Annette McDermott

How Newton, Massachusetts Got National Grid to Bend on Electrification It took a lot of scrutiny and a lot of patience, but the city council is finally making progress against natural gas infrastructure.

Can a band of neighbors and local elected officials take on a multi-national gas company? @heatmap.news looks into how a community in MA is fighting for a seat at the table when it comes to its energy future and what state leaders can do to level the playing field

heatmap.news/energy/newto...

Are vacant offices using AC in heat waves? About 20% of Baltimore's downtown offices are vacant, but property owners are likely still keeping them air-conditioned.

BGE wants you to turn your thermostat up. Vacant offices aren’t held to the same standard.

“green energy shall mean any energy generated by utilizing an energy resource in which the emissions are equivalent to the standard set by pipeline-quality natural gas.”

Quite a choice for one of the least reliable power grids in the nation 🔌💡

D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser proposes rolling back some climate programs, alarming environmentalists The mayor is facing tough budget choices, and says the changes are necessary to boost the city’s growth in a slowing economy. But several lawmakers are pledging to fight the proposals.

Longtime DC resident's message to Mayor Bowser: "Don't balance the budget on the backs of the very people who carried this city through decades of change. We believed in this city before it was booming. So don’t leave us out.”

Read more from @AlexKoma.bsky.social

wamu.org/story/25/06/...

Feels like the current trend in the U.S. is that a lot of people will experience climate change as a creeping, steady boil of rising rents, insurance premiums and prices for everyday items that fewer and fewer people will be able to swallow month to month

Trump deals a ‘big blow’ to clean heat with Energy Department cuts The loss of $3.7 billion in funding for industrial decarbonization threatens efforts to replace large-scale fossil-fueled boilers with electric options.

I have a new story up this morning on @canarymedia.com:

The $3.7 billion in funding the Energy Department just canceled for industrial projects is a "big blow" to clean heat -- which made up 25% of the cuts.

"It’s hard to overstate the scale of the loss."

www.canarymedia.com/articles/cle...

“They’re not building an economy — they’re dismantling it and giving away the future of manufacturing.” - @industriouslabs.bsky.social

Here’s the full list of industrial projects the Trump administration just killed.

“This is how the Trump administration treats American industry and American workers. They’re not building an economy — they’re dismantling it, and giving away the future of manufacturing,” says @evangillespie.bsky.social, partner at Industrious Labs.

Column | How to turn your water heater into a battery and ditch the gas company New technology can heat your water and air and store heat energy for when it is needed.

Break up w/ your gas company, water heater edition:
www.washingtonpost.com/climate-envi...

Opinion | Europe Built Trains. America Built Highways and Regret.

The great @danzep.bsky.social on trains: "rather than investing in such infrastructure, America often opts to spend millions, if not billions, reinventing the wheel with unproven moonshot projects, niche urban merry-go-rounds or bijou supersonic passenger jets." www.nytimes.com/2025/05/18/o...

“If you’re going to maintain blast furnaces, it means you have one foot in a technology that is now quickly becoming outdated that the rest of the global steel industry is transitioning away from.”

Cleveland-Cliffs and the Department of Energy may be breaking the law by directing federal funds meant for cleaning up a blast furnace into supporting its continued use.

great @emilypont.bsky.social reporting:

heatmap.news/politics/doe...

Documents, Whistleblowers, and Public Comments Are Clear: Oil Companies Know Carbon Capture Is Not a Climate Solution The fossil fuel industry’s carbon capture bamboozle, explained.

Since the only part of the Inflation Reduction Act being preserved is likely to be carbon capture, it's a good time to wrap your head around it:
drilled.media/news/ccs

Cleveland-Cliffs postponing a blast furnace reline at Burns Harbor Works Cleveland-Cliffs is again postponing a blast furnace reline, one of the biggest capital investments an integrated steelmaker typically makes, into its Burns Harbor Works steel mill.

"With this delay, we call on Cleveland-Cliffs to move off dirty coal-reliant #steel making, pursue green technologies to enhance our quality of place, and prove that jobs and a thriving economy can co-exist with community health and a sustainable environment.”

by @nwi-jsp.bsky.social

While it only takes a moment for DOGE to cut $6 billion, the U.S. manufacturing companies waiting on those $$$ may take years to recover, if at all.

@alexkaufmann.bsky.social nails the stakes of cutting DOE’s Industrial Demonstrations Program #energysky

www.canarymedia.com/articles/cle...

A coalition of progressive groups, led by @dcfpi.bsky.social and @dcjwj.bsky.social, claim in a new letter to Bowser that the mayor could avert the $400M she's planning in 2025 cuts with some other maneuvers, including drawing on reserve funds.

Here's the full letter:
www.dcfpi.org/wp-content/u...

The west’s shameful silence on Gaza The US and European allies should do more to restrain Benjamin Netanyahu

The @financialtimes.com editorial board:

“Yet the US and European countries that tout Israel as an ally that shares their values have issued barely a word of condemnation. They should be ashamed of their silence, and stop enabling Netanyahu to act with impunity.” on.ft.com/433Mp02

Unsurprising, but nonetheless disappointing, to see that U.S. Steel has asked for Presidential Exemptions from the iron & steel and coke hazardous air pollutant rules - rules specifically designed to protect public health. Communities continue to pay the price for coal-based #steel.

China’s dominance in clean manufacturing may grow once the U.S. scraps the federal programs that were supporting battery factories and decarbonization cement plants.

Since 2015, gas pipeline spending has📈 21% each yr, reaching $6.2 BILLION. The result?

“[GSEP] accounts for one of the biggest surcharges on customer's monthly bills. The Massachusetts Attorney General's Office estimates that 8-11% of what customers pay monthly now goes toward funding the program.”

Federal judge orders immediate thaw of climate, infrastructure funds President Donald Trump does not have "unfettered power to hamstring in perpetuity" duly passed funding laws, the judge ruled.

McElroy applied her order to all IRA and IIJA grants nationwide: “It would be anathema to reasonable jurisprudence that only the named Nonprofits should be protected from the irreparable harms of the likely unlawful agency actions.”
www.politico.com/news/2025/04...

Last night, WIN community leaders showed up & spoke out against Washington Gas’s proposed rate hike. At the Public Service Commission rate case hearing, they made it clear: our communities can't afford to pay more for polluting energy. Let's make DC more affordable not less.

Multiple large Tri-State employers could be majorly impacted if federal cuts continue DOGE's proposed cuts to a key federal grant program could have significant repercussions for two local companies, including one of the area's largest employers

The Trump administration and DOGE are threatening important investments in upgrading and modernizing American manufacturing.

"When we're talking about these specific facilities, like the Kraft-Heinz facility and also the Cleveland Cliffs Middletown works, this is putting jobs at risk."

Electra lands $186M to scale up its clean iron electrowinning process Purifying iron ore is a key step in steelmaking — and a carbon-intensive one. Big steel and mining players are funding this startup’s all-electric tech to…

#greensteel An direct aqueous (low temperature) iron ore electroysis startup moves ahead. www.canarymedia.com/articles/gre...

Meet Manhattan’s first housing co-op to electrify heating and cooling The 1962 building hit its emissions reduction targets well ahead of Local Law 97's first reporting deadline on May 1. Here’s how.

This rocks!

NYC’s “Green New Deal” law, Local Law 97, is getting it done!

www.canarymedia.com/articles/hea...

I feel like we need to keep saying this because it’s so insane: This is a legal U.S. resident who has been detained for over a month now for his political opinions.

This. One of the strengths of U.S democracy against potential dictatorship has been the independence and power of civil society. Expect Trump to try to illegally tax universities, professional associations, churches, synagogues and mosques, and other non-profit orgs when they cross him.