The second episode of the Climate Week NYC Daily Show is out now, focussed on some of the key themes of the day at The Hub Live on 22 September 2026. This episode of the Climate Week NYC Daily Show had the US running through its veins.
On this episode of the show, produced with Newsweek and Hi-Impact, is Attorney General of California, Rob Bonta, author and environmentalist, Bill McKibben, President of Commercial HVAC Americas at Trane Technologies, Holly Paeper, and Helen Clarkson OBE, CEO, Climate Group.
California is once again taking the Trump administration to court on what it says is the illegal use of taxpayers’ money to shut down offshore wind energy projects.
Attorney General of California, Rob Bonta, launched his 93rd case in 87 weeks against the Trump administration at the heart of Climate week NYC, at the same moment president Trump spoke at the UN General Assembly just a few blocks away. Newsweek spoke to AG Rob Bonta exclusively on the Climate Week NYC Daily Show, produced with Hi-Impact.
“We're suing the Trump administration for breaking the law and trying to unlawfully buy out an offshore wind project lease, and end that project, which was planned to be completed in California”, Mr Bonta declared.
“And then they require the company called Invenergy - a California offshore wind leaseholder - to take the money and invest it in a fossil fuel project elsewhere. So, it's not just unlawfully undermining a clean energy project, but it is requiring that a new fossil fuel project be brought online.”
According to the AG’s office, which launched the case with the California Energy Commission (CEC), said the Trump administration used a settlement to pressure the company to pull out of the Morro Bay Wind Energy Area off the Central California coast.
Bonta: “But no lawsuit was brought, so it's a sham settlement. And then they're using $111 million of federal tax dollars to pay this company to not deliver its offshore wind project, and that violates the separation of powers. We want companies to know we’ll stand by them, and we’ll protect them.”
This episode of the Climate Week NYC Daily Show had the situation in the US running through its veins. Bill McKibben, author and environmentalist, joined the show, adding, we face the “biggest rescue operation in human history, and we have to do what we can while we have some time.”
While focussing on worsening climate impacts and the new realities of a warming world, McKibben also turned his attention to the current American administration: “You can't find any significant number of Americans who think it's a good idea to shut down nearly built wind farms, or put federal land off limits to solar panels.”
He predicts a return to some of the high-profile “in-the-streets action” of previous years, as an antidote to the current political situation and worsening climate impacts. Hope, urged McKibben, lies in solar, wind and batteries, which are no longer niche climate solutions but the cheapest and most scalable energy technologies. “More and more, we're coming to understand that issues of climate and energy and issues of affordability are the same."
And of course, AI and the datacenter-issue was brought to the fore. Holly Paeper, President of Commercial HVAC Americas at Trane Technologies, recognises the anxiety around data centers and the capacity and the stress on natural resources on infrastructure. “But I think we're not talking enough about how AI can be used for good to solve these very problems. Think about the power of using technology to eliminate waste, for example.”
She continued: “Commercial buildings use about 30% of the energy on any grid, and about a third of that is wasted. So, making sure that as data centers are designed and operated as efficiently as possible. Using the technology to optimize buildings and do things that humans alone can't do, changes the game in terms of the availability and the ability of energy.”