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Climate Change is Making Us Stupid

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  I take the title of today’s post from the closing line of a fantastic 2014 article by Dan Sarewitz in Slate . Sarewitz wrote: “Climate change, added on top of all the other causes of these problems, will often make things worse. But for the most part there will be no way to tell which ones are worse than they would have been anyway, or how much worse they have become. So it’s not that apocalyptic fears about climate change are utterly fantastic—climate change may well exacerbate a range of serious and potentially even disastrous problems—it’s that the monomaniacal, apocalyptic version of climate change gives us a picture of the world that is so incomplete that it’s much worse than simply wrong. Worse because, just like religious and political orthodoxy, it cannot be falsified. On the contrary, everything that goes wrong simply reinforces the conviction that there is just one explanation for all our problems—climate change—and that there is only one thing we can do to keep the ...
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Arizona’s solar industry facing mounting backlash

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  Arizona’s solar industry facing mounting backlash Reagan Priest , Arizona Capitol Times   August 20, 2026  Key Points: Republican lawmakers introduced multiple bills targeting utility-scale solar The Corporation Commission is increasing fees and decreasing reimbursements for rooftop solar customers Solar and battery projects continue to be built, but natural gas capacity is expanding faster It has been a rough year for solar advocates in the nation’s sunniest state.  Republican lawmakers, state regulators and some utility companies have historically been unfriendly to renewable energy resources. But this year they’ve attempted to block the construction of utility-scale solar on state land, repeal tax incentives for rooftop solar systems and impose higher fees on ratepayers who choose to adopt solar.  While these attempts were ultimately unsuccessful, there’s no indication that opposition to Arizona’s solar industry is abating anytime soon. This comes amid what...
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Residents skeptical of prospective wind power project

  JEFFERSON – A standing-room-only crowd of county residents peppered elected leaders and project representatives with questions about a potential utility scale wind power development during a public information session held Tuesday, Aug. 4, at Henderson Memorial Public Library. Apex Clean Energy, based in Charlottesville, Va., is in what it characterizes as the early stages of developing Station Wind, a planned 300-megawatt wind power project using 50 to 70 turbines erected across much of the eastern portion of Ashtabula County. Apex has been leasing land toward a goal of 30,000 acres within a footprint of approximately 300,000 acres. The clean energy company is looking to lease property from private owners in Williamsfield, Wayne, Colebrook, New Lyme, Cherry Valley, Andover, Richmond, Dorset, Lenox, Morgan, Pierpont, Monroe and Sheffield townships. Turbine locations have not been selected, but they will be spread out over the entire target area. Approximately 12,000 acres have al...
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Thousands of Wind & Solar Projects Lost Tax Credits

  Why It Matters Thousands of wind and solar projects lost access to federal tax credits when they missed a July 4, 2026 construction deadline. The deadline was set by the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (P.L. 119-21), which President Trump signed into law on July 4, 2025, fundamentally reshaping how the federal government incentivizes renewable energy. The Congressional Research Service (CRS) details the mechanics of the Production Tax Credit (PTC), a federal per-kilowatt-hour tax credit for electricity generated from qualified renewable energy sources. For wind and solar projects, the law imposed a hard deadline: begin construction by July 4, 2026, and reach commercial operation by December 31, 2027, or lose eligibility for the successor Clean Electricity Production Tax Credit (CEPTC). That deadline passed 46 days ago . Industry analysts have warned the accelerated phaseout forced developers to dramatically compress project timelines, abandon projects entirely, or shift investment t...
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Renewable Loophole in the One Big Beautiful Bill

August 8, 2026 The One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA) of 2025 phased out hefty solar and wind tax credits created under former President Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) passed in 2022. But instead of phasing out battery storage tax credits along with the wind and solar tax credits, the OBBBA phases them out much later — in 2036— which solar developers are now capitalizing on by adding battery storage components to new builds, allowing them to keep earning lucrative clean energy tax credits despite the phaseout. Warren Buffett pointed out more than a decade ago : “For example, on wind energy, we get a tax credit if we build a lot of wind farms. That’s the only reason to build them. They don’t make sense without the tax credit.” Under the OBBBA, solar and wind projects that have not started construction no longer qualify for the IRA tax credits. Because of lucrative tax credits, wind and solar projects have made up a majority of the energy sector’s growth since 2019. According to t...
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How solar donors helped take down a Trump-backed Republican

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By Timothy Cama   08/07/2026 An aggressive new political action committee backed by renewable energy supporters claimed its biggest and clearest win yet Thursday by helping unseat conservative Republican Rep. Andy Ogles of Tennessee despite President Donald Trump’s vocal support.   The Invest in Tomorrow Coalition PAC spent $2 million opposing Ogles and boosting Republican primary opponent Charlie Hatcher — more than both candidates combined — and the group is now poised to be a force in future contests. Ogles was the third Republican this year to lose a race after being targeted by the super PAC, launched by solar executives wanting to get back at Republicans who actively work against renewables.   "[W]e will continue to punish members of either party who want to play politics with American jobs, energy security, and utility prices. The entire map is in play and we will take this fight across the country through November,” Tom Matzzie, CEO of solar company CleanChoice E...
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