Green Options » Energy Policy

Australian Parliament OKs 20% by 2020 Renewable Energy Target

Timothy B. Hurst — Thu, 20 Aug 2009 01:17:03 +0000

Compromise plan has some Greens opposing passage

The Australian government’s ruling coalition has come to terms on an agreement that would quadruple the renewable energy target set by the previous government in 2001 and is in line with the renewables target set by the European Union in 2008. The coal-centric Australia currently gets eight percent of its electricity from renewables, including hydroelectric power.

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Feds Pump $2.3 Billion into Clean Energy Manufacturing

Timothy B. Hurst — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 22:49:50 +0000

New 30% tax credit for advanced energy manufacturing industries

The Department of Energy on Thursday released the details of a new $2.3 billion manufacturing tax credit, enacted earlier this year as part of the Recovery and Reinvestment Act. The tax credit of 30% is for investment in new renewable energy manufacturing facilities and re-equipped or expanded facilities.

The idea behind the stimulus is to grow the domestic manufacturing industry for clean energy, stimulating economic growth, creating jobs, reducing greenhouse gas emissions and building a long-term strategy for addressing them.

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Are Environmentalists Killing the Environment?

Joe Walsh — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 12:09:05 +0000

How badly do we want to make progress on climate change? According to today’s Boston Globe, the answer for some in New England is: not badly enough.

Beth Daley writes about the “hard look” that proposed biomass facilities - and biomass technology itself - are getting from area environmentalists and regulators. Add that to the “hard look” many regulators, environmental groups and local NIMBY opponents are giving wind (especially commercial-scale) and transmission lines (needed to interconnect any new renewable capacity) and you are left with: business as usual. Now that is a goal Americans, our politicians and business interests can all get behind - just look at health care reform.

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Texas Taking Lead in Race for US’ First Offshore Wind Farm?

Timothy B. Hurst — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 11:54:10 +0000

Texas start-up Baryonyx awarded two offshore wind energy leases

Which state’s waters will be the home of the United States’ first offshore wind farm? Will it be Massachusetts, where an eight-year battle for a wind farm near Cape Cod seems like it may never end? How about a little further south, in Rhode Island or New Jersey? Will it be Delaware, where Bluewater Wind hopes to develop a project that would provide almost 1/3 of the energy needed by Delmarva Power? What about other Mid-Atlantic states like North Carolina or Virginia, where the Department of Interior says sites with easily-developed shallow water wind resources dot the coastline?

Well, if you answered none of the above, you may be on to something.

Texas General Land Office last week awarded leases to Baryonyx, authorizing the company to develop wind farms on three sites, two of which are offshore, with a total potential capacity of 3,000 megawatts.

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Californians Still Not Ready for New Offshore Oil

Timothy B. Hurst — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 03:38:20 +0000

California State assembly rejects offshore oil, budget still passes

Shortly after winning approval from the California State Senate, a controversial deal that would have allowed the first new offshore oil leases in California state waters in forty years, was rejected by the California State Assembly by a vote of 43-30.

The deal would have revived a lease that had been rejected by the State Lands Commission earlier this year and allow a single oil company, Plains Exploration and Production Company, to bypass the existing public environmental review process and gain access to oil reserves off of the Santa Barbara coast — the site of a massive spill in 1969 that poured 80,000 barrels of crude into the Pacific and onto Southern California beaches, effectively halting the issuing of any new offshore leases in state waters.

Despite improvements in offshore drilling technology, small spills are still fairly routine. In 2007, the oil industry spilled 2,256 barrels of oil, fuels and chemicals, into the oceans off America’s coasts. Even though natural oil seepage rates are much higher, an estimated 1,700 barrels per day off the coast of North America, Californians are still leery of another Santa Barbara.

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Three Ways Obama Wins Republicans on Climate Change

Joe Walsh — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 00:49:54 +0000

Energy didn’t get a sniff in last night’s Obama press conference. That wasn’t really a surprise given the way that health care has elbowed its way into the political spotlight. You can count climate change among the “priorities” now in the shadows. Health care is all touch-and-feel…it plays with everyone.

Climate change? Not so much. If Jon Stewart is snoozing, we know that the rest of America - a goodly percentage of which is far across the spectrum from Stewart and outwardly hostile to climate change arguments - is tuned all the way out. That is partly because climate change, energy and the environment still are considered Birkenstock and granola issues. The Obama operatives that are still engaged on climate change have finally started to tweak the message in a way that might help sell a bill even to science skeptics and the generally apathetic.

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North Carolina Weighs Ban on Mountaintop Wind Turbines

Timothy B. Hurst — Tue, 21 Jul 2009 12:05:30 +0000

Looking at a map of installed wind energy capacity in the U.S., one can easily see that the Southeast does not generate much wind power. Generally speaking this is because states like Mississippi, Alabama and Louisiana have a poor wind resource. But in other places, like North Carolina for example, there’s a little more to the story.

In addition to a sub-par resource, political opposition based largely on aesthetics have prevented wind power from taking off in the western part of the state — where the only viable onshore resource exists. And if a bill currently being considered by the state legislature effectively banning large turbines wins approval, wind power won’t be taking off any time soon in the Tarheel State.

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California Budget Deal May Mean New Offshore Oil Drilling

Timothy B. Hurst — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 22:49:57 +0000

Proposed deal would allow first new offshore oil leases in 40 years

The same state budget crisis that could shutter 220 of California’s state parks and beaches, may also open the door for the first new offshore oil leases in state waters in forty years. That is, if a proposal floated in the closed-door state budget negotiations on Thursday wins approval from Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger.

If approved, the deal would pave the way for the first offshore oil leases in California state waters since the 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill and the California Sanctuary Act. In so doing, it would effectively bypass the current regulatory process for formalizing the leases.

“It would be a complete corruption of the safeguards that Californians have demanded in order to protect the coastlines from oil development,” said State Assemblymember Pedro Nava, via telephone on Thursday afternoon.

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Environmental Groups Sue Over Transmission Corridors

Timothy B. Hurst — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 00:53:40 +0000

A coalition of environmental groups have sued the federal government over the creation of transmission corridors that will perpetuate the use of coal-fired power throughout the West.

The lawsuit (pdf) against the Interior, Agriculture and Energy departments filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California charges that the agencies “created a sprawling, hopscotch network of 6,000 miles of rights-of-way” without:

considering environmental impacts;
analyzing alternatives;
weighing federal policies that support renewable energy;
ensuring the corridors’ consistency with federal and local land-use plans, and;
consulting other federal agencies or Western states and local governments.
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Reprieve for Ethanol? EPA Extends Comment Period on Biofuels

Timothy B. Hurst — Sun, 05 Jul 2009 18:44:13 +0000

Ethanol and biodiesel industry groups reacted quite differently to EPA’s decision to extend public comment period on the Renewable Fuel Standard.

The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday said it was extending the comment period on a draft rule that aims to cut the greenhouse gases emitted by biofuels. The proposed changes to the U.S. Renewable Fuel Standard, known as RFS-2, are an attempt to make the production of corn-based ethanol more efficient and increase the output of advanced biofuels.

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Feds Hope To Have 13 New Solar Power Plants On Public Lands By 2010

Timothy B. Hurst — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 21:26:37 +0000

Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Senator Harry Reid announce plans to fast-track commercial-scale solar power development on public lands.

In a plan announced on Tuesday, federal agencies will work with western leaders to designate tracts of U.S. public lands in the West as prime zones for utility-scale solar energy development; fund environmental studies; open new solar energy permitting offices, and; speed reviews of industry proposals.

Under the zoning portion of the initiative, 24 tracts of Bureau of Land Management land located in six western states, known as Solar Energy Study Areas, would be evaluated for their environmental and resource suitability for commercial-scale solar energy production. Those areas selected would be available for projects capable of producing 10 or more megawatts of electricity. The Solar Energy Study Areas (maps) located in Nevada, Arizona, California, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah encompass about 670,000 acres.

Speaking alongside Senator Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Secretary Salazar vowed to have 13 “commercial-scale” solar projects under construction by the end of 2010. He set a goal of producing a total of 100,000 megawatts of solar electricity.

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The Inspired Economist: Pick of the Week

Reenita Malhotra — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 18:38:59 +0000

This column highlights the top economic stories of the week.

General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt is on a mission to improve U.S. exports. That’s because General Electric doesn’t just sell light bulbs and refrigerators to the American public. The company is a global giant in energy, transportation and financial services. More on this story here.

With a full House vote expected this week on the American Clean Energy and Security Act (or Waxman-Markey), all eyes turn to the nation’s energy policy. President Obama is committed to an energy plan that will generate millions of new jobs, break our dependence on foreign oil, reduce the threat of dangerous carbon pollution and restore America’s role as a global leader in the clean energy industry. More on this story here.

Online business and social networks, in contrast to the old kind, are open to all and easy to join. A year ago it took LinkedIn over a month to win 1m new members; it now takes about 15 days and the site has 42m members around the world. More on this story here.

It appears that companies are realizing that zero emission electric vehicles should not just be for the “rich”. In May, Nissan announced that it would begin electric cars in the U.S. to be available in 2010. This week, they announced they would mass produce a zero-emissions electric car by 2012 that would be affordable. However, during a Nissan shareholder’s call Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn refused to speculate on the sticker price. More on this story here.

At one point, it seems as though virtually everyone has sat in front of washing machine and watched the soaked clothes tumble through the suds. That tradition may be a thing of the past if a new “virtually waterless” laundry machine finds its way to the mainstream. More on this story here.

The Economist tells us that the number of people with net assets of at least $1m (excluding their homes) fell by 14.9% in 2008, according to an annual report from Capgemini and Merrill Lynch. The total wealth of these 8.6m “high net-worth individuals” stood at $32.8 trillion. Over half of the super-rich live in America, Japan and Germany, but China passed Britain to take fourth place for the first time.

Oil Industry Seeks to Engage Public on Energy Policy

Timothy B. Hurst — Sun, 10 May 2009 18:23:13 +0000

One of the overarching messages coming from the oil industry these days is that they have generally done a bad job of engaging, educating and communicating with the public.

The oil and gas industry made the case this past week at the Offshore Technology Conference in Houston* that if they could just educate and engage the public about oil development through honest and transparent communication, the public—and by extension, the Congress—would buy into it.

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Clouds Can’t Hold Back Portland’s Solar Expansion

Matter Network — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 20:35:14 +0000

By John Gartner. Reprinted with permission from Matter Network

Portland – On an unusually warm and sunny April Sunday, Portland Mayor Sam Adams accepted a Solar America Cities Award from the Department of Energy and pledged to greatly expand the amount of solar power in the city. Portland was one of 25 cities to have earned the Solar City award in 2007-8 which included a matching grant of $200,000 to be used for outreach to consumers about the viability of solar in the often cloudy Northwest, and to work with private companies to produce and sell solar panels. Though the 2009 award, which was handed out at the National League of Cities Green Cities Conference does not guarantee another DOE grant, city officials are hopeful that a similar amount will be made available after the department’s budget is finalized in the next few months.

Mayor Adams, who took office in January, set a goal for the city of expanding the installed solar in the city from the current 2 megawatts to 5 megawatts by 2012, and hopes that the actual number will be around 10 megawatts. Adams said that after factoring in federal and state incentives in Oregon, solar is “getting dangerously to being at a commensurate price for grid power.”

The city is developing co-marketing opportunities with contractors, roofing companies and building inspectors to communicate to consumers that installing a new roof “is an ideal time for installing solar.” The city will also include marketing materials about solar to consumers in communications from the city-operated water and sewer utilities.

The mayor said he the U.S. lack of a national energy policy for energy independence “is an embarrassment,” and he would lobby congress to establish one. Regardless of any national change in policy for energy or capping carbon emissions, Adams said Portland will meet its goals. The long term goal “is to wean Portland entirely off of [coal power plants],” according to Adams.

Despite its reputation for rainy weather, Portland receives about an average amount of sunlight annually. The consistently clear days throughout the summer and early fall make up for the long winters with overcast skies. Portland will communicate to residents that despite the weather, installing solar is a viable option.

Since the inaugural DOE grant, Portland has streamlined the permitting process for solar so that applications can be approved in a single day, and the fee for residential solar was reduced to $100, according to Lee Rahr, Portland’s Solar Program Coordinator. For commercial solar installations, the cost of the inverters and solar panels have been removed from the cost of equipment which is used to calculate the permitting fee, which can lower business fees by up to 80 percent She added that Portland recently issued a 1.5 megawatt request for proposal to add solar to eight public facilities.

Portland residents will soon be able to see who in their neighborhood has installed solar. Partly funded by the DOE grant, the city has hired consultancy C2HM Hill to develop a solar map that shows every commercial and residential solar installation in the city.

Steph Stoppenhagen, the program manager for the solar map, said it will be modeled on the map that was created for San Francisco and will be available on June 9. The interactive map will provide residents with their estimated cost savings from installing solar using data that includes their roof size and annual projected sunlight.

Hannah Muller of the DOE’s Solar Energy Technologies program says the Solar America Cities program is a change in approach for her agency because it focuses on market transformation, not just research and development. As part of the award, city officials get access to DOE engineers to help troubleshoot on solar projects.

The grant programs, which must be matched by local government funds, are used to get universities, utilities and city planners involved in the expansion of solar. Muller says the success of the program has prompted other groups within DOE to ask for expansion of their programs to include market transformation.

Image Credit: Payton Chung via Flickr under Creative Commons License

Feds Agree on Offshore Renewable Energy Development Plan

Timothy B. Hurst — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 17:28:58 +0000

Less than a week after the Interior Department published the findings of a report claiming that 25% of the nation’s electricity could be supplied by offshore wind farms, the Department also reached an agreement with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) over how the two agencies would handle the permitting and licensing of all types of renewable energy development on the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) of the United States.

On Thursday, Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar and Federal Energy Regulatory Commission Chairman Jon Wellinghoff signed a memorandum of understanding (pdf) that establishes a streamlined process by which Interior’s Minerals Management Service and the FERC will lease, license and regulate all renewable energy development activities on the OCS.

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Youth Climate Movement Set to Take Capitol by Storm

Timothy B. Hurst — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 00:16:15 +0000

Power Shift 09 pushes policymakers for action on global warming

This weekend more than ten thousand young people from all 50 states and nearly every congressional district will descend upon the nation’s capitol for four days of peace, love, and music workshops, panels, lobbying, skills training, and a bit of music. That’s right, this isn’t exactly your parents’ environmental movement.

The four-day Power Shift 09 event will culminate on March 2, with what event organizers are calling the single largest lobby day for action on climate change and energy, and an address by Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi.

This morning I had the opportunity to speak with Jessy Tolkan, one of the key organizers behind the event, to talk about the historic weekend in Washington, DC. The articulate and energetic Tolkan was quick to point out that the youth climate movement is not just about cutting carbon emissions, but that it is also about creating social and economic justice, growing the economy, and giving voice to a cross-section of young people from diverse backgrounds.

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23 Governors Push Renewable Electricity Standard

Timothy B. Hurst — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 23:28:17 +0000

Bipartisan Group Highlights Wind Energy, Need for Federal Action

In Washington, D.C. today, governors from the 23 states that make up the Governors’ Wind Energy Coalition released a report outlining the benefits of wind energy for their states and the country. At the crux of the governors’ policy recommendations is a national renewable electricity standard.

The report shows that a national renewable electricity standard would be an important step toward solving global warming and revitalizing our economy. To date, 28 states and the District of Columbia have passed renewable electricity standards, with California requiring 33 percent.

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Canadian Enviro Minister: Carbon Capture ‘Feasible Presently’

Timothy B. Hurst — Sat, 21 Feb 2009 11:00:09 +0000

Did Canadian Environment Minister Jim Prentice speak too presumptively on Friday when he said the capture and sequestration of carbon dioxide is already proven and being applied on a commercial basis?

Speaking in the context of the recently agreed upon U.S.-Canada dialogue on clean energy and the upcoming Copenhagen round of climate talks, The Canadian Press reports that Environment Minister JIm Prentice said that carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) is a critical component of the energy equation that is currently being applied commercially “in enhanced oil recovery kinds of operations” and will be in the future.

Prentice was referring to the Weyburn oilfied project owned and operated by EnCana which receives CO2 transported via pipeline from a lignite-fired coal-to-liquid fuel plant in North Dakota and injects it into underground reservoirs, thereby making the oil fields “more productive.”

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San Francisco Plugs In with Electric Vehicle Recharging Stations

Timothy B. Hurst — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 18:01:55 +0000

[Editors Note: This is a guest post by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom on the city's important first step toward creating the electric vehicle infrastructure of the future. Read the rest at gas2.0 -TH]

Imagine cars with no tailpipes and no direct carbon emissions into our atmosphere — powered by an electrical energy system getting cleaner by the year through Renewable Portfolio Standards in effect in California and across the nation.

More than a decade ago, I was one of the original owners of the EV1, an electric vehicle produced by General Motors (GM). When GM discontinued the series and reclaimed all of the EV1s, it was a major setback for the American car industry. Instead of leading the charge to create a new generation of vehicles - America fell behind.

Last year we woke up. Four dollar a gallon gas was the catalyst. The price has gone down since the spike, but I think most Americans understand we need to reduce our dependence on foreign oil and one of the keys is more fuel-efficient vehicles.

Today, San Francisco took an important first step toward creating the electric vehicle infrastructure of the future. This morning I unveiled the installation of electric vehicle charging stations in front of San Francisco City Hall. These stations - called Smartlets - are on loan to the city from Coulomb Technologies.

>>Read the rest of Mayor Newsom’s post at gas2.0

Image: Tim Hurst

Other tenets of the Power Shift platform include:

Reduce global warming pollution by 25%-40% below 1990 levels by 2020; and 80%-95% below 1990 levels by 2050;
Set an aggressive cap on carbon immediately. If a cap-and-auction mechanism is chosen, 100% of pollution allowances must be auctioned;
Invest in a Green Economy and develop a “Clean Energy Corps” to create service, training, and job opportunities in the clean energy economy;
Move toward a future where 100% of our electricity comes from wind, solar, geothermal and other clean energies, and investing in sustainable transit and energy efficiency; and
Work with other nations to reach a strong new global climate treaty in Copenhagen and assist vulnerable communities in the transition to low-carbon economies in a changing climate.

In addition to the leadership training and lobbying efforts over the course of the weekend, Power Shift 09 will also feature addresses from some heavy hitters in politics and the environmental movement including, EPA Chief Administrator Lisa Jackson, President Obama’s ‘climate czar’ Carol Bronner, green jobs advocate Van Jones, Rep. Ed Markey (D-MA), Denver Mayor John Hickenlooper, and environmental justice advocate Majora Carter, to name a few.

Oh, and for those preferring the more obstructionist political tactics of yore, there will also be some good old fashion civil disobedience across town at the coal-fired Capitol Power Plant, where thousands of people are expected to show support for action on energy and climate change at an event called Capitol Climate Action, organized by Bill McKibben, Wendell Berry and others.

When I asked Ms. Tolkan about the other event, she gave a supportive but measured response, telling me that she was “thrilled to see people standing up and using a variety of tactics.”

Stay tuned to Green Options for more coverage of Power Shift 09 as the weekend progresses.

Image: Tim Hurst

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25% Renewable Energy Standard Introduced into Senate

Timothy B. Hurst — Tue, 17 Feb 2009 19:12:59 +0000

Two freshmen U.S. senators—who also happen to be cousins—have introduced a bill that would create a national renewable energy standard (RES) of twenty-five percent by 2020.

The bill would initiate a federal minimum standard mandating retail energy suppliers to diversify their portfolios with the first requirement of six percent for 2012, and consistently increase thereafter until meeting the 2025 goal. The proposal dovetails with that of President Obama who has proposed a goal of doubling renewable energy within the next three years.

Twenty-eight states already have renewable generation standards with various timelines and targets and this legislation would not preempt states that have stronger standards.

On paper, the proposed RES would appear to surpass the EU enewables requirement of twenty percent by 2020. But municipal and other publicly-owned power plants and rural electric co-ops would be exempted from the requirements.
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