Local Climate News
James Madison University revealed its new electric “Gus Bus” that provides books, tutoring, and mobile classrooms to elementary schools throughout Harrisonburg. Virginia Clean Cities helped secure the funding for the bus through the Mid-Atlantic Electrification Partnership.
Virginia Energy News
Google announced plans to invest $9 billion in Virginia, largely for construction and expansion of data centers. The company claims it is committed to 100% carbon-free electricity by 2030 and that 95% of its operations in Northern Virginia have already achieved that goal.
Massachusetts Institute of Technology startup Commonwealth Fusion Systems has raised nearly $1 billion in funding as it tries to commercialize nuclear fusion, with plans to build a Virginia plant to supply Google, which they hope will be operational by 2030.
Dominion Energy plans to install a 1,700-panel solar installation on the new baseball stadium set to open next year in Richmond. It will generate about 1 megawatt of carbon-free electricity, enough to power 250 Richmond homes at peak output.
Solar installers in coastal Virginia are racing to meet surging demand for rooftop installations as customers try to secure a federal tax credit before it expires.
Dominion Energy announced that its offshore wind project is 60% complete and is on track to begin delivering electricity early next year. Trump’s tariffs will, however, add $500 million to the cost, half of which will be passed along to ratepayers.
Community members are sustaining their opposition and voicing their concerns as the Department of Environmental Quality is reviewing Dominion Energy’s proposed methane gas power plant in Chesterfield, Virginia.
The Trump administration clawed back the $156 million in funding that Virginia was supposed to receive for the Solar for All program—which aimed to help lower- and moderate-income households build solar panels on their roofs.
Our Climate Crisis
Hundreds of wildfires burning across Canada and parts of the US prompted air quality alerts in 14 states from the Great Lakes region to the north-east, affecting 81 million people last month.
Wildfires burned in parts of Europe this summer as millions of people across the continent struggled to adapt to the record summer heat, with temperatures in some areas soaring past 104°F. Europe is warming at twice the speed of the global average since the 1980s.
The melting of sea ice in the Arctic has slowed dramatically in the past 20 years. It appears that natural variability is cancelling out sea ice loss even with increased CO2 in the atmosphere. This has bought us a bit more time but it is a temporary reprieve.
The rapid loss of Antarctic sea ice could be a tipping point for the global climate, causing sea level rises and changes to ocean currents. Antarctic sea-ice extent is far below its natural variability of past centuries, and its decline is more abrupt and potentially more irreversible than Arctic sea-ice loss.
Nordic countries are being affected by unprecedented heat. A weather station in the Norwegian part of the Arctic Circle recorded temperatures above 86°F on 13 days in July, while Finland has had three straight weeks with 86 °F heat. This is the longest streak in records going back to 1961, and 50% longer than the previous record.
Politics and Policy
With tariffs and threats, Trump is trying to strong-arm other countries to retreat on their climate goals and instead burn more gas, oil, and coal.
A “critical assessment” report published by the US Department of Energy to justify a rollback of US climate regulations contains at least 100 false or misleading statements, according to a Carbon Brief factcheck involving dozens of leading climate scientists.
China dominates the global market for clean energy technology like electric vehicles, batteries, and solar panels, which were all invented in the U.S. Since the early 2000s, a suite of Chinese government incentives and policies has swept it to the forefront of the market.
Americans are used to whiplash in their climate policy, but it has become more extreme. In his second administration, Trump is moving to destroy the methods by which his or any future administration can respond to climate change.
Grassroots climate organizers from Sunrise Movement to Third Act are pouring volunteers and money into Zohran Mamdani’s bid to become New York City’s next mayor.
Facing a summer of intense blazes across the West, the U.S. Forest Service is short more than one-quarter of its firefighting force after layoffs and retirements. A sweeping reorganization will close nine regional offices and relocate many staff, a shift expected to trigger fresh resignations as above-normal fire activity looms.
Sweden has reversed many environmental commitments, mirroring a broader retreat across Europe as emissions rise and forest protections weaken. Carbon emissions rose 7% last year, the largest increase in 15 years, after cuts to green funding and higher fossil fuel subsidies.
Large U.S. banks are slashing their fossil fuel financing by 25% this year as market forces outweigh politics. This is happening in the face of an administration that is telling them to keep the money flowing.
As Trump curbs wind farms, the Danish renewable energy developer Orsted plans to raise $9.4 billion in funds by selling more stock instead of divesting a stake in a wind farm off the New England coast. The Trump administration has now halted the construction of the 80% completed wind farm, claiming unspecified security concerns.
The EPA will stop updating a widely used greenhouse gas emissions database after suspending its creator for signing a letter critical of the Trump administration’s science policies.
The Trump administration rejected the “Net-Zero Framework” proposal by the International Maritime Organization, which is aimed at reducing global greenhouse gas emissions from international shipping, They are also threatening to retaliate against countries that support it.
After losing in court, the Transportation Department says it will lift its freeze of $5 billion in federal funds allocated by Congress to build out EV charging stations on highways.
Republicans who voted for Trump’s anti-environment tax and spending bill have accepted more than $105 million in political donations from the fossil fuel industry. The One Big Beautiful Bill Act includes billions of dollars in giveaways to oil and gas companies and their executives.
Energy
US solar plant construction is on a record-breaking spree as developers race to complete installations before Trump’s policy changes pull the rug out from under the industry. It will contribute more than half of the expected new power capacity additions this year.
One of the world’s largest offshore wind farms, off the coast of Scotland, has been approved by the Scottish government. With the goal of being operational by 2030, it would generate enough electricity to meet the annual energy needs of every household in Scotland twice over.
Commercial rooftop solar is set to explode, even without clean energy credits, because it is the fastest and least expensive way to add more electricity to the nation’s electricity grid.
Residential rooftop solar could crash with the Republican tax credit repeal. It is already far more expensive in the U.S than anywhere else. It is estimated that Americans will install 33% less rooftop solar next year than they would if federal incentives were still in place.
India’s EV market is developing rapidly in a context where two-wheelers dominate personal mobility, and three-wheelers are integral to urban transport. They account for roughly three-quarters of all registered vehicles, and are easier to electrify than passenger cars.
Ford plans to invest nearly $2 billion into building more affordable EVs at its Kentucky assembly plant and to roll out a $30,000 mid-sized electric pickup truck by 2027.
Natural hydrogen deposits could be a clean energy “game changer,” but it’s still too soon to bank on them. That isn’t stopping dozens of companies from trying to find such deposits along the Midcontinent Rift stretching from Ontario all the way down to Kansas.
Food and Agriculture
Close to 40% of small and mid-sized farms operated at a loss the previous year, according to a 2024 U.S. Agriculture Department report. After losing money for several years, a struggling Texas farmer traded cotton for sheep. Grazing them on solar farms is paying off big.
Agriculture Secretary Brooke L. Rollins declared that banishing solar panels from two USDA loan programs is needed to save our vanishing farmlands. Solar projects, however, are not the problem by a long shot. The real problem is decades of urban and suburban sprawl.
Climate Justice
Environmental Groups and the EPA are sparring in court over Trump’s cancellation of $3 billion in funding for flood mitigation and other climate resiliency funding in Southwest Virginia.
The Trump administration seeks to kill the $7 billion “Solar for All” program just as it starts to deliver low-cost solar and battery installations for thousands of people.
The Trump administration’s scheme to keep old fossil-fuel plants running could saddle utility customers with nearly $6 billion a year in unnecessary costs.
Climate Action
Joanna Macy, an American environmental activist, author and scholar of deep ecology, recently passed away at 96 years of age. There will be a celebration of her life and work at Grace Cathedral in San Francisco on October 3. You can register here to join by livestream.
Here is an easy opportunity for renters and other people who are unable to invest in rooftop solar. For a few hundred dollars, portable panels that hang on any sunny surface can pump free solar electricity into your home via a wall socket.
The town of Calistoga in Northern California has struggled to keep the lights on when wildfires strike the region. Now it’s got a brand-new microgrid to run the whole town for days on end without any onsite fossil fuels, just batteries and liquid hydrogen.
The Harbor Charger, a hybrid diesel-electric ferry is now cruising New York Harbor, cutting down on CO2 and diesel pollution. The vessel joins a tiny but growing U.S. fleet of cleaner ferry boats, including in the cities of Galveston and Seattle.
China’s carbon dioxide emissions fell 1% year-on-year in the first half of 2025. Power sector emissions fell by 3% during this period, due to growth in solar power.
More Americans are choosing natural burials to minimize their environmental impact. They reduce toxic waste, conserve energy, and often involve loved ones directly in burial rituals.
Earl Zimmerman
CAAV Steering Committee