Energy Exchange

How many state agencies does it take to screw in a CFL bulb?

By Kate Zerrenner / Published: August 5, 2010

How many state agencies does it take to screw in a compact fluorescent light bulb and a low-flow faucet head? In Texas, the answer will make you grimace: six. That’s not a very efficient way to save money or energy.

This week, Environmental Defense Fund joined Public Citizen and the SEED Coalition to call for the Texas Legislature to create a single independent efficiency agency.  Today our groups sent a letter to Speaker of the House Joe Straus and Chairmen of the relevant House and Senate committees calling for this new independent agency. Such an agency could coordinate and streamline programs that are now run – often inefficiently – by multiple agencies and help save Texans money in the process.

The most recent blow to Texas’ energy efficiency progress happened this past Friday, July 30th.  The Public Utility Commission (PUC) proved it cannot effectively manage its energy efficiency programs for Texas citizens’ best interests when it radically scaled back a proposal that would have saved consumers $4 to $12 billion over twenty years.

Energy efficiency would cost around $1 per month on a $100 electric bill and save $3, but the PUC has indicated that even this small amount – that pays for itself – is too much. Texas deserve better than this.

An independent efficiency agency just makes sense.

  • Money-saving, Pro-consumer, pro-business energy efficiency programs languish at the PUC
  • Current programs are spread over six different agencies
  • One agency in charge of coordinating all of Texas’ efficiency programs will reduce agency overlap
  • It can be a “one stop shop” for information on all the rebates and incentives available to homes and create an opportunity to achieve more savings
  • One truck (instead of three) can provide homes with comprehensive electric, water and gas efficiency services

Soon we’ll be following up with the chair of Texas’ Senate Natural Resources Committee Troy Fraser, and the chairs of Texas’ House Energy Resources and State Affairs Committees, Jim Keffer and Burt Solomons to work on the details of our independent efficiency agency proposal.

The Legislature has the ability and the perspective to set a strong and achievable goal for energy efficiency that will save households more money on their bill that will in turn boost consumer spending in other areas of the economy.

Posted in Energy Efficiency, Texas / Read 2 Responses

Las Brisas Strikes Out Yet Again

By Jim Marston / Published: June 9, 2010

Coal

While we continue to wait and see if the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) will grant an air quality permit to the Las Brisas power plant in Corpus Christi, the opposition holds strong.

In a letter to TCEQ dated June 2nd, the state administrative judges who heard the case, Tommy Broyles and Craig Bennett, stated that they “continue to stand by the findings, conclusions and recommendations” contained in their Proposal for Decision. While some issues may remain to be resolved, the argument over whether the proposed Circulating Fluidized Bed (CFB) boilers are subject to a case-by-case maximum achievable control technology (MACT) analysis appears to be a battle EDF has won.  In fact, the valuable evidence presented by EDF was specifically referred to in their letter.

Once again EDF applauds the administrative judges for holding their ground and continues to oppose Las Brisas, as it threatens the health of people in the area and adds enormous quantities of carbon dioxide to the air. Already having several strikes against it, the Las Brisas permit application is clearly flawed and contains obvious deficiencies that violate the Clean Air Act. Read More »

Posted in Climate, Texas / Read 6 Responses

Energy Storage in California Finally Getting Attention it Deserves

By Tim O'Connor / Published: May 11, 2010

Energy storage is gaining important and well-deserved policy attention in Sacramento due to its wide-ranging potential. Last month, Assembly Bill 2514, which focuses on energy storage, overcame a major hurdle when it passed through the rigorous Utilities and Commerce Committee.

AB 2514 is sponsored by California Attorney General Jerry Brown (front running Democratic candidate in this year’s governor’s race) and authored by Nancy Skinner (founder of ICLEI, former director of The Climate Group and one of the Legislature’s top environmental leaders).

Brown and Skinner identified an effective way to advance energy storage technologies in California. The bill calls for increasing the consideration of energy storage by requiring the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) to advance a rulemaking process where storage technology is evaluated based on both the costs and the range of values it can provide. The bill requires the CPUC and utilities to look beyond ability to simply discharge energy and toward a full-scope evaluation that’s not currently performed. Utilities will then be assigned targets for installing storage technology in their service territories over the next decade.

AB 2514 has a way to go to become law, including votes on the Assembly floor and by the State Senate and State fiscal committees. If California is to meet its renewable energy portfolio standards and energy demand and cut greenhouse gas emissions, this bill should get full consideration and support.

Either way, the tide may be turning in the direction of increased energy storage. Consider:

  • The Cal-ISO is performing pilot testing to see how certain storage applications respond to remote signals.
  • The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) through Order 890 is also requiring system operators to allow storage providers to price in the value of the ancillary services when competing for energy market share.
  • Numerous large greenhouse gas emitters are buying storage to reduce energy costs and gain the benefits of storage.

These advances send a strong signal that widespread energy storage is a great idea whose time has finally come. Storage can and should be compared against the entire range of energy solutions. It should then be strategically integrated into a package of solutions designed to meet California’s ambitious clean energy and emissions reductions goals.

Posted in General / Comments are closed

New Carbon Sequestration Critique Disputed by Scientific Community

By Scott Anderson / Published: April 30, 2010

By Tim O’Connor, Attorney / Climate Policy Analyst

A recent issue of the UK Guardian has brought to the forefront the findings of paper published in the Journal of Petroleum Science and Engineering.[1] This paper, purporting to call into question the ability of carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) technology to serve as a solution for greenhouse gas emissions (GHG) is making waves in the scientific and climate change policy communities. Titled “Sequestering carbon dioxide in a closed underground volume,” the article suggests CCS is not a viable solution to the current problem of these emissions from fossil fuel power plants, an assertion flying in the face of accepted wisdom on the subject to date.[2]

Published by perhaps the only Texas-based husband and wife team specializing in petroleum and chemical engineering, Christine Ehlig-Economides and Michael Economides, the journal article has resulted in a significant amount of consternation[3] in the scientific community and an unfortunate level of attention by news outlets looking for a reason (scientifically supportable or otherwise) to undermine CCS as a bridge technology for greenhouse gas mitigation.[4] Read More »

Posted in General / Read 92 Responses

Tenaska Coal Plant to Usher in New Era of Carbon Capture and Storage, Water Conservation

By Jim Marston / Published: April 19, 2010

You’ve heard us say before that we are not champions of coal, but we are realists.

Realists can also be idealists. We still want the same things – cleaner air and water, and clean, sustainable energy – and yet we know that the transition away from fossil fuels as a major energy source will take some time and require interim collaborative solutions.

We seek solutions that will work until the day comes that all energy is clean and non-polluting. So it is, that today we agreed not to oppose the Tenaska power plant in Sweetwater, Texas.  Read More »

Posted in Texas / Read 11 Responses

Barnett Shale gas producers caught with their hands in the cookie jar

By Ramon Alvarez, Ph.D. / Published: April 16, 2010

The Fort Worth Star-Telegram’s Mike Norman wrote an excellent piece that shines a spotlight on industry tactics evident at the meeting of a committee advising the City of Fort Worth on a study to better characterize the emissions from natural gas production in the city. 

I happen to serve on that committee, and here is my take on this week’s events. 

The City of Fort Worth wants to conduct a study to obtain much-needed data on the actual emissions from gas drilling and production taking place in the city. Getting accurate and representative measurements of air emissions from an industry with more than 1,200 actively producing wells in the city (and 500 more already permitted) will be a challenging and costly undertaking. Read More »

Posted in Natural Gas, Texas / Read 13 Responses