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Politics

Welcome to The Fight

Introducing a new Heatmap Plus newsletter focused on the battles around renewable energy projects

The Fight logo.
Heatmap Illustration

Welcome to The Fight, I’m your punk rock climate journalist host Jael Holzman. I’ve dedicated my entire career in journalism to understanding how and why people oppose projects crucial to decarbonization. Now, every week, I’ll be delivering must-read exclusive scoops and analysis on the local battles and national trends shaping the future of climate action as part of Heatmap Plus, a new side of the site launching today that will go even deeper into the projects, politics, and people shaping the energy transition.

As part of Heatmap Plus, you’ll get high-level analysis of our proprietary polling and forecasting data, in-depth case studies exploring why projects succeed or fail, exclusive interviews with leading policymakers, developers, and activist groups, and my weekly newsletter — The Fight — that will offer a comprehensive weekly snapshot of the battles being waged over renewable energy projects across the country, plus a lot of original reporting.

A little bit about me: For years, I reported on the transition by writing about mining – one of the dirtiest businesses central to renewable energy, vehicle electrification, and industrial decarbonization. As I covered those topics, it was evident that climate activists, policymakers, and investors alike were all quietly torn up by the reality that building things meant some pretty shocking knock-on effects for the environment and society. I also found the threat of those consequences became a useful tool for shaping public opinion against the energy transition, a practice best described as “trade-off denial.”

Earlier this year, I joined Heatmap after being approached with an opportunity: how would I like to investigate conflicts over individual renewables and battery projects in places where a hollowed-out local media left no reporters available to ask the tough questions? On top of that, I’d get to take a wide-angle lens, sussing out what national policy trends, forces, and industries were driving opposition and the hurdles to projects getting built. I could give Heatmap readers all the information they’d need, project by project, accompanied by exclusive data and regular Q&A sessions with readers.

So after months of investigating various projects and their opponents, I’m excited to debut the first edition of The Fight. I’ve got to tell you, these stories might bother you. In our inaugural send, for example, you’ll hear about how a fight against a California battery storage project might impact permitting nationwide, the ways a few activists can manipulate emotional fears to create real roadblocks to construction, and the wide gulf between what regulators and developers want versus the individuals most likely to sue to stop a project.

This won’t always be fun — in fact, sometimes it might be a bummer. But over the span of this newsletter, by talking to all sides involved and providing an airing of grievances, it’s my hope we’ll use well-intentioned journalism to inform you on how the things we need to ditch fossil fuels can be built faster and get community buy-in.

This newsletter will go out exclusively to subscribers of Heatmap Plus. If you want to get it, you can join Plus here — for a limited time, you can take $50 off by using the code FIGHTLAUNCH at checkout.

But enough small talk. Let’s get started.

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Economy

Trump Is Disabling the Agency That Could Fight China’s Rare Earths Embargo

The Loan Programs Office is good for more than just nuclear funding.

Xi Jinping and Donald Trump.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

That China has a whip hand over the rare earths mining and refining industry is one of the few things Washington can agree on.

That’s why Alex Jacquez, who worked on industrial policy for Joe Biden’s National Economic Council, found it “astounding”when he read in the Washington Post this week that the White House was trying to figure out on the fly what to do about China restricting exports of rare earth metals in response to President Trump’s massive tariffs on the country’s imports.

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Q&A

You, Too, Can Protect Solar Panels Against Hail

A conversation with VDE Americas CEO Brian Grenko.

This week's interview subject.
Heatmap Illustration

This week’s Q&A is about hail. Last week, we explained how and why hail storm damage in Texas may have helped galvanize opposition to renewable energy there. So I decided to reach out to Brian Grenko, CEO of renewables engineering advisory firm VDE Americas, to talk about how developers can make sure their projects are not only resistant to hail but also prevent that sort of pushback.

The following conversation has been lightly edited for clarity.

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Hotspots

The Pro-Renewables Crowd Gets Riled Up

And more of the week’s big fights around renewable energy.

The United States.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

1. Long Island, New York – We saw the face of the resistance to the war on renewable energy in the Big Apple this week, as protestors rallied in support of offshore wind for a change.

  • Activists came together on Earth Day to protest the Trump administration’s decision to issue a stop work order on Equinor’s Empire Wind project. It’s the most notable rally for offshore wind I’ve seen since September, when wind advocates protested offshore opponents at the Preservation Society of Newport County, Rhode Island.
  • Esther Rosario, executive director of Climate Jobs New York, told me the rally was intended to focus on the jobs that will be impacted by halting construction and that about a hundred people were at the rally – “a good half of them” union members or representing their unions.
  • “I think it’s important that the elected officials that are in both the area and at the federal level understand the humans behind what it means to issue a stop-work order,” she said.

2. Elsewhere on Long Island – The city of Glen Cove is on the verge of being the next New York City-area community with a battery storage ban, discussing this week whether to ban BESS for at least one year amid fire fears.

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