utilities
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Why the much-ballyhooed utility decoupling is inadequate
I meant last week to note the extremely promising fact that Dems are talking about using the stimulus to funnel substantial money to states for energy efficiency projects — and tying that money to utility decoupling. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), in comments to the Northwest Energy Coalition earlier this month, said this is how it […]
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Unplugging
Holy moly. Looks like National Buy Nothing Day came early this year, and for the first time, also included electricity: An unexpected drop in U.S. electricity consumption has utility companies worried that the trend isn’t a byproduct of the economic downturn, and could reflect a permanent shift in consumption that will require sweeping change in […]
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You know your regulatory incentives are perverse when …
… a drop in electricity demand signals an enormous crisis for the industry responsible for powering America. I do not want a publicly supported monopoly industry whose health depends on rising greenhouse-gas emissions. Pretty sure we should be aiming the other way.
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Like the interstate system, a new electrical grid would revolutionize power transmission
Cross posted at the NDN blog. —– Should the federal government build or incent others to build a new electron superhighway? In other words, a backbone for a 21st century electrical grid? At NDN’s recent event on clean infrastructure, Rep. Jay Inslee (D-Wash.) asked precisely that question, and it’s one more and more energy leaders […]
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Educate David on California’s Prop H
One thing I wish I’d gotten to dig into further before the election is Proposition H in California. (Our own Sara Barz covered it briefly in this post.) The renewable mandates aren’t what interest me — it’s more the question of making PG&E a public utility. I’m told by a friend in San Fran that […]
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Oversight chair warns Bush administration against attempting to weaken the Clean Air Act
House Oversight Committee Chair Henry Waxman (D-Calif.) issued a warning [PDF] on Tuesday to EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson, apparently trying to head off at the pass any further attempts to weaken the Clean Air Act. There’s talk of yet another new rule soon to come from the Bush administration that would undermine the new-source review […]
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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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Nestle flexes its muscles at Miami water utility
For months, the bottled-water industry has been losing its grip over people’s pocketbooks. Consumers are realizing that buying purified tap water at pumped-up prices, packaged in little plastic bottles, makes zero sense in economic, ecological, or health terms. Now the industry appears to be losing its grip on reality. From the Miami Herald: In the […]
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Utilities moving in on distributed generation solar markets
There’s a new phenomenon afoot. Across the U.S., utilities are getting involved in distributed generation solar markets like never before. In March, Southern California Edison submitted an application to the California Public Utilities Commission to install 250 to 500 MW of solar photovoltaics, in projects of 1 to 3 MW, on leased rooftops distributed throughout […]