Accelerating Energy: Powering Business Through the Energy Transition

All of a sudden there’s a new landscape for energy transition. The new administration is reducing the workforce of several federal agencies, including the EPA, where administrator Lee Zeldin is committed to eliminating 65 percent of what he calls the agency’s wasteful spending, and President Trump just signed four executive orders that direct different agencies of the federal government to revive American coal. State governments, b...

The countdown has begun on statewide zero-emission mandates. Blue state governors have created strict timelines for implementing their renewable energy objectives. And these mandates will significantly impact operations for utility companies and the United States power grid. Will power-hungry data centers and extreme weather events impede success for these goals? And what will be the impact of the Trump administration, which has ju...

Renewable energy can be intermittent, making it a challenging power source for power grid operators to manage. But the burgeoning technology of battery energy storage systems (BESS) is poised to help fill those critical gaps. BESS is expected to quintuple in capacity by the end of this decade. These systems play a crucial role in the renewable energy life cycle, ensuring a stable supply of electricity to customers, data centers, th...

The future of commercial transportation is zero-emission. More than one million medium- and heavy-duty trucks are expected to hit the highways by 2031. But as the fleet of commercial zero-emission vehicles begins to grow, the infrastructure needed to power these trucks is struggling to keep up. In response to this reality, a coalition of major truck manufacturers have launched an initiative to help speed the deployment of charging ...

The United States government is authorizing millions of dollars in grants to electric cooperatives in the hopes of promoting grid resiliency and alternative energy adoption. Will grants and other incentives entice businesses to adopt clean energy? Or will political uncertainty in this election year tamp down these efforts?  

 In the second episode of Accelerating Energy, host and Sidley partner, Ken Irvin, speaks with Robin Lunt, Ch...

 U.S. energy regulators warn that elevated threats of outages from storms and prolonged cold snaps will continue to impact our electric grid and the economy. The Biden administration recently announced $3.5 billion in grants to fund clean energy projects that combat climate change and promote renewable energy; but mounting costs, development snags, and regulatory roadblocks threaten to impede progress. 

In this introductory episode ...