Fresh Energy

Fresh Energy is an independent nonprofit working to speed the transition to a clean energy economy. Its mission is to shape and drive bold policy solutions to achieve equitable carbon-neutral economies. The Energy News Network (ENN) is Fresh Energy’s strategic communications initiative and aims to build public resolve on clean energy and climate action. ENN’s primary focus is to deliver stories of clean energy progress and equity, to an audience of highly engaged stakeholders in the energy field. ENN produces several daily digests, including the Midwest Energy News, Southeast Energy News, and US Energy News, which provide a valued news source with original journalism covering key stories about clean energy. This renewal provides one-year of flexible project support.

Fresh Energy is an independent nonprofit working to speed the transition to a clean energy economy. Their mission is to shape and drive bold policy solutions to achieve equitable carbon-neutral economies. The Energy News Network (ENN) is Fresh Energy’s strategic communications initiative and aims to build public resolve on clean energy and climate action. ENN’s primary focus is to deliver stories of clean energy progress, and increasingly stories about equity and environmental justice, to an audience of highly engaged stakeholders in the energy field. ENN produces several daily digests, including the Midwest Energy News, Southeast Energy News, and US Energy News, which provide a valued news source with original journalism covering key stories about clean energy. This renewal supports ENN to: 1) continue producing four regional and one national daily email digest that compiles the top clean energy and climate stories; 2) establish a new Equity in Energy reporting beat that will focus exclusively on equity and justice reporting within the climate and clean energy field; 3) hire additional staff; and 4) support more aggressive marketing and audience development.

The Energy News Network is an innovative nonprofit project launched by Fresh Energy to provide journalistic coverage of state energy issues in a regional context. Midwest Energy News (founded in 2010), and Southeast Energy News (added with support from the MacArthur Foundation in 2015) provide a highly valued news source with original journalism and tailored email digests covering key stories. State and local decision-making is a critical arena for progress on energy and climate. But as traditional media across the country cut back on energy reporting, there is a growing gap in fact-based coverage of state, local, and utility actions. With an increased emphasis on state-level action on energy and climate, the need for credible, reliable journalism to explain complex issues and watchdog public institutions is more acute than ever. At this moment when federal climate and energy leadership is all but gone, there is a need and opportunity to expand coverage to all 50 states through a model with six regional energy news services—in the Southwest, Pacific, Northeast, and Northwest—in addition to the existing Midwest Energy News and Southeast Energy News networks. A fully developed, national energy news network makes it possible to: change the clean energy conversation nationally from reaction and misinformation to a focus on state decisions that matter; shape policy debate with documented cases of Energy News Network coverage being used in decision-making forums; and compete in the media marketplace to ensure that news sources funded by corporate and political interests do not fill the gulf in coverage caused by the decline of mainstream daily newspapers.

Fresh Energy develops clean energy policy. This grant supports an expansion of Fresh Energy’s communications about climate change and clean energy, in order to inform and engage new leaders to make meaningful change. Following the Midwest Energy News model, Fresh Energy will launch a regional publication focused on the southeast United States with the development of Southeast Energy News. The grant will also allow Fresh Energy to begin publishing a daily national climate and energy news summary, which has incubated at the Foundation for the last year and seeks a broader audience of decision-makers.