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When the US government shut down two weeks ago, so did parts of its climate agenda.
Thousands of federal workers have been sent home, billions in clean energy grants frozen and the country’s largest planned solar farm wiped from the government’s books.
Analysts say the shutdown marks a slowdown in the nation’s already uncertain climate progress, but it also serves as a reminder that the world’s path to net zero can easily hinge on political whims – or even something as mundane as passing a budget.
A mega-solar project disappears
The Esmeralda 7, a collection of seven solar farms to be built on more than 25,000 hectares of federal land in the Nevada desert, was expected to generate up to 6.2 gigawatts of power, enough to supply two million homes.
Under the Biden administration, it had become a symbol of the country’s ambition to modernise its energy mix amid rising demand from AI firms and fast-growing cities.
But last week, after the federal government shut down, the US Bureau
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