Energy & Climate Change Policy News

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  • opinion

    California’s Energy Future Needs the 3 R’s: Reality, Reliability, and Resilience 
    California’s energy strategy ignores reality and gets the basic energy principles of reliability and resilience wrong. Gov. Gavin Newsom’s targets—100% “clean” electricity by 2045 and the (currently stalled) ban on selling new internal-combustion-engine cars and trucks after 2035—treat the distinction between electricity and other forms of energy as a detail green policies can easily overcome. However,…
    Jason Hayes | Ronald Stein
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  • exclusive

    EXCLUSIVE: Trump Is Reversing Biden Policies. Why Is His Justice Department Still Defending Them?
    FIRST ON DAILY SIGNAL—Federal agencies are continuing to defend some legal positions of the Biden administration, according to an analysis by two conservative groups. Leaders of the groups Power the Future and Defend Forgotten America sent a letter Tuesday to President Donald Trump and Attorney General Todd Blanche calling for a comprehensive review of lawsuits…
    Fred Lucas
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  • analysis

    Customers Pay for Virginia’s Policies on Power Production
    Virginia’s federal elections will be finished in less than two weeks, but some state-based issues are likely to keep simmering long after Election Day. Examples include the state’s policies governing data centers and how the electricity to power those centers—and the homes of millions of citizens—is generated. A court in Goochland County hosted a pretrial…
    Rich Tucker
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  • exclusive

    Green Group Already Under Scrutiny Honors Leader of Foundation That Gave Millions to China-Linked Entities
    An environmental group facing scrutiny for its ties to China honored a leader of a major left-leaning grantmaking foundation that has given millions of dollars to China-connected entities. The Environmental Law Institute on Tuesday honored Julie Packard, vice chair of the board of trustees for the David and Lucile Packard Foundation, with its 2026 Environmental…
    Fred Lucas
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  • news

    Case Against Goochland Data Center Goes to Court on Tuesday
    Data centers and land use issues will be on the docket in the Goochland County Circuit Court on Tuesday. Last year, the Board of Supervisors passed legislation that carved a Technology Overlay District out of a designated growth zone in an area called West Creek, near the county’s border with Henrico County. The county said…
    Rich Tucker
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  • opinion

    Victor Davis Hanson: Why Gas Prices Stay High Even When America Drills Its Own Oil
    Editor’s note: This is a lightly edited transcript of “Victor Davis Hanson: In His Own Words” from Daily Signal senior contributor Victor Davis Hanson. Subscribe to Victor Davis Hanson’s own YouTube channel to watch past episodes. Sami Winc: “Could you explain, VDH, why the media and government doesn’t remove the smoke and mirrors from this issue, which is…
    Victor Davis Hanson
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  • analysis

    America Needs Permitting Reform—With No Gimmicks
    America has forgotten how to build, courtesy of a Byzantine permitting process that delays projects for years and often kills them altogether. A new bill could change that, though, and let the U.S. actually start building things again, including badly needed energy infrastructure that would reduce prices. The current paralysis was made painfully evident this…
    EJ Antoni
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  • analysis

    One More Step Toward Ending WOTUS Overreach
    For decades, farmers, homebuilders, small businesses, and property owners have struggled to determine whether ordinary features on their land qualify as “waters of the United States,” or WOTUS, under the Clean Water Act. If a feature falls within the federal definition, landowners need a federal permit before building, farming, or making other ordinary changes that…
    Sarah Wagoner
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  • news

    Green Energy PAC Drops $15M to Unseat Freedom Caucus Members
    Members of the House Freedom Caucus now face a challenge from a major green energy PAC that is spending at least $15 million this campaign cycle to defeat them for voting against former President Joe Biden’s Green New Deal agenda. The Invest in Tomorrow Coalition PAC, which, according to Federal Election Commission filings obtained by…
    Pedro Rodriguez
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  • opinion

    Virginia’s Energy Future Needs the 3 Rs: Reality, Reliability, and Resilience
    Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s new 2026 energy plan has arrived in familiar packaging, promising affordability, reliability, economic growth, cleaner power, and a path to a net-zero electric sector by 2050. Under this plan, we’re to believe Virginians can have their green-energy cake and eat it, too. Unfortunately, they can’t. No matter how good her intentions, the governor’s mandates…
    Jason Hayes
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  • news

    Supreme Court Justices Cite ‘Wall of Precedent’ Against Boulder Climate Lawfare
    Supreme Court justices appeared skeptical Monday of Boulder County’s claims that the energy company Suncor caused the county concrete harm by contributing to global climate change in a case that could open the floodgates of climate lawfare across the country. “If Boulder’s claims are allowed to go forward, some 90,000 municipalities across the country will…
    Tyler O’Neil
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  • news

    Zach Lahn’s Plan to Help Farmers While Cleaning Up Iowa’s Water
    Zach Lahn was told he couldn’t win in politics by talking about Iowa’s water quality and the cancer crisis. Now, as the Republican nominee for governor, he is looking to restore the culture in Iowa by running for office on precisely those issues. Lahn sat down with the Daily Signal for an interview on Tuesday…
    Virginia Grace McKinnon
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  • opinion

    The Real Story About Gas Prices, National Security, and the Economy
    While the American military action in Iran has been a source of many benefits to the U.S., a collateral negative effect has been the increase in world oil prices and the associated increase in gas prices at the pump for U.S. consumers. However, things may not be as dire as many would lead you to…
    Sanjai Bhagat
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  • exclusive

    New Ad Ties Democrat to Water Pollution, Iowa Cancer Rates
    FIRST ON THE DAILY SIGNAL—The Democrat nominee for governor in the state with the second-highest cancer incidence rate in the nation is being tied to part of the problem. In a new campaign ad, Iowa Republican gubernatorial nominee Zach Lahn links his Democrat opponent, Rob Sand, to Iowa water pollution. The ad also criticizes Sand…
    Virginia Grace McKinnon
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  • opinion

    3 Reasons a Ban on Diesel Exports Won’t Work
    On the latest episode of The Heritage Foundation podcast “The Power Hour,” host Jack Spencer talks energy with Heritage Foundation Executive Vice President Derrick Morgan. In this excerpt, Morgan explains why a potential ban on diesel exports to lower U.S. diesel prices is a bad idea. This transcript has been edited for clarity. Jack Spencer:…
    Jack Spencer | Derrick Morgan
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  • news

    Alito Steps Aside in Supreme Court Climate Showdown After Left-Wing Groups Question His Energy Investments
    Justice Samuel Alito has recused himself from an environmental case set to be argued on Monday before the Supreme Court, months after left-leaning groups accused him of a potential conflict. In the case of Suncor Energy Inc. v. County Commissioners of Boulder County, the question before the court involves the use of state tort laws…
    Fred Lucas
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  • opinion

    Iran’s Dwindling Influence on Shipping
    For decades, Iran’s clout was based on far more than missiles, proxies, or a nuclear file. It was about its ability to control shipping traffic through the Strait of Hormuz. Geographic location has given the regime significant strategic leverage and an ability to hold global energy markets hostage on a whim. What happens to oil…
    Jason Hayes | Brent Sadler
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  • opinion

    California Dictates What Cars You Can Buy. Here’s What Congress Can Do About It.
    No state should get to decide what type of car or lawn mower Americans across the country can buy. Yet that is the result of an arrangement under the Clean Air Act that allows California to seek federal waivers to impose more stringent vehicle emissions standards than those adopted by the federal government.   Congress now…
    Sarah Wagoner
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  • news

    Virginia’s Energy Mix May Include Fusion, But Will Require Natural Gas
    Virginia’s economic future depends on access to reliable, affordable energy. The Commonwealth already hosts more than a third of the planet’s hyperscale data centers, for example, and plans are on the drawing board to deliver even more capacity in the decades ahead. New data centers may be required to supply their own power at peak…
    Rich Tucker
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  • opinion

    The Supreme Court Should Slam the Door on Climate Lawfare
    Climate change will soon arrive before the U.S. Supreme Court, and with it the progressive Left’s most ambitious effort yet to impose Green New Deal socialism on an unwilling public.  Dozens of blue states and affluent hippie towns are demanding tens of billions of dollars from U.S. energy companies for alleged climate harms. These audacious lawsuits,…
    Todd J. Zywicki 
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