View this email in a web browser.
Anatomy of a ‘bloodbath’
The Bonneville Power Administration is more than $15 billion in debt. It burned through $900 million of cash reserves in a decade. And it faces decreasing demand for its hydropower in the age of renewable energy. But BPA Administrator Elliot Mainzer says reports of the hydropower giant’s death are greatly exaggerated. “My reaction is not one of panic,” he told E&E News. “It’s one of significant urgency.” [ read more … ]
The oil industry vs. the electric car
The oil industry is trying to crush the booming electric car movement. Groups backed by industry giants like Exxon Mobil and the Koch empire are waging a state-by-state, multimillion-dollar battle to squelch utilities’ plans to build charging stations across the country. Environmentalists call the fight a reprise of the “Who Killed the Electric Car?” battles that doomed an earlier generation of battery-driven vehicles in the 1990s.
[ read more … ]
Policy & Politics
What’s Behind the World’s Biggest Climate Victory? Capitalism
The chief executive of the world’s largest private coal company sat before a group of U.S. lawmakers who wanted to know whether the fuel had a future. He didn’t hesitate. “Coal,” he said, “is the future.” It was 2010. Coal supplied nearly half of America’s power, the executive testified, and was growing more than 1.5 times faster than oil, natural gas, nuclear and renewables combined. Global demand was on pace to rise 53% within two decades. And renewable energy? Not an option. “Wind and solar comprise just 1% of today’s U.S. energy mix,” Gregory Boyce, then the chief executive of Peabody Energy Corp., told the members of Congress. “It is unrealistic to suggest that renewables could replace conventional baseload fuels.” [ read more … ]
Trump’s tariffs drag down U.S. solar industry — developer
President Trump’s trade barriers are driving up prices for U.S. solar power and holding back development, according to Kevin Smith, Lightsource BP’s chief executive officer for the Americas. The San Francisco-based solar developer is paying as much as 60% more for the solar panels it’s using in the U.S., compared with costs for projects in other parts of the world, Smith said. The prices at which it can deliver electricity to utilities “could be lower without those tariff prices,” he said Friday in a phone interview. [ read more … ]
Minn. labor unions divided over Green New Deal
Two national leaders of the Service Employees International Union recently came to St. Paul, Minn., to talk about the union’s latest initiative to fight climate change: the Green New Deal. Earlier this summer, the SEIU executive board passed a resolution endorsing the sweeping measure proposed by Democrats in Congress, and the union has since worked to educate its 2 million members about the effort to slow global warming. [ read more … ]
Governor plans to veto Trump ‘insurance’ bill
“I fully support the principles behind Senate Bill 1: to defeat efforts by the President and Congress to undermine vital federal protections that protect clean air, clean water and endangered species,” Newsom said in a statement. “Senate Bill 1 does not, however, provide the state with any new authority to push back against the Trump Administration’s environmental policies and it limits the state’s ability to rely upon the best available science to protect our environment.” [ read more … ]
NY Siting board approves 242-MW wind farm
A wind farm with up to 68 turbines in Steuben County has been approved by New York’s Electric Generation Siting Board. The 242-megawatt Baron Winds project will be built in the towns of Cohocton, Dansville, Fremont and Wayland. It will connect with the state’s electrical grid through New York State Electric and Gas transmission lines. [ read more … ]
Note: News clips provided do not necessarily reflect the views of coalition or its member governors.