The Trump administration has rolled back climate initiatives, but some states show what can be done. Gavin Newsom, governor of California, is quoted in the Guardian saying "we're running the fourth largest economy in the world [on] 67%, two-thirds clean energy on nine out of ten days in 2025". He says "energy" but he means "electricity': natural gas is still the main energy source in the state, but gas production is in decline, and coal should soon be eliminated as a means of generating electricity. Solar and battery power is stepping up to replace gas - by October, California had nearly 17GW of battery power to call on.
In 2025 clean energy - solar, wind, small hydro, geothermal, biomass, together with nuclear and large hydro, provided 100% of the state's electricity for at least part of the day, almost every day. Nuclear generated around 10%.
Californians do have high utility bills however, Some blame the switch to renewables for this, others attribute them to power companies passing in the costs of wildfires.
How California remade itself as a clean energy powerhouse | Dani Anguiano in the Guardian, 20 December 2025
Originally posted in Second Nature 047 (January 2026). Category clean power, tags California, SN047.
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