Energy Policy Now

As home gas use declines, rising infrastructure costs are pushing consumer gas bills higher. --- Americans are using less natural gas at home, yet their gas bills continue to rise. A growing share of those bills now reflects the cost of maintaining and upgrading gas distribution networks, even as electrification and state climate policies raise questions about the long-term role of gas in building...

PJM is under pressure to overhaul how it makes decisions. The harder question is whether the market can reform itself, and what meaningful change would require. --- The PJM Interconnection, the nation’s largest electricity market, is under growing pressure to reform the way it makes decisions. FERC’s push for change follows years of mounting concern over PJM’s ability to respond...

The Hormuz crisis tests China’s energy security while highlighting its growing clean-tech advantage. --- The closure of the Strait of Hormuz following the outbreak of war between the U.S. and Iran has disrupted about a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas flows, driving up energy costs around the world. Yet China, the world’s largest energy consumer and oil importer...

For the month of August, we’re highlighting episodes from the 2025-2026 season of Energy Policy Now. We’ll be back with new content, and a new season, on September the 8th. John Helveston of George Washington University discusses why a U.S. pullback from China on EVs is risky, and why engagement could strengthen America’s auto industry. --- China has rapidly become the center of...

For the month of August, we’re highlighting episodes from the 2025-2026 season of Energy Policy Now. We’ll be back with new content, and a new season, on September the 8th. An economic sociologist discusses the growing heat dangers facing last-mile delivery drivers, and why federal protections remain stalled. --- E-commerce has transformed the way goods move through the American econom...

The modern agricultural system delivers an extraordinary abundance and variety of food at relatively low cost, thanks in part to abundant and affordable energy. Can those benefits be preserved without creating unacceptable exposure to disruption? --- Recent disruptions to food and energy markets have drawn renewed attention to the links between agriculture, energy, and global trade. Fertilizer pro...

Can the energy choices we make today influence affordability for decades to come? --- Affordability has become one of the defining issues in American politics. Rising costs for housing, healthcare, groceries, and energy continue to strain household budgets. But economist Heather Boushey argues that affordability runs much deeper than prices alone. It reflects how the economy is structured, the kin...

Southwest Power Pool’s expansion into the West marks a major step toward greater regional coordination of the electric grid. --- Earlier this year the Southwest Power Pool, the electric grid operator for much of the central United States, expanded into the Western Interconnection, becoming the first Regional Transmission Organization to operate in both the Eastern and Western grids. The move...

For years, electricity prices broadly tracked inflation. New pressures may be changing that. --- Electricity prices have become a major political issue in the United States, with policymakers increasingly focused on rising utility bills and the costs of meeting growing electricity demand. At the same time, renewable energy has often been blamed for driving prices higher. But what does the data act...

Clean energy funding under the GGRF remains frozen, with projects on hold and questions over federal spending authority unresolved. --- The $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund has become a focal point of the Trump administration’s efforts to roll back federal clean energy policy. The program was designed to finance clean energy and emissions-reducing projects by channeling public funds...

The Greenhouse Gas Protocol, the global standard for corporate emissions accounting, is increasingly embedded in policy, drawing new scrutiny of its governance. --- The Greenhouse Gas Protocol is the global standard for how companies measure and report their greenhouse gas emissions. It is used by most large companies worldwide and increasingly underpins climate disclosure requirements in places l...

Helen Thompson, a political economist at Cambridge, examines how geopolitical conflict has shaped global oil and gas markets, with implications for the current Gulf crisis. --- Geopolitical conflict has long shaped the evolution of global energy systems. Over the past 70 years, periods of relative stability in oil and gas markets have repeatedly given way to disruption, from the Suez Crisis to the...

Insurance is on the front lines of climate risk, and may help shape how we respond to it. --- Insurance is one of the quiet pillars of the modern economy. It underpins where we build, how we invest, and whether communities can recover after disaster. In many ways, it defines what risks we’re willing, and able, to live with. But that foundation is under strain. Across the United States, risin...

The Arctic is emerging as a new front in the global competition over strategic minerals, raising questions about how the supply chains behind the energy transition will be governed. --- In recent months, Arctic resources have moved to the center of geopolitical debate. President Trump has publicly proposed that the United States take control of Greenland, citing its strategic location and mineral...

Two Penn legal experts discuss the strategy behind EPA’s rescission of the Endangerment Finding and the court challenges ahead. --- On February 12, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency formally rescinded the endangerment finding, the 2009 determination that established the legal basis for federal regulation of greenhouse gas emissions. For 16 years, that finding has underpinned EPA clima...

Oil sanctions have given rise to dark shipping, reshaping global energy flows and producing far-reaching economic consequences. --- In recent years, oil export sanctions have become a central tool of U.S. foreign policy, targeting major producers including Russia, Iran, and, until very recently Venezuela. These sanctions were designed to limit oil revenues, apply economic pressure, and create geop...

The nation’s largest electric grid operator outlines its plan to manage rapid growth in data center electricity demand. --- PJM Interconnection, the nation’s largest grid operator, is preparing to file a wide-ranging proposal with federal regulators aimed at managing the rapid growth of electricity demand, including AI-driven data centers. The plan stands out as one of the first compre...

AI data centers are driving rapid demand growth, exposing the limits of traditional electricity forecasting and planning. --- Electricity demand in the United States is rising fast, fueled in large part by the rapid expansion of AI data centers. Grid operators have repeatedly revised their demand forecasts upward as they try to anticipate how much new power these facilities, along with other emerg...

Gas-fired power is back in favor in the United States, but methane emissions threaten its credibility. ---  Methane is one of the most potent greenhouse gases, and global efforts to curb methane emissions are accelerating. Beginning later this decade, the European Union will impose new methane rules on oil and gas imports, and major energy-importing countries across Asia are paying closer att...

An economic sociologist discusses the growing heat dangers facing last-mile delivery drivers, and why federal protections remain stalled. --- E-commerce has transformed the way goods move through the American economy, driving unprecedented growth in parcel deliveries and intensifying competition among major carriers and the U.S. Postal Service. Yet this push for speed and volume now unfolds amid l...

John Helveston of George Washington University discusses why a U.S. pullback from China on EVs is risky, and why engagement could strengthen America’s auto industry. --- China has rapidly become the center of global EV innovation, producing cars that are cheaper, faster to develop, and increasingly competitive in international markets. The United States, by contrast, is pulling back, elimina...

The Trump administration’s nuclear ambitions raise new questions about safety, speed, and regulatory independence. --- The Trump administration has made nuclear power a centerpiece of its energy agenda, launching the most aggressive federal push for new reactors in decades. Through sweeping executive orders, new federal directives and financing support, and an $80 billion deal with Westingho...

What the U.S. offshore wind power crisis says about energy megaprojects, risk, and political resilience. --- After a surge of optimism, the U.S. offshore wind industry faces its most serious challenges yet. Just a year ago, the sector seemed poised for rapid growth, with East Coast states making offshore wind a centerpiece of their clean-energy and reliability strategies. Today, that progress has...

A live discussion with Sanya Carley and David Konisky, authors of the new book Power Lines, on the inequities that define America’s energy system—and how they could carry into the clean energy future if left unacknowledged. --- In this special live episode of Energy Policy Now, recorded before an audience during Climate Week at the University of Pennsylvania, guests Sanya Carley and Da...

With federal funding being pulled back, leaders of Pennsylvania’s top labor unions push state policy to deliver clean energy jobs. --- For generations, union members have mined Pennsylvania’s coal, run its power plants, and built its energy infrastructure, helping make the state a top fossil fuel producer and electricity exporter. Now, renewable energy offers the promise of growth, but...