By Alexis Abramson , Time Magazine.  Excerpt: Americans are seeking out solar , batteries, and electric vehicles at a pace unlike anything the clean energy movement has seen in fifty years. In the 23 days after the Iran war began and the Strait of Hormuz closed, requests for home solar systems paired with battery storage jumped 21% . Used EV sales reversed course sharply, rising 17% in a single quarter after hitting their lowest point since 2022.  ... Across the U.S. and globally , interest in clean energy is accelerating faster than at any point in history, and not necessarily because of anything the clean energy movement achieved on its own. Understanding why is critical. ...By 2010, after four decades of moral-based advocacy, solar still represented less than 0.1% of U.S. electricity generation. ...over a system's lifetime, today, solar generates electricity at costs comparable to or less than what utilities charge in most parts of the country. ...Gas prices set b...

By Noelle Corbett, BGR.  Excerpt: In addition to supplying clean energy, solar panels have a surprisingly positive impact on degraded land and local wildlife . The panels block the sun, allowing the soil to retain more moisture to the point where China's largest solar farm is changing the desert around it , turning a once dry landscape green with plant life. Animals can also benefit from solar farms, including the San Joaquin kit fox, an endangered species that lives in central California, whose population faces many threats, including habitat loss and predators. ...Researchers examined how the facilities impacted local foxes in two separate studies carried out from 2014–2017, with results published in a 2019 report .... They found that solar farms' fences kept out common predators like bobcats and coyotes, animals too large to fit underneath. Additionally, the solar panels provided shielding from birds of prey like the golden eagle.... Another study carried...out between 2019 ...

By Aman Azhar , Inside Climate News.  Excerpt: The Trump administration has abandoned its effort to halt wind energy projects across the United States and dropped its challenge to the court ruling that tossed President Donald Trump’s order freezing federal permitting and leasing for wind projects. States that challenged the order hailed the development as one of the most significant legal victories against the Trump White House’s campaign against the energy transition. On Monday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit dismissed the appeal after the Justice Department filed a motion for its voluntary dismissal on June 10.  The case against Trump’s executive order was filed in May, 2025 by a coalition of attorneys general from 17 states and Washington, D.C., led by New York Attorney General Letitia James. Monday’s decision affirms the Dec. 8 ruling by U.S. District Court Judge Patti Saris, which concluded that Trump’s January 2025 executive order was unlawful, findin...

By Wyatt Myskow , Inside Climate News.  Excerpt: For the first time ever, researchers have quantified the length and mass of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal networks globally and mapped the ecosystems where they are densest. Hidden underground around the world lie 110 quadrillion kilometers of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal networks—webs of ultra-thin threads that, if connected in a single line, would stretch almost a billion times the distance between the Earth and the sun, according to new research published in Science on Thursday. These fungal communities form intimate relationships with the roots of plants, which they provide with nutrients like phosphorus and nitrogen in exchange for carbon, 1 billion tons of which the networks sequester underground annually, previous research has found. If the fungal network wasn’t storing it, that carbon would be warming the atmosphere. But those networks have never been mapped globally until now. The new study led by Society for the Protectio...

By Martha Pskowski , Inside Climate News.  Excerpt: The Railroad Commission of Texas shut down injection wells to control a leak in a church parking lot. But 1.5 million gallons of toxic wastewater still spilled to the surface. ...The state regulator, the Railroad Commission, spent $1.49 million plugging the leak and another $1.16 million disposing of the wastewater back underground. By early June, crews had stopped the flow and plugged the wellbore....  Full article at https://insideclimatenews.org/news/11062026/texas-oil-well-leaks-million-of-gallons-of-toxic-wastewater/ . 

By Paul Voosen, Science.  Excerpt: After decades of warnings, new data suggest the Atlantic’s vital circulation may withstand climate warming better than feared. ...Climate models have long warned that global warming could weaken “deep-water formation”—the density-driven sinking that is the engine of the AMOC [Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation]. The logic is straightforward: As Greenland’s ice sheets melt and sea ice formation declines, North Atlantic waters will freshen. Combined with warmer sea temperatures, the freshening makes surface waters more buoyant. The AMOC was thought to have shut down abruptly during past climate warmings, and a handful of researchers now argue such a tipping point could occur this century. ...Yet for all the alarming headlines, most climate researchers think the AMOC is more resilient than these worst case scenarios make it seem. Emerging evidence suggests the AMOC may not have actually collapsed in the warm climates following ice ages. More...