On June 25, 2026, officials from Washington, California, and Québec signed an agreement to merge their cap-and-trade systems. Once linkage takes effect, which is expected in 2027, the shared carbon market will cover roughly 75 percent of greenhouse gas emissions of two large U.S. states and one Canadian province. Continue reading
Executive Summary Switching from oil to renewable energy and electric vehicles does not get rid of resource dependency. It just changes what you depend on. Instead of relying on oil, countries end up relying on critical minerals such as lithium, rare earths, silver, polysilicon, and copper—and as China refines most of them, even minerals mined elsewhere often must go through China before they can be used. For … Continue reading
On September 19, California Governor Gavin Newsom approved a bill renewing California’s cap-and-trade program until 2045. This renewal comes despite hostility toward state-level clean energy programs from the Trump administration, notably President Trump’s executive order that specifically criticized California’s cap-and-trade program. Continue reading
Insurance companies are reacting to the increase in climate change-related natural disasters by raising premiums and withdrawing coverage from high-risk areas. Continue reading
Executive Summary President Trump signed an executive order (EO) on his first day back in office entitled “Unleashing American Energy,” which removes Biden-era barriers to federal land leasing for energy production as a method of expanding U.S. energy production. A significant change imposed by the order includes the Environmental Protection Agency’s mandated reassessment of a … Continue reading
Executive Summary Insurance of last resort is a program meant to cover individuals living in high-risk areas prone to natural disasters. These programs are meant to supplement the private market, but overregulation of the private insurance market has prompted them to grow at an unsustainable rate. Many insurers of last resort are bleeding money at … Continue reading
Executive Summary The 2023: A historic year of U.S. billion-dollar weather and climate disasters | NOAA Climate.gov indicates the increasingly detrimental costs of the growing occurrence of natural disasters as the total cost of U.S. billion-dollar disasters over the last 5 years (2019-2023) is $603.1 billion, with a 5-year annual cost average of $120.6 billion, … Continue reading
Executive Summary: The energy demands of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and data centers are rising rapidly, threatening the achievement of Net Zero 2030 targets, and raising concerns about the environmental impact of AI development and data storage. Data centers will account for 9 percent of the US’s total power consumption by 2030, significantly impacting the power … Continue reading
Executive Summary The United States is projected to fall short of the climate goals it set under the 2015 Paris Agreement, even with the burdensome provisions of the Inflation Reduction Act. Carbon pricing programs present a more cost-effective solution than subsidies and could reduce emissions by the required amount while generating revenue. Existing carbon pricing … Continue reading
One of the final questions of the second presidential debate was perhaps one of the more substantive policy questions asked throughout this chaotic election season. While the rest of the internet has focused on Ken Bone and his striking red sweater, the content of his question was equally striking: “What steps will your energy policy … Continue reading
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