The nonprofit World Resources Institute has landed $75 million to launch an energy transition center that aims to speed deployment of "pragmatic, scalable solutions."

Why it matters: It's designed to convene expertise in finance, tech deployment, policy and other fields that together can overcome barriers, with initial focus on the U.S. and India.

• It will help fill a "missing piece in this puzzle," said WRI president and CEO Ani Dasgupta, adding that "the orchestration of change that is needed is not actually happening right now."
• "Where I think we are different is that we will bring our global credibility, our convening power, but also take a holistic systems approach to energy transition, rather than any one piece," he said in an interview.

Boldface names in the energy and climate worlds are involved. The WRI Polsky Center for the Global Energy Transition is funded via a 10-year gift from the Polsky Foundation.

• Michael Polsky, the founder and CEO of Invenergy, will co-chair its advisory group alongside International Energy Agency head Fatih Birol.
• The 13-person advisory group also includes Tata Power CEO Praveer Sinha and Bezos Earth Fund head Andrew Steer.

Driving the news: As demand grows, the center will look to "overcome critical barriers" in areas like grid modernization, scaling finance, and sourcing critical minerals responsibly.

• For instance, it hopes to connect investors, developers and governments to "new financing instruments" to "drastically increase" clean energy deployment.
• Another goal is working with large energy buyers, and another is workforce development. Also on the list: addressing hurdles to project siting.

🧑‍🎓State of play: The foundation is also providing $25 million to create a Polsky Energy Transition Leadership Academy at the University of Chicago's Institute for Climate and Sustainable Growth.

• It will focus on "experiential learning, immersive field experiences and career mentorship to help students grapple with the dual goals of the need for inexpensive and reliable energy and a manageable climate," the announcement states.

The big picture: Polsky and Dasgupta said discussions about the center began around two years ago.

• The launch itself, however, occurs as President Trump is paring back Biden-era climate and low-carbon energy policies.
• But Polsky called the new center's clean energy work consistent with Trump's goal of providing "abundant, affordable, sufficient energy" in the U.S.
• "There's no contradiction here ... I also happen to believe, based on my experience in the industry, that with increased demand, we need multiple solutions here," he said in an interview.

What we're watching: Dasgupta is looking to get "core staffing" of 15-20 people in place during the first year alone, adding to 100+ people that already work on energy at WRI.

• More fundraising can follow the "anchor gift" to expand the center's geographic scope, complementing WRI's already wide global work, he said.

The bottom line: "This will definitely reshape WRI. I'm hoping this reshapes the energy landscape all over the world," Dasgupta said.

Elon Musk's budgetary chainsaw is looming over U.S. disaster prediction and response agencies — just as climate change is making certain types of extreme weather events more common and intense.

Why it matters: The prospect of cutting the Federal Emergency Management Agency — possibly entirely — and slashing the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA)'s budget and mission amid a parade of climate disasters could have disastrous consequences.

Between the lines: NOAA's mission is broad and intricately linked with FEMA and state emergency management agencies.

• NOAA is responsible for flying into hurricanes to measure their strength and improve predictions.
• Its National Weather Service forecasts weather across the U.S. and its territories and collects the majority of ocean and atmospheric observations worldwide on a daily basis.
• The combination of Project 2025's prescription for NOAA, along with news reports of coming, steep staff cuts — so far unsubstantiated — has left the agency's staff anxious and demoralized.

Zoom in: After scrutinizing NOAA, members of the Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency have reportedly turned their attention to examining FEMA's programs and IT systems.

• Yesterday, President Trump posted on Truth Social that "FEMA should be terminated."

What they're saying: "The next disaster to happen, you know, who are you calling?" Pete Gaynor, FEMA administrator during Trump's first term and currently an advisor to Bright Harbor, told Axios in an interview.

• "We need a national effort to reform FEMA," Gaynor said. "But the disassembly, the abolishment of FEMA is not in the national interest."

Reality check: Most states lack the resources to respond on their own to major disasters — including conducting lengthy rebuilding projects.

• Red states could be hit the hardest. Texas, Louisiana and Florida received the most FEMA direct assistance since 2015, data shows.

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A buzzy new study via Duke University scholars finds data centers (among other sources) have untapped flexibility to lower power use for limited stretches.

Why it matters: It challenges the CW that massive amounts of new generation are needed to feed AI and other emerging sources that are boosting U.S. energy demand.

• It's not saying, however, that no new generation is needed.

State of play: The study introduces the term "curtailment-enabled headroom."

• It's a metric to describe how much additional power needs can be absorbed by the existing system via short-term (think a couple hours-ish) reductions in use when demand is very high.
• For data centers, that can mean steps like switching computational workloads among different sites and limited use of on-site generators and batteries.

Stunning stat: It concludes there's a lot of this headroom with even infrequent curtailments.

• "76 GW of new load — equivalent to 10% of the nation's current aggregate peak demand — could be integrated with an average annual load curtailment rate of 0.25%," they find, with even more at slightly higher rates.
• "The magnitudes of what is already possible today are mind-boggling," writes energy analyst Varun Sivaram.

What we're watching: Growth in efforts to boost data center flexibility, which are already underway in some places.

A few things caught my eye in new DOE boss Chris Wright's interview with Bloomberg TV...

🛢️He downplayed tension between President Trump's twin goals of lower prices and getting U.S. producers to pump more.

• "What we're focused on is reducing the cost to produce a barrel of oil, so for producers, they could have lower oil prices and the same profitability if their costs were reduced," Wright said.
• Wright acknowledged that U.S. production probably won't grow "meaningfully" in the short run, but added: "If you look at 5 or 10 years, could America grow our oil production significantly? Absolutely."

📉 On coal's future, Wright said there's unlikely to be a "renaissance" of surging production. But he also said: "I think the best we can hope for in the short term is to stop the closure of coal power plants."

💵 On the loan office, Wright said he's reviewing the portfolio. On money that's "uncommitted or early on," Wright said they "will be deployed to advance the president's agenda of affordable, reliable, secure energy."

• He didn't specify, but it could mean he's eyeing finance for nuclear projects and other tech that's part of Trump 2.0's agenda.
• Asked about existing commitments, Wright said he's looking at the status of those projects and that "we will follow the law."

🛩️ Electric flight startup Archer Aviation raised $300 million from institutional investors including BlackRock-managed accounts.

• Why it matters: Archer is leaning into Pentagon opportunities, noting the money will help speed development of hybrid aircraft "for the defense market and beyond."

👍 The Energy Department will disburse $782 million in loan funds to Montana Renewables to expand production of aviation fuels and other products, per the Washington Post and Reuters.

• The intrigue: Their wider loan was approved in the closing days of the Biden era, but Trump officials have paused many activities for review.

🔋CATL, the China-based global battery giant, is filing to list on Hong Kong's exchange. It could raise $5 billion, per the WSJ and others.

"We've already sunk capital — even though we've rationalized it — in battery production and assembly plants all through Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Tennessee. And many of those jobs will be at risk if the IRA is repealed."