Climate 411

How the Trump administration is obstructing clean energy – and why it raises your costs

A black and white photograph of solar and wind projects is being torn in half to reveal a coal plant overlaid with an upward trend line to reflect rising costs.

Last updated August 20, 2025.

Electricity prices are rising across the U.S. Demand for electricity is going up for the first time in 20 years. And more extreme weather and heat waves are causing blackouts.

Yet instead of expanding access to low-cost, reliable clean power, the Trump administration is making the problem worse. Since Day One, the administration and its allies in Congress have pushed policies that restrict the supply of affordable, homegrown clean energy – creating a self-inflicted rate hike just as the country needs more power.

Wind and solar offer some of the cheapest – and fastest – ways to provide electric power today. In contrast, the cost to build natural gas plants is at a 10-year high and a shortage of turbines is delaying construction, while coal remains the most expensive and dirtiest way to generate power. To put it simply: Blocking cheap, clean energy while doubling down on outdated fossil fuels makes no economic or environmental sense.

The attacks on clean energy will not only hike up our electricity bills, but they will also unleash more pollution in our water and air, kill thousands of jobs and make our electric grid weaker.

How is this happening? Here are major ways the Trump administration is obstructing clean energy: Read More »

Posted in Cars and Pollution, Climate Change Legislation, Economics, Energy, Green Jobs, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, Health / Tagged , , , | Authors: / Comments are closed

Financing Forest Conservation: Guiding Quality Forest Finance in the Baku to Belém Roadmap

Aerial view of a Costa Rican rainforest. Flickr/ Francisco Guerrero 2020

By Mark Moroge and Zach Cohen 

At this November’s UN Climate Conference in Belém, progress on climate finance will be measured not just in pledges, but in delivery – including for forests, which are critical to regulating the climate, sustaining biodiversity, and supporting millions of people. The driving question: how do we get more money to the people conserving critical ecosystems at the speed and scale needed to make a difference? 

Last year’s climate conference in Baku set an ambitious goal to mobilize $1.3 trillion by 2035 for developing countries. Over the coming months, countries will provide inputs on a ‘Baku to Belém Roadmap’, guiding public and private sectors to deliver on this target. While scaling climate finance is essential, so is ensuring its quality. Strengthening the affordability, accessibility, and effectiveness of climate funding must be priorities to catalyze transformative action. 

As the Baku to Belém Roadmap takes shape, these principles of quality cannot just be abstractions – they need to be translated within specific sectors and contexts. This is especially true for the forest sector, where stakeholders face underlying barriers to securing the financing they need, and where there are ripe opportunities to unlock new resources, from leveraging public money to catalyze private investment, to deploying innovative models like the Tropical Forests Forever Facility.  Read More »

Posted in Brazil, Carbon Markets, Climate Finance, Extreme Weather, Indigenous People, REDD+, United Nations / Tagged , , , , , , | Authors: , / Comments are closed

States in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative take an important step forward — and there’s room to go further

On July 1, the ten states participating in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) concluded their Third Program Review and announced updates that strengthen the regional cap on climate pollution, beginning in 2027. These changes also introduce new measures to protect energy affordability and reaffirm the program’s commitment to cutting pollution, promoting clean energy and supporting local communities. 

As Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) analysis shows, the case for program improvements is well supported — delivering clean electricity and critical climate and health benefits while ensuring consumer affordability. And there’s still room to do even more.

Read More »

Posted in Carbon Markets, Cities and states, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, News / Authors: , / Comments are closed

The Science Is Clear on the Dangers of Planet-Heating Pollution

This post was co-authored by EDF Climate Scientist Fiona Lo and was updated on Aug. 7, 2025.

The Trump EPA is trying to reverse the Endangerment Finding – the science-based determination that climate pollution harms public health and welfare. That’s in spite of mountains of scientific evidence confirming that climate pollution is driving extreme weather events and putting people at risk.

The scientific evidence was clear that climate pollution endangers public health and welfare when EPA issued the Endangerment Finding in 2009 – but it is even clearer now:

Read More »

Posted in Basic Science of Global Warming, Clean Air Act, Extreme Weather, Greenhouse Gas Emissions, News, Policy, Science, Setting the Facts Straight / Authors: / Comments are closed

President Trump’s new tax law undermines clean energy when the U.S. needs it most

(This post was written by EDF Vice President for Political and Government Affairs Joanna Slaney)

President Trump just signed a deeply unpopular law passed by congressional Republicans — one that could thwart unprecedented American progress on clean energy and transportation. 

New polling shows that 67% of voters oppose the bill when they learn what’s in it. But the law puts the U.S. on a more expensive, more dangerous, and more harmful path, threatening $980 billion in gross domestic product and taking away 900,000 good-paying jobs in energy and manufacturing alone. Sean McGarvey, president of North America’s Building Trades Unions,  said, “This stands to be the biggest job-killing bill in the history of this country.”  Read More »

Posted in Cars and Pollution, Energy, News / Authors: / Comments are closed