California Energy Journal Weekly
For the week August 15, 2025 to August 22, 2025
This weekly newsletter will highlight the latest from the California Energy Journal along with links to articles and analysis on key developments in California energy policy.
From the California Energy Journal
Treasury Reduces Solar and Wind Projects Eligible for Remaining Tax Credits (August 19, 2025) – The Treasury Department made it more difficult for wind and solar projects to be eligible for energy tax credits that the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBB) repealed. The beginning construction requirement under the energy tax credits for wind and solar projects will depend on work actually performed rather than on costs. Read more.
California Regulators Plan to Increase EV Incentives as Feds Withdraw Support (August 22, 2025) – California regulators said they will strengthen efforts to reduce vehicle emissions as the Trump administration reduces support for electric vehicles (EVs) and ends California’s emissions waivers. In a new report released August 19, 2025, the California Air Resources Board (CARB) and other agencies outlined ways California could respond to federal actions. Read more.
Additional News
Cap and Trade
Lawmakers, industry groups, and environmental advocates are negotiating over whether and how to extend California’s cap-and-trade program beyond its 2030 expiration date. Los Angeles Times (August 14, 2025).
Climate Reporting
A federal judge denied a request by business groups to block California’s climate disclosure laws while their lawsuit proceeds. The judge ruled that the groups failed to show that SB 253 and SB 261 violated their First Amendment rights. EE News (August 18, 2025).
Wind and Solar
Developers added 12 gigawatts (GW) of new utility-scale solar electric generating capacity in the United States during the first half of 2025, and they plan to add another 21 GW in the second half of the year, according to our latest survey of electric generating capacity changes. If those plans are realized, solar would account for more than half of the 64 GW that developers plan to bring online this year. Battery storage, wind, and natural gas power plants account for virtually all of the remaining capacity additions for 2025. U.S. EIA (August 20, 2025).
President Donald Trump said the U.S. will not approve wind or solar power projects. “We will not approve wind or farmer destroying Solar. The days of stupidity are over in the USA!!!.” CNBC (August 20, 2025).
The Trump administration initiated an investigation “to determine the effects on the national security of imports of wind turbines and their parts and components.” The Hill (August 21, 2025).
Clean energy projects worth $18.6 billion have been cancelled this year, according to Atlas Public Policy’s Clean Economy Tracker, while only $827 million were cancelled in 2024. Investment announcements fell to $15.8 billion this year, down from $20.9 billion in the same period in 2024. FT (August 21, 2025).
Batteries and Storage
A coordinated virtual power plant test of more than 100,000 residential batteries in California in July resulted in a 539-megawatt dispatch that was equivalent to the output of a mid-size natural gas plant. A report concluded that the batteries could be used to serve net peak, reducing the need for new generation capacity and relieving strain on the system during the evening load ramp. Latitude Media (August 19, 2025).
An analysis on the potential of the statewide Demand Side Grid Support (DSGS) program found that continuing the program’s payments to customers to make their stored energy available could save California utility customers from $28 million to $206 million over the next four years. Canary Media (August 21, 2025).
Oil and Gas
The Trump administration released a schedule to hold more than 30 offshore oil and gas lease sales in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska's Cook Inlet over the next 15 years. Reuters (August 19, 2025).
A Los Angeles Superior Court judge refused the state’s request to dismiss an oil industry lawsuit against the California law that bans drilling and related work within 3,200 feet of a home or other sensitive site. A status conference is scheduled for September 22, 2025. Bakersfield Californian (August 18, 2025).
Federal policy
Biden EPA’s research head is requesting that the Department of Energy correct a climate science report that is part of EPA’s case for ending greenhouse gas regulation. The request cites “legal and procedural irregularities” in how the report’s authors were chosen and in the way they went about compiling and disseminating the assessment. Politico (August 18, 2025).
California other state Democratic attorneys general urged the Trump administration EPA to drop plan to repeal the EPA’s endangerment finding for greenhouse gas emissions. Eliminating the finding would remove the legal basis for U.S. greenhouse gas regulations, ending limits on pollution from vehicles, power plants, and other sources. Reuters (August 19, 2025).
The Treasury Department issued a fact sheet with phase out dates for energy efficiency tax credits under sections 25C, 25D, 25E, 30C, 30D, 45L, 45W, and 179D. Treasury (August 22, 2025).
EVs
Republicans in Congress are looking to cut billions in federal EV funding from the U.S. Postal Service’s plan to move its fleet to electric vehicles. The Postal Service has already ordered more than 51,000 new-generation vehicles, including more than 35,000 EVs. Los Angeles Times (August 18, 2025).
Critical Minerals
The United States has all the critical minerals it needs in existing U.S. mines, but these minerals are being discarded as tailings of other mineral streams, according to a new report. Yahoo (August 21, 2025).
International
Italian oil major Eni expects profits from its green businesses to rival those from oil and gas within a decade, in a bold bet that contrasts with a retreat from renewables by Shell and BP after lacklustre returns, the FT reports. Financial Times (July 27, 2025).
Clean-energy growth helped China’s carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions fall by 1% year-on-year in the first half of 2025, extending a declining trend that started in March 2024. Record solar capacity additions are putting China’s CO2 emissions on track to fall across 2025 as a whole. Carbon Brief (August 21, 2025).
Interesting Reads
Hector Barajas, “California’s False Promise of a ‘Just Transition’,” California Globe (August 18, 2025)
“Navigating Uncertainty and Change in California’s Energy Workforce,” PPIC (August 19, 2025).
“California’s Refinery Closure Drama,” Energy Institute Blog (August 18, 2025).
“Oil wells and wildfires: New California data reveals widespread oil production in fire hazard zones,” Global Witness (August 19, 2025).
“Californians and the Energy Transition,” PPIC (August 2025).
Danial Barad, “We Can Have it All: Forward-Looking Climate Policy and Affordability. Here’s How.,” Union of Concerned Scientists (August 19, 2025).
Aaron Cantú, “There’s a ‘Lake’ of Oil Under L.A.’s Soon-to-Close Refinery. Who’s Going to Clean It Up?,” Capital and Main (August 19, 2025).
Sammy Roth, “California is backsliding on climate progress. It’s (mostly) Gavin Newsom’s fault,” Los Angeles Times (August 21, 2025).
Jason Isaac, “California’s climate alarmism has put America at risk” The Hill (August 21, 2025).
Jinjoo Lee, “Why Solar and Wind Power Can Thrive Without Subsidies,” Wall Street Journal (August 2, 2025)
“Old fossil-fuel plants are becoming green-energy hubs,” The Economist (August 20, 2025)
Tony Briscoe, “Deaths, illness from air pollution related to gas and oil hit people of color hardest, study finds,” Los Angeles Times (August 22, 2025).