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Renewable energy to expand by 50% in next five years – report
Global supplies of renewable electricity are growing faster than expected and could expand by 50% in the next five years, powered by a resurgence in solar energy. The International Energy Agency (IEA) found that solar, wind and hydropower projects are rolling out at their fastest rate in four years. [ read more … ]
Wind Energy
BLM advances final phase of massive Wyo. wind project
The Bureau of Land Management has completed evaluation of the final phase of a massive Wyoming wind energy project that when built will be the largest power-producing wind farm in North America. The environmental assessment (EA) released today analyzes a site-specific plan of development for the final 396 wind turbines that make up Phase II of the Chokecherry and Sierra Madre Wind Energy Project in southeast Wyoming. [ read more … ]
Floating wind turbine in Europe heralds ‘new era’
The first floating wind turbine in continental Europe launched from a Spanish port today bound for a location 12 miles from the Portuguese coastline. Industry proponents say the launch represents another step in proving technology that can successfully unmoor the offshore wind sector. Once operating, the pilot project will be the second floating offshore wind farm in the world, following Equinor ASA’s Hywind Scotland project that launched in 2017. [ read more … ]
Battery Storage
Big batteries are all the rage, but this one’s 16 years old
New York City dove headlong into the race to build bigger and bigger batteries this week, as regulators approved plans for a massive system on the East River in Queens. But for those keeping score, the biggest of all has been quietly at work for almost 16 years in a far more remote corner of America: a warehouse in central Alaska. [ read more … ]
States
Virginia OKs largest state renewable contract in the nation
Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam announced an agreement with Dominion Energy Inc. last week that is the largest-ever procurement of renewable energy to power state government. The partnership with the state’s monopoly utility involves more than 400 megawatts of power, including a 75-MW onshore wind farm and four proposed solar projects of 345 MW. The announcement is part of Northam’s push on a low-carbon agenda, which is occurring amid pushback about Dominion’s fossil fuel projects like the Atlantic Coast pipeline. [ read more … ]
Climate
Exxon’s Climate-Change Accounting Goes on Trial
Exxon Mobil Corp. and New York’s attorney general are headed for a showdown this week over accusations the company deceived investors, a rare trial over how the oil industry accounts for the impact of climate change. The trial, which begins Tuesday in state court in Manhattan, is the culmination of a sprawling investigation into Exxon and its accounting practices that spanned four years and three New York attorneys general. It is expected to include as a witness former Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, who was Exxon’s chief executive from 2006 to 2016. [ read more … ]
Republican climate hawk Rooney to retire
Florida Rep. Francis Rooney, the most outspoken climate change advocate in the House Republican caucus, said he will retire from Congress after just two terms. The former construction executive and ambassador to the Holy See announced his decision Saturday on Fox News, one day after making waves for breaking with his party on the ongoing Democratic-led impeachment inquiry into President Trump, saying he was “shocked” by some of the recent revelations and did not rule out voting to impeach.
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Car Rule
Yanking Calif. waiver would cause emissions spike
Revoking California’s Clean Air Act waiver would let greenhouse gas emissions soar and electric vehicle sales plummet, new research shows. The analysis by the economic consulting firm Rhodium Group examined the climate impact of the Trump administration’s planned rollback of Obama-era clean car standards. The rollback has two main components. It would freeze fuel economy standards at 2020 levels through 2026, allowing cars to travel much shorter distances on one tank of gas, and would revoke California’s Clean Air Act waiver for greenhouse gases, which lets the state set tougher emissions rules than those of the federal government. [ read more … ]
Lawmakers to probe transport emissions, fossil fuel companies
Energy and Commerce will meet to discuss the largest U.S. source of greenhouse gas emissions: the transportation sector. Specifically, the Subcommittee on Environment and Climate Change will look at emissions from heavy-duty transportation, such as trains and airplanes. “The free-flowing transportation of people, goods and services is essential to our modern society and economy,” subcommittee Chairman Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.) and full committee Chairman Frank Pallone (D-N.J.) said in a joint statement. [ read more … ]
Policy & Politics
New Energy Secretary Fits Trend: Cabinet Dominated by Lobbyists
President Trump likes to say that people in his political orbit come straight out of central casting, “tough hombres” from far beyond the Capital Beltway ready to roil the swamp. Increasingly, though, his cabinet is full of lobbyists. On Friday came the latest lobbyist elevation. Out went Energy Secretary Rick Perry, the genial former governor of Texas and onetime Dancing with the Stars contestant. In came his deputy, Dan Brouillette, who spent much of his career as a senior vice president of the United Services Automobile Association, a financial services company, and at the Ford Motor Company. [ read more … ]
Note: News clips provided do not necessarily reflect the views of coalition or its member governors.