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Hurricane Florence crippled electricity and coal — solar and wind were back the next day
Nearly two weeks after Hurricane Florence swamped North and South Carolina, thousands of residents who get power from coal-fired utilities remain without electricity. Yet solar installations, which provide less than 5 percent of North Carolina’s energy, were up and running the day after the storm, according to electricity news outlet GTM. And while half of Duke Energy’s customers were without power at some point the utility’s solar farms sustained no damage. [ read more … ]
Policy & Politics
Groups press California governor hopefuls for climate specifics
Clean energy advocates are pushing California’s gubernatorial candidates to take a stand on outgoing Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown’s ambitious greenhouse gas and renewable goals. Under the hashtag #CleanEconomyGovernor, a half-dozen clean energy trade groups across the state are trying to figure out how Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) and San Diego businessman John Cox (R) would implement the energy and climate goals Brown has set in motion. They include this month’s new targets to achieve 100 percent zero-carbon electricity and economywide “carbon neutrality” by 2 [ read more … ]
Murkowski vows Congress will do more to tackle warming
Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said Congress will do more to reduce U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, even as the Trump administration spurns climate science and rolls back regulations on planet-warming gases. “Our emissions have declined in seven of the past 10 years. We’re now 14 percent lower than in 2005,” Murkowski said this morning at National Clean Energy Week’s annual Policy Makers Symposium. [ read more … ]
Goldman Sees Exxon, Chevron Following Euro Peers Into Renewables
Big U.S. oil companies like Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp., which have lagged their European rivals in venturing into renewable energy, are likely to increasingly make room for cleaner energy in their portfolios, said Goldman Sachs Group Inc. [ read more … ]
Critic resigns from Maine commission over lack of ‘urgency’
A critic of wind turbines is resigning his seat on Republican Gov. Paul LePage’s secretive Maine Wind Energy Advisory Commission, saying he’s served more than four months without any meeting. Chris O’Neil said in a letter that the commission “lacks urgency, credibility and focus. [ read more … ]
Utility regulator moves to tackle electric vehicle issues
Illinois has joined a growing list of states where utility regulators are examining policies and regulations related to electric vehicles and charging infrastructure. The Illinois Commerce Commission opened a notice of inquiry Monday aimed at soliciting information and opinions from utilities, consumer and environmental advocates, and other parties on dozens of issues related to how EVs interact with the grid. [ read more … ]
How much is Big Oil working to pass a carbon tax? We checked
At a low-profile briefing on Capitol Hill in 2016, officials from Statoil, the Norwegian oil and gas company, told members of Congress that the firm would back a carbon tax. Then earlier this year, Shell Oil Co. lobbyists met several times with Republicans and Democrats from both chambers to say the energy giant would support a nationwide price on carbon emissions. [ read more … ]
Note: News clips provided do not necessarily reflect the views of coalition or its member governors.