Commentary

For most of my childhood growing up in a small town in the foothills of North Carolina, my dad worked in the blanket factory as a supervisor in the labs—working on fabric treatments, dyes, weaves, and all the other things that you’d never think about going into the design of a blanket. On Saturday mornings, […]

POWER magazine has always held a special place in my heart. After my father left the Navy, he became a power engineer and a loyal subscriber to the magazine. As a kid, I remember stacks of the publication all over the house. At the high point my father had hundreds of issues amassed over decades. […]

Climate and extreme weather are increasingly impacting energy systems around the world. Whether it is prolonged, extreme cold in Texas, wildfires in California, high winds in the Midwest, or the recent prediction for an above-normal 2022 hurricane season, it is clear extreme weather events are testing the resilience of the North American grid. Changes in […]

Although the electricity generation and transportation sectors account for a far greater share of greenhouse gas emissions than the residential and commercial building sector, policy makers are targeting building electrification as a means for making a significant contribution to economy-wide emission reductions. Federal, state, and local governments are using various policy levers toward this goal, […]

Americans now face the highest inflation rates in more than a generation. That’s certainly true for energy prices, where oil has soared past $100 a barrel. Americans are now paying $5 a gallon for gas on average heading into the summer. But energy scarcity and high prices aren’t just problems for consumers; they’re problems for investors […]

The current geopolitical crisis spurred by the Russian invasion of Ukraine should provide a rude awakening in the West to our misguided and flawed policies toward energy development by government and major

Commercial and industrial (C&I) enterprises rely on their power supply. Many facilities, such as hospitals, federal institutions, and military bases—those considered mission critical—have long been at the forefront of finding solutions to keep their lights on. In today’s world, the need for reliable and resilient power is critical for a wide range of industries. Uninterrupted […]

Iowa-based Summit Carbon Solutions last year announced plans to develop a new carbon capture and storage project across the Midwest. The project seeks to capture carbon dioxide emissions that otherwise would be emitted into the atmosphere from biorefineries, such as ethanol plants, compress the captured carbon dioxide, and transport it through a pipeline to North […]

Crafting solutions to address the pressing challenges of our time is Congress’s foremost job. There is no doubt that policy-making can be messy, take time, and require compromise. But, overall members and their staff do incredible work for the American public. During my tenure serving Indiana’s 9th Congressional District, I prided myself on working with […]

Electric vehicles are coming. Do you hear them? (Probably not.) The exact speed of our collective embrace of electric vehicles (EVs) will vary around the country—due to factors such as EV familiarity, vehicle availability, purchase prices and incentives—but the cars are coming down the road at a steady clip. In the immediate future, U.S. President […]