Utilities
Rural electricity is getting its biggest boost since FDR — here's how
The Inflation Reduction Act earmarked $10.7B to make rural energy cleaner and more affordable. Now we have the details on how exactly the program will work.
Jeff St. John is director of news and special projects at Canary Media. He covers the intersection of technological, economic and regulatory issues influencing the global transition to low-carbon energy in the electricity, transportation and building sectors. He is the former managing editor and senior grid edge editor of Greentech Media, and he previously reported for The Fresno Bee, the Tri-City Herald and the Anchorage Daily News. He lives in Oakland, California with his wife Tara Donoghue and his dog Lily, and enjoys hiking, gardening and playing guitar with his nieces and nephews.
His areas of expertise include renewable energy, smart grid, distributed energy resources, energy storage, demand response and electric vehicles.
He earned a master’s degree from the UC Berkeley Graduate School of Journalism in 2001.
The Latest from Jeff St. John
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Transmission
California has a new $7.3B plan to fix its transmission problems
The state’s grid operator unanimously approved the plan — a crucial step in California’s bid to modernize a grid that lags behind its climate goals.
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Electric vehicles
Crunching data to keep EVs from overloading California's grid
Startup Kevala forecasts California will need $50 billion in grid upgrades to meet electric-vehicle goals — and it can tell utilities where to start investing.
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Transmission
Biden's got a plan for ramping up energy transmission
The White House wants Congress to pass permitting reform. In case that doesn't work, it's tapping DOE's authority to make it easier to build transmission.
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Electric vehicles
How US school buses are going electric, in four charts
EVs now make up about 1% of the nation's school bus fleet, but that figure is rising fast thanks in large part to $5 billion in federal funding.
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Climatetech finance
Silicon Valley Bank is back to financing community solar
SVB — now under new ownership — announces a $200 million financing deal for Pivot Energy, a leading community-solar developer.
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Energy equity
Income-based electric bills: The newest utility fight in California
A state law calling for utility bills to be based on household income could drive adoption of EVs and heat pumps — or punish rooftop solar and efficiency.
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Hydrogen
Go big or start small: Picking the right scale for green hydrogen
Startups Electric Hydrogen and Ohmium are both building gigawatt-scale factories. But the electrolyzers they’re making come in very different sizes.
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Transmission
Talking TransWest and grid transmission policy on the Weather Channel
Watch Canary Media’s Jeff St. John discuss the challenges, costs and benefits of a much bigger grid on the cable channel’s climate show, Pattrn.
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Electric vehicles
How quickly can trucking decarbonize? California is about to find out
California's new Advanced Clean Fleets rule will push trucking to go electric over the next 20 years — the most ambitious such mandate in the country.
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