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Pennsylvania High Court to Hear Arguments on Local Control of Gas Drilling

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Ongoing conflict between Pennsylvania’s booming natural gas industry and its opponents will reach a new focus on October 17 when the state’s Supreme Court will hear oral arguments over whether state law can pre-empt local regulations over gas development.

At issue is a section of Act 13, a wide-ranging new law that restricts the ability of municipalities to control the location of gas drilling within their bounds, as well as imposing impact fees and a host of other conditions on the industry drilling in the gas-rich Marcellus and Utica Shales beneath Pennsylvania. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 4, 2012 at 8:30 AM

Coda Seeks to Mark a Change in Energy Use

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It might seem like a strange idea to launch a car company these days, especially in the challenged electric vehicle sector. But viewed from the perspective of evolving energy technology and shifting generation and energy use priorities, electric cars are in many ways just one facet of energy storage at a scale accessible to most consumers.

Coda, a California company that views itself as an advanced technology firm leveraging the lithium phosphate battery, is also an electric car company. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 24, 2012 at 11:30 AM

State-level Policies Impact Renewable Energy Most

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With just six weeks remaining in the current election cycle, GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s opposition to the extension of wind energy tax credits and his ho-hum approach to renewable energy in his official energy policy are of understandable concern to advocates of blossoming renewable energy sources, including solar and wind.

Despite the solar industry’s significant interest in the outcome in the Presidential and Congressional elections, it is races deciding control of state legislatures that are arguably more important. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 19, 2012 at 11:30 AM

Are You Part of the 95 Percent When it Comes to Energy?

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California-based distributed generation technology leader gen110 celebrated the opening of its new office in the town of Petaluma in an unusual way. They went to the streets to find out how little people knew about the business of paying for electricity.

Americans have long enjoyed low-cost, reliable electricity supply, but there are signs that era may be coming to an end as long-delayed upgrades and new strains on the system combine to undermine reliability and boost consumer prices. Jason Brown, gen110’s CEO, is convinced that California is at a tipping point for distributed generation. Keep reading →

 /  Published September 18, 2012 at 3:00 PM

More Gas-fired Power May Hike Winter Blackout Risk

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A deep Arctic freeze socks in the Northeast, and every home’s furnace is working overtime. The surge of natural gas use for furnaces means power plants can’t get enough fuel. Power fails, and furnaces can’t start. Gas pipeline compressors lose power, and natural gas flow stops.

What then? Keep reading →

 /  Published September 5, 2012 at 8:30 AM

Sunrise Above Ipanema: A Clean Energy Infographic

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New data published as part of the Energy Transparency effort has underlined the importance of Brazil as an emerging giant in both setting energy consumer trends and in leading with broader use of renewable energy in its own borders as well as across the region. Click above or below to expand this jointly-developed infographic featuring some of the most compelling information from the recent data roll outs, and look out for more infographics to share from Breaking Energy in the coming weeks as we focus on Europe, the US and Asia. Keep reading →

 /  Published August 31, 2012 at 3:00 PM

Natural Gas Vehicles: 22 States Stand Behind a Growing Market

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American car companies are moving ahead with a plan to produce natural gas powered cars and trucks for public fleets in state-sponsored efforts to create a wider public market for the vehicles.

Representatives of the Big Three carmakers, and Honda, as well as auto dealers and companies that convert conventional engines to run on compressed natural gas, met with leaders of a consortium of states in Oklahoma City this month to discuss a request for proposal that has been issued by the states to the car makers. Keep reading →

 /  Published August 16, 2012 at 2:00 PM

Can Demand Response Programs Help Meet the Renewable Energy Integration Challenge?

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California’s Renewables Portfolio Standard (RPS) requires that, by 2020, all utilities in the state use renewables to generate at least 33 percent of the electricity provided to retail customers. Reaching this RPS target will also play a key role in determining whether or not California will meet its ambitious greenhouse gas emission reduction targets. Many other states are in similar situations: Currently California is one of 29 states (plus the District of Columbia and two U.S. territories) (1) that have RPS targets, and another eight States and two more U.S. territories (2) have adopted renewables portfolio goals (see Figure 1).

Achieving these goals will require a number of states to rely much more heavily on electricity generated by intermittent wind and solar resources. In California, wind and solar generation are expected to provide virtually all of the additional renewable energy needed to achieve the state’s RPS target (see Figure 2). Keep reading →

 /  Published August 9, 2012 at 11:00 AM

What About The Subsidy? Solar Trends Higher in California

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California solar installations are trending massively upward, despite historically low levels of state incentive.

With more than 120,000 commercial and residential solar energy systems now online, California leads the nation’s clean energy economy. As a result of this growth more than $10 billion in private-sector investment has flowed into California’s clean energy sector, and employed more than 25,000. Millions of California’s residents enjoy the benefits of low-priced solar energy delivered by systems installed on homes, businesses, schools and public facilities. Keep reading →

 /  Published July 31, 2012 at 1:30 PM

Pennsylvania Court Upholds Local Control Over Gas Drilling

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Natural gas producers in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale will have to comply with local zoning codes after a state appellate court struck down a new law that sought to pre-empt municipal ordinances with a statewide land-use standard.

Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court said Thursday that the pre-emption provisions in the controversial Act 13 were unconstitutional because they allow incompatible uses in zoning areas and fail to protect the interests of neighboring property owners. Keep reading →

 /  Published July 30, 2012 at 1:30 PM
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