Clean Energy

California Considers Combustion-Engine Car Ban

September 28, 2017 Ryan Beene and John Lippert, www.bloomberg.com Create! California, Cars, Clean Energy, New Economy

By Ryan Beene and John Lippert for Bloomberg - The internal combustion engine’s days may be numbered in California, where officials are mulling whether a ban on sales of polluting autos is needed to achieve long-term targets for cleaner air. Governor Jerry Brown has expressed an interest in barring the sale of vehicles powered by internal-combustion engines, Mary Nichols, chairman of the California Air Resources Board, said in an interview Friday at Bloomberg headquarters in New York. The earliest such a ban is at least a decade away, she said. Brown, one of the most outspoken elected official in the U.S. about the need for policies to combat climate change, would be replicating similar moves by China, France and the U.K. “I’ve gotten messages from the governor asking, ‘Why haven’t we done something already?’” Nichols said, referring to China’s planned phase-out of fossil-fuel vehicle sales. “The governor has certainly indicated an interest in why China can do this and not California.” Embracing such a policy would send shockwaves through the global car industry due to the heft of California’s auto market. More than 2 million new passenger vehicles were registered in the state last year, topping France, Italy or Spain. If a ban were implemented, automakers from General Motors Co. to Toyota Motor Corp. would be under new pressure to make electric vehicles the standard for personal transportation in the most populous U.S. state, casting fresh doubts on the future of gasoline- and diesel-powered autos elsewhere.

China Has Already More Than Doubled Its 2020 Solar Power Target

September 5, 2017 Jing Yan and Lauri Myllyvirta, www.ecowatch.com Create! China, Clean Energy, Solar Energy

By Jing Yan and Lauri Myllyvirta for Eco Watch - China has more than doubled its end-of-decade solar power target, with new installations dramatically outstripping expectation, according to the government's energy agency. By the end of July this year, China's solar PV capacity topped 112GW, after installing a stunning 35GW in just seven months—more than twice as much as installed by any other country in all of 2016. As a result, total solar PV capacity now exceeds the government's 2020 goal of 105GW, set as recently as last year. This could have created a very confusing situation for the industry—after years of record-setting installations, there was no target to hit—but the National Energy Administration (NEA) responded by setting new, ambitious annual installation targets. These targets would take capacity to 213GW in 2020—which is five times larger than current capacity of the U.S. That would mean covering an area of land equivalent to greater London—1500km2—with solar panels. Current growth rates suggest China could even surpass that new, higher target.

In Chicago And Iowa, Contrasting Tales Of Building A Clean Energy Economy

August 9, 2017 Yana Kunichoff, www.inthesetimes.com Create! Chicago, Clean Energy, Iowa, New Economy

By Yana Kunichoff for Midwest Energy News - As former industrial communities seek to rebuild their economies around clean energy, two cities in the Midwest provide examples with starkly different outcomes. Chicago’s Southeast Side and Newton, Iowa both used to house thriving industries, keeping residents with a solid toe in the middle class through well-paid and steady factory work. In Chicago it was steel, while Newton boomed under the all-encompassing attentions of the Maytag family and their washing machine factories. Thirty years later, those core industries have left both areas and a handful of different businesses have taken their place. In Newton, the Maytag sites have been reborn to manufacture wind turbine bodies and blades. But in Chicago, the jutting land formerly housing U.S. Steel remains empty. While urban Chicago and rural Iowa are different in obvious ways, experts say there are still common factors that influence how a green economic development transition takes place. Greg Carlock, a climate researcher with the World Resources Institute, says that sustainable development is a wide-ranging and complicated process, but he has seen some essentials emerge.

Ohio’s Anti-Wind Regulation Comes At A Serious Cost

July 29, 2017 Harvey Wasserman, www.progressive.org Create! Clean Energy, Energy, New Economy, Ohio, Wind

By Harvey Wasserman for The Progressive - In the corporate war against renewable energy, a single Ohio regulation stands out. It is a simple clause slipped into the state budget without open discussion, floor debate, or public hearings. The restriction is costing Ohio billions of dollars and thousands of jobs. The regulation demands that wind turbines sited in the Buckeye State be at least 1,125 feet from the blade tip to the nearest property line, about 1300 feet total—nearly a quarter-mile. Ohio’s setback rule is similar to one in Wisconsin, where progress on wind power has atrophied. Lincoln County in South Dakota just passed a requirement that turbines be at least a half-mile from any residence. And Vermont is pondering a rule change to require a setback of ten times the turbine height, which in the case of a 500-foot turbine would be nearly a mile. Such regulations threaten to kill wind power, thus protecting corporate investments in nuclear power and fossil-fuel generators. The situation is Ohio is especially egregious. FirstEnergy, owner of Ohio’s two dying reactors at Perry and Davis-Besse, is now strong-arming the legislature and regulators for $4.5 billion in handoutsto sustain two money-losing nukes whose electricity is far more expensive than what would come from currently approved wind projects, and whose 1,400-odd jobs would be dwarfed by the new turbine construction.

Cheap, Clean Energy Pushes Electricity Prices Below Zero

June 15, 2017 Leslie Kaufman, www.insideclimatenews.org Create! California, Clean Energy

By Leslie Kaufman for Inside Climate News - For a time this spring in California, as the snow melted above hydroelectric dams, the sun shone on solar arrays, and the wind whipped through turbines, the state was confronted with both a blessing and a curse. It arrived as an overwhelming flood of cheap, clean electricity. At times it drove wholesale prices below zero. And it has left grid operators in California, and in other parts of the country, wondering how to cope with the upending of power markets by abundant renewable energy. California has led the pack in adding renewable energy to its grid. How it manages the challenges of energy over-abundance may determine whether other states follow in its clean energy footsteps. Some worry that if California bungles the transition to clean energy, it could undermine the state's own incredibly rapid solar build-out—from 300 megawatts on the grid in 2008 to nearly 15,000 megawatts today—which has put California well ahead of its milestones toward deep decarbonization. The crux of the issue that arose this spring is that in the middle of some days, California produced so much renewable energy it drove wholesale electricity prices below zero...

Coal To Solar Switch Could Save 52,000 US Lives Per Year

June 6, 2017 Brian Bienkowski, www.dailyclimate.org Create! Clean Energy, New Economy, Solar Energy

By Brian Bienkowski for The Daily Climate - Swapping out coal energy for solar would prevent 52,000 premature deaths in the United States every year, according to a new analysis from Michigan Technological University. Amid all the talk from the Trump Administration that regulations targeting coal are hurting people, this shows "many more lives are saved by phasing out coal," said Liz Perera, climate policy director for the Sierra Club, who was not involved in the study. In addition the savings in health care costs added to the value of the solar electricity could in some cases bring in money, offsetting the costs of the switch. “Evolving the U.S. energy system utilizing clean, alternative technology will allow the U.S. to prevent thousands of premature deaths along with becoming a global leader in renewable technology adoption,” the authors wrote in the study published in the journal Renewable and Sustainable Energy Reviews. Michigan Tech University researchers analyzed peer-reviewed health studies and calculated lives lost per kilowatt hour to coal each year—finding approximately 51,999 people die due to coal pollutants that spur respiratory, heart and brain problems. “Coal-fired pollution harms human life. It kills people,” said senior author Joshua Pearce, a researcher and professor at Michigan Tech University's Department of Materials Science and Engineering. “From an American perspective this transition [from coal to solar] makes complete sense.”

Electric Cars Could Save Billions In Healthcare Costs

June 3, 2017 Stephen Edelstein, www.greencarreports.com Create! Clean Energy, health, New Economy, Transportation

By Stephen Edelstein for Green Car Reports. It's entirely obvious that internal-combustion cars pose a threat not only to the environment, but also to human health. Exhaust from gasoline and diesel cars contributes to air pollution that can lead to deleterious health effects after long exposure. Now a new study from the American Lung Association in California aims to quantify the health costs related to those exhaust emissions. It estimates that in 2015, the costs of internal-combustion cars on the health of residents in 10 selected states totaled $24 billion. Researchers analyzed health costs in the 10 "Zero-Emission Vehicle states" that have adopted California's stricter emissions limits. Besides California, these states are Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, and Vermont.

New York Building The Renewable Energy Grid Of The Future

May 28, 2017 Leslie Kaufman, insideclimatenews.org Create! Clean Energy, Solar Energy, Wind

By Leslie Kaufman for Inside Climate News. New York State is making a $5 billion bet that by making its power cleaner, it can become a magnet for the clean energy jobs of the future. Its efforts stand out among the many states racing to integrate more renewables into their power grids—such as Massachusetts, Hawaii and California—not necessarily for the technology but because of what's happening behind the scenes: New York has launched a Herculean effort to turn around an antiquated system that has deterred innovation for generations by rewarding utilities for selling more electricity. The state is so gung-ho that its rules require utilities to come up with demonstration projects that test out a new business model, in partnership with at least one private sector company. The result, say the state's regulators, is that New York is already attracting hundreds of innovative companies of all stripes. The plum opportunities are not only in installing wind turbines and solar panels, which are generating new employment opportunities across the country, they are also in emerging technologies related to smart grid management and storage.

Restoring The Heartland And Rustbelt

May 12, 2017 Steve Ongerth, www.ecology.iww.org Create! Clean Energy, Climate Change, Jobs, Oil and Gas

By Steve Ongerth of the IWW Environmental Unionism Caucus. The world faces a crises of enormous proportions. Global warming, caused by the continued burning of fossil fuels, threatens life on Earth as we know it, and yet, those most responsible for causing the crisis, the fossil fuel wing of the capitalist class, seems hell bent on doubling down on business as usual. One might think, given all of these situations, that…well, to put it mildly…we’re doomed. However, nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, in spite of the bleakness of these circumstances, a deeper look behind them reveals that fossil fuel capitalism is in terminal decline, that their hold over the our lives hangs by a thread, so much that we the people, the workers and peasants of the world, have the ability to transform the human existence to one based not on plundering the Earth and exploiting the masses for the profit of a few, but one based on true grassroots democracy, free of suffering and want, and one that exists in harmony with the Earth.

U.S. Wind Energy Installations Surge: A New Turbine Rises Every 2.4 Hours

May 6, 2017 Phil McKenna, www.insideclimatenews.org Educate! Clean Energy, Wind

By Phil McKenna for Inside Climate News - The significant increase this past quarter, when 908 new utility-scale turbines came online, is largely a result of the first wave of projects under the renewable energy tax credits that were extended by Congress in 2015, as well as some overflow from the prior round of tax credits. The tax credits' gradual phase-out over a period of five years incentivized developers to begin construction in 2016, and those projects are now beginning to come online. A recent AWEA-funded report projects continued steady growth for the wind energy industry through 2020. Energy analysts, however, say that growth could slow after 2020 as the federal Production Tax Credit (PTC) expires. "We are in a PTC bubble now between 2017 and 2020," said Alex Morgan, a wind energy analyst with Bloomberg New Energy Finance, which recently forecast wind energy developments in the U.S. through 2030. "Our build is really front-loaded in those first four years. We expect that wind drops off in early 2020s to mid-2020s, and then we expect it to come back up in the late 2020s.

Washington State Spearheads A Novel Clean Energy Solution For Starbucks, REI And Target

April 20, 2017 Julia Pyper, www.greentechmedia.com Create! Clean Energy, Corporations, Washington

By Julia Pyper for Green Tech Media - The "Green Direct" program, recently approved by the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission, represents the first subscriber-style of green tariff to be used by retailers and small governments. And it could serve as a model for other utilities to replicate across the country. The program's first subscribers include the iconic brands REI, Starbucks and Target, as well as local governments and local institutions in the state. "Green Direct exemplifies the power of partnership,” said Kimberly Harris, president & CEO of Puget Sound Energy (PSE), in a statement. "It’s a pioneering model for utilities nationwide," Kirk Myers, senior manager of sustainability at REI, wrote in an email. "We hope it reshapes how utilities in other regions supply renewable energy to customers and, ultimately, make renewable energy a more viable, accessible option.” There are currently about a dozen green tariff programs in the U.S. These programs have emerged as a popular way for utilities to help Fortune 500 companies meet their climate and clean energy goals, by allowing customers to buy energy from a wind or solar project, as well as the associated Renewable Energy Certificates.

4 Dying Nukes Vs. Fleet Of Gigafactories: Which Will Gov. Cuomo Choose?

April 10, 2017 Harvey Wasserman and Tim Judson, www.intrepidreport.com Create! Clean Energy, Solar Energy

By Harvey Wasserman and Tim Judson for Intrepid Report - Elon Musk’s SolarCity is completing the construction of its “Buffalo Billion” Gigafactory for photovoltaic (PV) cells near the Niagara River in Buffalo, New York. It will soon put 500 New Yorkers to work inside the 1.2 million-square-foot facility with another 700 nearby, ramping up to nearly 3,000 over the next few years. The production of some 10,000 solar panels per day will put thousands of New Yorkers to work doing the installations. The panels will produce electricity cheaper, cleaner, more safely and more reliably than any fossil or nuclear source of power, including fracked gas, thus fueling a bright industrial future for the state. With a little common sense from the governor, upstate New York could have many more of these massive factories, create many thousands of good, stable, high-paying jobs and solve its energy problems along the way.

Investors Remain Bullish On Clean Energy Despite Trump

April 6, 2017 Leslie Kaufman, www.insideclimatenews.org Create! Clean Energy, Donald Trump

By Leslie Kaufman for Inside Climate News - For proponents of clean energy, the Donald Trump administration already seems like a nightmare. In the worst moment so far, Trump surrounded himself with coal miners and signed an executive order last week that aims to rescind former President Barack Obama's Clean Power Plan. That regulation would have continued to move the power industry away from coal-burning plants and toward wind and solar farms. So is Washington trying to kill the renewable energy revolution? Jeff Tannenbaum and Jigar Shah don't believe that's possible. They were both involved with a company called sPower, which has built and operates 150 utility-scale solar and wind power projects across the U.S. and the U.K.

Clean Energy Employs More People Than Fossil Fuels In Nearly Every U.S. State

March 29, 2017 Natasha Geiling, www.thinkprogress.org Educate! Clean Energy, Fossil Fuels, Jobs

By Natasha Geiling for Think Progress - Nationally, clean energy jobs outnumber fossil fuel jobs by more than 2.5 to 1, according to a new Sierra Club analysis of Department of Energy jobs data. And when it comes to coal and gas — two sectors President Donald Trump has promised to bolster through his upcoming executive order on energy regulation — clean energy jobs outnumber jobs dealing with those two fossil fuels by 5 to 1. “Right now, clean energy jobs already overwhelm dirty fuels in nearly every state across America, and that growth is only going to continue as clean energy keeps getting more affordable and accessible by the day,” Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune said in a statement.

Two More Cities Commit To Clean Energy, Total Now 23 Cities

February 18, 2017 Sierra Club, www.nationofchange.org Create! Clean Energy

By Sierra Club for Nation of Change - In Utah, Canyonlands National Park has been marred by haze pollution from two neighboring coal plants, which threatens the local Moab tourism industry – the economic lifeblood of the community. With this week’s announcements, both communities are poised to confront these threats by transitioning away from fossil fuels to clean, renewable energy. “The climate crisis is a global challenge, but many of our strongest leaders are at the local level,” Ken Berlin, CEO of The Climate Reality Project, said. “We have a lot of hard work ahead, but it is encouraging to see more and more communities, businesses and universities understand that renewable energy is not only the right moral choice, but also the right economic choice.”

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