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Breathe a Little Easier: Why America’s Air is Among the Cleanest in the World

Breathe a Little Easier is part of our ongoing effort to explain the role that energy has played in improving human living standards over the past two centuries. This project examines trends in air quality in the U.S. in order to push back at the doom-and-gloom narratives that dominate so much of our thinking about energy …

EV Ownership Ticks Up, but Fewer Nonowners Want to Buy One

Seven percent of Americans, up from 4% a year ago, report that they own an electric vehicle. That increase is matched by an equal decline in the percentage saying they are seriously considering buying one, from 12% to 9%. Meanwhile, fewer Americans – 35%, down from 43% in 2023 – say they might consider buying …

The advantages and disadvantages of renewable energy

New developments in renewable energy are making headlines worldwide, from a remote Arctic village working to harness solar and wind power under challenging conditions to a U.S. Air Force base planning an advanced, utility-scale geothermal power system. But for all of the advantages of renewable energy, its development and use has disadvantages, too. Let’s take …

As Renewable Energy Increases in the Generation Mix, Power Outages Grow

Texas and California lead the nation in power outages and in wind and solar generation. Since 2019, there have been 263 power outages across Texas–more than any other state–each lasting an average of 160 minutes and impacting an estimated average of 172,000 Texans. From 2019 to 2023, California had 221 power outages, ranking second, and …

Democrats pushed climate action. Then utility bills skyrocketed.

There is intensifying political pressure on state lawmakers to do something about utility bills that have shot up by as much as 127 percent over the last decade. Climate spending — from wildfire prevention to building out transmission capacity and paying for renewables — is partly to blame. …

Why Climate Activists’ Push for Renewable Energy May Backfire

Renewables such as wind and solar are intermittent and largely unpredictable energy sources, with rapid swings in output from one minute to the next. This creates major challenges for operators of the nation’s electricity grid, because supply must equal demand, and the supply “curve” in a given area never tracks the output from intermittent renewable …