Clean Energy

285 posts

The Impact of New York’s 2026 Climate Law Retreat – New Sabin Center White Paper

Today, the Sabin Center published a new white paper, The Impact of New York’s 2026 Climate Law Retreat. The paper examines the implications of the State’s 2026 Amendments to the Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA), including how the changes will affect planning, permitting, implementation, and litigation. Over the last […]

Unpacking New York State’s Rollback of its Landmark Climate Law

On May 26, as part of the FY 2026-27 budget, New York State enacted significant revisions to its 2019 Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act (CLCPA or Act). The amendments amount to a substantial rollback of the Act’s ambition. For the last seven years, the Act has served as the […]

Data Center Regulation: What Local Governments Should Know about Large-Load Tariffs and Clean Transition Tariffs

The proliferation of data centers across the United States represents new “loads” (i.e., sources of demand) on the electrical grid. Data centers require enormous amounts of energy to power and cool their computing systems that operate continuously or near-continuously. To meet this demand, new energy infrastructure—both generation and transmission—will need […]

Community Benefits Agreements and Data Center Development

Data center development and its climate, environmental, and energy impacts have emerged as a central and hotly debated issue facing local governments in 2026. Various studies have explored, among other things, the large amounts of land required for data centers; their immense use of energy and water ; their greenhouse gas […]

Ohio’s Clean Energy Siting Conundrum: Local Government Opposition, Serving the Public Interest, and the Appeal that Might Solve the Puzzle

Clean energy siting across the nation is facing enormous challenges. Local opposition is widespread and rapidly increasing in many areas. One example is Ohio, where government opposition is a byproduct of state legislation and also the result of coordinated campaigns spreading mis- and dis-information about the impacts of renewable energy […]

Federal Court Enjoins DOI’s Anti-Renewable Actions in Renew Northeast v. DOI

Earlier this week, on April 21, 2026, the U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts enjoined five secretarial orders issued by the Department of the Interior (“DOI”) and U.S. Army Corps (“USACE”) that collectively imposed sweeping constraints on wind and solar development across the United States. The Sabin Center’s […]

Uncertain Remedies for Frozen Federal Climate Funding

Update: On March 9th, the D.C. Circuit ordered the parties to file simultaneous supplemental briefs addressing “whether, in light of Section 60002 of the One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” the Appellees’ claim that violations of the IRA and/or the constitution provide a basis for a preliminary injunction “continues to provide a […]

Decommissioning Offshore Oil and Gas: A Conversation with Former Regulators

A 2024 report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) found that over 2,500 wells and 500 platforms in the Gulf of Mexico were overdue for decommissioning (i.e., the process whereby wells are permanently plugged and associated infrastructure removed). Others have estimated that over 32,000 offshore wells in U.S. waters are […]