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Contentious Ohio Nuke Subsidy Bill Heads to Governor’s Desk
“If this bill passes, the solar and wind footprint in this state will shrivel,” Representative Sedrick Denson, a Democrat, said on the House floor before the vote. The legislation would support FirstEnergy’s Davis-Besse and Perry plants through a fee added to customer bills beginning in 2021. It would be offset by reducing Ohio’s clean-energy goals, requiring utilities to get 8.5% of their power from renewables instead of the 12.5% target now. The measure would also eliminate monthly surcharges to support energy efficiency measures. [ read more … ]
Policy & Politics
Judge rules against oil companies to keep climate liability case in Rhode Island
A federal judge ruled against multiple oil and gas companies Monday, deciding that Rhode Island’s novel climate liability case can be tried in the state. The ruling will allow Rhode Island prosecutors to continue to bring charges against 21 oil and gas producers including Chevron, Shell and BP as the state tries to get the companies to help pay for damages caused by climate change. “This activity has released an immense amount of greenhouse gas into the Earth’s atmosphere, changing its climate and leading to all kinds of displacement, death (extinctions, even), and destruction,” the opinion also read. “What is more, Defendants understood the consequences of their activity decades ago, when transitioning from fossil fuels to renewable sources of energy would have saved a world of trouble.” [ read more … ]
E&C Dems set goals for comprehensive climate bill
Democrats said the goal marks the beginning of a legislative process to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and gave few details about how they would achieve the ambitious target. But they’re expecting at least some input from Republicans as they move through hearings and advocate meetings over the next several months. [ read more … ]
Democratic and Republican climate hawks jostle for attention ahead of recess
Climate hawks in both parties are angling ahead of Congress’ six-week August recess to demonstrate momentum, even if there is little to show. The Democratic leaders of the Energy and Commerce Committee Tuesday afternoon are hosting a press conference to introduce a “bold new plan that will guide the Committee’s approach to tackling the climate crisis.” [ read more … ]
Op-Ed:The next moonshot: Clean energy revolution
Really starting with bipartisan federal commitments to clean energy innovation in 2005, 2007 and again in 2009, the American innovation machine turned itself to perhaps its most grand goal yet. After all, creating renewable energy is recreating the millions of years of natural process that produced fossil fuels, only doing it immediately and without damaging our environment. It’s hard not to wonder at the audacity of this effort, much less how successful we’ve been. Solar would instantly convert the energy of the sun into usable electricity. Wind turbines, modern marvels of engineering, would convert everything from the slightest breeze to the strongest offshore gale to light whole cities. Biofuels would condense to hours and days the process of millions of years of temperature and pressure on ancient plants to produce liquid fuels and products from plants grown by farmers today. [ read more … ]
Texas attorney general takes over Valero emissions lawsuit
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) has filed a lawsuit against Valero Energy Corp.’s refinery in Port Arthur, Texas, for pollution patterns that allegedly violate the Clean Air Act. The suit comes two months after the San Antonio-based company was sent a notice-of-intent-to-sue letter from three environmental groups: the Port Arthur Community Action Network, Environment Texas and the Sierra Club [ read more … ]
GE reveals new parts for the ‘world’s largest offshore wind turbine’
GE Renewable Energy, a subsidiary of General Electric based in Paris, revealed “the first manufactured components” for its gigantic Haliade-X 12 megawatt (MW) offshore wind turbine. The scale of GE Renewable Energy’s Haliade-X 12 MW turbine is also considerable. It will have a capacity of 12 megawatts, a height of 260 meters and a blade length of 107 meters. The turbine will generate 67 gigawatt hours of gross annual energy. The company has repeatedly described it as “the world’s largest offshore wind turbine.” [ read more … ]
‘It’s just economics.’ Wind blows past coal in Texas
To witness the transformation of America’s power sector, go to Texas. Earlier this month, the state’s grid operator reported wind had generated more electricity than coal through the first six months of the year. The announcement is significant on several fronts. Texas is America’s largest consumer of coal. The 93 million tons burned by the Lone Star State’s power plants in 2017 was more than double that of the 39 million tons consumed by Missouri, the second-biggest coal-consuming state, according to figurescollected by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. [ read more … ]
Note: News clips provided do not necessarily reflect the views of coalition or its member governors.