Utilities: Page 6

  • A street lined with trees, cars and manufactured homes
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    What does it take to decarbonize a manufactured home community?

    A community-scale retrofit project in Colorado offers a path toward lowering power bills for a population that faces high levels of energy insecurity.

    By Leslie Nemo • Oct. 18, 2024
  • A red Cadillac Lyriq in a garage plugged into a GM Energy residential charger.
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    Courtesy of General Motors
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    EV owners can store more energy from the grid with GM Energy’s new ‘PowerBank’

    The stationary energy storage unit can provide power to a home during an outage or help offset higher electricity rates during peak times. 

    By Eric Walz • Oct. 17, 2024
  • Sustainable glass office building with trees for reducing carbon dioxide.
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    How to address a key building decarbonization barrier: the ‘split incentive gap’

    While landlords and developers foot the bill for efficiency upgrades, tenants benefit from lower energy costs. A Sustainable Markets Initiative road map outlines policies and other ways to address the mismatch.

    By Nish Amarnath • Oct. 11, 2024
  • Aerial shot of people inside a large indoor space. People sit on folding chairs and lay on mats on the floor.
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    Nathan Howard via Getty Images
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    Gas utility faces climate deception lawsuit by Oregon county

    It's the first time a U.S. community has sued a gas utility for allegedly deceiving the public about the climate impacts of fossil fuels, advocates say.

    By Ysabelle Kempe • Oct. 10, 2024
  • A detailed landscape design plan showing topographic contour lines, orange building illustrations, green trees, and directional arrows. The layout includes winding paths and clustered vegetation. A triangular scale ruler lies on the left, and three colored pencils, colored blue, green, and yellow, rest on the lower right corner of the page.
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    Sponsored by

    Getting started: What any municipality can do now about EPA’s PFAS ruling for water systems

    There is help for municipalities and community water providers overwhelmed by the April 2024 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency announcement of its requirement that water systems remove six “forever chemicals” present in drinking water supplies across the country. The U.S. Geological Survey indicates as much as 45 percent of current drinking water supplies are impacted by PFAS.

    By Dan Schneider • Oct. 9, 2024
  • A detailed landscape design plan showing topographic contour lines, orange building illustrations, green trees, and directional arrows. The layout includes winding paths and clustered vegetation. A triangular scale ruler lies on the left, and three colored pencils, colored blue, green, and yellow, rest on the lower right corner of the page.
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    Expert: Internal combustion engines will be propelling fleet vehicles for many years to come

    Public-sector fleet managers may want to consider delaying replacing their internal-combustion-engine (ICE) vehicles with electric vehicles/trucks (EVs) says Randall Taylor, CEO of The Fuel Ox, a global provider of fuel treatments and lubricants. For more than 10 years Taylor has led daily operations at the firm, which helps consumers and fleet managers reduce their footprint on the environment with bio-based, eco-friendly and almost completely toxin-free products.

    By Michael Keating • Oct. 2, 2024
  • Power crews work on the lines after Hurricane Helene
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    Joe Raedle/Getty Images via Getty Images
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    1.6M customers still without power after Helene; some local grids must ‘be completely rebuilt’

    Multiple utilities say they will need to completely rebuild, rather than repair, electric systems in the hardest-hit areas. 

    By Robert Walton • Oct. 1, 2024
  • Crowds of people walk on a city street
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    2025’s top smart city conferences

    Smart city technology, housing, climate action, transportation, public safety and more take center stage at events in 2025.

    By • Updated June 27, 2025
  • Aerial shot of buildings on a sunny day
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    Affordable multifamily housing owners would get decarbonization help in NYC proposal

    Building owners purchasing “offset certificates” to help meet Local Law 97’s greenhouse gas emissions-reduction requirements would pay into the fund.

    By Ysabelle Kempe • Sept. 30, 2024
  • An electric vehicle at a Tesla EV charging station.
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    Justin Sullivan via Getty Images
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    Customer satisfaction with public EV charging is improving: JD Power

    Electric vehicle owners are particularly satisfied with the speed of public fast chargers. But public charging infrastructure isn’t keeping up with the number of EVs in service, a J.D. Power executive said.

    By Kalena Thomhave • Sept. 27, 2024
  • A man in a red uniform repairing a heat pump.
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    Seattle boosts electric heat pump incentives with goal to eliminate oil-heated homes

    With the city's new rebate, income-qualified households can access up to $8,000 each to switch from oil heat to an electric heat pump.

    By Ysabelle Kempe • Sept. 24, 2024
  • Electric vehicles at an EV charging station.
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    Biden administration proposes expanding tax credits for EV charger installations

    The proposed rule would expand on January guidance from the Treasury Department, allowing the tax credit to be accessed per individual charging port installed.

    By Robert Walton • Sept. 20, 2024
  • A person in a suit stands in front of a crowd of people holding signs that say "Trump 2024" and "Road to Victory."
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    Scott Olson via Getty Images
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    How a 2nd Trump administration could ‘jeopardize’ Inflation Reduction Act climate funds

    If elected, could Donald Trump claw back or withhold funds from communities? Experts from Columbia University’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law offer insight.

    By Ysabelle Kempe • Sept. 19, 2024
  • An aerial rendering of the expansion project at the north end of Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport's Terminal 2
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    Courtesy of Metropolitan Airports Commission and Miller Dunwiddie
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    Minneapolis airport unveils plans for geothermal heating, rainwater harvesting in $263M expansion

    The terminal expansion effort will reduce 56% of water utility use, 19% of overall heating and cooling energy demand and 62% of exterior lighting energy demand, the airport commission said.

    By Brian Martucci • Sept. 19, 2024
  • A rendering of a flagship charging station co-branded by EVgo and GM Energy.
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    Courtesy of General Motors
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    GM, EVgo plan 400 EV charging stations in US metro areas

    Most flagship stations are expected to feature up to 20 stalls, but some select sites will offer significantly more chargers. 

    By Eric Walz • Sept. 18, 2024
  • An aerial view of buildings and skyscrapers in downtown Los Angeles at sunset
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    2025 California energy code updates aim to drive heat pump adoption, save nearly $5B in energy costs

    If approved, the new building energy efficiency standards are expected to drive 500,000 heat pump installations in the first three years, the California Energy Commission said.

    By Nish Amarnath • Sept. 17, 2024
  • Aerial shot of city buildings
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    DOE spurs new building energy codes with another $90M

    Construction-heavy states that lack the latest energy-efficiency codes are among the focus areas for this round of federal funding, a U.S. Department of Energy official said.

    By Ysabelle Kempe • Sept. 16, 2024
  • Workers walking on solar panels
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    iStock/ Hiraman

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    Sponsored by Schneider Electric

    How cities are stacking grant funds to achieve big sustainability goals

    Why local governments are increasingly stacking multiple funding sources to finance sustainable infrastructure projects.

    Sept. 16, 2024
  • The back of a person who is pointing a remote at a wall-mounted air conditioner.
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    Low-income families face high energy burden, prompting calls for more government action

    One in four low-income U.S. households spends more than 15% of their income on energy bills, finds an analysis by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.

    By Ysabelle Kempe • Sept. 13, 2024
  • A detailed landscape design plan showing topographic contour lines, orange building illustrations, green trees, and directional arrows. The layout includes winding paths and clustered vegetation. A triangular scale ruler lies on the left, and three colored pencils, colored blue, green, and yellow, rest on the lower right corner of the page.
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    Opinion

    Cleveland’s new strategic plan focuses on making city government work better

    As Cleveland Mayor Justin Bibb stepped onto the Music Hall stage in the city’s Public Auditorium on March 5, 2024, it was hard not to lose your place on the continuum of past, present and future.

    By Andrew Kleine • Sept. 11, 2024
  • A cityscape of skyscrapers and commercial buildings around State Street Bridge in Chicago.
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    Retrofits more effective in cutting operational, embodied carbon emissions than new builds: study

    Notre Dame researchers analyzed over 1 million Chicago buildings. The team plans to measure buildings’ embodied carbon in most U.S. metropolitan areas by the end of 2025, a researcher said.

    By Nish Amarnath • Sept. 11, 2024
  • An aerial shot of modern office towers and Downtown Park in Bellevue, Washington on a sunny summer day.
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    Washington hopes to advance clean building standards implementation with nearly $8M DOE grant

    The state’s Building Efficiency and Clean Operations Network project aims to train at least 60 fellows to provide energy services to building owners and operators.

    By Nish Amarnath • Sept. 10, 2024
  • A detailed landscape design plan showing topographic contour lines, orange building illustrations, green trees, and directional arrows. The layout includes winding paths and clustered vegetation. A triangular scale ruler lies on the left, and three colored pencils, colored blue, green, and yellow, rest on the lower right corner of the page.
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    For government fleet managers, the shift to EVs takes planning, training and funding

    Because of the urgent need for decarbonization and reducing climate change, local government fleet managers are facing several major trends. One of these is the shift from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles (EVs), says Sam Pournazeri, senior director of Clean Transportation & Energy at ICF, a global consulting and technology services company with approximately 9,000 employees that helps organizations, including public- and private-sector clients, solve their complex challenges.

    By Michael Keating • Sept. 6, 2024
  • An array of solar panels create electricity at the Lightsource bp solar farm near the Anglesey village of Rhosgoch, on May 10, 2024 in Wales.
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    Robust community engagement good for locals, renewable energy developers: Berkeley Lab

    In a first-of-its-kind survey, wind and solar developers cited community opposition and strict local siting ordinances as leading causes of project delays and cancellations.

    By Brian Martucci • Sept. 6, 2024
  • Aerial view of rooftops in a suburban neighborhood. A street curves through the houses.
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    Neighborhood decarbonization pilot programs can start in California

    A new law allows natural gas utilities to electrify a neighborhood instead of replacing old gas pipelines under certain conditions.

    By Ysabelle Kempe • Updated Sept. 27, 2024