Energy

Florida's largest utilities decided last week that $22 million wasn't enough to spend on Amendment 1, so they pumped in another $3.5 million into the effort, according new campaign finance reports.  Amendment 1, which has been dubbed a "pro solar" amendment by the political committee financed by the utility giants, would inject language into the state Constitution that could be used to keep solar competition out of Florida, making it easier for the utilities to control the solar market and preserve their utility monopolies. [node:read-more:link]

Nearly 20 megawatts of solar energy due to come online in Utah in early 2017 has been sold to residential and business consumers who want to cut their monthly utility bills or become more reliant on clean energy. Rocky Mountain Power's Subscriber Solar program is 95 percent sold out, and officials anticipate the last few blocks of power will be sold by this week or next. [node:read-more:link]

A judge in Columbus is preparing to hear arguments in a dispute over Ohio’s authority to regulate oil-and-gas operations, including wells disposing of fracking wastewater. Attorneys for the Ohio Department of Natural Resources and the operator of a Youngstown-area wastewater injection well address Judge Kimberly Cocroft. At issue is the department’s power to take action against the well, which disposes of wastewater from hydraulic fracturing and sits nearby at least 20 small seismic events that occurred in 2014. [node:read-more:link]

Engineers at the University of Wisconsin-Madison are turning wood pulp, a common waste material, into a flooring that generates electricity. The researchers chemically treated the wood pulp nanofibers that the flooring is made out of with two differently charged materials, so that when someone walks across the floor, these fibers then interact with one another, similar to static electricity. The electrons released by this vibration are then captured by a capacitor that is attached to the flooring and the energy is stored for later use. [node:read-more:link]

Don't call it a solar "farm" — at least not to a Maryland farmer.  The Maryland Farm Bureau's membership voted in 2014 to oppose appending the word "farm" to the label of any alternative energy-generation plant, including a solar farm facility.  Photovoltaic cells are springing up across the Eastern Shore at an unprecedented clip. Fueled by hefty government subsidies and relatively cheap prices for acreage, utility-scale solar facilities are supplanting one farm after another. [node:read-more:link]

A project that would turn gases released at landfill in southern Idaho into energy is moving forward. Commissioners from seven counties that own Southern Idaho Solid Waste voted Wednesday for the project at Milner Butte Landfill in Burley to proceed. The Idaho Mountain Express reports that the project involves taking methane gases produced by decomposing garbage and burning it for energy. The landfill already captures methane gas and burns it, but doesn't yet generate energy through the process. [node:read-more:link]

In its recent report, “Farms and Free Enterprise: A Blueprint for Agricultural Policy,” The Heritage Foundation calls for the elimination of constructive energy programs in the next Farm Bill. That's a nonsensical proposition. The Farm Bill's Energy Title reduces our dependence on oil, reduces carbon emissions, and helps meet growing consumer demand for sustainable energy and bioproducts. Further, the programs have unlocked billions of dollars of private lending for rural communities, which otherwise lack access to capital. [node:read-more:link]

Just maybe, a few of the legislators were praying for the next oil boom, the way their fathers and grandfathers did.  But this oil bust could be different. [node:read-more:link]

A new report shows Iowa is deriving more than 35 percent of its electricity from wind energy, an increase from statistics made public earlier this year.  The American Wind Energy Association says in a report released Thursday that Iowa has increased its percentage of in-state electricity that comes from wind turbines. The data, backed by the U.S. Energy Information Administration, is based on a 12-month rolling average through the end of August 2016.  The association says Iowa is now the first state to generate more than one-third of its electricity from wind energy. [node:read-more:link]

Some refiners stand to rake in $1 billion by selling fuel credits, while others must spend millions to comply. Companies including  Chevron Corp., Royal Dutch Shell PLC, and BP PLC could reap a total of more than $1 billion this year by selling the renewable fuel credits associated with the ethanol program, according to an analysis commissioned by CVR Energy, a refinery operator controlled by billionaire Carl Icahn, a vocal critic of the rules.   The ethanol and biodiesel program, created during President George W. Bush’s administration, was aimed in part at reducing U.S. [node:read-more:link]