If the recent U.S. energy-climate world seems like it’s in upheaval, that’s because it is. Amy Harder of the National Journal, just posted a good synopsis of the monumental changes in the U.S. energy-climate world with her article – The Five Biggest Energy Changes in the Past Six Years. Harder notes: In 2008, Washington was…
Category: renewables
Natural Gas and Climate Change
The rise in natural gas production, particularly in the U.S., has unquestionably impacted the global energy equation. Fueled by the unconventional-natural-gas revolution, natural gas is now a significant factor in the U.S. and global energy mix. As Sonal Patel summarized from the International Energy Agency’s (IEA) 2013 World Energy Outlook (WEO-2013): By 2035, natural gas…
Whose Land Is It Anyways?
The development of energy resources is typically dependent upon the availability of infrastructure such as hydrocarbon pipelines and transmission lines. Many of the issues concerning energy development and consequently infrastructure construction focus on the impact of climate change generated by a particular energy resource. The continuing controversy over the permitting of TransCanada’s Keystone XL pipeline…
The Continuing Saga of the Utilities’ Death Spiral
For those of you who are fighting numerous proposed high-voltage (HV) transmission projects, take some solace in the idea that “time is on our side”. There are lots of reasons for that, but one of them has always been that technology and the market would unfold and develop in ways that would, and should, make HV transmission largely…
Power Companies Losing Out To Rooftop Solar??
—by John Vincent, former Montana Public Service Commissioner America’s utility industry, “Big Power,” is, by their own admission, scared. Made up of large corporations with huge and profitable investments in centralized generation and long distance, high voltage transmission (profits mostly guaranteed by monopoly status and government regulation), they are facing what their own industry calls…
Energy Efficiency and Small-Scale Solar Power Threaten Utilities’ Bottom Lines
Power company revenue is under siege by energy efficiency and small-scale solar power, says a Fitch ratings analyst. Rooftop solar power and energy-efficiency programs will eat into utility revenue and profit margins and discourage investment in new transmission projects within five years, a Fitch Ratings analyst said. Utilities in stagnant or low-growth markets in the…