Saturday, 29 August 2026

California has filed suit against Trump over the cancellation of wind power projects, CleanTechnica reported.

The litigation targets actions taken during Trump's presidency. According to CleanTechnica, he cancelled billions of dollars of wind power leases and paid companies not to build wind farms.

CleanTechnica characterised the cancellations as ridiculous in its account of the state's legal challenge.

Pennsylvania's waste coal burners collected roughly $180 million through the state's Alternative Energy Portfolio Standards in 2025, about half of the payments made under the standard's Tier II category, according to NRDC figures cited by Inside Climate News.

The unit cost of Tier II fuels, which also cover landfill gas and hydropower, rose roughly 13-fold between 2020 and 2025, per the same NRDC accounting. AEPS itself dates to 2004 and obliges utilities operating in the state to buy a set share of their power from specified sources.

The bill has climbed since lawmakers voted in 2020 to require that coal waste burned under the program originate inside Pennsylvania's borders, Inside Climate News reported.

Separate state tax breaks, first put in place in 2016, add about $50 million a year for the industry.

The volumes are modest against the state's total supply. Pennsylvania burns 7 million tons of waste coal annually, the state's Independent Fiscal Office found. That output covers about 3% of the state's energy, against about 4% from renewables, according to the same office.

On emissions, a September 2025 study by University of Nevada researchers found that burning waste coal produces 7% to 118% more greenhouse gas emissions per kilowatt hour than traditional coal plants.

Pennsylvania ranks 42nd in the country for renewable energy generation and now produces more energy from waste coal than from solar arrays, Inside Climate News reported.

The Invest in Tomorrow Coalition put $1 million into the South Carolina Republican Senate primary, where Darline Graham beat Rep. Ralph Norman, Inside Climate News reported.

Backing for the group comes from solar entrepreneurs and venture capital investors in Silicon Valley, and it has picked out Republican candidates who backed efforts to unwind clean energy programs, according to Inside Climate News. Its chair is Tom Matzzie, who runs the retail electricity supplier CleanChoice Energy as chief executive.

Norman had held back his vote on Trump's One Big Beautiful Bill Act until the president promised him a faster wind-down of wind and solar subsidies, Inside Climate News reported.

In Tennessee's 5th congressional district Republican primary, the coalition spent $2 million; former state Agriculture Commissioner Charlie Hatcher unseated incumbent Rep. Andy Ogles, according to the same outlet.

Against Texas Rep. Chip Roy the group laid out $1.7 million. Roy lost his attorney general runoff to State Sen. Mayes Middleton by 55.2 percent to 44.8 percent. He had claimed in press statements and interviews that the One Big Beautiful Bill would terminate more than 90 percent of all future wind and solar projects.

A $125,000 contribution went the other way, to the primary campaign of Iowa Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, a smaller sum than the group's other expenditures, Inside Climate News reported.