News & Commentary

No fossil fuels, no problem? Texas investments in wind and solar pay off, generating record-breaking renewable power to meet all-time high electricity demand during nearly 10-day heat dome—despite fossil fuel plant failures.

It wasn’t easy, but the U.S. power grid defied record-breaking heatwaves and doomsday warnings to survive the summer without major service interruptions.

In a month that has seen Texas sizzle under record-breaking heat, solar, and wind power have been key to helping keeping the lights on—and air conditioners humming.

Blaming any one power source is a mistake. We can’t make any one source of power foolproof, but we can make a grid that’s nimble, resilient, and reliable.

Among the animals at greatest risk from the impacts of seismic testing is the Gulf of Mexico whale—one of the most endangered marine mammals on the planet.

The bill is a major setback for climate action and renewable energy investments in Mexico that will likely raise trade disputes under Mexico’s trade agreements with the U.S. and other nations.

Electric grids across the Midwest, South, and in Texas failed a key resilience test during last month’s winter storm, and one key conclusion is clear: The grids connected via transmission lines fared significantly better than those isolated and on their…

Wind and solar power were not the primary cause of the grid failure in Texas—the main culprit was fossil gas plants that went offline. In fact, wind and solar are intrinsically more reliable than fossil power, but not in the…

Although both California and Texas recently faced traumatic weather events, the consequences for electric system reliability were dramatically different. 

Freezing cold temperatures put the Texas electric grid into distress this week, with likely dozens of deaths and other human suffering, more than 4 million losing power, and more than 40% of the state’s gas, coal, and nuclear fleet offline…

The Chihuahuan Desert is the largest desert in North America and home to the most biodiverse grasslands in the world, including 500 species of birds.

90 percent of the grassland bird species that breed on the Great Plains in the United States and Canada winter in the grasslands of the Chihuahuan Desert, which encompasses the northwestern region of Mexico, spreading into the states of Arizona…

The smallest porpoise species, found only in the northern Gulf of California, Mexico, has only around ten individuals left, making it the most critically endangered marine mammal on the planet.

Laguna San Ignacio is one of the last unspoiled nurseries for Pacific gray whales in Baja California Sur, Mexico, where NRDC has partnered with the dedicated local community to protect the area.

For vaquita, the smallest porpoise species, native to a small portion of Mexico’s northern Gulf of California, the situation in the water has never been worse. With far fewer than 30 vaquita remaining and the population shrinking by half every…