“I always see the glass half full. I see the beauty in others, and I see the hope for tomorrow. If we don’t have hope and faith, we have nothing.”
Craig Sager
For much of the world, it has been a brutal summer so far. Heatwaves have been punishing and deadly, forest fires are raging, the oceans feel like bathtubs, and drought is causing major headaches. To rub salt in the wound, I read recently that this could be one of the coolest summers of the rest of our lives. That thought gave me a jolt. For those of us who care about climate change, it’s easy to feel helpless and throw up our hands.
But what if, despite all the gloomy climate-related news, there was a ray of sunshine? I’m here to share something hopeful, and it comes in the form of an aptly named study. After reading it, I couldn’t wait to share a summary with you. It was published earlier this month by the MIT Center for Energy and Environmental Policy. The full name of the report is Glass Half Full: Building a Decarbonized U.S. Power Sector.
In 2022, The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) was signed into law. Among other provisions, it established tax credits, grants, and loans to help support the fledgling clean energy sector. This kicked off a period of rapid growth of American-built renewable energy, with the private sector also stepping up investments. Things were looking bright, and there was new hope that we could make a real dent in heat-trapping pollution.
Fast forward to 2025, when the One Big Beautiful Bill Act pulled the rug out from under many of those provisions. It has been a discouraging time for anyone advocating for a cleaner grid. Many feared progress would come to a screeching halt.
More than half full
The MIT group analyzed where things stand given the reduction in government funding for these projects. While progress has decidedly slowed, they found the glass is still more than half full. In other words, the cuts haven’t been as drastic as expected. Indeed, across three main areas of decarbonization, more than half of the IRA benefits can still be realized by 2035 despite the changes in policy. Compared with projections from the original bill, they estimate that by 2035:
- 74% of the planned new clean energy capacity will still be built
- 71% of the projected new clean energy will still be generated
- 67% of the expected emissions reduction will still happen
So, is this situation ideal? Hardly. Climate scientists generally feel that even the IRA didn’t do go far enough to effectively tackle climate change, so scaling back those commitments seems irrational. But is this the worst case scenario? Nope, it’s not that either.
A few other conclusions jump out from the report. First, we need to build more “firm” clean energy. Wind and solar are intermittent, and although the energy can be stored for later use in batteries, these aren’t considered firm energy sources. Geothermal and nuclear, which are examples of firm, steady power, are not coming on board fast enough. And second, we need to remove barriers to increased supply, like permitting and transmission.
What can we do?
Given this new reality check, what can we do? For one thing, we can keep talking to our friends about climate change. We can also make changes at home and advocate for local, state, and federal policies that reduce polluting emissions on a bigger scale. Finally we can try to see the glass as half full. It can’t hurt, and might offer up some peace of mind.
Let’s do something about climate change. Learn about it. Talk about it. Help solve it.