Virginia legislators directed roughly half of the estimated $100 million in annual auction proceeds to a range of energy efficiency programs for low-income households in its first year.
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More DMV News
Transmission for Renewables in Largest Power Market May Cost $3B
Energy Wire
The operator of the nation’s largest wholesale electricity market — PJM Interconnection LLC — estimates $2.2 billion to $3.2 billion of transmission upgrades will be needed to help states in the region meet renewable energy and offshore wind goals over the next decade and a half.
Dominion Energy Sets Ambitious Carbon-Reduction Vehicle Goals
Dominion Energy
Dominion Energy recently announced a suite of carbon-reduction goals that will transform the fleet of more than 8,600 vehicles that serves millions of customers across 16 states. The Green Fleet initiative will help Dominion Energy achieve its goal of net-zero carbon dioxide and methane emissions while showing the way for clean-energy progress in the transportation sector, the largest contributor of greenhouse gas emissions in the U.S.
Fighting Climate Change, One Vine-Covered Tree at a Time
Maryland Matters
Invasive vines are killing mature trees with alarming frequency in Maryland — robbing them of their ability to capture deadly carbon emissions. But in different parts of the state, an increasing number of volunteers are taking to forests, parkland, vacant lots, and public rights-of-way to stop these trees from choking to death.
Virginia Mercury
New polling by a conservative group that advocates for clean energy found that more than 60 percent of Virginians support the aims of transitioning the state’s electric grid to clean energy by 2050, cutting fossil fuel pollution, and strengthening energy efficiency programs.
National and International News
July Was World’s Hottest Month Ever Recorded, US Scientists Confirm
The Guardian
July was the world’s hottest month ever recorded, US government scientists have confirmed, a further indication of the unfolding climate crisis that is now affecting almost every part of the planet.
Global Climate Panel’s Report: No Part of the Planet Will be Spared
Inside Climate News
Amidst a summer of fires, floods, and heatwaves, scientists on Monday delivered yet another reminder that burning more fossil fuels in the decades ahead will rapidly intensify the impacts of global warming. Only pulling the emergency brake right now on greenhouse gas emissions can stop the planet from heating to a dangerous level by the end of the century, the scientists’ report concluded.
The Repercussions of a Changing Climate, in 5 Devastating Charts
Inside Climate News
The Sixth Assessment Report released earlier this week by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change is chock full of information on how our climate has changed because of human activity and warnings about the challenging future as our planet warms.
Hundreds of U.S. cities adopted climate plans. Few have met the goals, but it’s not too late.
USA Today
Over the past three decades, more than 600 local governments across the United States adopted climate action plans setting greenhouse gas reduction targets. But experts now say that many of those cities’ individual plans were aspirational at best. Now they must work harder if they’re going to curb the warming trend.
Biden wants a national efficiency standard. Would it work?
Energy Wire
During his 2020 campaign, President Biden began pitching an energy efficiency and clean electricity standard to push the United States to carbon-free electricity by 2035 — a target now being weighed in Congress.