The Latest from Elizabeth McCarthy

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  Energy storage

  Big batteries are booming in California, but the outlook for small-scale storage just got more uncertain

  A new plan for solar net metering could slow adoption of home batteries — just when the state needs them most.

  By Elizabeth McCarthy  .  23 December 2021

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  Clean industry

  Can the US take the lead on cleaner lithium production?

  Three companies are attracting private and public funding for their potentially game-changing efforts to extract lithium from brine in California.

  By Elizabeth McCarthy  .  14 October 2021

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  Fossil fuels

  The dark side of California's emergency grid rescue plan: More dirty emissions from backup generators

  Once again, disadvantaged communities bear the brunt when cleaner grid buildouts lag behind schedule.
  

  By Elizabeth McCarthy  .  24 August 2021

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  Utilities

  California's biggest utility plans to bury 10,000 miles of power lines. How much will that cost residents?

  Wildfires and other climate disasters are pushing PG&E to put lines underground, but it's a notoriously expensive process.

  By Elizabeth McCarthy  .  6 August 2021

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  Fossil fuels

  California has embraced clean energy, so why is it still building natural gas infrastructure?

  Decarbonization advocates are fighting ratepayer subsidies that incentivize the growth of an increasingly obsolete gas system.

  By Elizabeth McCarthy  .  14 July 2021

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  Batteries

  Used EV batteries could get a second life storing clean energy on California's grid

  A surge in retired EV batteries is helping to eliminate second-life EV battery storage hurdles, just in time to help meet clean energy mandates.

  By Elizabeth McCarthy  .  22 June 2021

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  Hydrogen

  Los Angeles plans to jump-start a green hydrogen market in the US

  LA wants to fuel its public utility with carbon-free hydrogen. Can it break through the nascent industry’s economic and technical challenges?

  By Elizabeth McCarthy  .  8 June 2021

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  EV charging

  EV charger installations in California are bogged down by local permitting

  A six-year-old permitting law hasn’t unblocked installation delays — so state lawmakers are now considering mandates.

  By Elizabeth McCarthy  .  24 May 2021

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  Utilities

  PG&E’s $7.5B securitization: A bellwether for utility efforts to cover the costs of climate change?

  Wildfire liability financing under scrutiny in California could presage efforts in other states to offset costs of coal plant retirements and climate-change mitigations.

  By Elizabeth McCarthy  .  11 May 2021