Michael Marinello

Urban Energy Elections Issues

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In the noisy back-and-forth of the presidential elections, it can be difficult to remember that many other offices are highly contested – positions that in many ways could have a more direct influence on the energy business than high-profile but more general US federal policy or international treaty efforts.

Elected officials need to take down the barriers that make it hard for cities to innovate, C40 Climate Leadership Group Director Michael Marinello said in this video panel discussion with Breaking Energy. Cities have in many cases proven that they can move ahead with technology implementation and market changes at the local level; federal officials who can’t help need to get out of the way, he says here. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 16, 2012 at 10:30 AM

Smart Cities and Energy Video Panel

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US Cities are incredibly diverse in their energy use and their energy politics, but many are trying to use the latest tools to solve similar problems with boosting efficiency and adding new capacity.

TED gave a recent prize to the City 2.0, recognizing that the “smart city” is a vital and important trend not only in the US but across the world. In the energy sector, information technology allows tracking of impacts on the grid, of timing for energy usage or traffic and tracking changes in ways that can allow for more-varied forms of policy and business responses to increasingly pressing problems. Keep reading →

 /  Published October 11, 2012 at 10:30 AM

Cities and Energy Video Panel

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Often implementing programs that create meaningful change don’t involve pure innovation, groundbreaking technology or original approaches. In many cases – in both the private sector and across regulatory spheres – the best implementations rely on learning from leaders and applying established solutions to new environments.

With cities driving the global economy and the world tipping further into being a more thoroughly urbanized place, urban energy leaders in both the private and public sector world are trying less often to “reinvent the wheel” as they are learning from what C40 Climate Leadership Group director Michael Marinello says in this video is a “network effect.” Keep reading →

 /  Published October 9, 2012 at 10:30 AM