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Top Story
Virginia’s first offshore wind turbines promise jobs and clean power. They won’t come cheap
The boat had just lost sight of land when two delicate shapes appeared on the horizon, like needles sprouting from the sea. As the boat got closer, they seemed to grow — and grow — until they towered above passing container ships. Two wind turbines now rise higher than the Washington Monument off the coast of Virginia Beach, $300 million down payments on what state officials wager will be a new industry and a source of clean energy for the future. [ read more … ]
Court Tolls FERC’s Bell
En banc D.C. Circuit bars FERC from using tolling orders to delay judicial review
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit unanimously upheld FERC’s 2017 approval of the Williams Partners’ Transco Atlantic Sunrise pipeline project. However, in a 10-1 split, the court overturned 50 years of precedent that allowed the commission to extend its deadline to act on administrative appeals well beyond the 30-day limit specified in the Natural Gas Act. [ read more … ]
D.C. Rejects Routine FERC Practice of Tolling Rehearing, Forcing Drastic Changes in FERC Practice
In a scathing opinion issued last year, Judge Patricia Millett labeled the result “Kafkaesque” because pipeline sponsors can proceed with condemnations once FERC approves a project, but property owners are “jurisdictionally locked . . . out of federal court” and therefore cannot challenge the validity of the order authorizing those condemnations. Judge Millet’s opinion prompted the DC Circuit to take the highly unusual step of reviewing FERC’s rehearing practices en banc before all eleven of the Court’s active judges. [ read more … ]
Solar Energy
The Pandemic Made Me Love My Solar Panels
During the coronavirus lockdown, the light at the end of the tunnel for my family was reflected from the rooftop of our old Austrian farmhouse. For those six long weeks, a record run of clear, cool, and sun-soaked days helped us cope with the litany of dark news that upended global markets at the height of Covid-19. Working alongside our solar panels showed how an investment in renewable energy might yet make our home economics stronger on the other side of the pandemic. [ read more … ]
Pandemic
Drastic Covid-19 Slowdown May Hinder Any Green Recovery
The coronavirus cut global carbon emissions more than any other event in the last century. But the pandemic-induced slowdown may ultimately hamper efforts to curb climate change.
“If we end up in a deep recession, that will cut emissions in the short term. But in the long term, the increase in emissions from less clean energy investment could easily outweigh those short-term reductions,” said Kenneth Gillingham, associate professor of economics at Yale and lead author of a new study on possible climate outcomes from the virus. [ read more … ]
EVs
The Clean Car Revolution Is Breaking Old Industrial Towns
Nissan’s decision to shut down its three plants in the scrubby hills outside Barcelona is part of a broader reorganization with alliance partners Renault SA and Mitsubishi Motors Corp., which involves cutting global production by 20%. The move is linked to the broader strains facing the sector as the era of the combustion engine gradually draws to a close. “The transformation of the auto industry is unstoppable, it’s a new industrial revolution, and the only alternative is to adapt or die,” said Tomas Diaz, a Nissan worker and an official with the Comissions Obreres union in the Catalonia region. “Today is Nissan, but tomorrow it can be any other plant.” [ read more … ]
Note: News clips provided do not necessarily reflect the views of coalition or its member governors.