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Biggest clean tech fund ever will double energy spending to $20B
President Obama and the leaders of China, India, Saudi Arabia and more than a dozen other nations will pledge a $20 billion doubling of clean energy spending while deep-pocket investors put up billions of their own in assistance. The deal among 19 countries and 28 corporate heavyweights, first reported by E&E, is spearheaded by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates. It will be announced as 140 world leaders and thousands of diplomats, celebrities and activists from around the world convene in this heavily guarded airfield on the outskirts of Paris to launch landmark U.N. climate change negotiations toward a new global accord. [ read more … ]
Congress Returns to Looming Deadlines on Budget, Highways
The $95 billion package would extend more than 50 tax credits, exemptions and deductions through 2016. Support for these so-called tax extenders is bipartisan. Among the biggest breaks for businesses are a tax credit for research and development; an exemption that allows financial companies such as banks and investment firms to shield foreign profits from being taxed by the U.S.; and several provisions that allow businesses to write off capital investments more quickly. There is also a generous tax credit for using wind farms and other renewable energy sources to produce electricity. [ read more … ]
Presidential Contenders Differ Sharply on Climate, Energy
Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders calls climate change the greatest threat to national security. Front-runner Hillary Rodham Clinton promises to install more than 500 million solar panels across the country. On the Republican side, Jeb Bush would phase out tax credits for solar power. Rival Marco Rubio wants to cut the federal gas tax by 80 percent. [ read more … ]
Gov. Cuomo May Order 50% Renewable Energy In NY By 2030
Governor Andrew Cuomo is reportedly planning to order state regulators to mandate that 50% of all electricity in New York come from renewable sources. Two nuclear power plants will probably be shut down at some point, so the electricity they generate will need to be placed, and it only seems sensible to replace it with clean, renewable electricity, given the cost of new nuclear power. (One of the nuclear plants has also been losing about $60 million a year.) [ read more … ]
Massive waves, howling winds test turbines in ‘mini ocean’
The University of Maine is opening a first-of-its-kind “miniature ocean” today that can demonstrate how everything from floating wind turbines to coastal cities may react to “some of the worst storms possible anywhere on Earth.” The impetus for the $13.8 million project — which involves a massive wave pool tied to a rotating wind machine — is to accelerate the development of renewable ocean energy technologies like offshore wind and tidal devices, said Habib Dagher, director of the university’s Advanced Structures & Composites Center in Orono, Maine, which will operate the new Harold Alfond W² Ocean Engineering Lab. It also can prepare local communities for more intense storms associated with climate change by simulating future conditions, he said. [ read more … ]
Note: News clips provided do not necessarily reflect the views of coalition or its member governors.