Business groups and clean-energy developers are apoplectic over a last-minute provision tucked into President Donald Trump's spending bill that will tax the solar and wind industry, making it much harder to get new, cheap electricity onto the grid.
Senate Republicans revealed an entirely new tax for renewable energy this weekend, in the latest version of a bill that could be passed as early as Monday afternoon. The bill already stripped tax incentives for renewables by 2027 and gave developers stringent requirements to claim them.
The new tax would come at the worst possible time for the American power grid, experts and trade groups say, as demand for more electricity spikes due to new data centers for artificial intelligence coming online.
Wind, solar and long-term storage batteries make up the vast majority of new electricity added to the grid over the past three years. It also encompasses about 85% of what's currently in the development pipeline, according to Ben King, an analyst at the non-partisan think tank Rhodium Group.
Tap the link in @cnnclimate's bio to read more about the proposed provision.
📸: Lucy Nicholson/Reuters/File
Sustainable construction is transitioning from concept to systemic implementation, where water management, land scarcity and resource efficiency are dictating the principles of sustainable building design. Developers across the US Mountain West are applying whole life carbon assessment and lifecycle assessment methodologies to guide construction that reflects environmental sustainability in construction practice. These models prioritise embodied carbon reduction, low carbon design and life cycle cost optimisation to enhance building lifecycle performance and ensure projects achieve measurable sustainability outcomes.
Corporate redevelopment pipelines are shifting toward net zero carbon buildings, integrating eco‑design for buildings and sustainable building practices that embed resource efficiency in construction processes. The large‑scale modernisation of major technology campuses demonstrates that sustainable architecture informed by whole life carbon and embodied carbon in materials can deliver both operational excellence and long‑term value. Strategic procurement of renewable building materials and implementation of low embodied carbon materials are reinforcing circular economy in construction models that support carbon footprint reduction and circular construction strategies.
The housing sector is adopting sustainable material specification principles, with mixed‑income and high‑performance developments achieving BREEAM and BREEAM v7 standards while addressing whole life performance. Such schemes align with life cycle thinking in construction, proving that environmental product declarations (EPDs) and low carbon building methods can achieve both affordability and environmental credibility.
Post‑disaster rebuilding efforts in Indian townships are revealing the cost-effectiveness of nature‑based planning and green infrastructure compared to reactive reconstruction. Investments in eco‑friendly construction are highlighting that resilience demands integration of circular economy principles and decarbonising the built environment.
Amid uneven global decarbonisation, supply chains are evolving to accommodate low carbon construction materials and net zero whole life carbon benchmarks. The most competitive teams are uniting green construction and sustainable urban development approaches that measure the environmental impact of construction and demonstrate continual carbon footprint of construction reduction. By embedding circular economy frameworks into the design, delivery and end‑of‑life reuse in construction, the sector is progressing toward authentic carbon neutral construction and a built environment driven by sustainability and long‑term performance.
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