception in 2021. Notably, nearly all owners of new BEVs (96%) say they would consider purchasing or leasing another BEV for their next vehicle." www.jdpower.com/business/pre...

SEIA: "The U.S. energy storage industry installed a record-shattering 57.6 gigawatt-hours (GWh) of new capacity in 2025, the largest single year of new battery capacity additions on record." seia.org/news/united-... 🔌💡

ICYMI: My latest at @quittingcarbon.bsky.social: Big batteries are transforming the grid, GAO warns on clean energy staffing cuts, research roundup, and more highlights from what I've been reading: www.quittingcarbonmedia.com/what-im-read... 🔌💡

"Ukraine’s energy transition is not a slogan. ... It’s a security-driven transformation, unfolding under extreme constraints, that prioritizes decentralization, flexibility, and speed of recovery,” Ievgeniia Kopytsia told Paul Hockenos: e360.yale.edu/features/ukr... via @yalee360.bsky.social 🔌💡

It looks like the U.S. newspaper industry lost about 8 percent of its remaining employees in just one year in 2025. I wish I could say that was unusual, but as this recently updated graphic shows, it has been going on for a long time... My story here: reportearth.substack.com/p/2025-was-a...

Weekend reading: Big batteries are transforming the grid, GAO warns on clean energy staffing cuts, research roundup, and more highlights from what I've been reading: www.quittingcarbonmedia.com/what-im-read... via @quittingcarbon.bsky.social 🔌💡

"Call it the year of the heat pump. In 2025, the number of heat pumps installed in the service areas of five major Colorado utilities more than doubled to 14,225, marking a twelvefold increase in three years," reports @bymarkjaffe.bsky.social: coloradosun.com/2026/02/19/h... 🔌💡

"VPPs have been waiting for a crisis and cash to scale and meet the moment. And now we have both,” @rockymtninst.bsky.social's Mark Dyson told @kbrigham.bsky.social: heatmap.news/climate-tech... 🔌💡

My latest at @quittingcarbon.bsky.social: Big batteries are transforming the grid, GAO warns on clean energy staffing cuts, research roundup, and more highlights from what I've been reading: www.quittingcarbonmedia.com/what-im-read... 🔌💡

@asmmarcberman.bsky.social just introduced the Home Energy Choice Act (AB 2313), "offering California homeowners the opportunity to electrify their home appliances when their utility is scheduled to replace the natural gas line connected to their homes." earthjustice.org/press/2026/a... 🔌💡

"New housing in Oregon must be built with energy-efficient heat pumps instead of ducted air conditioning following an update to the state’s residential energy code." www.smartcitiesdive.com/news/heat-pu... via Ryan Kushner 🔌💡

Turnover at @californiapuc.bsky.social: President Alice Reynolds is leaving to join the @caiso.com governing board; Commissioner John Reynolds takes over as president; and Christine Harada joins as commissioner: www.gov.ca.gov/2026/02/18/g... 🔌💡

Saw this project posted on LinkedIn, feel like a lot of folks here would find this useful. A database of independent journalists, searchable by topic/platform, and looks like there’s also a form to submit nominations. Cool stuff journalismatlas.com

California co-led a lawsuit filed today by a coalition of 13 states "challenging the Trump Administration’s unlawful decision to terminate funding for congressionally mandated energy and infrastructure programs created by Congress." oag.ca.gov/news/press-r... 🔌💡

Ethiopia: "In the two years since the ban on internal combustion engine vehicles, EV adoption has grown from less than 1% to nearly 6% of all of the vehicles on the road in the country." www.bloomberg.com/news/feature... by @fasikat.bsky.social and @akshatrathi.bsky.social 🔌💡

"The global benchmark cost for a four-hour battery project fell 27% year-on-year to $78 per megawatt-hour in 2025, marking a record low since BloombergNEF began tracking such costs in 2009." www.businessgreen.com/news/4525816... via @stuartstone.bsky.social 🔌💡

Australia: "Renewable energy supplied over half (51%) of all electricity in the NEM for the first time during Q4 2025, and reached up to 77% of peak demand when the grid was pushed to its limits during January’s extreme heatwaves." reneweconomy.com.au/records-tumb... via @racheljourno.bsky.social 🔌💡

⚖️ And one offshore wind battle resumes. The federal government notified the court today that it has appealed the December ruling that struck down President Trump's wind memo as unlawful @newbedfordlight.bsky.social: storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.us...

"China’s high-speed rail network doubled in size in just eight years between 2016 and 2024, while the number of passengers carried and the total number of passenger-miles increased even faster, boosting internal connectivity." jkempenergy.com/2026/02/17/b... via @jkempenergy.bsky.social

An update on the construction of @dominionenergy.bsky.social's Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project: coastalreview.org/2026/02/with... by Catherine Kozak 🔌💡

Remember last June when SoCal regulators killed two common sense clean air rules? @hayleysmith.bsky.social has one helluva scoop showing the AQMD board acted after an AI-generated flood of comments. One more way AI is creating air (and information) pollution. legal-planet.org/2025/06/09/w...

@iea.org notes that in high-penetration solar + wind markets like California, Germany, South Australia, Texas, and the United Kingdom, "batteries are increasingly available to meet demand when it peaks, such as in the late afternoon or early evening." www.iea.org/newsletters/... 🔌💡

"Heat pumps outsold fossil gas–fired furnaces in the U.S. yet again last year. That’s the fourth year in a row," reports @alisontakemura.bsky.social: www.canarymedia.com/articles/hea... 🔌💡

"Michigan’s approach is different: accusing Big Oil not of deceiving consumers or misrepresenting climate change risks, but of driving up energy costs by colluding to suppress competition from cleaner and cheaper technologies." insideclimatenews.org/news/1502202... by @danad1012.bsky.social 🔌💡

"The world becomes a reflection of who we are in our own countries. We cannot change the trajectory of world events without first changing what’s happening at home." - @rhodesben.bsky.social's reflections on the Munich Security Conference: benrhodes1.substack.com/p/reflection...

"Federal funding for the $16 billion Gateway rail tunnel between New York City and New Jersey, which had been suspended for more than four months, began to flow again on Friday." www.nytimes.com/2026/02/13/n... via @nytpatrick.bsky.social

"There is perhaps no greater sign of the coal industry’s decline than the Trump administration’s demand this week that the Pentagon purchase more energy generated by the fossil fuel," writes the @washingtonpost.com editorial board: wapo.st/4tyd2Xu 🔌💡

Lime Ridge Open Space in Concord, California, at dusk ...

China's Xinhua news agency has just published this editorial cartoon in response to Trump's rejection of climate policies. It is pretty clear that China views this as a HUGE geopolitical fumble by the US leaving the field clear for China's to win the global race to clean-tech hegemony

"Executives with Ørsted, the company behind Revolution Wind, said the $6.2 billion project would begin producing electricity 'in a matter of weeks.'" subscriber.politicopro.com/article/eene... via Ben Storrow 🔌💡

The Western Energy Imbalance Market, operated by @caiso.com, generated $1.62 billion in economic benefits to participants during 2025 - bringing the total cumulative savings to $8.24 billion since the market’s launch in 2014: www.caiso.com/about/news/n... 🔌💡