Energy News
Solar Is Gaining in Wind Markets as the PTC Steps Down
Green Tech Media | Posted on March 18, 2019Over the years, top-ranking wind and solar markets have overlapped in just a few states. Where wind flourished, solar usually hung back, and vice versa. “Each of our technologies has largely had their own playpen,” said Anthony Logan, a North American wind analyst at energy and consulting company Wood Mackenzie Power & Renewables.But now analysts say that’s changing. Dirt-cheap solar costs, record-setting growth and movement into new markets, plus the ability for solar to complement wind production, mean the technology is now encroaching on onshore wind’s territory. Solar is poised to grow by the highest percentage of any U.S. generation source in 2020, according to the federal U.S. Energy Information Administration. Wind will be close behind — EIA says it’ll show the largest percentage growth in 2019 and the second in 2020 — but solar prices are dropping enough that the resource is comparable and even cheaper than wind in some formerly wind-oriented markets.
Renewable energy reduces the highest electric rates in the nation
Phys Org | Posted on March 17, 2019Michigan Technological University researchers found that increasing renewable and distributed generation energy sources can save Michigan electric consumers money. However, as three Michigan Tech researchers contend in a new study, while utility fuel mixes are slowly shifting away from fossil fuels toward renewable sources, Michigan utilities, and U.S. utilities broadly, continue a relationship with fossil fuels that is detrimental to their customers.The paper, "Policies to Overcome Barriers for Renewable Energy Distributed Generation: A Case Study of Utility Structure and Regulatory Regimes in Michigan," was published in the energy policy special issue of the journal Energies.
Unsafe coal ash contamination found in North Dakota groundwater
Bismarck Tribune | Posted on March 14, 2019Unsafe contamination from coal ash disposal sites at half a dozen power plants in western North Dakota has seeped into groundwater sources, according to a report from an environmental group.The Environmental Integrity Project collected industry monitoring data for its nationwide report, which found that six of seven coal-fired power plants in North Dakota leaked contamination into groundwater sources at levels exceeding those deemed safe — in one case, by a factor of 100.But state health officials and representatives of the utilities that run the coal-fired power plants say none of North Dakota’s ash disposal sites fail to comply with standards set by the Environmental Protection Agency.
New Mexico is the third state to legally require 100% carbon-free electricity
Quartz | Posted on March 14, 2019As Congressional leaders in Washington, DC remain stalled out on climate-related legislation, states are moving forward, even in conservative parts of the country. New Mexico is the latest. The southwestern state is the latest to embrace carbon-free electricity, passing a bill that will require all electricity from public utilities to come from carbon-free sources. The bill, which passed 43-22 in New Mexico’s increasingly Democratic legislature, requires the state (now one of the country’s top oil, gas, and coal producers) to get 50% of its energy from renewables by 2030 and 80% by 2040. By 2045, it must go entirely carbon-free.
Connecticut’s solar panel industry presses for change in state law it sees as threat to its existence
Hartford Courant | Posted on March 14, 2019Connecticut’s solar industry and environmental advocates are fiercely lobbying state lawmakers to reverse or at least delay action they took last year changing how consumers are compensated for solar energy generated from rooftop panels.About three dozen workers in the industry that installs solar panels gathered Wednesday at the Capitol, urging legislation they say will save industry jobs in Connecticut, estimated at more than 2,000. The legislature’s clean energy caucus said the state’s solar industry faces an "existential crisis.”
Rainfall changes for key crops predicted even with reduced greenhouse gas emissions
Science Daily | Posted on March 14, 2019By 2040, rainfall on wheat, soybean, rice and maize will have changed, even if Paris Agreement emissions targets are met; projections show parts of Europe, Africa, the Americas and Australia will be drier, while the tropics and north will be wetter.
South Dakota pushes bills to prosecute ‘riot-boosting’ ahead of pipeline construction
High Country News | Posted on March 14, 2019Two bills allowing the state of South Dakota to prosecute pipeline demonstrators and their funders — and use money from damages to fund law enforcement and pipeline costs — moved to the Senate floor on Wednesday. Introduced by South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem, R, on Monday, the bills would protect the 1,179-mile-long Keystone XL pipeline, a planned TransCanada project that would slice through the state carrying 830,000 barrels of crude oil a day. The Great Plains Tribal Chairman’s Association has opposed the bills, representing the leaders of 16 tribes in the region, none of whom were consulted for the legislation.
Trump proposes slashing EPA budget by 31 percent
The Hill | Posted on March 14, 2019President Trump proposed significant budget cuts to the government agencies responsible for overseeing the nation’s energy and environmental policies, including a 31 percent reduction in spending at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The fiscal 2020 budget proposal to Congress marks the latest effort by the administration to slash funding for science and enforcement programs.The document, titled "A Budget for a Better America," requests $31.7 billion for the Department of Energy, an 11 percent decrease from current funding, while the Interior Department would see a 14 percent cut, to $12.5 billion.
EPA Publishes Year-Round E15 Rule
Ag Web | Posted on March 14, 2019The Trump administration on Tuesday advanced a plan meant to expand the U.S. market for corn-based ethanol and place trading restrictions on credits that refiners use to prove they are using biofuel. The Environmental Protection Agency proposal is a first step in fulfilling President Donald Trump’s promise to unleash sales of gasoline containing 15 percent ethanol and deliver at least a symbolic victory to corn farmers in the Midwest who have been battered by his trade fight with China. Air pollution requirements currently block sales of that E15 gasoline from June 1 to Sept. 15 in areas where smog is a problem, and the EPA proposal would effectively lift those restrictions so it could be sold year round.
New Mexico joins California, Hawaii in approving 100% clean energy mandate
Utility Dive | Posted on March 14, 2019The New Mexico State House on Tuesday passed Senate Bill 489 44-22, requiring the state to generate 100% of its electricity from carbon-free resources by 2045. The Energy Transition Act, introduced in February and approved by the State Senate last week, also increases the state's renewable portfolio standard (RPS) to 50% by 2030 and 80% by 2040, echoing Democratic Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham's campaign promises. It also includes securitization provisions to help recover the costs of coal plant retirements and allocates funds toward transitioning mining communities. The bill follows Grisham's January executive order, which committed the state to the U.S. goals under the Paris Climate Agreement — reducing carbon emissions by at least 45% below 2005 levels by 2030. She is expected to sign the bill soon.