Feature
The 50501 Movement denounces the Trump administration’s escalating attacks on communities in Southern California and is mobilizing to protest nationwide in solidarity.
On June 6, ICE undertook warrantless, military-style raids in Los Angeles, detaining at least 44 people as part of Trump’s unconstitutional mass deportation plan. In response, protests erupted across the city. At a protest outside the Roybal Federal Building, SEIU-USWW President David Huerta was attacked and injured by federal agents while observing and documenting ICE activity. He was then unlawfully arrested.
US Solar Industry Continues Growing
The latest data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, or EIA, reveals that the mix of renewable energy sources produced over the first three months of 2025, provided nearly a third of the total U.S. electric generation.
Utility-scale solar expanded by 43.9 percent in the first quarter of this year. Small-scale rooftop solar increased by 11 percent compared to the same period in 2024.
The combination of utility-scale and small-scale solar increased by over one third and was 6.8 percent of the total U.S. electric generation for this first quarter, up from 5.3 percent a year earlier.
This means that energy generated from solar surpassed the output of the nation's hydroelectric plants, which was 5.7 percent. This is a first in our nation's history.
Biofuels Demand More Land than Solar Generation
US Solar Industry Continues Growing
The latest data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration, or EIA, reveals that the mix of renewable energy sources produced over the first three months of 2025, provided nearly a third of the total U.S. electric generation.
Utility-scale solar expanded by 43.9 percent in the first quarter of this year. Small-scale rooftop solar increased by 11 percent compared to the same period in 2024.
The combination of utility-scale and small-scale solar increased by over one third and was 6.8 percent of the total U.S. electric generation for this first quarter, up from 5.3 percent a year earlier.
This means that energy generated from solar surpassed the output of the nation's hydroelectric plants, which was 5.7 percent. This is a first in our nation's history.
Biofuels Demand More Land than Solar Generation
US House Reconciles Legislation That Handicaps Renewable Energy Projects
The Republican controlled House of Representatives passed reconciliation legislation that effectively will eliminate nearly every renewable energy incentive that is currently in place.
The bill will end the 30 percent residential solar investment tax credit by the end of this year and the applicability of residential solar leases for tax credits.
The Investment Tax Credit (ITC) and the Production Tax Credit (PTC) for commercial and utility scale projects would go away completely for any project not placed in service by the end of 2028.
There are a couple of poison pill provisions put into this legislation that are designed to prevent any renewable energy projects from moving forward.
We are at a perilous time, when our most basic freedoms are at risk.
It is vital that we not hand President Trump even more power to wreck our democracy than he already has. Among other things, that means not confirming anyone he nominates to be a federal judge.
In early May, Trump announced the first group of judicial nominations of his second term. One is for the Sixth Circuit, which covers Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio, and Tennessee. The other four are for district courts in Missouri. Senators on the Judiciary Committee are poring over the nominees’ records in preparation for a hearing expected in early June.
Senators are right to look at a nominee’s record. But in these unprecedented times, the most important record for them to look at is that of the president making the nomination. And Donald Trump’s record shows that he’s dangerously unqualified to be appointing lifetime judges to the bench.
Fair and independent courts are a vital part of our checks and balances. And with the Republican-controlled Congress so far unwilling to stop Trump’s ongoing abuses of power, the courts are more important than ever.
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Renewable Energy Leads New Generation
Solar and wind accounted for almost 98 percent of all of the new electrical generating capacity added to the U.S. grid in the first quarter of 2025 and were the only sources of new generating capacity in the month of March.
According to recent data from FERC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, March 2025 was the 19th consecutive month where solar was the largest single source of electrical generating capacity on the U.S. grid, dating back to September of 2023.
For the first quarter of this year, solar accounted for 72.3 percent of new generating capacity. Generation from wind turbines provided nearly 25 percent of the nation's new electrical resources.
Generation from wind accounts for 11.8 percent of the nation's electricity, followed by solar with 10.7 percent.
“I was so scared. I didn’t know if I was going to make it to the next day,” recalled Luz Drada, an advocate and program coordinator with Moms Clean Air Force, recounting the harrowing experience of her high-risk pregnancy at Maternal and Child Health in a Dangerous Climate, a forum held in Washington, DC, exploring the intersections of global warming, air pollution, and maternal health disparities.
On May 1, 2025, 18-year-old Ryan Hinton was fatally shot by a Cincinnati police officer in East Price Hill. This tragedy highlights the controversial legal doctrine of qualified immunity that often protects officers from accountability, acting as a veritable “get out of jail free card” in cases of alleged misconduct.
Meanwhile, the community grapples with the aftermath of two connected tragedies: Hinton’s shooting and the subsequent death of Hamilton County Sheriff’s Deputy Larry Henderson, struck and killed by Hinton’s father, Rodney Hinton Jr., the following day. While Rodney Hinton faces charges of aggravated murder, his actions are described as those of a grieving father distraught after watching footage of his son’s death.
The Incident
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The Hands Off demonstrations are different. They are an early warning signal that, as one pundit put it, “Americans have freedom in our DNA” and they are proving it by taking to the streets with their homemade signs.
2025 Iberian Peninsula Blackout
After an unprecedented power outage hit Spain, Portugal, and parts of France last week, many in the media speculated that the large amounts of renewable energy in the Iberian system was to blame for the blackout.
The exact cause of the grid collapse is not yet known, but at 12:33 p.m. on April 28, electricity generation in Spain dropped rapidly from around 27 gigawatts to just over 12 gigawatts. The sudden drop in grid load destabilized electricity flows, resulting in a peninsula wide power outage.
At the time of the incident, Spain and Portugal were sourcing about 80 percent of their electricity from wind and solar, leading to the speculation that the grid could have been overloaded with renewable energy.
While renewables are well known for being more intermittent than generation from fossil fuels, the consensus amongst grid experts is that the generation source had nothing to do with this week's blackout.