WIND & SOLAR GROWTH: A new report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration has confirmed that solar more than doubled and wind outgrew all other sources in 2014, outpacing growth of fossil fuels but still totaling a small fraction nation’s use. (The Washington Post)
SOLAR: Demand for U.S. solar power increased 30 percent in 2014 as residential installations for the first time surpassed 1 gigawatt, as developers installed a record 6.2 gigawatts of panels last year, including about 1.2 gigawatts atop homes. Bloomberg)
ALSO: Developers of the Crescent Dunes Solar Energy Project about 225 miles northwest of Las Vegas insist they have found a way to generate power without hurting birds by the dozens. (Las Vegas Review-Journal)
JOBS: New reports show wind and solar energy support about 30,000 jobs at about a thousand companies in Wisconsin, Illinois and Iowa, including related businesses from banking to making cables and glass. (Midwest Energy News)
RENEWABLES BOOST: Pennsylvania’s governor has proposed a 2015-16 budget that would direct $225 million to energy investments, including $150 million for grants and other aid to renewables and $50 million to resurrect a rebate program for solar projects. (TribLIVE)
RENEWABLES CONSORTIUM: Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island have agreed to team up in requesting proposals that use wind, solar, small hydro, biomass and fuel cells and produce at least 20 megawatts of power for their states. (West Hartford News)
CARBON LIMITS: Lawyers representing four teenagers and the Conservation Law Foundation are asking a judge to order Massachusetts regulators to begin adopting specific limits on the greenhouse-gas emissions. (Associated Press)
KEYSTONE PIPELINE: President Obama, speaking at a town hall in Columbia, South Carolina, reiterated his promise not to approve Canada’s Keystone pipeline, “if it can’t be shown that overall it would not contribute to climate change.” (Bloomberg BNA)
COAL: PNC Financial, the nation’s seventh-largest bank and one of the largest financiers of companies that engage in the mountaintop mining of coal, said it will no longer finance coal-mining companies that use such practices in Appalachia. (The New York Times)
ALSO: A Republican state senator in Montana plans to introduce a bill that would force Washington state ratepayers to absorb the “big hole” in revenues that would result if the Washington legislature approves a measure to buy and close Montana’s Colstrip plant. (Great Falls Tribune)
OFFSHORE DRILLING: Twelve Senate Democrats from the East Coast, led by Senator Ed Markey (D-Massachusetts), asked the Obama administration Monday to take Atlantic Ocean offshore drilling off the table to protect their states’ fishing, tourism and recreation industries. (The Hill)
COSTS OF CARBON: Led by Environment and Public Works Committee Chairman Jim Inhofe (R-Oklahoma), 11 senators wrote to the White House Monday asking for detailed information about how it is taking the public comments into account in calculating the social costs of carbon. (The Hill)
CLIMATE CHANGE: Research Monday in a scientific journal shows that the Arctic, North America and Europe will be the first regions to transition to warmth unseen on Earth for 1,000 years. (Climate Central)
ALSO: The Reno City Council has identified climate change as a specific threat that the city should address through urban planning and addressing its carbon footprint. (Reno Gazette-Journal)
CLIMATE CENSORSHIP: Florida’s governor on Monday denied an investigative report that said his environmental protection agency muzzled workers from talking about climate change – but he also made clear that he didn’t want to talk about the issue at all. (Politico)