In the latest affront to to net-metering, Indiana’s legislature has proposed SB 309, a bill that solar advocates argue would end net-metering in the state. Their ire is up after the bill passed out of the state’s utilities committee on a vote of 8 to 2. Moreover, they charge that state legislators, chief among them, bill author Sen. Brandt Herschman (R), are misrepresenting the legislation. 

Last week, solar celebrated early results of its record year in 2016, installing 14.6 gigawatts (GWs) of new solar, while the renewables industries celebrated record levels of employment. In what amounts to a potential blow to this jobs and clean energy growth President Donald Trump (R) curbed water protections to allow coal to complete with low-cost renewables. This even as more conservatives are pushing for a carbon tax. 

In one of two moves that sparked outrage from the environmental community this week, President Trump (R) signed House Joint Resolution 38 that protects streams against pollution from coal mining. That came prior to the confirmation of climate change denier Scott Pruitt as the new head of the Environmental Protection Agency. Both actions sparked (not unanticipated) anger from the environmental community as Trump tries to make coal power more competitive with renewable energy. 

Maryland’s legislature passed a bill allowing community solar projects in the state to take off in 2015. However, it’s taken until Feb. 15 this year for the legal thicket of regulations to be resolved. Now community solar advocates and companies are praising the newly finalized, 200-megawatt (MW), three year pilot program.

The redevelopment of New Jersey’s Bell Labs facility into Bell Works, a mixed-use innovator’s “metroburb” in Homdel, NJ, will soon have another innovative feature. The US’s, if not the world’s, largest photovoltaic skylight.

In the past couple of years solar power has taken off in North Carolina, catapulting the state into the Solar Energy Industries Association’s (SEIA’s) and others’ top 10 states for solar power. Now SEIA is recognizing two Republican legislators from the state, Sen. Richard Burr and Rep. George Holding, leading the charge to solar at the federal level with its SEIA Solar Champion Award.  

Companies working in clean tech from renewable energy to energy efficiency are drawing a lot of interest right now. New York realizes this and to help bring the next generation of clean tech companies into existence, theNew York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) has launched a new site, StartupGPS.org to help entrepreneurs grow their clean tech companies.

Since at least 2010 the US solar market has experienced record growth, with each successive year seeing more installations than the year before. But nothing like the 14,626 megawatts (MWs) of new solar installed last year was witnessed before. 

Last week, the Climate Leadership Council introduced The Conservative Case for Carbon Dividends, a plan to institute a carbon tax in the US to address climate change. The organization, led by Ted Halstead, worked with former Republican Presidential cabinet members from the Reagan and both Bush administrations, in producing the plan.

Yesterday (Feb. 13) a bipartisan group of nearly half of all US governors—the Governors’ Wind & Solar Energy Coalition—sent a strongly worded letter to President Donald Trump (R) and Congress urging them to support wind and solar power. They called for the federal government to increase wind and solar research and development, streamlining permitting processes, offshore wind development legislation, and updates to transmission infrastructure to improve renewable energy development.