National (U.S.)

"President Biden will nominate the chair of the District of Columbia’s Public Service Commission to fill a vacancy on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the White House announced today [Thursday].

If confirmed by the Senate, Willie Phillips, a Democrat, would tip the political scale in favor of Biden’s party on the five-member commission that regulates wholesale power markets and large energy projects and is crucial for the success of the administration’s climate agenda.

"Democrats aim to pour tens of billions of dollars into a New Deal-style program that would hire young people to work on projects to protect communities and the environment from disasters that are growing more destructive due to climate change."

"In Congress, details are emerging of the climate and clean energy policies in a sweeping $3.5 trillion budget package that Democrats are drafting and hope to send to Mr. Biden’s desk by year’s end."

"The Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday that it would restore protections for Alaska’s Bristol Bay, blocking the construction of a massive and controversial gold mine near the world’s largest sockeye salmon run."

"The House Natural Resources Committee late on Thursday passed legislation that will go into a wider budget reconciliation package that includes restoring protections for a pristine Arctic wildlife refuge from oil and gas drilling."

"The Biden administration on Wednesday released a blueprint showing how the nation could move toward producing almost half of its electricity from the sun by 2050 — a potentially big step toward fighting climate change but one that would require vast upgrades to the electric grid."

"The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced on Wednesday that it will propose a rule to set the first-ever limits on the amount of chemicals called PFAS can be discharged."

"The U.S. could get as much as 40% of its electricity from solar by 2035 if the country commits to federally backed decarbonization efforts and adopts policies to promote the technology, the Department of Energy said in a report today [Wednesday]."

"The Biden administration will review a Trump-era decision to greenlight oil drilling access in most of the National Petroleum Reserve of Alaska, the Interior Department revealed in a court filing yesterday [Wednesday]."

"Proponents of renewable energy see a better way to keep power through storms expected to get stronger: make energy generation much more community-based."