electricity
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Not investment advice
According to the DOE (see this excellent powerpoint [PDF] by the DOE Solar America program), U.S. electricity demand will grow by 386 terrawatt hours by 2015. According to the EPA, those new electrons won’t come from coal. And there’s no way nukes could come on-line fast enough, even if they got their way. Where are […]
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Three nuke-dependent communities vote for a nuclear phase-out
Illinois — home state of our new president-elect — is the most nuclear-reliant state in the nation, with 11 operating reactors. The Illinois communities of Oak Park, Berwyn, and Riverside are particularly reliant on nuclear power: it’s 75 percent of their juice, purchased from Commonwealth Edison, a local subsidiary of Exelon, the nation’s largest nuclear […]
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Sierra Club launches new pushback campaign against coal propaganda
More like this please: CoalIsNotTheAnswer.org
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Coal’s position in the energy market is more precarious than is generally acknowledged
As we reported Monday morning, the Bush administration is on the verge of issuing a rule that will make it even easier for mountaintop-removal mining companies to dump toxic crap in the streams of Appalachia. (They do it now, it’s just illegal, albeit never enforced.) You can read Jeff Biggers for more on why this […]
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Republican foot soldiers prepare to push for reduced public participation in dirty energy projects
If you want to know what the far right is up to, you should check in with the Heritage Foundation periodically. A post this week offers a preview of what they’ll be pushing for on the energy front in coming years: rules and laws to fast track energy projects, or to put it another way, […]
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Wind, solar thermal, and geothermal development outpaces expectations
As fossil fuel prices rise, as oil insecurity deepens, and as concerns about climate change cast a shadow over the future of coal, a new energy economy is emerging in the United States. The old energy economy, fueled by oil, coal, and natural gas, is being replaced by one powered by wind, solar, and geothermal […]
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The cheapest sources of new electricity are also the cleanest
This slide comes from a recent powerpoint presentation by FERC Commissioner Jon Wellinghoff — hardly what you’d call a green radical (click for a larger version): Note that the cheapest sources of new delivered electricity are also the cleanest. Happy news, right?
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My worries about PHVs have mostly abated
In my post last fall on Rob Lowe’s plug-in hybrid, I argued that in the absence of a cap on greenhouse gas emissions, switching to plug-in hybrids might actually be worse for the climate than just switching to regular hybrids. I no longer believe that. Electric vehicles are winners for the climate in the Northwest. […]
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CFL study argues against a mandate to switch from incandescents
Choose your metaphor: losing sight of the forest for the details of the leaves in the trees, Pyrrhic victory, you name it. All could be applied to this study here, which looks at countries and states according to how much mercury would drop or rise in their air if they switched from incandescent lighting to […]