Clean Energy Future-Lordstown (CEF-L) is one step closer to beginning construction on its generation facility in northeast Ohio.

The city of Columbia, MD is now running its facilities on 100% renewable energy, thanks to a new solar farm.

The federal government this week announced plans to lease nearly 344,000 acres of the ocean floor off the coast of New Jersey to companies interested in building offshore windmills to generate electricity. The lease area would run roughly from Long Beach Island to the southern tip of the state near Cape May.

President Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping today issued a joint announcement laying out the details of a landmark climate deal between the world’s two largest carbon polluters. The deal includes a promise by China to develop a national cap-and-trade program and to prioritize low-carbon-emitting sources in its electric dispatch. In return, the U.S. will complete new rules for heavy duty vehicles and phase down hydrofluorocarbons, a greenhouse gas that traps a lot of heat but spends less time in the atmosphere than carbon.

The House Commerce and Energy Committee wrapped up its work last week with a meeting to mark up H.R. 702, “To Adapt to Changing Crude Oil Market Conditions.”

In support of the President’s goal to double U.S. energy productivity by 2030, Secretary Moniz unveiled a strategic plan today laying out a path businesses, state and local governments, consumers and other stakeholders can use to achieve this goal.

The EPA last week published its proposed National Enforcement Initiatives for FY 2017-2019, and began a 30 day comment period ending October 14, 2015. For the six existing initiatives, the EPA asked for public comment on whether each NEI should continue into the FY 17-19 cycle and invited comments on new areas of focus within those NEIs.

To continue driving down solar PV costs beyond the current SunShot goals, the Energy Department today announced $20 million available to further improve PV module performance, reliability, and manufacturability, while also advancing next generation PV concepts. In addition to typical multiyear research projects, this funding opportunity includes a topic area dedicated to small, single-year projects aimed at demonstrating the potential for expanded work in cutting-edge PV research. This funding opportunity aims to reach solar PV costs by the year 2030 that are one-half to one-third of the original SunShot goals, in order to support widespread deployment of PV.

The state’s Independent Fiscal Office recently released a report that shows a considerable decline in total revenue collected from the impact fee Marcellus Shale drillers pay annually.