electric utilities
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Today in ‘you should pay more attention to utilities’ news
This woman is paying attention. Are you?For decades, electric utilities in the U.S. have mostly been barriers to progress on clean air and clean energy. This mainly has to do with the perverse way they are regulated, which ties their profits to deploying huge amounts of capital to build huge power plants burning cheap fuel […]
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Community uses ‘choice aggregation’ to fight its utility
Utilities need to cooperate with their communities.Photo: Powerhouse MuseumThis post originally appeared on Energy Self-Reliant States, a resource of the Institute for Local Self-Reliance’s New Rules Project. Taking over the local utility has traditionally been the only route for communities wishing to chart their own energy future. California, Ohio, and two other states have opened […]
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If you like solar, tell your utility to publish this map
Distributed energy generation (like solar) brings unique and valuable benefits to the electric grid. But capturing those benefits means solar and other renewable energy developers must find the best places to plug in to the grid, e.g. where demand is high or infrastructure is stressed. The cost to connect distributed generation may also be lower […]
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What's the real potential for behavior-change programs?
We haven't yet seen even a fraction of the potential for electric utility programs designed to influence customers to use less energy.
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New report confirms, again, that new EPA regulations won't hurt power system reliability
There's been a lot of hubbub lately about new and emerging EPA regulations. Lots of folks in pollution-intensive industries would like you to believe that those regulations will crush the economy, leave grandma shivering in the dark, and smack that ice cream cone right out of little Jimmy's hands. A while back I wrote about a report that examined the issue closely and concluded that the power industry can comply with the new regulations without adversely affecting system reliability. Now another analysis has been released, examining the same set of issues and coming to the roughly same conclusion.
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Huge wave of coal plant closures coming, new reports find
New and emerging EPA regulations are going to force a huge wave of coal-plant retirements, two new reports show.
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How can clean electrons compete with dirty electrons?
One of the most fundamental challenges facing clean power is that, to put it simply, electrons are electrons. Power from a solar power plant, once it enters the transmission system, is indistinguishable from coal, nuclear, or natural gas power. To the end consumer, it's all just electricity -- or rather, it's all just lights coming on and dishwashers running. Given that, how can consumers be sold on clean electricity?
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How the Wall Street Journal twisted the facts on transmission
The Wall Street Journal recently published an editorial, "The Great Transmission Heist," that took a swing at renewable energy. That's not surprising. What is surprising is that the piece wholly abandoned not only the facts, but fundamental market principles related to the energy sector.
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Industry wraps coal ash regulation fight in the mantle of civil rights
Some opponents of stronger coal ash regulation are trying to make their case in the language of civil rights. But their argument doesn't fly.