Electric Utilities

Jobs we can believe in

Merkley wants Senate jobs bill to help finance building efficiency retrofits 4
Posted 1 day ago Last week, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid met with the chairs of six committees that might have some hand in developing the clean energy bill. The question at hand was whether the bill should be pushed back in favor of a short-term focus on finance reform, jobs, and the deficit. Though John Kerry argued vigorously that the clean energy is a jobs bill that won't grow the deficit, it looks like he lost out and there will be some kind of standalone jobs bill in the interim. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.) is now advocating that any jobs bill include support for building retrofits to create jobs and reduce energy bills.
Intermittency and you

Do we need nuclear and coal plants for baseload power? 144
Posted 1 week, 5 days ago On Friday, Matt Yglesias had a post making the point that only socialist state control seems capable of creating a robust nuclear power industry. It's a valid point -- the only countries building nuke plants these days are the ones where governments are making the decisions. David Frum replied with a post containing a series of wildly overbroad assertions ranging from false to highly misleading, with no evidence or links to support them. (Nuclear power does impressive things to conservatives' error-to-word ratios.) Matt replied, and in the course of doing so let this drop: "That said, obviously you need a certain amount electricity that can be relied upon irrespective of how windy it is or whether the sun is shining. So I’d happily see the nuclear share of the pie grow at the expense of coal and oil as the provider of that baseload electricity." This notion has really grabbed the public imagination and been embraced as conventional wisdom: that the grid can only incorporate a limited amount of renewable energy, thus we need coal and nuclear power plants for baseload electricity. Clean energy skeptics chant the word "baseload" like a talisman. There's far less to the claim than meets the eye, though.
Listen to the coal guy!

Why it’s better to invest in efficiency than to hold electricity rates down 9
Posted 3 weeks, 4 days ago A utility representative, of all people, recognizes the important truth that it is better to give consumers efficiency than to give them cheaper electricity.
Who's my CBO? Who's my little CBO schnookums?!

How CBO budget scoring devalues efficiency ... WITH PUPPIES! 9
Posted 1 month, 1 week ago The CBO is in the news again, with the usual suspects hyping its (in reality quite optimistic) economic analysis. In the spirit of actually learning something from this episode, here's a look at a serious issue: how the CBO's budget scoring undercounts the potential for efficiency, systematically distorting energy policy in ways that favor delay, compromise, and defensiveness. The good news is that properly accounting for efficiency opens the door to clean energy policy that's fiscally responsible and environmentally accountable.
Making lemonade

What to do with the utility handouts in the climate bill? 1
Posted 1 month, 2 weeks ago One compromise more than any other enabled the Waxman-Markey bill to navigate the sticky regional politics of the Energy & Commerce Committee, and then the House floor. That same compromise built a bridge between coal-state Dems and industry, utilities and environmentalists. Dave Roberts handicaps the LDC option.
Why the Second Circuit ‘nuisance’ case brings good news, and bad (part II) 1
Posted 1 month, 4 weeks ago In an earlier post, we explored the background, context, and historical significance of the Second Circuit decision handed down late Monday in Connecticut v. AEP, in which the court ruled that a group of states and environmental groups could sue several major electric utilities for contributing to a “public nuisance” in the form of global warming. In this post, we’ll explore the various next steps and implications of this decision, and explain why it brings even a greater sense of urgency to Congress’s ongoing deliberations of climate legislation.
firing chamber

Corporations call off the old green battle, but Chamber of Commerce soldiers on [UPDATED] 4
Posted 1 month, 4 weeks ago Still more trouble for the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the 97-year-old business advocacy group that has been courting controversy by questioning climate change and fighting a clean energy bill. Here are the companies that have quit the Chamber.
My Three Suns

Solar Power, Yes We Did! (& Will!) 1
Posted 4 months ago
The outlook for all three categories of solar power in the United States is bright, according to a new study by the Interstate Renewable Energy Council (IREC).
Breaching the dams

How fast can the US electric sector reform? 8
Posted 4 months, 3 weeks ago
Is the electric sector capable of rapid, large scale reform? Many policies implicitly assume the answer to that question is No, especially when it comes to greenhouse gas (GHG) emission control.

The result is a policy conversation that hinges on the assumption that it is hard to change. How much must we spend to accelerate new technology? How many decades should we allow for a phase-in of new regulations?

As it turns out, the industry can change -- and indeed, has changed -- at a much faster pace than you might think. Contrary to conventional wisdom, it turns out to be quick and fairly painless to replace meaningful fractions of our power fleet in very short time frames.
Always look on the bright side of life

The faint silver lining of the Waxman-Markey clean-energy-mandates cloud 4
Posted 5 months, 1 week ago
The Waxman-Markey bill would require that 20% of the nation's power supply come from clean energy (15%) and efficiency (5%) by 2020. But wouldn't the U.S. have reached those mild targets without any government intervention, through natural market growth? Would the bill's mandates have any effect at all?

A spate of recent analyses have argued that the bill's Combined Efficiency and Renewable Energy Standard, or CERES, would induce no new deployment of renewable energy over and above the business-as-usual scenario. In other words, they might as well not have bothered.
So how much would a $20/ton carbon price really cost? 9
Posted 5 months, 3 weeks ago
If we insist on carbon policy that transfers wealth from the dirty to the clean, we can create massive economic incentives to lower carbon without economic pain. Why shouldn't we set that as a goal?
Poor design creates zero sum game

Waxman-Markey giveaways pit consumer protection against climate protection 3
Posted 5 months, 4 weeks ago
Waxman-Markey supposedly requires a large percent of the savings from free permits to be passed along to consumers. The intent is that they act as protection against price increases rather than a source of profits for large companies. Unfortunately, to the extent this works, it is likely to dampen the price signals that are supposed to help emissions. Equally unfortunately, these provisions are much harder to enforce than appears at first glance.
Southern Utility Blues, part three

Defending coal in climate legislation 3
Posted 6 months ago
How does a legislator negotiate when he believes "clean coal" is the only serious low-carbon option for his constituents and donors? Just watch Rick Boucher.
Southern Utility Blues, part two

Southern Company, coal plants, and the latest gizmo 0
Posted 6 months ago
Politically connected utilities in the south and midwest want the route of least resistence on climate change, and that's "clean coal."
Righteous Outrage

Straight talk with Congressman Doyle 0
Posted 6 months, 2 weeks ago
I had no plans yesterday morning as I woke up and turned on my computer to spend the afternoon in the D.C. office of Congressman Mike Doyle. But then I read a shocking quote from him about the urgency -- rather, non-urgency -- of acting soon on climate change.
How to take a complement

Why mandate renewables if we already have a cap on CO2? 7
Posted 6 months, 2 weeks ago
Some folks wonder why we need a national Renewable Portfolio Standard if we already have a declining cap on carbon. Forthwith, an answer.
This is the last one, I promise

Can it be? Even more tidbits from the Energy Efficiency Global Forum? 2
Posted 6 months, 3 weeks ago
A final round of scrumptious, mouthwatering nuggets from an energy efficiency conference. More fun to read than the word "conference" indicates!
Utility players

Beware utilities seeking free pollution permits 3
Posted 7 months, 2 weeks ago
America's electric utilities are waging a no-holds-barred campaign to get 40% of carbon emission permits allocated for free. Why aren't Obama and Congressional Democrats fighting back?
Gridtastic

The net’s best introduction to the smart grid 0
Posted 8 months, 1 week ago
AEP wants rate increase to make up for revenue loss 0
Posted 8 months, 2 weeks ago