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| Headline |
Author |
Published |
Section |
Local leadership making renewables happen
Municipal property assessment financing for solar and energy efficiency |
Adam Browning |
09 Oct 2008 |
Gristmill |
| The implosion of credit markets could mean severe problems for people looking to finance an investment in energy efficiency or solar. Frankly, financial innovation is as important as technological innovation when it comes to bringing solar into the mainstream. But now you don't have to take some guy on a blog's word for it -- you can take some guy on the Wall Street Journal's word for it. One potential remedy has been pioneered by the city of Berkeley, with t ... |
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| Topics: California, energy, energy subsidies, local politics, renewable energy, solar voltaic power (all these topics) |
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ReGeneration Roadtrip: Wind in our sails
On the road to Vegas, we spot two wind farms |
Sarah van Schagen |
25 Sep 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Todd and I left San Francisco with one thing on our minds: "Vegas, baby!" But as we drove the long, hot, dry (did I mention long?) roads to Nevada, we got distracted by something shiny! wind turbines on a hill in the distance. So we tore off onto a service road and headed up the hill. Turns out we were looking at the Altamont wind turbine farm, one of the oldest in the country. Located in the Diablo Range of San Joaquin Valley, Altamont ... |
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| Topics: California, energy, ReGeneration Roadtrip, wind power (all these topics) |
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Efficiency and trust
Two reasons climate/energy policy assessments frequently undercount benefits |
David Roberts |
19 Sep 2008 |
Gristmill |
| I forgot two other things I wanted to note about the CARB study showing that California's climate program will positively benefit the economy and public health. First, and crucially, the press release notes that "the bulk of the economic benefits are the result of investments in energy efficiency that more than pay for themselves over time." Or in the stiff language of the report itself, "Positive impacts are anticipated primarily because the investmen ... |
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| Topics: climate, legislation, energy, energy efficiency, California (all these topics) |
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Oil Me Once
Santa Barbara County officials give thumbs-up to offshore drilling |
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27 Aug 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 4:18 PM on 27 Aug 2008 Santa Barbara County supervisors on Tuesday voted 3 to 2 in favor of allowing offshore drilling along their coastline -- a move that has no practical impacts, but is rich with symbolism. The southern California county was hit with a devastating 3-million-gallon crude oil spill from an offshore platform in 1969; it coated beaches, killed wildlife, and helped to kick-start the modern en ... |
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| Topics: California, energy, gas prices, news, oil, oil and gas drilling, politics (all these topics) |
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A TV diet
California Energy Commission considers PG&E proposal to require energy-efficient televisions |
Joseph Romm |
25 Aug 2008 |
Gristmill |
| The following post is by Earl Killian, guest blogger at Climate Progress. ----- The California Energy Commission is considering a proposal by PG&E to require televisions sold in the state to meet a minimum efficiency standard. Why is a utility proposing its customers by more efficient appliances? Because California allows utilities to earn a return on investment from negawatts. PG&E's proposal begins by plotting the power consumption (in Watts) of e ... |
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| Topics: California, energy, energy at home, energy efficiency, TV (all these topics) |
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Takin' a Shine to You
Ginormous solar plants to be built in California |
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15 Aug 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 8:34 AM on 15 Aug 2008 Two gigantic solar plants will be built in California under deals announced Thursday between utility Pacific Gas & Electric and companies OptiSolar and Sun Power. Together, the plants could generate 800 megawatts of electricity at peak capacity, enough to power 239,000 homes. (Perspective: The total peak capacity of every photovoltaic panel in the U.S. as of last year was 750 MW.) The lar ... |
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| Topics: business, California, energy, news, progress, renewable energy, solar voltaic power (all these topics) |
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Loan payday
California's innovative energy efficiency loan program is a model worth copying |
Clark Williams-Derry |
06 Aug 2008 |
Gristmill |
| A request: If you a) have anything to do with city or county government, and b) have any interest in, or authority over, property taxes, finance, or energy efficiency, please drop whatever you're doing for two minutes, and skim this article. Oh, all right, I bet you didn't actually hit the link. So to make your job easier, I'll pull a quote or two. California [just] enacted a law that allows cities and counties to make low-interest loans to home ... |
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| Topics: California, energy, energy at home, energy efficiency (all these topics) |
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I wish they all could be California's plans
Energy efficiency, part 4 |
Joseph Romm |
30 Jul 2008 |
Gristmill |
| California and its utilities have achieved remarkably consistent energy efficiency gains for three decades. How did they do it? In part, a smart California Energy Commission has promoted strong building standards and the aggressive deployment of energy-efficient technologies and strategies -- and has done so with support of both Democratic and Republican leadership over three decades. I talked to California energy commissioner Art Rosenfeld -- a former DOE colleagu ... |
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| Topics: California, electricity, energy, energy efficiency, utilities (all these topics) |
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Energy-smart Debbie
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David Roberts |
28 Jul 2008 |
Gristmill |
| One of the more impressive speakers I saw at Netroots Nation was Huntington Beach Mayor Debbie Cook, who spoke on the Energize America panel with an amazing depth of knowledge and blunt honesty. She's running this year against the far-right Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Calif.). TPM caught up with her for a brief interview: |
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| Topics: California, elections, energy, politics, video (all these topics) |
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California dreamin'
Energy efficiency, part 3 |
Joseph Romm |
28 Jul 2008 |
Gristmill |
| This series is based in part on this Salon article: 'Why we never need to build another polluting power plant.' Energy efficiency is by far the biggest low-carbon resource available, and it is as limitless as wind, PV, and solar baseload. It is also the cheapest power you can buy, by far. California has cut annual peak demand by 12 GW -- and total demand by about 40,000 GWh -- over the past three decades. The cost of efficiency programs has averaged 2-3 cents per ... |
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| Topics: California, electricity, energy, energy efficiency, renewable energy (all these topics) |
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Invade in the Shade
Trees win in California solar panels vs. redwoods dispute |
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23 Jul 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 10:40 AM on 23 Jul 2008 Trees have emerged victorious in a California dispute that pitted redwoods against solar panels. Six months ago, Silicon Valley residents Richard Treanor and Carolynn Bissett were criminally convicted because their redwoods shaded the 10-kilowatt solar system on neighbor Mark Vargas' roof. Ultimately, Treanor and Bissett were forced to trim their trees and paid $37,000 in legal fees. T ... |
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| Topics: Arnold Schwarzenegger, California, energy, energy at home, green living, insanity, litigation, news, renewable energy, solar voltaic power (all these topics) |
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Californication
California plans to cut 169 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent by 2020 |
Joseph Romm |
26 Jun 2008 |
Gristmill |
| How do you return greenhouse gas emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 while promoting jobs, competitiveness, and public health? Conservatives in the U.S. Senate think it can't be done. California knows it can. The Air Resources Board has just published their 'Scoping Plan.' How do they cut 169 million metric tons of CO2 equivalent by 2020? Efficiency, efficiency, renewables, renewables, and even some conservation: Given that the single biggest source of Califo ... |
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| Topics: California, energy, energy efficiency, greenhouse-gas emissions, renewable energy (all these topics) |
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Transmission: Impracticable
Huge Calif. solar plant would run transmission lines through state park |
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16 Jun 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 8:11 AM on 16 Jun 2008 A proposed solar power plant in Southern California is facing heavy opposition from some environmentalists as the plan also calls for high-voltage transmission lines to run through a popular state park. To move the power generated by 12,000 solar-thermal dishes near El Centro, Calif., to customers in San Diego, power company San Diego Gas & Electric wants to b ... |
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| Topics: California, energy, news, renewable energy, solar thermal power (all these topics) |
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Paid in the shade
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David Roberts |
07 Apr 2008 |
Gristmill |
| You've got to give credit to Felicity Barringer for this sentence: If he succeeds, the state that legalized medical marijuana may soon do the same for shade. |
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| Topics: energy at home, funnies, California, energy, solar voltaic power (all these topics) |
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Highway to Nowhere
California's 'hydrogen highway' runs into roadblocks |
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02 Apr 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 10:53 AM on 02 Apr 2008 Despite California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's executive order four years ago that "hundreds of hydrogen fueling stations" be built in the state, nary a station has been built under the program. Depending on whom you ask, the blame for the sputtering "hydrogen highway" lies with: energy companies and utilities, for not stepping forward to take state matching money to bui ... |
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| Topics: Arnold Schwarzenegger, California, cars, energy, hydrogen, news, placemaking, politics, state politics (all these topics) |
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Sweet home Alabama Street
Small wind in urban settings |
Adam Browning |
31 Mar 2008 |
Gristmill |
| I never really thought much about small wind's potential as a significant source of a city's electricity supply. Windmills in a urban setting? I just don't see it. Didn't see it, that is, until I saw it. The other day I biked by 1303 Alabama St., in the Mission District of San Francisco. Softly -- very softly -- whirring overhead is a 1.9 kW Southwest Windpower Skystream windmill. The Choose Renewables resource estimator says that it's a class 3 wind site, but I wou ... |
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| Topics: California, energy, energy at home, solar voltaic power, wind power (all these topics) |
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Déjà nuke
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David Roberts |
28 Mar 2008 |
Gristmill |
| This lede made me laugh out loud: As concerns about greenhouse gases and global warming mount, nuclear energy is getting a second look in California, with supporters ranging from the governor to at least one environmental activist. Oh goodie! Who's the token "at least one environmental activist" this time? Is it Patrick Moore, 20-year industry shill co-founder of Greenpeace? Is it James Lovelock, fearful and panicked dystopian author of the Gaia hypo ... |
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| Topics: California, dumbassery, energy, greenhouse-gas emissions, Greenpeace, nuclear power (all these topics) |
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Go Toward the Light
Two proposed solar projects to boost California's solar capacity by half |
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27 Mar 2008 |
News |
| Posted at 10:35 AM on 27 Mar 2008 Two large solar-power projects were proposed in Southern California this week that together could provide up to 500 megawatts of power, just over half the state's current solar capacity and enough to provide electricity to about 300,000 homes. One of the projects, proposed by utility Southern California Edison, aims to put solar panels on 65 million square feet of commer ... |
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| Topics: California, energy, news, solar thermal power, solar voltaic power (all these topics) |
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Killing the electric car, again: Part I
Is CARB up to its old tricks? |
Joseph Romm |
13 Mar 2008 |
Gristmill |
| The following post is by Earl Killian, guest blogger at Climate Progress. ----- If you've seen the movie Who Killed the Electric Car? (which is ranked No. 8 on Netflix in documentary rentals), then you know the EV story up to 2003. What you might not know is that it looks like one of the players in the movie, the California Air Resources Board, is up to no good again. In killing Battery Electric Vehicles (BEVs) the first time, they put off progress on this front ... |
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| Topics: Big Auto, business, California, cars, electric vehicles, energy (all these topics) |
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Blocking state leadership on global warming
Johnson made a decision that should have belonged to Congress |
Joseph Romm |
09 Mar 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Last week, EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson published the official explanation of his decision to deny a waiver of preemption for California's program to reduce greenhouse-gas emissions from vehicles. Robert Sussman, senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, has a very good discussion of the misguided reasoning Johnson uses. The bottom line: The role of state programs under a comprehensive climate change framework may be a legitimate subject for deba ... |
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| Topics: California, cars, climate, energy, fuel efficiency, greenhouse-gas emissions, politics (all these topics) |
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Sun spotty
Borenstein analysis of solar PV misses the point of California's solar program |
Adam Browning |
25 Feb 2008 |
Gristmill |
| I've been getting a lot of questions about this: "Solar panels a 'loser,' professor says."Severin Borenstein is an economics professor at UC Berkeley. He did an analysis of California's solar program and found that if you compare the current cost of distributed generation solar PV, which delivers retail power, with the wholesale power cost of a gas peaker running on pre-Katrina natural gas prices -- and leave global warming and environmental benefits ou ... |
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| Topics: California, energy, renewable energy, solar voltaic power (all these topics) |
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Adventures in carbon pricing
California continues to innovate on the climate front, but still gets smoked by perky B.C. |
Adam Stein |
21 Feb 2008 |
Gristmill |
| A national carbon tax in the U.S. appears increasingly unlikely, but all sorts of interesting experiments in emissions pricing are underway regionally. First: the California Assembly this week votes on the California Clean Car Discount Act, a 'feebate' system that imposes a direct charge on sales of gas guzzlers and uses the funds to reward buyers of fuel sippers. The way it works it pretty simple. If you buy a Chevy Tahoe, you'll have to pony up a $2,500 fee, which wi ... |
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| Topics: British Columbia, California, Canada, carbon tax, climate, climate change mitigation, energy (all these topics) |
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Hell, no, we won't, um, participate in a pollution permit trading system!
Cali EJ groups reject cap-and-trade in strong terms |
David Roberts |
20 Feb 2008 |
Gristmill |
| A big coalition of environmental justice groups in California just came out with a strong statement opposing a cap-and-trade system and urging "fees" (i.e., taxes) instead. (Here's L.A. Times' coverage.) Their points are fairly familiar. Most of the opposition seems to be based on the well-documented failures of the European trading system -- which, as far as I know, every U.S. legislator is aware of. There's also something about the revenue from auction not ... |
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| Topics: California, carbon trading, climate, climate change mitigation, energy, environmental justice (all these topics) |
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Jobs, jobs, jobs
Green energy projects bloom in California |
Adam Browning |
04 Feb 2008 |
Gristmill |
| Right on the heels of Tappergate, The New York Times comes out with a couple of articles exploring the economic benefits of fighting global warming. As is evident to anyone but a Taphole, the energy business is the largest business there ever is or was or will be, and therein lies not only enormous money-making opportunities but jobs, jobs, jobs. These things, we hear, are good for the economy. So, take California, which decided to get serious about developing a so ... |
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| Topics: California, economy, energy, green jobs, renewable energy, solar voltaic power (all these topics) |
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Here comes the sun
California and New Jersey have high numbers of PV installations |
Joseph Romm |
31 Jan 2008 |
Gristmill |
| The following essay is a guest post by Earl Killian. ----- Cooler Planet looked at the solar photovoltaic (PV) installation data from the California Energy Commission and made it visual to show just how it is growing. A static view of their data is at the right, but go to the site and move the slider to see the growth from only 1,675 grid-connected photovoltaic installations in 2002 to 29,628 installations in 2008. According to SolarBuzz: In 2006, 112 me ... |
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| Topics: California, energy, New Jersey, renewable energy, solar voltaic power (all these topics) |
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