Energy Exchange

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 »

Posted in California, Clean Energy, Climate, Demand Response, Energy Efficiency, Renewable Energy / Comments are closed

Study Reveals Vast Unrecorded Oil and Gas Industry Methane Emissions

By Mark Brownstein / Published: August 18, 2015

G&PimagesUPDATEDA new study published today reveals that facilities that collect and gather natural gas from well sites across the United States emit about one hundred billion cubic feet of natural gas a year, roughly eight times the previous estimates by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency for the segment. The wasted gas identified in the study is worth about $300 million, and packs the same 20-year climate impact as 37 coal-fired power plants.

Until now, emissions from thousands of gathering facilities – which consolidate gas from multiple wells in an area and feed it into processing plants or pipelines – have been largely uncounted in federal statistics, yet they may be the largest methane source in the oil and gas supply chain. Indeed, the newly identified emissions from gathering facilities would increase total emissions from the natural gas supply chain in EPA’s current Greenhouse Gas Inventory by approximately 25 percent if added to the tally.

The study was conducted by scientists at Colorado State University and published today in Environmental Science & Technology.

EPA doesn’t track emissions from gathering facilities separately from production activities, and there have been no estimates and almost no research on them until now. One reason prior emissions estimates are so uncertain is because the number of facilities was completely unknown. Without conducting a full census, the CSU researchers were able to put the figure at between 3,846 and 5,470 facilities – a wide range, but far better than the guesswork than existed previously. Read More »

Posted in Methane, Natural Gas / Comments are closed

Desperately Seeking Monopoly Protection

By Dick Munson / Published: August 17, 2015

11513503393_78e4c159c3_zThey say crises don’t test your character, they reveal it. I believe they do the same thing to your vision of the future. Times are tough for Ohio’s FirstEnergy, and CEO Chuck Jones is signaling where he wants the utility to be in the future: the past.

First, we need to look back to last year, when Jones pushed the Ohio legislature to halt state efficiency and renewable energy standards that helped reduce electricity demand and saved Ohio customers millions of dollars.

This year, Jones’ vision quest is a $3 billion bailout – to be paid for by his customers – that would guarantee the purchase of power generated by FirstEnergy’s older and costlier power plants. In a recent op-ed, Jones argued that the deal would secure Ohioan’s energy independence. Read More »

Posted in Clean Energy, Energy Efficiency, FirstEnergy, Ohio, Renewable Energy, Utility Business Models / Read 5 Responses

An Early Look at the Clean Power Plan in Six Charts

By Tomas Carbonell / Published: August 11, 2015

(This post was written by EDF’s Nicholas Bianco and Tomás Carbonell)

Click to enlarge. Source: EDF white paper

On August 3rd, 2015, President Obama announced the Clean Power Plan – a historic set of Clean Air Act standards that will finally put an end to the era of unlimited carbon pollution from America’s fossil fuel-fired power plants.

Fossil fuel-fired power plants are the nation’s single largest source of climate-destabilizing pollution, accounting for nearly 40 percent of our emissions of carbon dioxide. Unlike other major air pollutants from the power sector that have been subject to protective standards under the Clean Air Act, carbon pollution from power plants has been subject to no national limits –until now. Read More »

Posted in Clean Energy, Clean Power Plan, General / Comments are closed

3 Ways the Clean Power Plan Will Strengthen Our Economy

By Jim Marston / Published: August 6, 2015

cleanenergymarket_378x235_0On Monday, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced the Clean Power Plan, the first initiative of its kind to curb carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions from existing U.S. power plants. By improving air quality, the plan promises to prevent 90,000 childhood asthma attacks and avoid up to 3,600 premature deaths each year – without compromising economic growth. In fact, the Clean Power Plan is an incredible economic opportunity that states can’t afford to miss.

By limiting power plants’ “free pass” to pollute, EPA projects their Plan will deliver billions of dollars in environmental and public health benefits each year – and that’s just the start. Here are three ways in which the Clean Power Plan will work to strengthen states’ economies and accelerate many of the clean energy trends already underway: Read More »

Posted in Clean Power Plan, General, Grid Modernization, Renewable Energy / Read 2 Responses

The Clean Power Plan: A Ticket to the Top

By Fred Krupp / Published: August 5, 2015
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Paxson Woelber

With the Environmental Protection Agency’s now final, the era of unlimited carbon pollution from America’s power plants is finally coming to an end.

With the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan now final, the era of unlimited carbon pollution from America’s power plants is finally coming to an end.

That’s excellent news, because climate change has put us in the race of our lives – and the countries that move the fastest toward clean energy will be the most competitive, create the most jobs and have the healthiest air. It’s a race to the top, and the Clean Power Plan gives the United States a better chance of winning.

Below are excerpts from an op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal where I lay out the opportunities this groundbreaking initiative will bring to our nation.
Read More »

Posted in Clean Energy, Clean Power Plan, Climate, Energy Efficiency, General, Renewable Energy / Comments are closed