In September 2017, a Court of Appeals of North Carolina decision held that entities installing solar panels on customer rooftops are “public utilities” under state law, at least if they retain ownership of the panels and sell the output to the customer.
After a record-breaking hurricane season and catastrophic wildfires in California, the vulnerabilities of our electric system – and the urgent need to upgrade it – have never been clearer. It took more than 10 days of around-the-clock work to restore electricity to 350,000 customers after fires struck California wine country last month. Returning service to… Keep reading →
UPDATE: Since the March 2016 publication of this original blog post, the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC) last week issued an order officially approving a settlement agreement Environmental Defense Fund, along with several other stakeholders, helped negotiate for Duke Energy’s grid modernization plan. The IURC’s order approved the settlement (details of which are outlined in… Keep reading →
Yolo County and the City of Davis are joining a growing number of communities in California in buying their own electricity with the hope of getting less expensive energy from greener sources.
Help is on the way to reduce harmful pollution in Indiana, which has the seventh highest level of greenhouse gas emissions in the country. Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) joined a settlement filed this week for Duke Energy’s grid modernization plan. The settlement calls for Duke – the largest utility in the country, which serves over 800,000… Keep reading →
A blowout at a natural gas well that gushed uncontrollably for 16 weeks and drove thousands of residents from their Los Angeles homes was plugged on Thursday, a utility said. [The Guardian] Environmentalists are challenging in court a surprise deal in which North Carolina regulators settle decades of suspected groundwater pollution at Duke Energy’s coal… Keep reading →
Google will become the first customer of a Duke Energy program to bring renewable power to energy-hungry companies, the two said Tuesday. [Charlotte Observer] The UK government will provide hundreds of millions of pounds worth of financial support to Petrobras despite it facing corruption investigations in multiple countries. [The Guardian] Alberta’s NDP government is facing… Keep reading →
Bernie Sanders launched a new climate campaign on Wednesday, aimed at fighting global warming by banning new coal, oil and gas mining on public land. [The Guardian] Duke Energy is dropping plans for a 45-mile transmission line that would have run across the Western Carolinas. [The Citizen Times] Shell has announced Tuesday its $70 billion… Keep reading →
The world faces a looming “cold crunch”, with demand for air conditioning and refrigeration growing so fast that it threatens to smash pledges and targets for global warming. [The Guardian] Duke Energy said it would buy natural gas distributor Piedmont Natural Gas, its partner in the $5 billion Atlantic Coast Pipeline, for $4.9 billion. [USA Today] Energy… Keep reading →
The IEA has stated that if commitments at the Paris Climate Summit are met, it would result in rapid slowdown in growth of carbon from the energy sector. [The Guardian] Mexico is planning to quadruple its wind-power capacity as part of President Enrique Pena Nieto’s effort to transform the country’s energy industry. [Bloomberg] A federal… Keep reading →
