Energy Exchange

New Poll: U.S. Latino Communities Overwhelmingly Support Clean Air Protections

By Lucía Oliva Hennelly / Published: August 28, 2015

latinopollPoliticians and political observers are increasing the amount of time spent trying to figure out how to engage with Latino voters – a large and growing part of the American electorate. Issues such as immigration reform usually dominate the discussion nationally, but a new poll from the national polling firm Latino Decisions shows that clean water and healthy air are also of utmost importance for Latinos.

According to their poll 85% of those surveyed found reducing smog and air pollution to be extremely or very important, compared to 80 percent for comprehensive immigration reform.

This comes as no surprise to those of us that are rooted in this community where issues of the health of our communities and families are often top-of-mind around the dinner table.  In reality, it also comes as no surprise to decision makers who have listened to our communities, and know Latinos have rich ties to the outdoors, but are too often the first and worst impacted by pollution. Read More »

Also posted in Air Quality, Clean Energy, Clean Power Plan, Climate, Colorado, Methane, Natural Gas / Tagged , , , , , , , , , | Comments are closed

‘Eastside Sol’ gets L.A. Community Dancing to Solar Power

By Jorge Madrid / Published: August 26, 2015

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Walking around my neighborhood in Boyle Heights, on the eastside of Los Angeles, I see murals and street art conveying pride in the community and the cultural roots of its residents. I see street vendors and informal entrepreneurs trying to capture the America dream, smell delicious food, and hear infectious Latin music that will make you want to move with the rhythm. What I don’t see are solar panels, plentiful shade under trees and green space, electric vehicles, and other icons of the growing clean energy economy. Instead, I smell vehicle exhaust and feel the heat trapped in my neighborhood and many like it on the eastside, where communities are bisected by freeways, surrounded by toxic facilities, and bound by a jungle of concrete.

But it doesn’t have to be like this. Recently a coalition of labor, environmental justice, and community organizations teamed up with Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) to put together Eastside Sol, the first 100 percent solar powered art and music festival on the eastside of Los Angeles. The goal of the event was to create a vision of what the community might look like with abundant solar power, more trees and greenspace, and a fair share of the growing clean energy economy. Read More »

Also posted in Clean Energy, Energy Equity / Tagged | Read 2 Responses

Four Powerhouse Bills to Help California get to 50 Percent Renewable Energy

By Lauren Navarro / Published: August 18, 2015

2000px-Seal_of_California.svg_California is deep into the dog days of summer, and pressure is mounting on the state’s electric grid to keep up with demand. Luckily, California’s legislature is working to bring more clean energy resources to the grid, diversifying how we power our homes and businesses while also improving the resiliency, efficiency, and carbon footprint of our energy system.

State lawmakers are directly addressing our dependence on polluting fossil fuels used to produce electricity. They are doing this by increasing California’s reliance on renewable energy, establishing energy efficiency resource standards, and providing certainty that California will meet its renewable energy and climate goals. The state’s current Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS) has already achieved tremendous success in growing the market for renewables while bringing down associated costs. Building on this success, California’s legislature is currently undertaking four bills that will keep the state on a path to a reliable, affordable, and clean energy future – for the health of its citizens and economy.

The following bills are all advancing through the legislature and Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) hopes they will become law this year. If they do, they will put some serious voltage behind California’s transition to a cleaner electric grid. Read More »

Also posted in Clean Energy, Climate, Demand Response, Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy / Comments are closed

Lights will Stay on with New Power Plant Pollution Rules. Find out Why.

By Cheryl Roberto / Published: August 5, 2015

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The Clean Power Plan is designed with reliability in mind, a fact detractors tend to ignore. The specter of grid failure is a frightening image, one that critics of the new power plant pollution standards have fixated on, but it’s just that: a specter, an illusion not grounded in reality.

The fact is that regional and state-level regulators have repeatedly demonstrated they are up to the task of planning for future power needs without any threat to grid reliability. And if, for some reason, it proves an especially daunting task this time, the final plan includes special provisions that further address grid reliability issues: Read More »

Also posted in Clean Energy, Clean Power Plan, Climate / Comments are closed

Timing is Everything: How California is Getting Electricity Pricing Right and Bringing Clean Power to the People

By Jamie Fine / Published: July 20, 2015

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Anybody managing a household budget knows it pays to plan ahead. With advanced thinking we can buy favorite items with coupons, when they’re on sale, in bulk, or at the cheapest store in the area. Similarly, we know that buying under duress, or in the touristy spot, will likely mean higher prices. Using the same smart shopper skills, new changes to the way utilities charge for electricity are going to give Californians another way to save money on energy bills.

In the current system, most California households’ electricity prices don’t change throughout the day. There is no option for lower prices when system demands are lower and electricity is cheap in wholesale markets. But that’s about to change, thanks to a recent 5-0 decision by the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC).

Starting January 1, 2019, after a period of study, public outreach, and education, California’s large investor-owned utilities (Pacific Gas and Electric, San Diego Gas and Electric, Southern California Edison) will switch households to time-of-use (TOU) electricity pricing. Read More »

Also posted in Electricity Pricing, Time of Use / Read 4 Responses

Orange is the New Black, 40 is the New 30…and Energy Storage Could be the New California Power Plant

By Larissa Koehler / Published: June 26, 2015

Moss_Landing_Power_Plant_p1270026If you follow pop culture, you’ve likely heard that Orange is the New Black, and 40 is the new 30. A perhaps lesser known – but equally important – new comparison that is turning heads in California is that energy storage might just be the new power plant.

This probably warrants a bit of explanation. On a power grid without storage, solar energy is generated during the day when the sun is shining its brightest, providing clean, renewable energy to homes and businesses – thus lessening the hold on the grid of dirty power plants. But what happens when this energy source goes offline? As people come home after work and turn on TVs, run dishwashers, and fire up other hungry appliances (also referred to as “peak” energy hours), the grid must rely on fossil fuel-powered electricity to ramp up production quickly.

However, when energy storage is added into this mix, a shift occurs. If there is enough renewable energy stockpiled during the sun’s most productive hours, between 11 AM and 3 PM, then the use of fossil fuels at peak times can be reduced.  In this way, new fossil fuel power plants that might be necessary to meet increased population and demand can be avoided.  And voila: energy storage is the new power plant. Read More »

Also posted in Clean Energy, State / Tagged | Comments are closed