Local and Virginia Climate News
It is still not clear how the Trump administration’s move to freeze federal grants might affect Harrisonburg. The city often receives federal funding for city programs and projects, including a recent grant from the EPA for clean-energy school buses.
Democratic lawmakers are clashing with governor Youngkin over the Virginia’s membership in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI). Youngkin withdrew Virgina from RGGI, a move that a court ruling judged was illegal and is now tied up in an appeal process.
Dominion Energy executives say they expect the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project to be completed and operational next year. They say it offers one of the best chances to meet potentially soaring energy demands from an explosion of data centers. The energy demand from data centers in Virginia almost doubled in the last half of 2024.
This was supposed to be the year the Virginia General Assembly did something about data centers. It has, however, largely failed to regulate the rapid expansion of data centers despite mounting concerns over their strain on energy, water and infrastructure.
Loudoun County executives told business leaders at a Chamber of Commerce meeting that the county now has 199 energy thirsty data centers on the ground with another 117 in the pipeline. They said data centers are a crucial part of Loudoun’s economy, but that concerns about electrical grid capacity are valid.
The Virginia General Assembly passed a bill to build EV charging stations in rural locations beyond interstate highways. The $1.5 million allocated to the effort makes it a pilot project. The goal is to provide more funds over the next five years.
Our Climate Crisis
Temperatures at the north pole rose 68°F above average and beyond the ice melting point in early February. While this is probably not the most extreme weather swing ever observed in the Arctic, it is still at the upper edge of what can happen.
State Farm, the largest insurer in California, is asking state regulators to approve a 22% rate increase after the devastating Los Angeles wildfires, warning that failure to do so could put 2.8 million policies at risk. The company has already paid out over $1 billion in claims from the fires and expects to pay much more.
Scientists say that rising global temperatures are fueled, in part, by declining cloud cover. It could be a potential climate feedback loop, which leads to more warming.
Surprisingly little is being said about the centrality of war in the creation of global environmental threats and our climate crisis. Armed conflict threatens the fragile ecosystems that sustain us all. Furthermore, the world’s military carbon footprint accounts for an estimated 5.5% of global greenhouse gas emissions, with the US military far in the lead.
Politics and Policy
The Trump administration’s freeze on climate and energy funding has disrupted businesses, nonprofits and local governments, with rural projects in conservative-leaning states facing stalled reimbursements and financial strain. Federal courts have ordered the administration to restart funding, but agencies have yet to comply, creating uncertainty for grantees.
The Trump administration has taken unprecedented steps to shutter or remake federal offices focused on the environment, causing turmoil and confusion for employees. It plans to close the Environmental Protection Agency’s environmental justice office and remake the Justice Department’s environmental division.
Tesla sales have plummeted 63% in France and 59% in Germany. Elon Musk has inserted himself into alt-right European politics and it appears to be taking a toll on demand. Tesla stock continues to trade at about a bazillion times earnings, but these are flashing warning signals for what lies ahead for the company.
The Trump administration has ordered states to rework plans for using $5 billion in federal funding for EV-charging installations nationwide. This potentially halts plans to put obligated but as-yet unspent dollars to work. Experts say the order is illegal.
President Trump’s halt on federal clean energy funding is stalling billions in investments, with most of the economic fallout affecting Republican-led states that had benefited from the climate incentives. Grants for renewable energy projects, battery factories and grid modernization have been frozen despite court orders to release the funds.
Environmental organizations are gearing up for a wave of legal challenges as the Trump administration moves to weaken climate policies, cut agency staff and roll back environmental regulations.
President Trump’s fossil fuel push is influencing global energy policies. In an effort to avoid Trump’s threat of tariffs, countries including India, Japan and South Korea are agreeing to boost imports of American fossil fuels. Other countries such as Indonesia, Argentina, and South Africa are walking back their own commitments to decease carbon emissions.
American Secretary of State Marco Rubio snubbed the G-20 meeting in South Africa to protest what he said was an attempt to promote diversity, equity and inclusion, and tackle climate change.
Energy
Thermal batteries promise to provide a cheaper, cleaner alternative for roughly 20% of global energy consumption. They convert low-cost, low-value hours of electricity production into energy stored for long durations as high temperature heat, delivering industrial heat and power cost-effectively and on demand, day or night, solving this crucial problem.
The share of electricity from solar and wind is growing twice as fast in the Global South as in the Global North. These countries are endowed with 70% of the world’s renewable energy potential. These resources keep getting cheaper and cheaper, outcompeting fossil fuels on price. When incentives are clear, markets move—and cleantech is moving.
The U.S. solar energy industry has now built more than enough factories to meet the country’s demand for solar panels. Solar cell factories are coming next but may be hindered if Trump kills a key tax credit.
Clean energy installations in the U.S. reached a record high last year, with the country adding 47% more capacity than in 2023. Solar led the way and is expected to do the same this year. Renewables will continue growing this year but at a slower pace. The rate of continued progress will depend heavily on the Trump administration.
Japan is increasing its reliance on nuclear energy, reversing previous plans to reduce its use after the Fukushima meltdown more than a decade ago. This is part of a plan to increase energy from renewables to 40-50%, while energy from coal will drop from 70% to 30-40%.
China’s construction of new coal-power plants reached a 10-year high in 2024 and is undermining its clean-energy progress. It stands in direct conflict with President Xi Jinping’s pledge to “strictly limit the increase in coal consumption.”
Food and Agriculture
Decades of work on adapted apple tree varieties at the University of Maryland could help sow the seeds of future climate-resilient crops. Growers are on the front lines of shifting weather patterns, such as warm winters followed by brutal spring frost, and extended summer droughts, that threaten harvests.
Sheep are grazing solar farms in Pittsylvania County, Virginia, as part of Dominion Energy’s efforts to find agricultural uses for its solar farms. In January, local farmer Marcus Gray moved his herd of 165 sheep to the 1,000-acre solar farm and plans to expand it to 400 sheep.
Hurricane Helene inflicted huge losses on western North Carolina farms and some farmers wonder whether they can or should begin again. Farmers were already confronting a brutal year for agriculture involving a severe drought followed by fields waterlogged by Tropical Storm Debby. Less than two months later, Helene arrived and brought unprecedented destruction.
Livestock account for 12% of global greenhouse gas emissions, with the largest portion coming from methane that cattle release when they burp. Feeding dairy cows a small seaweed supplement can reduce the amount of methane they emit by 80%. Adding seaweed pellets to grazing beef cattle diets cuts methane output by 40%.
Global coffee prices have hit a 50-year high. Even so, many farmers are still struggling to make a profit as they deal with droughts, erratic rainfall and plant diseases exacerbated by climate change. While large coffee companies pass rising costs to consumers, small farmers often see little of the increased revenue.
Climate Justice
The Women in Renewable Energy (WIRE) Network, is designed to empower women in the renewable energy sector, particularly in island nations where energy challenges are acute. WIRE is fostering mentorship, technical training, and peer learning, equipping women to drive the clean energy transition in their communities.
The Bezos Earth Fund has halted funding for the Science Based Targets initiative, which monitors companies’ decarbonization efforts. This comes amid broader concerns that US billionaires are “bowing down to Trump” and his anti-climate action policies.
Diplomats from the developing world are pushing rich nations to defy US President Trump and make stronger climate commitments. According to the chair of the African group of climate negotiators, “Africa, responsible for less than 4% of global greenhouse gas emissions, remains disproportionately affected by the intensifying impacts of climate change.”
A pipeline company is bringing a $300 million lawsuit against Greenpeace for alleged damages in the fight over the Dakota Access pipeline nearly a decade ago near the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation. Many environmentalists are convinced the lawsuit is an intimidation tactic, intended to instill fear throughout the broader climate action movement.
Climate Action
The dismantling of US climate policies is climate action in reverse. The rollback of climate protections will have lasting consequences for public health, energy costs, and the nation’s ability to combat climate change. It is locking in decades of damage.
China now eclipses every other country in the world in the green technologies of the future. It has done so through a rush of entrepreneurship and unwavering government support.
Global EV sales in January 2025 still saw an 18% jump compared to the same month last year. Continued robust sales are expected even though some speed bumps lie ahead.
Ten new EV battery factories are on track to go online this year in the United States. If they all open on schedule, our country’s EV battery manufacturing capacity will increase by 90% from the end of 2024.
Peatlands constitute only 3% of Earth’s surface but they store more carbon than all of the world’s forests combined. Few of them are, however, protected in comparison to other natural areas. Increasing the protection of peatlands is a crucial climate action.
Earl Zimmerman is a member of the steering committee of the Climate Action Alliance of the Valley.
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