Beshear to appear on Vogue cover as 2028 speculation heats up
Beshear 'is the most popular Democratic governor in the country—and he's achieved this in a state that has become a GOP stronghold,' the news and culture magazine said in an Instagram post promoting its September cover story focusing on the politician.
'His elections have all been close, but in each the margin has widened and he continues to win without turning away from the values and priorities of the left,' it added. 'Head to the link in our bio to learn more about what's next for Kentucky Governor Beshear who's found a way to win (and win again) in Trump County which has put him at the top of the list of Democrats expected to vie for the presidential nomination in 2028.'
Beshear was among several potential Democratic presidential candidates making visits to South Carolina this month, along with California Gov. Gavin Newsom and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.)
Beshear has previously said he would 'take a look' at running for president in 2028
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Politico
20 minutes ago
- Politico
Gridlock on the Western grid
With help from Noah Baustin, Alex Nieves and Saqib Rahim POWER PLAYS: California wants to lead the West into a unified electricity market. The problem? California. Lawmakers have just over a month to salvage legislation that could reshape the Western power grid. Forming an independent West-wide grid operator to manage electricity trading a day ahead of time, as Gov. Gavin Newsom and Democratic lawmakers are proposing, would expand on the real-time trading market already run by California's grid operator. The promised benefits include more easily exporting the state's surplus solar during the daytime and tapping the Pacific Northwest's steady hydropower during the evening, when solar goes down and power demand spikes. The catch: California wants to drive the transition, and the rest of the West won't get in the car unless it lets go of the wheel. Former Public Utilities Commission President Loretta Lynch, one of the foremost opponents, warned lawmakers this spring that the new regional grid would 'give up control of the pilot seat' and expose Californians to higher costs and out-of-state fossil fuels. Ratepayer advocates and some environmental groups have echoed the concerns — pushing for tighter legal safeguards in case legal challengers or the Trump administration try to use a new regional grid to undercut California's leading renewable energy laws. (Meanwhile, East Coast Democrats have been bashing their own regional grid operator for rising power costs.) Backers, both inside and outside California, say the fears are overblown. They're also running out of time. A rival regional market based in Arkansas is gaining traction, winning commitments from Arizona and Washington utilities that once considered teaming with California. They cited a more palatable governance structure even if costs might be lower in California. (Still up for grabs: energy providers in states like Colorado, New Mexico and Idaho.) 'If we don't do this, then we could lose all of our neighbors to the market out of Arkansas,' said Sen. Josh Becker, author of the bill, SB 540, that would pave the way for California to set up the regional grid. 'It can't look like, and it can't actually be, a California-dominated market.' But amendments Becker took in May to get through the Senate Appropriations Committee — which added a California oversight council made up of lawmakers with power to pull out of the new market — have spooked backers. Environmental groups that once co-sponsored the bill have pulled their support, warning that the new structure is too California-centric to attract other states. Utilities central to California's plan, including Pacific Gas & Electric and PacifiCorp, told lawmakers that the new bill could drive trading partners to sign on to the rival market instead, which would drive up the cost of getting energy in moments of grid stress. Becker said he's gotten an earful across state lines. At last month's National Caucus of Environmental Legislators meeting, Oregon lawmakers pulled him aside during dinner to press for an update. 'They really want this to happen,' he said. He's also heard from curious (but largely agnostic) Utah and Washington legislators, he said. The effort still has momentum. The bill passed the Senate unanimously in June, with strong backing from Senate President Pro Tem Mike McGuire. This month, both Newsom and Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas publicly pledged to stand up the regional grid, with Newsom calling it 'our best shot at lowering energy costs' in a year dominated by affordability concerns. They stopped short of endorsing the current version of SB 540, however. Becker said the bill is 'untenable' as written but that he expects to amend the bill once lawmakers return from summer recess on Aug. 18. Even if it passes, the deal isn't done. Kathleen Staks, executive director of Western Freedom, an organization representing large industrial and commercial power customers who want a regional grid, and a key leader of the West-Wide Governance Pathways Initiative, said her main focus right now was keeping the coalition together — a broad group that includes utilities who've already committed to California's regional grid like PacifiCorp, companies like Amazon and Rivian, and former skeptics like labor unions, who were worried about ceding control over California's energy but were mollified by backers promising that wouldn't happen. 'When you're talking about that kind of an investment, you need some certainty — and creating that certainty from California is really critical,' Staks said. 'Being able to build trust that has been lost, and maybe in some places was never even there, is going to be what we have to work on next.' — CvK Did someone forward you this newsletter? Sign up here! CUTTING THE LINE: California is on its way to establishing 30 experimental gas-free communities. On Thursday, scores of people eagerly urged the California Public Utilities Commission not to choose their town. 'I really like my gas appliances. I don't want to get rid of them,' said one Costa Mesa caller during the agency's public forum on designating 'neighborhood decarbonization zones.' A similar sentiment was shared by many commenters, perhaps a sign that a Southern California Gas Co. email blast encouraging customers to weigh in at the forum hit home. But the opposition was far from unanimous. A City of Santa Barbara staffer called in expressing the municipality's interest in participating in the program. The controversy stems from the 2024 passage of SB 1221, which instructed the CPUC to set up pilot project zones in which utilities would be relieved of their obligation to provide natural gas in the area to help customers instead transition to zero-emission alternatives. In July, California's utilities submitted maps showing where they planned to replace pipelines in coming years. But Denise Grab, energy law and policy project director for the UCLA Emmett Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, worries that the maps highlight such a wide swath of locations that it could overwhelm the CPUC, slowing the program's progress. 'When everything is a priority (neighborhood decarbonization zone), nothing is a priority,' Grab wrote in a post on Legal Planet. Pacific Gas & Electric, SoCalGas and San Diego Gas & Electric didn't immediately respond to requests for comment. The agency has until Jan. 1, 2026, to choose its priority neighborhoods, and another six months to set up the pilot programs. Energy customers in the chosen zones will get a chance to vote on whether they want to participate, and a community will need at least 67 percent of customers' ayes to set up a pilot. — NB RETURN OF THE SUN: The California Supreme Court gave rooftop solar advocates a small win Thursday. The state's highest court ruled that a lower court had deferred too much to state utility regulators when it upheld the California Public Utilities Commission' 2022 decision to slash incentives to new rooftop solar customers. The case now goes back to the court of appeals, where a judge will have to consider the arguments for and against with fresh eyes. The decision means the fight over the payments rooftop solar customers get from selling energy back to the grid through a process called 'net metering' will continue on. 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The agency agreed in a proposed lawsuit settlement released Thursday to issue a final rule by Sept. 15 on whether the San Joaquin Valley meets the 1997 federal ozone standard of 80 parts per billion, Sean Reilly reports for POLITICO's E&E News. If a judge approves the deal between EPA and groups, including the Committee for a Better Arvin and the Sierra Club, federal officials would also face a January deadline to decide on a 'contingency measure' to cut vehicle tailpipe pollution in the region. The Central Valley and Southern California consistently rank among the smoggiest regions in the U.S, and are both in 'extreme' nonattainment for ozone, the lowest ranking on EPA's scale. Ozone is the main component of smog, which increases the risk of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. — AN, SR DISASTER DRAMA: The insurance industry is pushing back on Sen. Adam Schiff's attempt to create a federal backstop to stabilize state insurance markets. Congressional Democrats are proposing a federal reinsurance program that would cap the amount insurers pay in claims after large disasters. The program, funded by premiums, would pay out the remainder of the claim after the cap is reached. The American Property Casualty Insurance Association and National Association of Mutual Insurance Cos. warn that the proposal would create incentives for people to live in high-risk areas and artificially suppress rates, as Saqib Rahim reports for POLITICO's E&E News. Schiff's bill is an attempt to lower the cost of reinsurance, essentially insurance for insurance companies, which providers buy to pay a portion of claims after a catastrophic event — like the Los Angeles wildfires earlier this year. Schiff introduced a similar bill in 2024 while serving in the House. That effort died in committee. — AN, SR — New research finds that ropeless fishing gear can avoid whale entanglements while also preserving yield for commercial Dungeness crab fishermen. — A new giant solar-plus-storage power plant in the Mojave Desert will power seven percent of the city of Los Angeles. — Venture capital funding for solar companies fell significantly in the first half of this year — but project acquisitions and mergers picked up.
Fox News
an hour ago
- Fox News
Newt Gingrich: Democrats are either 'rabid socialists' or 'totally negative'
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich analyzes how Democrats are 'going off the deep end' as so-called defenders of democracy on 'The Ingraham Angle.'
Indianapolis Star
an hour ago
- Indianapolis Star
'I am outraged at this' - Hundreds protest outside of Indiana Governor's Residence
Hundreds of critics gathered outside the Indiana Governor's Residence on Aug. 7 to show their disapproval with national Republican leadership, who have discussed the idea of holding a special session to redistrict Indiana. Many of those outside of the residence had previously protested Vice President JD Vance's visit to the Statehouse earlier in the day, where he held a meeting with Governor Mike Braun behind closed doors. Braun told reporters as he left the meeting that it went "pretty good" and "covered a wide array of topics." He said redistricting was a topic of conversation, but when asked if any agreement had been reached, he only said, "We listened." But those waving signs outside the Governor's Residence in north Indianapolis felt differently about the meeting. 'The purpose of (Vance's) visit was to make sure that there are no democratic seats in the 2026 election, and that Donald Trump is assured of election because he's rigged it already,' said Lamont Hulse, an organizer with Indivisible Central Indiana. By 5:30 p.m., about 300 people lined Meridian Street, many holding signs like 'save our seats,' 'stop the steal,' and 'no votes for sale.' Close to 100 people have gathered outside of the Indiana Governor's Mansion to protest the state government, who floated the idea of redistricting the state in favor of Republican Republicans already hold 7 of the state's 9 US. House seats.@indystar Hulse believed it was important for Hoosiers to share their voices about this issue. 'I am outraged at this. These are not the Hoosier values I was brought up with," Hulse said. 'The Hoosier values of fairness, of equity, of letting people's voice count, respecting your neighbors, and of not running over people's rights.' More: What Gov. Mike Braun said about redistricting in Indiana following meeting with JD Vance As lifelong Hoosiers, Susan Bettis and Mike Cabat felt embarrassed when they learned intentions of redrawing congressional boundaries had surfaced in Indiana. Traditionally, in Indiana, state leaders don't consider redistricting efforts until the U.S. Census Bureau collects its data at the start of the decade. "It's a blatant power grab that's happening right in the middle of the decade," Bettis said. Bettis and Cabat remembered a time in Indiana when it felt like both state Democrats and Republicans could work together and create legislation that benefited "all Hoosiers and not just the ones that voted for them." While dozens of adults were holding up signs and chanting, Slone Young, 6, and her younger sister were playing hide and seek around the trees at the edge of the governor's residence. An Indiana State Police officer took notice of the two girls playing in the yard and began to walk toward the children, before turning his attention to scold some adults who walked onto the property. When the officer stopped paying attention to them, Young knelt in front of a tree and began to pray. After completing her prayer, she turned to the Governor's Residence and made the sign of the cross toward the building. She then ran to her mother, holding her sister's hands. When asked what she prayed for, Young said, "That's between God and me."
