Energy

This month in Finland, a team of intrepid researchers herded one thousand European cows one-by-one into a glass “metabolic chamber” to measure their methane emissions, digestion, production characteristics, energy-efficiency, metabolism, and the microbial make-up of their rumens. The Project is known as RuminOmics, but if it had been titled The Truman Show II: When the Cows Come Home, we wouldn’t have been a bit surprised. [node:read-more:link]

Jim Matheson, a Democrat who was elected to seven terms in the U.S. House from a reliably Republican district in Utah, knows something about what it takes to work across party lines and buck political headwinds. He'll need that experience in his new job as CEO of the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association, which argues that the Obama administration's climate regulations will drive up consumer costs and put some of its many coal-dependent co-ops out of business. President Obama's Clean Power Plan is the cornerstone of the U.S. [node:read-more:link]

In recent months we’ve posted a number of times on the “U.S. Model” of domestic energy and economic growth – coupled with greenhouse gas reductions. Let that sink in: The United States is simultaneously the world’s No. 1 producer of oil and natural gas and the world leader in reducing emissions. Energy growth and climate progress together. That’s the U.S. Model.  It’s important to grasp the impacts of the U.S. model – and also how it came about. [node:read-more:link]

Some are calling recent clean-energy actions by New York, Massachusetts and Iowa “game-changers.” That might very well prove true in the medium-term. But we can say with confidence that they are immediate game-advancers. Why? Energy markets are affected by policy, but they are driven by price. The underlying business reality is that the real cost of wind power has dropped below that of new fossil-fuel generation. [node:read-more:link]

The Iowa Utilities Board approved MidAmerican Energy’s $3.6 billion plan to build up to 2,000 megawatts of wind power -- a major step toward realizing the company’s goal of supplying Iowa customers with 100 percent renewable energy at no additional cost.  The "Wind XI" project is the largest wind energy project approved in the U.S. to date, and may be just the first in a series of mega wind projects to advance in the coming months. With last week’s approval notice, MidAmerican said it is now finalizing plans to begin construction of the 1,000 wind turbines. [node:read-more:link]

A fight over the route of a new pipeline is gaining momentum while it plays out in court. Hundreds of Native Americans from tribes across the United States are protesting in North Dakota. They're setting up camp at the site where the pipeline is slated to cross under the Missouri River. Reporter Amy Sisk of the public radio collaboration Inside Energy says the group is finding an eager ally in environmental groups. [node:read-more:link]

The Iowa Utilities Board has unanimously denied a request from landowners for a permanent stay to stop Dakota Access from building the Bakken oil pipeline until a court decides if the company can use eminent domain to get access to their land.  The three-member board heard roughly 45 minutes of testimony from each side and asked several questions before going into a close meeting to deliberate. [node:read-more:link]

California lawmakers voted to extend the state’s landmark climate change law — the most aggressive in the nation — by another 10 years, resisting fierce opposition from oil companies and other business interests to keep the program alive at least through 2030.  Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, a strong advocate of the state’s climate initiatives, has said he’ll sign the bill when it comes to his desk. [node:read-more:link]

Picture a steady breeze blowing through the leaves of a tree. Now imagine these leaves could do more than simply churn in the current of air—what if they could capture the wind and transform it into renewable energy? Last December, two “wind trees”—or arbres à vent—quietly churned in a plaza in Paris, as world leaders met for the historic climate talks at the Le Bourget conference center nearby. [node:read-more:link]

It was supposed to be the largest wind farm in North America, with 1,000 turbines spinning above 320,000 acres of southern Wyoming. But after investing more than $50 million and nearly a decade seeking approval to build a wind farm on public lands, the Power Company of Wyoming’s landmark project is still tied up in required scrutiny of its environmental impact.  "We understood that this is a complex process," said the company’s vice president Rocanne Perruso. "We did understand that it was going to be several years. We did not anticipate nine."  The Wyoming project is hardly an outlier. [node:read-more:link]