energy policy
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How to get paid to save the electrical grid
On the hottest days of the year, it's not uncommon for regional electricity systems to become so overloaded by demand that they come within a hair’s breadth of failing completely. (It happens in Texas all the time.)
Fortunately, utilities have come up with a cheap and easy way to overcome this problem: they offer their customers a cash incentive to sign up for a special kind of thermostat over which the utility has limited control. Then, when it gets nasty out, the utility can literally save the grid by turning up the temperature in your home just a teeny tiny bit. This is what's known as "demand response."
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Taste of things to come: Texas drought to shut down power plants
Hey, you know what's wild about Texas turning into a gigantic desert thanks to climate change? I mean besides the fact that this makes it basically Kuwait-on-the-Rio-Grande? Many of the state's power plants, which rely on fresh water to produce electricity, could be shut down by the lack of water.
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One thing the fall of Tripoli won't get us is cheap gas
It would be natural to imagine that the fall of Tripoli would mean a significant decrease in the cost of oil and the pain that the average consumer feels at the pump. After all, in February, when unrest in Libya commenced, oil prices hit a two-year high. Libya is only the 15th biggest oil exporter in the world, but the oil it exports is of a particularly desirable type.
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Infographic: What it would take to meet Obama's 2035 clean energy goals?
Obama wants 80 percent of America's energy to come from clean and renewable sources by 2035. But what would that really take? Mostly, it means replacing 2/3 of our coal-fired power plants with power sources that don't depend on fossil fuels. The scale of that ambition is difficult to comprehend — which is why it's […]
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Solar could be as cheap as coal by end of decade
A report from the Chinese government asserts that solar power will be as cheap as coal by 2015. Industry watchers have already predicted that the cost of solar will drop by half by 2020, putting it at parity with coal-fired power. And solar is already competitive on sunny days when utilities pay a premium for "peak" power.
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Beyond budget cuts: top five policy priorities for clean energy
Even with cuts looming, there are feasible policy steps we could take toward clean energy.
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Debt and (carbon) taxes: Obama's last chance for climate redemption
Just into Obama's hypothetical second term, when the Bush tax cuts are poised to expire, could be the best time to enact a carbon tax.
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Smart ALEC: How corporations screw you over behind closed doors
The American Legislative Exchange Council gives corporations a chance to help ghostwrite legislation that benefits them.
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NYC Mayor Bloomberg gives $50 million to fight coal
Michael Bloomberg has always wielded his power as mayor of New York to fight climate change, but now he's putting his personal fortune where his mouth is.