A U.S. manufacturing and mining boom launched under President Biden is just getting started. Most of it is heading to Republican-leaning communities.

Democratic lawmakers passed two key climate laws a little more than two years ago, with virtually no Republican votes. Since then, companies have announced $170 billion in new or expanded factories and mining projects in the U.S. that would add around 200,000 new industrial jobs, according to data from Atlas Public Policy and Utah State University.

Fossil fuels are ending 2023 with a bang.

On Wednesday, one week after world governments agreed at COP28 to “transition away from fossil fuels,” oil companies including Shell and Hess bid a collective $382 million for drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico, the most for an auction there since 2015. The auction closely followed the release of data showing that U.S. oil production is now higher than in any country at any time in history, reaching about 13.3 million barrels per day in the fourth quarter.

The United States and China, the world’s two largest climate polluters, have agreed to jointly tackle global warming by ramping up wind, solar and other renewable energy with the goal of displacing fossil fuels.

The announcement comes as President Biden prepares to meet Wednesday with President Xi Jinping of China for their first face-to-face discussion in a year. The climate agreement could emerge as a bright spot in talks that are likely to focus on sensitive topics including Taiwan, the war in Ukraine and the war between Israel and Hamas.

China and the United States unveiled a rare climate agreement calling for greater joint action to tackle the climate crisis as President Xi Jinping arrived in San Francisco on Wednesday for his first visit to America in six years.

The United States and China pledged to strengthen cooperation on climate change and will work together on combating methane and plastic pollution, the State Department said Wednesday, signaling a thaw in icy diplomatic relations just hours ahead of President Joe Biden’s sitdown with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

Solar panel shipments in the U.S. grew 10% in 2022 to a record 31.7 million peak kilowatts, data released by the Energy Information Administration shows. The volume of shipments has grown by more than sixfold in the past decade, as the price of photovoltaic cells have fallen, while incentives and subsidies for installing solar panels have increased. Last year, the U.S. produced more than 3% of its electricity through solar energy, a fraction of what it produced from carbon sources such as gas but up more than fourfold compared to 2015 levels.

One year since the U.S. passed the Inflation Reduction Act, the most ambitious climate bill in the country’s history, clean energy is booming. Especially in Texas — which might come a surprise given the crucial role the oil industry plays in the state.

But Texas also tells the future about where we’re headed. The world is not moving fast enough: if the the US doesn’t dramatically speed up, it will miss its climate goals.

Sen. Joe Manchin III used his perch atop the chamber’s Energy Committee to shine the spotlight Wednesday on a contentious issue that could ease power outages while also jolting the president’s green energy agenda: the fast-tracking of interstate transmission-line projects.

The conservative West Virginia Democrat sought buy-in from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle during a committee hearing Wednesday on whether the nation’s arcane permitting laws should be changed to fast-track energy projects of all forms.

High-ranking Senate Republicans are calling for the nation's top energy regulator to immediately assess the impact President Biden's crackdown on fossil fuel power plants will have on electric grid reliability.

Jigar Shah, who runs the Energy Department’s loan program, is trying to hand out a lot of money for green-technology projects, while navigating an unforgiving political environment