Transition Finance Weekly - 7/31/2025
Colorado Co-op Goes Clean, N.C. GOP Sticks Ratepayers with ~$23B in Higher Costs, More Harassment from Fla. AG
Exploring the policy, politics, and economics of the clean energy transition
Each week here in Transition Finance Weekly, researchers and analysts from Pleiades Strategy summarize the top stories and trends related to the policy, politics, and economics of the clean energy transition in the states.
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1. The Rural Co-Op Quietly Beating Big Utilities on Clean Energy
Holy Cross Energy is hitting 90% clean, beating the generation giants.
While many big utilities drag their feet, Colorado’s Holy Cross Energy is quietly delivering some of the cleanest electricity in the country — at some of the lowest rates in the state. HCE, which serves 45,000 rural Coloradans (including around Aspen and Vail), expects to hit 85% clean power in 2025 — with peaks of 96% in May and 92% in June.
Holy Cross gets there with a smart mix of tools: time-of-use rates, net metering, peak-time payback incentives, income-qualified weatherization, rebates for electrification and EVs, and its PuRE member-funded renewables program. It’s proof that distributed energy and demand-side flexibility can power the clean grid transition — even in small, rural markets. And they’re investing in resiliency, too.
Their success also shows that we don’t have to wait on Washington: local utilities and regulators can make massive progress with the tools they already have, from smart rate design to community-led programs. And perhaps most importantly, HCE is showing us what the future looks like — high levels of renewables, demand management, and built around people, not just infrastructure.
HCE VP of Finance Sam Whelan: “[W]e hope our experiences and what we’ve learned can help apply to others.”
2. Florida AG Targets Climate Disclosure Groups in Latest Anti-ESG Salvo
Subpoenas of global nonprofits open a new front in Florida’s war on climate accountability.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier, a top DeSantis lieutenant and noted culture warrior (see p. 19 of our Statehouse Report), is now targeting two global climate disclosure groups: the Climate Disclosure Project (CDP) and the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi). He says the groups “shake down American companies to fund their ESG grift”, and claims his aim is “to stop the ‘Climate Cartel’ from exploiting businesses and misleading consumers.”
Uthmeier is at home in the anti-ESG campaign with fellow Florida executive Ron DeSantis, who appointed him to serve as Florida AG. Both DeSantis and Uthmeier have used the powers of their respective offices to achieve purely political and partisan goals. Climate isn’t the only realm in which he’s done this, either: Uthmeier sued Target over its DEI policies and used his office to target a bar owner who hosted a Pride event.
3. North Carolina GOP Ends 2030 Clean Energy Targets, Increasing Utility Costs by $23B
Duke cheers the override of the governor’s veto of a clean energy delay bill that will also cost 50,000 jobs a year.
We warned you earlier this month about SB 266, the Duke Energy-backed bill that rolls back North Carolina’s 70%-by-2030 clean energy target and incentivizes more fossil fuel buildout, with ratepayers paying the price. Gov. Josh Stein vetoed it. But after an eleventh-hour pressure campaign by front groups linked to in-state industries and utility giant Duke Energy, legislators overturned Stein’s veto.
What’s the price for North Carolinians? $23 billion in additional energy costs, 50,000+ jobs lost annually, tens of billions in forgone solar, wind, and battery investment, and a 40% cut in new clean generation capacity.
“My job is to do everything in my power to lower costs and grow the economy,” Stein said in his veto statement. “This bill fails that test.”
4. Court Upholds California’s First-Of-Its-Kind Clean Heat Rule
17 million people will see cleaner air and lower emissions.
In a win for climate and public health, a federal court has upheld the South Coast Air Quality Management District’s Rule 1146.2, which requires the electrification of industrial and commercial boilers and water heaters across the South Coast Air Basin — covering most of the Greater Los Angeles area.
The rule cuts NOx emissions by 5.6 tons a day and electrifies heat systems across four sprawling counties. It also lays the groundwork for zero-emissions industrial production over the long term.
Building trades, gas appliance makers, and landlord groups were behind the suit, which claimed the rule was federally preempted and would impose major costs. But the court said the rule targets air pollution (NOₓ), not energy use, and is well within the District’s Clean Air Act authority.
Earthjustice attorney Candice Youngblood: “This decision recognizes our air regulators’ long‑established authority to adopt life‑saving protections and sends an undeniable signal to manufacturers and businesses that the future of California’s industrial sector is electric.”
5. Proxy Advisors Sue Texas Over Anti-ESG Law
ExxonMobil just wants those pesky shareholders out of its way. Not so fast, these firms say.
Leading proxy advisers Glass Lewis and Institutional Shareholder Services (ISS) are both suing the state of Texas over its new law that hamstrings proxy advisers and opens them to civil liability. Signed by Gov. Greg Abbott in June, the law requires proxy firms to include disclaimers and financial justifications for any recommendations that touch on climate, ESG, or DEI issues.
We covered this in our Statehouse Report: ExxonMobil and other fossil fuel companies pushed this bill through to silence climate-conscious investors who are demanding accountability.
The two proxy firms, whose research underpins much of shareholder proxy voting, argue the law infringes on First Amendment rights. ISS calls the law “vague, burdensome, and unjustified,” and says it punishes legitimate financial advice on political grounds. Glass Lewis calls it a direct government attempt to suppress disfavored speech. If Abbott’s crusade isn’t blocked by the courts, the consequences could reverberate nationwide, reshaping the boundaries of free speech in service of blocking an honest financial reckoning with the climate crisis.
SPOTLIGHT: THE CALIFORNIA MIRACLE
Texas often grabs headlines for ramping up wind and solar, but California is quietly pulling ahead on cleaning up its grid. Via Stanford Professor Mark Z. Jacobson, new CAISO data shows fossil gas use is down 42.5% since 2023 and 24.3% since 2024, while clean energy has surged: solar is up 47.4%, batteries have grown a staggering 213%, and wind-water-solar (WWS) overall is up 16% since 2023.
In real terms, that means California is now averaging 4.7 hours per day powered by 100% clean electricity — up from just one hour per day in 2023. So far in 2025, WWS has supplied 57.5% of California’s electricity demand, compared to 48.7% two years ago. This is what serious decarbonization looks like.
