Whatever the cause, weather patterns appear unusual and getting more so.
The first 6 months of 2012 were the hottest first 6 months in a calendar year in Continental US, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reported in early July. The widespread drought affecting major portions of the US appear to be worse in 6 decades and are likely to affect food prices. Keep reading →
U.S. Senate Majority Leader U.S. Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) (2nd L) speaks as (L-R) U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer (D-NY), Senate Majority Whip U.S. Sen. Richard Durbin (D-IL), and U.S. Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) listen during a news conference July 26, 2012 on Capitol Hill in Washington, DC.
Senator Harry Reid earlier this week gave the wind industry hope of a revival of a critical subsidy before the end of the year. Keep reading →
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 →
It’s not the whole answer but it’s an important step in the right direction.
That’s the take of America’s nascent offshore wind industry on the U.S. Senate Finance Committee’s recent approval of a plan to extend an investment tax credit on offshore wind installations by one year until the end of 2013. Keep reading →
Funny thing about Americans. We’ve got strong opinions about what’s wrong with energy, especially when gasoline prices rise, but our passion tends to exceed our understanding.
Polling indicates we hold strong sentiments about energy independence and renewables. Yet key details elude us.
More than half of Americans cannot name one type of renewable energy and nearly 40 percent can’t identify a fossil fuel, according to New York-based research organization Public Agenda. Many wrongly think the US gets most of its oil from the Middle East, and few realize that it will be years before green energy makes up a large portion of our resource mix. Keep reading →
Hear a bugle blowing? For the beleaguered renewables industry, the cavalry may be riding to the rescue.
The US Army is inviting suppliers who can build, own and operate solar, wind, geothermal or biomass generation to qualify for a pool of contractors who will perform an anticipated $7 billion worth of work for military installations. Keep reading →
In this economy many cities are looking for ways to make their facilities more energy efficient, and more of them are leveraging Energy Performance Contracting (EPC) to make substantial energy efficiency improvements without any upfront capital.
Since the late 1970s, EPCs have become an increasingly effective way to avoid the cost barrier typically associated with significant building upgrades and retrofits. An EPC permits public entities, such as schools, hospitals, universities and governmental agencies, to fund energy conservation measures based on the amount of utility savings they provide. Under these programs, a qualified energy services company audits a customer’s energy usage, identifies potential savings and guarantees those savings through a long-term agreement. This is a great way for public entities to maximize existing operational budgets for needed upgrades that are guaranteed to reduce energy costs in the long run. Keep reading →
Sanctions against Iran, uprisings in oil producing nations – headlines often focus on what’s happening with global oil supply.
But they tend to overlook refining, the link between crude oil and consumers that is critical to assessing the strategic effects of those events. Keep reading →
As night follows day and Frank follows Dodd, inter-agency turf battles are the inevitable by-product of any legislation that breaks or makes new ground…and lets face it, nothing in recent memory has created more ill-defined regulatory territory than the Dodd-Frank Act’s broad-brush, leave-details-to-the-regulators, rewrite of finance-related rules.
One group still clamoring for regulators to get on with carving up a bit of regulatory turf thrown into limbo by Dodd-Frank are the regional transmission organizations (“RTOs”) and Independent System Operators (“ISOs”) that (i) serve up the nation’s electric power and (ii) manage the markets, products and transactions (“Transactions”) that grease that power’s flow in a market-based economy. Keep reading →
The United Arab Emirates is one of the world’s richest countries, blessed with extraordinary access to the kind of fossil fuels that the globe depends on. The rush to develop the oceans of oil and gas this smallish desert country sits on has transformed it from an isolated sultanate to a major player in an increasingly integrated world on the hunt for greater and more reliable access to energy.
The challenges of sudden wealth and success are not to be dismissed, and UAE officialdom is working to find ways to leverage its comparatively recent role as one of the planet’s economic leaders into longer-term leadership. The country has sought to invest more and more abroad, with many of its investments focused on the energy sector, a natural focus for a country where the wealth flows from the world’s hunger for energy commodities. Keep reading →
