What I’m reading: Even more savings from LEDs, Trump's EV purge, solar and batteries displacing gas in California, and more

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Because we journalists learn about so many more interesting and notable developments each day than we have time to write about them in stories, here is another roundup of highlights from what I've been reading. Enjoy!

Wringing even more energy savings from LEDs: LEDs have become the default technology in lighting for good reason. They are much more energy efficient and cheaper to operate than the legacy technologies they replaced. But that doesn’t mean the full energy-saving potential of LEDs has been tapped.

A new study from global technology advisory company DNV identified six “next generation” commercial lighting opportunities that are most likely to produce significant savings or are gaining traction in the market. The company then graded the opportunities according to the potential size of the market, potential to deliver meaningful program savings, and ease of delivery.

“While all identified opportunities have potential, only one, replacing existing LEDs with newer, higher efficacy products, was given an ‘A’ grade. The market potential for this opportunity is enormous, as older LEDs inevitably burn out and need to be replaced. There are many replacement options on the market, but there is a 20% increase in energy savings when using the highest efficacy LED products vs. baseline products, with a negligible cost differential,” the study found.

Trump's EV purge could cost taxpayers $1.3 billion: In my last roundup, I wrote about how President Trump’s General Services Administration (GSA) had scrapped the Green Proving Ground, a program that had tested promising next-generation technologies for deployment in federal buildings and was saving taxpayers tens of millions of dollars annually. Well, the GSA apparently isn’t done axing energy- and money-saving programs with a green sheen.

InsideEVs reported this week that the GSA plans to turn off thousands of EV chargers it had installed at more than 650 federal buildings across the country, and to sell the 25,000 EVs it had purchased for the federal vehicle fleet. How much will the EV rollback cost taxpayers? Reporter Rob Stumpf did the math:

“So, to recap on potential losses: $100 million decommissioning the GSA's EV charging network; $225 million in EV depreciation from selling at a loss; $300 million spent installing EV chargers; and $700 million buying new gas-powered cars. That's $1.325 billion that could potentially go to waste as the current administration begins to undo the progress made over the last four years to modernize the government's transportation fleet. Don't forget that's taxpayer funding – meaning that you might as well pull $9 out of every tax-paying American's pocket to light on fire.”

Solar + batteries displacing gas in California: California’s one-two punch of solar and batteries is beginning to push fossil gas power off the grid. California had installed nearly 13,400 megawatts (MW) of battery storage capacity as of October 2024 – up from 500 MW in 2018.

“In the first seven weeks of 2025, gas covered 29% of the state’s power needs, down from 41% in the same period a year before, according to data collated by Stanford University Professor Mark Z. Jacobson,” Nick Hedley reported this week at The Progress Playbook.

Hedley added that data collated by research group Ember shows that solar will soon overtake gas as California’s largest source of power: “In the first 11 months of 2024, gas’ share of state-wide electricity generation dipped to 34.4% (from 38.5% in calendar year 2023 and 57.1% as recently as 2015), while solar climbed to 32.7% (from 28.1% in 2023).”

High-speed rail advances in Texas and Canada: North America chugs along far behind China and Europe when it comes to deploying high-speed trains. Nevertheless, riders here keep showing that if political leaders would only build fast trains, they’d be happy to jump aboard.

Even though only its Acela Northeast Corridor service approaches anything close to true high-speed service, Amtrak set an all-time ridership record in 2024, with 32.8 million passengers. In the Pacific Northwest, ridership was up by 41% last year on the Amtrak Cascades route between Portland, Oregon, and Vancouver, British Columbia.

Outside of California, where the first leg of the state’s high-speed rail system is under construction in the Central Valley, there has not been much recent progress in getting fast trains on track. But that might be starting to change.

This week, Amtrak issued a request for qualifications (RFQ) for a partner to build the proposed high-speed rail line in Texas between Dallas/Fort Worth and Houston. Amtrak took control of the project in 2024. “The RFQ invites prospective companies, joint ventures, contractors and subcontractors to submit their qualifications so that Amtrak can shortlist the entries, Texas Rail Advocates reported. The issuance of the RFQ marks a step in advancing the project. The short list of firms would be invited to submit proposals for the proposed project,” reported Progressive Railroading.

In Canada, outgoing Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced this week that the Cadence consortium had been selected to design, build, finance, operate, and manage the proposed high-speed rail line Alto between Toronto and Quebec City. “If completed, the Alto service would span over 600 miles and reaching a speed of over 180 mph, which would reduce by half current travel times on VIA Rail passenger-rail service between Toronto and Quebec City,” Progressive Railroading also reported.

Mercedes tests EV with a solid-state battery that can travel 620 miles: Most major automakers have been working to develop so-called solid-state batteries for their electric vehicles. Unlike the lithium batteries that prevail today, which use a liquid electrolyte, next-generation solid-state batteries use a solid electrolyte that experts say will result in safer, more energy dense batteries.

For now, it looks like Mercedes-Benz might be first to market with the technology. Electrek reported this week that Mercedes is testing the world’s first production EV with a solid-state battery pack.

“With a ‘breakthrough’ energy density of 450 Wh/kg, [battery manufacturer] Factorial said the new Solstice battery is expected to provide 80% more driving range than current lithium-ion batteries,” reports Peter Johnson.

“Mercedes expects the new battery to extend the driving range by about 25%. The current EQS 450+ rated with up to 511 WLTP [Worldwide Harmonized Light Vehicle Test Procedure] miles range would suggest a driving range of over 620 miles.”

Bonus 1: The man on the white horse: These are the opening lines of an essay titled "Is It Time to Torch the Constitution?" published by Louis Menand in The New Yorker six weeks before the November 2024 election:

"All republican governments live in fear of the man on the white horse. A republican government, like ours, is a system of rules designed to prevent any one person or faction from hijacking the democratic decision-making process. The person on the white horse doesn’t respect the democratic decision-making process, is not a product of that process, and has no stake in its survival. The person on the white horse rides into town and says, Who needs rules? Let me take care of everything. And the public, glad to simplify life, or possibly dazzled by the promise of a glorious future, lets the rider take charge. Rules that no one enforces are just so much paper."

Five weeks into the second Trump administration, I'd say that those fears were well founded.

Bonus 2: Crisis at the Department of Justice's environment division: “The Environment and Natural Resources Division (ENRD) of the Department of Justice faces its most profound crisis since it was established in 1909,” three alums of the division wrote earlier this month in a post at the Legal Planet blog. The authors recounted the reassignment of four career managers to the newly formed Office of Sanctuary Cities Enforcement, career attorneys in the division's Office of Environmental Justice being placed on administrative leave, and rumored plans to eliminate the entire Law and Policy Section.

"Until now, ENRD has experienced little political turbulence during transitions from one president to the next. After all, most of ENRD’s work is defensive and does not fall into neat ideological boxes," the authors write.

"These civil servants – attorneys and support staff numbering close to 600 – forgo higher pay and personal prestige, driven by a belief in the power of the federal government to serve the American people. The grief and uncertainty besetting them today is an unspeakable return for their dedicated service."

Reading those words, I thought of John Cruden. About a month before the start of Donald Trump's first term, I interviewed Cruden in the grand conference room in his office suite at the U.S. Department of Justice headquarters in Washington, D.C. – the same room where not long before he had negotiated with Volkswagen executives to settle the automaker's diesel engines scandal.

A U.S. Army veteran and longtime career attorney and manager at ENRD, Cruden was then leading the division as the assistant attorney general. During our conversation he exuded decency and integrity, and was generous with his time. I'll never forget him leading me and my editor, Steven Boyd Saum, on a tour of the building after our interview. The New Deal-era murals are stunning.

My profile of Cruden, which appeared in Santa Clara Magazine in March 2017, is one of my favorite stories I've published in more than 20 years in journalism.