• Energy

Germany Is Shutting Its Coal Mines and Planning the Workers’ Transition

• carbon emissions
• coal
• Germany
• just transition
• lignite
• Paris Agreement

Germany wants to be the model for transitioning from coal to clean energy. The country plans to stop using coal by 2038 and has dedicated billions of dollars to make it a successful transition. As BBC’s Future Planet reports, a nonprofit near one of the country’s mines are engaging locals in the North-Rhine Westphalia region — many of them employed by the mines — to plan for their future. 

Why This Matters: First off: the European Union has called for an end of coal by 2030. So Germany’s timeline is longer than recommended to hit the Paris Agreement’s 1.5C target, and mine expansions are still planned in coming years.

• Energy

Charging Up the Push for Clean Electricity

• CES
• clean electricity
• clean energy
• President Biden
• Secretary Granholm

by Ashira Morris, ODP Staff Writer To move the U.S. toward carbon-free electricity, Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm discussed paths to a national Clean Electricity Standard (CES) at a forum this week. What’s a clean electricity standard? It’s a policy that requires utilities to ramp up their share of emissions-free electricity production every year to hit […]

• Energy

EV Battery Production in Georgia Charges Ahead Thanks To Settlement

• battery
• cars
• electric vehicles
• EVs
• Ford
• LG Energy
• SK Innovation
• VW

Scaling production of EVs in the U.S. will require a ramp-up in domestic battery production. Now there’s good news on that front. A battery factory in Georgia can move forward after LG Energy Solution and SK Innovation (South Korean companies), two of the world’s biggest electric vehicle battery manufacturers, settled a dispute. 

Why This Matters: The dispute threatened U.S. production of EVs. SK has contracts to produce batteries for electric Ford F-150 pickup trucks and Volkswagen SUVs.

• Energy

Biden Administration Pushed for Electric School Buses

• Build Back Better
• electric vehicles
• EVs
• Secretary Pete
• transportation

by Ashira Morris, ODP Staff Writer Right now, 95% of American public school buses run on diesel fuel, but that could soon change thanks to part of the Biden administration’s massive infrastructure proposal. The new Clean Buses for Kids Program would electrify at least 20% of the country’s iconic yellow school bus fleet. It would […]

• Energy

Four States Sign Compact to Ban Fracking In Delaware River Basin

• Delaware River
• fossil fuels
• fracking

by Amy Lupica, ODP Staff Writer In February, the governors of Pennsylvania, New York, New Jersey, and Delaware voted unanimously to ban fracking in the Delaware River Basin, but Republican-led lawsuits are seeking to stop this action. The ban prevented the natural gas industry from blasting up to 4,000 wells in the basin, serving a blow to the […]

• Energy

Read This: Sky’s The Limit for EVs

• electric vehicles
• EVs
• range anxiety

Electric vehicles are an important part of meeting climate change action goals in addition to their potential to clean up air pollution, yet Americans have traditionally been apprehensive about purchasing them. That is until now. As Ben Geman wrote for Axios  this week, “Even as gasoline-powered sales return from the pandemic, cars with plugs are […]