Skip to content Skip to navigation

Energy News

California Senate proposes new plan to spend cap-and-trade money

LATimes | Posted on August 18, 2016

With two weeks left in the legislative session, Senate leader Kevin de León is making a new effort to unsnarl a two year budget gridlock over money generated from the state's cap-and-trade program. The $1.2-billion spending plan would include money for cleaner cars, energy efficient upgrades and urban parks. “We have the opportunity to follow through on the promise of cap-and-trade, which is to use polluters’ dollars to clean up the air we breathe,” De León (D-Los Angeles) said“Working families in our most economically disadvantaged and polluted areas deserve to benefit from investments now so they have access to the cleanest technologies and the tools to make their communities more livable.”  California's landmark cap-and-trade program, in which businesses purchase permits to pollute, has raised more than $4 billion -- all of which must be used to fund efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But for the last two years, Gov. Jerry Brown and top lawmakers have been unable to agree on how to spend $1.4 billion generated by the program.


First-of-its kind project would replace Lee County wind turbines

Sauk Valley | Posted on August 18, 2016

The Mendota Hills wind farm could be the first in the nation to decommission its entire fleet of turbines and replace a portion of them with upgraded models. Dallas-based Leeward Renewable Energy, which owns the wind farm, has requested a special-use permit from the Lee County Board to remove its 63 turbines in the southeast region of the county and build between 33 and 35 new structures.


Weekly Ethanol Production Ties All Time Record

Hoosier Ag Today | Posted on August 18, 2016

According to EIA data, ethanol production averaged 1.029 million barrels per day (b/d)—or 43.22 million gallons daily. That is up 11,000 b/d from the week before and tied for the largest total on record. The four-week average for ethanol production remained unchanged at 1.012 million b/d for an annualized rate of 15.51 billion gallons.


What’s the future of nuclear in the Midwest? A state-by-state look

Midwest Energy News | Posted on August 17, 2016

Nuclear power was born in the Midwest, and helped fuel the region’s once-vibrant manufacturing sector for decades.  But the Midwest’s cheap power prices and, in some states, deregulated markets make it hard for nuclear to compete with cheaper natural gas and renewables. Recent reports have identified numerous plants in Illinois, Michigan, Ohio and Nebraska as likely to shut down before 2025, while others have licenses expiring at the same time.  In recent months the planned closing of a publicly owned plant in Omaha and two Illinois plants owned by Exelon have been announced, and plants in Michigan and Ohio are also facing serious financial and technological challenges. So what does the future of nuclear energy look like in the Midwest? A lot depends on rate cases before public service commissions, proposed state legislation and the effects of the Clean Power Plan. Regulated energy markets are generally more favorable to expensive nuclear plants than deregulated areas where “merchant plants” must gamble on recouping their costs by selling power. Wisconsin, Minnesota, Nebraska, Missouri and Iowa are regulated states, where companies can charge ratepayers directly for their investments in power plants, if they get approval from the state utilities commission. Michigan is also mostly a regulated state, with utilities guaranteed control of 90 percent of the market and 10 percent open to competition.


What 10 Years of RGGI’s Carbon-Trading Agreement Means for the Future

Green Tech Media | Posted on August 17, 2016

In August 2006, a handful of Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states signed an amended memorandum of understanding that would lay the groundwork for the first multi-state carbon-trading scheme in the U.S. A decade after that agreement, the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI, has cut CO2 emissions from generation sources in those states by 50 million short tons, or 36 percent, from 2008 to 2014. Nine states currently participate, including all of New England, Delaware, Maryland and New York (New Jersey pulled out in 2011). In the nearly eight years that the program has been fully operational, electricity prices in RGGI states have dropped an average of 3.4 percent. “RGGI states’ experience reducing emissions faster and at lower cost than anticipated comes at an important time,” the Acadia Center wrote


Wind Generates 100% of Scotland's Electricity Needs for Entire Day

Eco Watch | Posted on August 17, 2016

After analyzing data from Weather Energy, the environmental group WWF Scotland announced that wind turbines generated more than 100 percent of the total amount of electricity used in the country on Aug. 7.


Work program trains unemployed oil and gas workers in solar technology

Denver Post | Posted on August 16, 2016

The coal industry has been painted with a bleak brush in recent years. Production has plummeted. Plants have closed. Jobs have been lost. But in Delta County, one organization is targeting unemployed coal miners in the hope of transitioning them into the solar industry — and leaving politics out of the conversation. The Colorado Department of Labor and Employment in April gave the Paonia-based solar organization a $401,000 matching grant as part of the WORK Act, legislation passed in May 2015 that aims to fill skills gaps in Colorado industries. SEI used the money to start Solar Ready Colorado, an initiative to attract and train not only unemployed miners but also veterans and workers furloughed from the oil and gas industry and other trades.


California May Push For 15 Percent Of New Cars To Be Emission Free In 10 Years

CBS Sacramento | Posted on August 16, 2016

With the extension of California’s landmark climate change law stalled, a legislative plan is emerging to significantly up the ante on California’s commitment to electric vehicles by requiring that 15 percent of all new automobiles be emission-free within a decade.  Assemblywoman Autumn Burke, D-Los Angeles, told The Associated Press on Friday that she’ll introduce legislation next week to ramp up the pressure on carmakers. Automakers that fail to sell enough electric vehicles would be required to make payments to rivals that do or pay a fine to the state.


Who owns the wind? We do, Wyoming says, and it's taxing those who use it

Los Angeles Times | Posted on August 16, 2016

The Wyoming legislature did something no other state has done, the concluded they owned the wind and with great efficiency for a conservative state not traditionally tilted toward burdening the energy industry, they did something no other state has done, before or since: They taxed it.  In the four years since Wyoming began taxing power generated by wind turbines, it has collected a little less than $15 million in revenue. No, that is not much money in a resource state rocked by the simultaneous decline in the prices of coal, oil and natural gas, a state trying to close a budget gap that could reach $500 million. But now, as one of the world's largest wind farms is about to begin construction here on a project aimed at providing clean electricity to nearly a million homes in California and the Southwest — potentially transforming this fossil fuel state into a major player in renewables — some powerful state lawmakers are looking to raise those taxes. And some in the wind industry, which has long benefited from incentives and subsidies, say they are worried. The company that has spent nine years trying to build the wind project says higher taxes could further delay or even halt the plan. “Just about every legislator we’ve met with asks us, ‘You tell us how much we can tax you before we put you out of business,’” said Bill Miller, chief executive of the Power Co. of Wyoming, which is planning the wind farm. “I just shake my head and say, ‘Zero.’”


Oil Is Seeping From A North Dakota Hillside

Bismarck Tribune | Posted on August 16, 2016

The North Dakota Department of Health is investigating an oil spill on a western North Dakota butte where oil is seeping out of a hillside. Karl Rockeman, director of the Division of Water Quality, said late Friday that oil was discovered to be seeping out of the hillside in multiple locations. The company has recovered 504 barrels, or 21,168 gallons, of oil and 120 barrels, or 5,040 gallons, of produced water from holes drilled into the subsurface of the site. The total size of the spill is still being determined.  “It may be larger than that yet as well,” Rockeman said. It’s unknown whether the spill has contaminated groundwater. The health department and the North Dakota Oil and Gas Division have been on site multiple times and continue to investigate. The cause is listed as a failure of an underground flow line. Rockeman said it appears likely that the line was leaking for some time before it was discovered.


Pages