ICYMI: Canary Media: In a first, renewables beat natural gas on US grid last month

New report from Climate Power shows Trump has taken 365 clean energy projects off the grid, spiking utility bills and leaving Americans vulnerable to global oil shocks

Washington, DC – In March, Americans got more electricity from renewables than from natural gas for the first time ever, making it abundantly clear that despite Donald Trump’s best efforts, clean energy is the future. Clean energy is the least expensive and quickest power source to meet skyrocketing demand, yet Trump and Republican lawmakers have put petty vendettas over the American people by taking a sledgehammer to clean energy projects across the country. Now, Trump’s war in Iran is sending oil and gas prices surging to multi-year highs, leaving American families to pay the price with higher prices on everything from gasoline to plane tickets. 

Climate Power’s new April Energy Crisis Snapshot shows that Trump and his Republican allies in Congress’ attacks on clean energy have led to the cancellation of enough projects to power nearly 15 million homes, spiking utility bills by as much as 13%. China has been more than happy to step in to fill the gap, surging ahead in the race to power our global economy as Trump’s war in Iran kickstarts a global energy crisis.

Canary Media: In a first, renewables beat natural gas on US grid last month

It’s not an easy moment for renewable energy in the U.S., but the sector is still setting new records.

Just look at what happened last month: Over the course of March, the nation got more electricity from renewables than it did from natural gas, which is typically the single-largest source of energy on the U.S. grid.

It’s the first time renewables have bested the fossil fuel in the U.S. across an entire month, per data pulled from the think tank Ember. Meanwhile, emissions-free sources, a category that includes both renewables and nuclear, produced more than half of the nation’s electricity. It’s just the third time that’s happened across an entire month, the first instance being last March…

But perhaps more impressive is that renewables are growing their market share while overall electricity demand climbs. Put simply, clean energy is taking a bigger slice of a growing pie.

Gas power plants, for their part, remain difficult to build due to supply chain bottlenecks. Meanwhile, solar, batteries, and wind together will once again make up the overwhelming majority of new energy capacity added to the grid this year. The same was true last year. And the year before. And the year before that…

Even as the Trump administration creates obstacles to building renewables, a key pair of facts will hold: The U.S. needs more electricity, and renewables are the easiest way to get it. In other words, don’t expect this to be the last month in which renewables conquer gas.