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Iowa Governor Touts Friendship With Chinese President as Asset
Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., and former running mate to Hillary Clinton, told Branstad he supports his confirmation and encouraged him to share Iowa’s renewable energy story with the Chinese. Kaine said the Iowa example shows it is possible to grow a clean energy economy while not hurting the economy. “You’ve had a pretty amazing track record,” Kaine said. “What you have done over the years is important to family farms. You can go there with a story. I think you can be an ambassador to the clean energy economy of tomorrow.”
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U.S. wind industry has biggest first-quarter installs in eight years
The U.S. wind industry installed 2,000 megawatts of capacity in the first quarter, nearly four times the amount installed in the same period last year, as developers race to capture a lucrative federal tax credit that is gradually being phased out. It was the industry’s biggest first quarter since 2009, the American Wind Energy Association said in its first-quarter market report released on Tuesday. [ read more … ]
EPA, Clean Energy Spared Trump’s Ax in $1.1 Trillion Budget Deals
Environmental programs marked for death or deep cuts by President Donald Trump got a reprieve in the government funding deal revealed early Monday by congressional leaders — at least for now. The Environmental Protection Agency, targeted for $247 million in cuts for this year’s funding, instead escaped with a budget trimmed by $81 million — or 1 percent — and no staff reductions. Research divisions within the Department of Energy received increases despite calls by Trump to slash or eliminate them. For example, its advanced research program, which would have been cut in half under Trump’s 2017 spending plan, instead will get a $15 million increase in funding this year. [ read more … ]
Omnibus winners and losers
The legislation offers some good news for environmentalists, energy research and bipartisanship, but it also sends a warning to the Trump administration and reflects continuing Republican antipathy toward the Paris climate deal. Here are some winners and losers: [ read more … ]
Friction rises between state energy goals and power markets
“We need to be thinking about that world where the grid is powered primarily by renewables,” said Peter Fuller, vice president of market and regulatory affairs for NRG Energy Inc., a utility. “We need to be thinking about that as a different world from the fossil fuel input, heat rate world that we’ve dealt with for the last century or so. We need to think about what new products are necessary, how does that work in a market construct.” [ read more … ]
Dems blast DOE study as biased toward coal, nuclear
A group of Senate Democrats slammed the Department of Energy’s (DOE) ongoing electric grid reliability study as biased toward power sources such as coal and nuclear. The Democrats, who all sit on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said the study Energy Secretary Rick Perry ordered last month appears from the outset to be designed to boost coal and nuclear energy at the expense of renewable sources like wind and solar energy. [ read more … ]
Indiana governor signs bill aimed at dimming solar incentive
The benefit currently available to those who install solar panels will be sharply curtailed in the coming years, under a bill backed by Indiana’s powerful utility companies that was signed into law by Gov. Eric Holcomb on Tuesday. Driven by the plunging costs for sun-generated power, investor-owned utilities across the U.S. are looking to carve out a share of the market. But critics contend the new Indiana law is part of a broader nationwide push to muscle out smaller companies. [ read more … ]
Wind group fights back on Oklahoma incentives with ad campaign
The battle of the airwaves over Oklahoma wind is heating up, with American Wind Action releasing ads on Monday countering an earlier ad campaign by the anti-incentive Windfall Coalition. The group plans to run ads on TV, radio and digital outlets for the rest of the month across the state. Calling it a “six-figure” ad buy, American Wind Action is targeting Harold Hamm, founder of Continental Resources Inc. and one of the backers of the Windfall Coalition. The ad also criticizes former Oklahoma Gov. Frank Keating, who appears in one of the ads for the Windfall Coalition. Another ad features former University of Oklahoma football coach Barry Switzer. [ read more … ]
Note: News clips provided do not necessarily reflect the views of coalition or its member governors.