Author: Dino Grandoni

THE LIGHTBULB Two major solar projects were recently launched on public lands owned by the Interior Department, headed by Ryan Zinke. (Steve Marcus/Las Vegas Sun via AP) Note to readers: Dino is on vacation this week. Juliet Eilperin, The Washington Post’s senior national affairs correspondent, wrote today’s Lightbulb. Follow her here. You may have missed the fact that exactly one week ago two major solar power plants, with a combined generating capacity of 179 megawatts, shifted into commercial operation on Bureau of Land Management property in southern Nevada. It’s totally understandable, since the Interior Department didn’t even issue a news release (although...

THE LIGHTBULB Phil Murphy, Democratic gubernatorial candidate in New Jersey, greets musicians and dancers at a campaign event in Edison, N.J., on Monday. (AP Photo/Seth Wenig) Ever since Donald Trump’s dramatic election victory last November, California has played the role of chief antagonist to the Trump administration — particularly with regard to energy and environmental policy. But one year later, there’s another election and, if polls swing Democrats’ way in some key states, new players will enter the stage to vex the president with their green agendas. On Tuesday, there are three races in three states that will shape how the states see and implement...

THE LIGHTBULB Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross appears before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform to discuss preparing for the 2020 Census in October. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite) A year and a half ago, dozens of news organizations from around the world began publishing stories based on a trove of documents obtained by a German newspaper and distributed by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. The documents, called the Panama Papers, shed light the offshore financial dealings of a rich and powerful using the services of a Panamanian law firm called Mossack Fonseca.  Over the weekend, the consortium began publishing another set...

THE LIGHTBULB Ryan Zinke, left, riding a swamp buggy in the Big Cypress National Preserve in October. (AP Photo/Alan Diaz) Last week, Senate Republicans sparked an uproar from environmentalists and their Democratic allies after voting to raising revenue by drilling for oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in the northeast corner of Alaska. Though pushed for years by Alaska’s congressional delegation, tapping that land, set aside for caribou herds and other wildlife, is still not a sure thing. The Senate, House and President Trump each need to agree to a budget proposal that sets up the prospect of a tax...