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In Fraught US Energy Fights, ‘All of the Above’ Is Now Democrats’ Pitch

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  December 23, 2025 The governor was fuming. The federal government had just pulled funding for what could have become a multi-billion-dollar energy project to fuel ships, trucks and buses in one of America’s largest industrial states. “No matter what DC tries to dictate,” he raged at this intervention to withdraw government support, “we’ll continue to pursue an all-of-the above” strategy. These type of demands for inclusive energy policies became widespread during President Joe Biden’s term, when Republican politicians and their oil industry backers routinely castigated Democrats for restricting fossil fuels while subsidizing low-carbon technologies. On this view, it’s the role of markets — not the government — to determine how Americans fuel their cars and power their homes. But the angry governor in the example above from earlier this year was California’s Gavin Newsom, a Democratic front-runner for the next presidential contest and the party’s loudest critic of President Donald...
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Energy costs will take center stage in upcoming legislative session

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  ALBANY — New York’s legislative leaders spent much of the last year railing against rising utility bills. When the new legislative session begins in early January, they’ll have an opportunity to do something about it. Watch More   Energy costs are “the heart of the affordability crisis in my district, it’s as much of an issue as groceries,” state Sen. Shelley Mayer, a Westchester County Democrat, told the Times Union earlier this year.   Lawmakers have a range of ideas to solve the problem. Some want to double down on the state’s clean energy and greenhouse gas reduction transition or target utility companies. Others want to take a step back from green energy mandates to provide some relief for consumers.   More than 1 million New York households are in debt to their utility company, according to the Public Utility Law Project. At the same time, three utility companies are seeking approval to raise electric and gas rates.   Some lawmakers are frustrated t...
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Scale Matters: Even Climate Hawks Are Embracing Nuclear Power

  Nuclear energy is the No. 1 source of carbon-free electricity in the US, producing more than wind turbines and solar panels combined. That’s been true for decades. Even so, support for nuclear has been soft among so-called climate hawks — the public officials and thought leaders who rank global warming as one of the top issues facing the US and the world. But that changed in 2025 — and in a big way. In one example of this newfound enthusiasm for nuclear, New York Governor Kathy Hochul, a Democrat, is pursuing plans to build at least 1,000 megawatts of new nuclear power generation capacity in the Empire State. Not only that, Hochul is calling on the Trump administration — which has already laid the groundwork for tens of billions of dollars in new nuclear energy projects — to fast-track the federal approval process. Meanwhile, California Governor Gavin Newsom, another Democrat, praised nuclear alongside wind and solar when announcing the Golden State now gets more than t...
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Be Prepared to Keep Paying More for Electricity

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  Dec. 29, 2025   Most Americans are paying more for electricity—and need to prepare their wallets for further pain ahead.   Data centers  are getting much of the blame lately for rising power costs, but they aren’t the only catalyst and don’t always cause increases. The reasons our bills are rising are complex and varied. Hurricanes, wildfires,  state renewable-energy plans  and the replacement of aging or damaged grid equipment are all playing a role.   Discontent over rising power bills has become a hot  political issue  that is expected to spill into the 2026 midterm elections.   “I do think that we’re entering a new era, a new politics of electricity,” said Charles Hua, executive director of PowerLines, a nonprofit that advocates for utility customers.   The Energy Department expects the U.S. average residential electricity rate to rise around 4% next year following a 4.9% increase in 2025.  Spending on power is usual...
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Trump Halts Five Wind Farms Off the East Coast

  Dec. 22, 2025 The Trump administration on Monday said it would pause leases for five wind farms under construction off the East Coast, essentially gutting the country’s nascent offshore wind industry in a sharp escalation of  President Trump’s crusade against  the renewable energy source. The decision injected uncertainty into $25 billion worth of projects that were collectively expected to power more than 2.5 million homes and businesses across the Eastern United States, according to Turn Forward, an offshore wind advocacy group. The five wind farms were projected together to create about 10,000 jobs. The move left intact just two operational wind farms in U.S. coastal waters — one small project off Rhode Island that has been complete since 2016 and a larger project off New York that has been fully operational since 2023. The five wind farms targeted on Monday had all obtained leases from the Biden administration. But citing unspecified national security concerns, the ...
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