| Providing information and ideas to build a healthier, more sustainable America. | |
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|  | | Dear friend,
Happy New Year! Thank you for your interest in and support of our work in 2025. In an often-disorienting year, Frontier Group’s staff of researchers and analysts remained true to our mission: providing accurate and accessible information about our nation’s biggest challenges and highlighting the many tools we have at our disposal to meet them. Here are a few highlights of what we achieved in 2025: |
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| With big data centers come big problems The story that dominated the world’s headlines in 2025 was the rapid rise of artificial intelligence, and of the resource-intensive data centers being built to facilitate its further growth. Our report Big Data Centers, Big Problems, released in January, examined how demand for advanced computing is already deepening America’s reliance on fossil fuels, including by giving some of the dirtiest power plants in the country a new lease on life. Research by Policy Analyst Quentin Good and Policy Associate Kylie Hanson found that the planned closures of 34 fossil fuel generators at 15 power plants have been postponed so far in order to meet rising power demand, in part from data centers. Our work on data centers has been covered by more than 120 media outlets, including Politico, Grist, Inside Climate News, Clean Technica, Canary Media, CNET and Gizmodo. |
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| | Renewable energy on the rise Despite setbacks at the federal level, renewable energy remains on the rise across America. In our State of Renewable Energy dashboard and fact sheets with Environment America Research & Policy Center, we broke down trends in the growth of renewable energy and other clean energy technologies. Our analysis has been covered in The Guardian, Electrek and a range of other media. Despite this progress, there are still plenty of opportunities to do more. Released in September, our report Solar Schools for Pennsylvania found that the roofs of Pennsylvania’s schools hold major untapped potential for solar installations that could cut air pollution, provide clean power to communities, and save hundreds of millions of dollars for school districts. We also highlighted how government red tape is holding up rooftop solar installations, publishing two reports this year detailing the impacts of bureaucratic delays in Illinois and Texas. Our report in Illinois was the subject of a feature in The Chicago Tribune. |
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| A nation awash in trash America is still producing a massive amount of solid waste – and we’re disposing of most of it in ways that harm our environment, health and climate. In December we published an updated edition of our 2021 report Trash in America, outlining the damage caused by our throwaway economy and the steps we can take to move toward a zero-waste future. We also provided an updated resource on the false promise of “chemical recycling” to address the plastics crisis and argued that the best solution to America’s food waste problem is to create less of it in the first place. Stay tuned for an interactive dashboard of state-by-state data on trash generation, disposal and recycling, coming to the Frontier Group website in the new year. |
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| | As we embark on 2026, we look forward to releasing new research on the rising financial toll of extreme weather disasters, the ways that subsidies for junk food ingredients are quietly undermining our health, the growing need for investment in state parks, states’ progress in speeding up the installation of solar power, and much more. From all of us, best wishes for a happy and healthy 2026. |
| Frontier Group staff Tony Dutzik and Elizabeth Ridlington, Associate Directors and Senior Policy Analysts James Horrox and Quentin Good, Policy Analysts Nilou Yaar and Kylie Hanson, Policy Associates |
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| Frontier Group is part of The Public Interest Network, which operates and supports organizations committed to a shared vision of a better world and a strategic approach to social change. |
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