Paul Gerke (00:05.624)
Hey everybody and welcome back to a fresh edition of This Week in Cleantech, our 15-minute-ish roundup of the biggest stories in climate and clean energy every week.
You’re listening to this on Friday, March 20th, 2026. We are deep in March Madness—I’ve got basketball games on all around me right now, Mike Casey.
We’ve also got a returning guest in the lobby—Jennifer McDermott from the Associated Press will be joining us shortly.
I’m Factor This content director Paul Gerke, joined as always by cleantech commentator Mike Casey of Tigercomm. Mike, how are ya?
Mike Casey (00:42.548)
I’m good. I was cracking up, as usual, by Mr. Mendez’s pre-rolling antics. My God, he’s very good at making us laugh just before he rolls the tape.
Anyway, I want to give a listener shoutout to Matthew Fabricio from Green Tweed. He said he had to rewind last week’s episode a couple times after we mentioned LFP EV batteries charging in nine minutes.
Paul Gerke (01:10.252)
Yeah, pretty wild stuff. If you want to hear about battery innovation, look to China—there’s some wild stuff going on.
Every day I read something and think, they’re living in the future, and we’re… not.
But you know what else was cool? Someone actually approached me about the show this week.
I was at the Solar and Wind Investment Summit in Phoenix, and Lee from Kroll came up and said he listens every week. That’s awesome to hear.
We love hearing from you all—and by the way, the email is fixed.
TWIC at tigercomm with two M’s dot US
Ghosts are gone. Inbox is open. Send us your thoughts.
Mike, five stories on tap—let’s start with number one.
Mike Casey (02:28.610)
Carriel Byron from Grist: How Ann Arbor, Michigan Is Creating Its Own Clean Energy Utility.
Paul Gerke (02:34.136)
Ann Arbor—a beautiful college town—is launching a first-of-its-kind program to speed up its transition to renewables.
They’re creating a Sustainable Energy Utility, or SEU, that runs alongside the traditional utility.
Residents can opt in and get solar, battery storage, and upgrades installed and maintained by the city.
They’ll still stay connected to the grid—but likely pay less overall.
The pilot starts in a lower-income neighborhood, with plans to scale.
There’s also potential for microgrids—like using a school’s solar during the day, then redistributing power later.
I love the concept. Mike?
Mike Casey (03:46.062)
I’m going to open a can of heartache—I went to Ohio State.
But back to Michigan—DTE, the major utility, actually supports this.
With rising demand, they see city-led efforts as helpful.
1,500 residents have already expressed interest.
The program will scale from 100 customers to thousands.
Similar models exist—like DC’s Sustainable Energy Utility.
Paul, story two.
Paul Gerke (05:07.736)
Our second story this week by Maxine Joselow of the New York Times is titled, Trump Officials Weigh New Plan to Stop Offshore Wind Farms. Say it ain’t so, Mr. Casey.
Mike Casey (05:17.518)
Okay, let’s see if we follow the logic, listeners.
The country needs more power. We cut the lowest-cost forms of power—solar and wind projects. The courts say no, don’t do that.
But the response now is: no, no, we’re determined to do it anyway.
Under two proposed settlements, the Interior Department would cancel federal leases for offshore wind projects, while the Justice Department would pay companies for winning those leases.
So we’re going to pay you not to build power.
In exchange, companies would abandon the projects and invest in natural gas infrastructure instead.
Other than that, Paul, I don’t know what to think.
Paul Gerke (06:38.614)
Yeah, if you missed that—settlements would cancel offshore wind leases and pay developers to walk away, while encouraging gas investment.
It’s unclear if companies like TotalEnergies will go along. If not, the administration may cancel leases and fight it in court.
We’ve already seen courts block attempts to halt projects under construction. Now the focus is shifting to projects that haven’t started yet.
We’ll see if this works, but pulling power off the grid right now doesn’t make much sense.
Mike Casey (08:02.432)
All right—and Mr. Gerke, as a fellow Midwesterner, can you at least pretend to be cosmopolitan and call the company Total instead of Total?
Okay, our third story—Kyle Stock, Bloomberg: Surging Gas Prices Reignite EV Interest.
Paul Gerke (08:27.256)
If gas prices stay above $4 a gallon, people will start seriously considering EVs.
BloombergNEF says drivers are paying an extra $1.65 billion at the pump this week alone.
Since the February 28th attack on Iran, gas prices have jumped 20%, now averaging over $4.29 per gallon.
Search traffic for EVs is up 20%, and for models like the Tesla Model Y and Chevy Equinox, it nearly doubled.
Mike—is this unintentionally boosting EV adoption?
Mike Casey (10:15.726)
After Russia invaded Ukraine, gas hit $5.36 per gallon and EV sales surged 66%.
Even after prices cooled, fuel savings remained the top reason people go electric.
High gas prices mainly influence buyers already in the market—but if prices stay high long enough, more people will switch.
Electricity prices rise too—but not as directly as gas.
Paul, story four.
Paul Gerke (11:23.608)
Story number four—Julius Simon, NPR: Oil and Gas Prices Are Soaring. Some Countries Are Ready with Solar Panels and EVs.
A great segue from the last story.
Mike Casey (11:33.742)
With disruptions in global oil and gas supply, some countries are better prepared thanks to renewables.
Pakistan, for example, has imported 14 gigawatts of solar since 2023.
That’s a huge shift—and it’s already reducing reliance on LNG imports.
Countries are using renewables, efficiency, and demand management to handle the crisis.
And Europe is doing the same.
Paul Gerke (12:36.118)
Europe is doubling down on energy independence after cutting Russian gas imports.
Countries like Spain and Portugal are ramping up renewables to avoid price volatility.
As one expert put it:
“Oil and gas prices may be up, but the sun and wind don’t care what’s happening in the Strait of Hormuz.”
Let’s get to our guest.
Mike Casey (00:01.294)
All right, three, two, one.
And for our fifth story, we’ve got Jen McDermott with the Associated Press coming back. She is a returning This Week in Cleantech guest. She’s got a story: Offshore Wind Projects Targeted by Trump Administration Start Sending Power to the New England Grid.
Okay, so Jen, I’m assuming these plants are going to deliver power to the United States—it’s badly needed—they’re not going to get paid off to go away. Let me just confirm that first with you.
Jen McDermott (00:31.117)
Right, so unlike the other story that you were talking about, where the wind farms are not under construction yet, what I wrote about was a major offshore wind project called Revolution Wind that just started sending power to the New England grid.
So this was a project under construction that was twice halted by the Trump administration because the administration said there were national security concerns.
Up until a few weeks ago, it was unclear whether this project would actually reach the milestone of sending power to the grid.
So wind supporters really celebrated it reaching this point. And as more turbines come online in the weeks ahead, it will send even more power into New England.
Paul Gerke (01:23.873)
Jen, we want everyone listening to go read your piece—but if you had to characterize the sentiment of the offshore wind industry right now, what would you say?
Is there confidence that projects can move forward, or is it still very uncertain?
Jen McDermott (01:53.773)
Revolution Wind was one of five projects that the Trump administration halted while under construction.
All five challenged those orders in court—and all five won.
They’ve all resumed construction and are moving toward completion.
But for projects that haven’t started construction yet—especially those still in federal permitting—it’s much harder.
Those are the ones facing the biggest uncertainty right now.
Mike Casey (02:53.195)
Jen, was there ever a compelling explanation of the national security concern behind offshore wind?
Jen McDermott (03:07.271)
Judges in those cases said the government didn’t demonstrate that the risk was imminent enough to justify halting construction.
The government did present some information to the court, but it wasn’t publicly available.
Their argument was that national security concerns should outweigh harm to developers—but the courts didn’t fully accept that.
Paul Gerke (03:54.873)
Jen, before we let you go—anything else from your reporting that didn’t make it into the piece that our audience should know?
Jen McDermott (04:06.829)
The next major milestone to watch is the Coastal Virginia Offshore Wind project.
It’s very close to delivering power and will be significant—especially given the number of data centers in that region.
That’s something I’ll be following closely.
Mike Casey (04:41.367)
Paul Gerke, we’ve got to go to our Cleantecher of the Week.
Paul Gerke (04:43.901)
All right, let’s do it.
This week we’ve got co-Cleantechers of the Week:
Martin Mulvihill, partner at Safer Made
Arlene Blum, chemist and executive director of the Green Science Policy Institute
Safer Made invests in companies reducing exposure to harmful chemicals, including PFAS alternatives.
The Green Science Policy Institute advocates for safer chemical use.
Congratulations to both—our Cleantechers of the Week.
Mike Casey (05:23.457)
Because cleantech is tech—not just energy.
Also, shoutout to our producer Brian Mendez, Clare Quirin, and Alex Peterson for helping us pull this together.
Paul Gerke (05:38.949)
And a special shoutout to you, the listener, for sticking with us.
Another This Week in Cleantech in the books.
Jennifer McDermott, thank you for joining us again.
If you enjoyed the show, subscribe, leave feedback, or send story ideas to our email.
You can find all the articles we discussed in the episode description or on factorthis.com.
Until next time—be good, people.