The United States is home to some of the most groundbreaking research on climate change, but at the federal level, research and development relating to climate change mitigation are not prioritized for funding, and it remains a contentious political issue divided along party lines. Republicans in Congress often support funding for innovation programs – that...
The 2019 U.S. Energy and Employment Report found that the U.S. Traditional Energy and Energy Efficiency sectors employed “approximately 6.7 million Americans or 4.6% of a workforce of roughly 147 million” in 2018, an increase of 2.3% from the previous year. Of these, solar and wind employed a total of 343,000 full-time workers, though solar...
In the United States, the greatest burden of climate impacts are disproportionately borne by low-income communities of color. Extreme weather events like storms, wildfires, floods, and heat waves cause health problems and property damage across the U.S. Low-income communities often lack funding to rebuild quickly from disasters and ensure resilience to future ones, and for...
The commercial aviation industry has been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic, both in the United States and globally. The drastic drop in demand from both business passengers – with remote work, most regular business travelers can instead use video conferencing – and leisure passengers – with most of the world in lockdown, few are...
More than 12% of the total land area of the United States and almost 20% of its marine area are protected by a combination of state and federal protections. However, only 5% of the U.S.’ total land mass is designated federally protected wilderness. The Wilderness Act, the strongest federal protection for public lands, preserves these...
The first case of COVID-19 in the United States was recorded on January 21, 2020; by May 1 over 1,000,000 cases had been reported. To slow the spread of the virus, states across the country issued stay-at-home and shelter-in-place orders, instituted social distancing measures, and closed non-essential businesses. President Trump declared a national emergency on...
In order to comply with the Paris Agreement, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under President Obama passed the Clean Power Plan, a standard that used the Clean Air Act to require carbon emissions from the power sector to fall 32% by 2030, relative to 2005 levels. The plan did not regulate individual power plants directly,...
The United States does not have a federal carbon price. However, at the state and regional level, eleven states covering approximately thirty percent of the U.S. population participate in carbon pricing programs in the form of Cap and Trade systems. These include the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) for Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states and California’s...
On November 4, 2019, President Donald Trump officially began the formal process to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Agreement. Although the President had announced his intent in June of 2017, he was unable to formally submit the intent to withdraw until three years after the agreement had entered into force. Climate activists and opponents...
