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Wind power has more than tripled in 6 years — report
The top 10 wind-energy-producing states are generating enough clean energy to power roughly 11.5 million U.S. homes, according to data released last week by the American Wind Energy Association. The findings, based on an analysis of Energy Department data, provide another snapshot of how and where wind power is growing in the United States. Nationally, wind power now accounts for 4.1 percent of all electricity generated nationwide. It is the fifth-largest electricity source in the country behind natural gas, coal, nuclear and hydropower, according to the Washington, D.C.-based trade group. [ read more … ]
Excerpts from Senate Climate Caucus Floor Debate
Al Franken (Minnesota) observed pointedly that the currently flourishing natural gas mines enabled by hydraulic fracturing were started with government investment and government research and government grants. He said we’re in an analogous position now, and we need to support renewable energy development now just as we originally developed fracking for the petroleum industry. “Big Oil is no longer the main enemy of action on climate change—not even Exxon, which until 2008 was a leading funder of the climate denial movement.” [ read more … ]
Snowden disclosures complicate new FERC security order
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s latest plan to boost utilities’ physical security has one strange hitch: the trove of top-secret documents released last year by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden. FERC’s order Friday for grid overseers to tackle physical threats to the U.S. bulk electric power system seems to share little in common with Snowden’s sweeping revelations about government eavesdropping. But utility executives and current and former White House officials claim Snowden’s leaks have poisoned efforts to streamline information sharing about threats and weaknesses in the North American electric grid — one goal of FERC’s order. [ read more … ]
Congressman says MIT report found problems with major power line project
A federal study found that a proposed multistate transmission line could harm a New Mexico Army training and weapons testing range and should be rerouted, a key lawmaker said today. However, a senator who supports the project claimed the study — which has not been released to the public at the request of the White House Council on Environmental Quality — offers “pragmatic solutions” and encouraged the Obama administration to approve the project. [ read more … ]
White House keeps highly anticipated MIT study on major power line under wraps — for now
The results of a much-anticipated federal study that could determine the fate of a multistate transmission line project deemed a top priority by the Obama administration are being shared this week with congressional staffers in Washington, D.C., but have not been released to the public at the request of the White House Council on Environmental Quality. CEQ asked congressional staff members at a formal briefing yesterday not to release or publicly discuss the results of the study by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Laboratory that evaluated strategies to build the 515-mile-long SunZia Southwest Transmission Line Project without interfering with the mission of a nearby Army weapons testing range, according to sources who attended the briefing. [ read more … ]
Note: News clips provided do not necessarily reflect the views of coalition or its member governors.