There's too much operating need for carbon-heavy energy, and climate change is too far along, for society to do all its sustainability work through a switch to renewable fuels. Removing carbon from the atmosphere becomes necessary - and financing the removal involves a range of risks.
Amy Harder, an expert journalist, steers the storytelling for Breakthrough Energy's new publication.
Amy Harder, a veteran journalist, now runs a new site out of Breakthrough Energy called Cipher. She looks at the transition's hard questions, hard slogs, and compelling stories in a casual Zoom with undergraduates.
(Photo by Sam LaRussa via Flickr.) This coal-fired power plant outside Austin, Texas, is one of thousands across the country that owners will have to finance out of service.
Imagine that you are a utility owner. You anticipated your plant would last 40 years and invested accordingly. Now you see the value of coal plummeting, but you can't strand your assets. Someone mentions securitization. You wonder: What's that?
Our largest cohort of participants work around the world. Part of their coursework involves writing policy memos that can spark new policy. (At least one participant's memo already has helped do that.) We're sharing a sample of these memos. For more about the course and its goals, visit this page.
The administration can tee up safe, low-carbon transit in cities like Charlotte, NC and others without a cooperative Congress.
The United States, under its Paris Agreement commitments, must become carbon-free by 2050. Its Congress appears nowhere close to passing laws that would spark an energy transition, though. So the government's executive branch should craft a green industrial policy that mixes incentives, procurement, tax credits and other tools to bring...
