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5 new governors to watch on climate
Climate change prominently featured in a number of gubernatorial elections this fall. Here’s a list of newly elected governors who stand to make a mark on America’s greenhouse gas emissions in the coming year. [ read more … ]
World’s Biggest Ultra-High Voltage Line Powers Up Across China
State Grid Corp. of China has started up the world’s longest and most-powerful ultra-high voltage power line from its far northwest to the heavily populated east. The 1,100-kilovolt direct-current Changji-to-Guquan project stretches 3,293 kilometers (2,046 miles), the nation’s biggest electricity distributor said in a statement Wednesday. That’s roughly the distance between Los Angeles and Cleveland. The 40.7 billion yuan ($5.9 billion) project, which the company referred to as the “Power Silk Road,” was approved in December 2015 and construction started the next month. [ read more … ]
Policy & Politics
After a landmark year, 5 things to watch for offshore wind in 2019
Among the specs that developers have to provide, as part of the competition, is how cheaply they’ll be able to generate power. Last summer, energy authorities in Massachusetts said the Vineyard Wind project under development off Martha’s Vineyard would generate power for an average of 6.5 cents per kilowatt-hour. That was about a cent and a half cheaper than if utilities had simply bought renewable energy in the market at wholesale prices — shockingly low, for most analysts. As the tax credit phases out, they say, it will be harder to deliver those kinds of pleasant surprises. [ read more … ]
3rd Firm Confirms Bid on New Jersey Wind Energy Project
A third firm has confirmed that it’s interested in building a wind energy project off the New Jersey coast. Norway-based Equinor says it submitted a bid Friday to the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities to build an offshore wind project.
[ read more … ]
Democrat Lujan Grisham takes oath as pro-climate governor
Governor Lujan Grisham said she wants New Mexico to provide a “national example of what a clean energy revolution looks like,” endorsing a goal for the state to produce 50 percent of its electricity from renewable sources such as solar panels and wind turbines by 2030. The state’s renewable energy quota now is set at 20 percent starting in 2020. [ read more … ]
Governor Brown leaves lasting green mark
California Gov. Jerry Brown (D) leaves office Jan. 7, 2019, after a record four terms as the state’s chief executive. After serving from 1975 to 1983, he was re-elected by voters in 2010. Here’s a look at his record: [ read more … ]
Canada’s carbon tax takes effect in industrial heartland
Under Trudeau’s backstop, certain major industries in five provinces saw emissions tracked beginning yesterday and subject to a yet-to-be-finalized tax; sectors such as cement and steel face easier targets than others. A wide-ranging tax on nearly all fuels is set to take effect in April in four provinces. The price on carbon will be 20 Canadian dollars ($15) per metric ton — about 4.4 Canadian cents per liter of gas, or 12 U.S. cents per gallon — rising to CA$50 per ton by 2022. [ read more … ]
Op-Ed: Forget the Carbon Tax for Now
The basic political problem is that the climate movement still does not have the strength of numbers to overcome entrenched opposition and put in the kind of stiff-and-rising taxes we would need to do the job. The oil companies may claim they want carbon pricing, but a subset of them spent more than $30 million in Washington State to kill the tax proposal there, twice as much money as the proponents were able to raise in support of their intelligent, carefully designed plan. [ read more … ]
Note: News clips provided do not necessarily reflect the views of coalition or its member governors.