The new WMO State of the Climate report has a section by Gavin Schmidt and me on attributing exceptional 2023 and 2024 warmth. We find that while 2024 can be well explained by changes in forcings and internal variability, 2023 remains more of a mystery:

RT @jayparsons: All the articles portraying California's CEQA rollback as a blow to environmentalism inspired me to look for egregious exam….

With half the year now behind us, I estimate that 2025 is likely to approximately tie 2023 as the second warmest year on record (with a ~65% chance of being the second rather than the third warmest).

June 2025 was the third warmest June on record after 2024 and 2023 in the ERA5 dataset. It was approximately 1.3C above preindustrial (1850-1900) levels.

RT @CharlesFLehman: At the risk of doing discourse, it does seem like the risk of myocarditis following COVID *infection* is greater than t….

RT @MatthewCappucci: NEW VIDEO: The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration is proposing cuts to virtually all of its frontline res….

*High or higher, as TX is still a tad below CA 😉.

Data plotted is for annual 2024 generation and prices via the DOE's EIA, and I'd note that the renewable and total generation numbers only include utility scale (e.g. exclude rooftop solar) due to data limitations.

While California has high electricity prices for a whole host of reasons (regulations, wildfires, etc.), there are plenty of states with higher renewable penetration (TX, IA, CO, NM, etc.) that have low prices.

I often hear claims that variable renewables (wind and solar) increase electricity prices, but this does not seem to empirically be true. If anything states, with higher renewables have slightly cheaper electricity, though the relationship isn't significant:

RT @curious_founder: The Senate just voted to increase electricity bills in every state in America.

RT @JigarShahDC: The thing that people don't understand about solar is that the US market is paying prices for modules that are 5X higher t….

RT @curious_founder: If the House passes their big bill, they would be voting to cancel thousands of energy projects over the next decade.….

This comparsion in the NYTimes today is pretty stark. China is racing ahead to be a high-tech exporter of 21st century technologies, while the US is doubling down on being a petro-state exporting the technologies of the 19th century:

Is global warming accelerating? Over at The Climate Brink I argue that the consilience of evidence from surface temperatures, climate models, forcing changes, ocean heat content, and earth energy imbalance all point toward yes:

Even Epstein (who I don’t see eye to eye with very often) says a new tax on solar and wind is a terrible idea. Kill the Tax!.

To put these numbers in perspective, China has added the solar generation equivalent of 437 gigawatt nuclear reactors running at 90% capacity just in the past decade.

The US is falling behind the curve on solar power – a key energy source of the 21st century. We are losing our edge to China on the technology that we originally invented. Now Senate republicans want to take out our solar industry at the knees in their "Big Beautiful Bill":

RT @JesseJenkins: Happy birthday @elonmusk. Instead of a birthday gift, the Republican's One Big Horrible Bill is a gift to Xi Jingping. Re….

RT @elonmusk: The latest Senate draft bill will destroy millions of jobs in America and cause immense strategic harm to our country!. Utter….

RT @JesseJenkins: Oh, and the cherry on top: this adds a new production tax for metallurgical coal! You read that right: through the end of….