U.S. lawmakers can invest in small towns to reduce emissions with strategies drawing inspiration from bustling town centres, EV programs, and even a South Korean taxi service for rural seniors. But so far, their funding decisions are leaving those communities behind.

The owner of the world’s biggest grid battery, the 400-megawatt/1600-megawatt-hour Moss Landing Energy Storage Facility south of San Francisco, ordered an investigation earlier this month after an “overheating incident” took 300 MW of storage capacity offline, even though nothing caught fire.

U.S. President Joe Biden unveiled plans last week to boost solar energy from four to 45% of his country’s electricity supply by 2050, although the details of the White House roadmap will be up to members of Congress to decide.

A new report shows that battery storage is poised for a 10-year “growth spurt,” with potential for U.S. government policy to push the industry’s expansion even further.

In a first-ever study, an international team of industrial ecologists has determined that reducing material use in building construction could lower production emissions by 22 to 61% by 2050.

Liberal Leader Justin Trudeau’s promise yesterday to cap oil and gas sector emissions at today’s levels and set five-year targets to reduce them beginning in 2025 amounts to the end of fossil fuel expansion in Canada, the country’s leading climate advocacy network told The Energy Mix Sunday evening.

Despite the popularity of electric vehicles, Canadian forecasts show no slowing of production for combustion-engine trucks and SUVs, leading environmental organizations to call for tighter federal regulations on automakers.

With the climate crisis and the shift to a green economy taking their place as a top-tier issue in the federal election, Canada must double its supply of clean electricity or squander the advantage of a power generation system that is already mostly carbon-free, Globe and Mail climate specialist Adam Radwanski warns in a column this week.

Swedish venture Hybrit (Hydrogen Breakthrough Ironmaking Technology) says it has supplied Volvo with the world’s first customer delivery of “green steel,” pointing the way for the auto industry’s transition to a fossil-free value chain.

A proposal to close California’s Aliso Canyon underground storage facility—one of the United States’ largest natural gas storage fields—could be a model for the state’s broader energy transition: as either a positive lesson or a learning experience.