March 16th, 2010 › Clean Fuel › Dr. Stephen A. Smith › no comments ›
Policies that will Help Grow the Industry
The past 12 months have been a rough time for the biodiesel industry and some believe much of the biodiesel industry’s problems are self-induced. The industry has been betting that two federal policies, a tax credit (blenders credit) and production requirement (called the Renewable Fuel Standard), would help turn things around.
The first is the reinstatement of the $1.00 gallon tax credit for blended biodiesel. This had been held up in the partisan divide in the Senate, but passed last week as part of a tax extenders package. Many plants remain idle waiting for final word on the tax credit renewal as the Senate bill must now be reconciled with the House bill from late last year. The National Biodiesel Board (NBB) has been tracking this process closely and provides regular updates. They are also leading efforts to get the blender’s credit extended for more than just one year. Read more…
Tags: biomass, biopower, clean tech, climate change, climate policy, Congress, global warming, incentives, pollution control, renewable energy, transportation
March 16th, 2010 › Clean Energy, Coal, Other Reports › John Bonitz › 1 comment ›
Debates about our clean energy future always come around to the glass
half-full or half-empty idiom. When we contemplate changing markets, expansion of renewable technologies, and other uncertainties, some folks just have a hard time imagining anything other than the half-empty scenarios.
A new report by the University of Florida was recently released on the economic and supply implications of utilizing woody biomass in Florida. The report provides a useful look at how a renewable portfolio standard (RPS) in Florida can be done (despite using ridiculously low numbers for solar and wind energy potential). Amazingly, in estimating Florida’s biomass potential the study is ambitious (much more than we were). What’s most interesting, though, is that the report is being used to cast doubt on a state RPS.
Read more…
Tags: bioenergy, biomass, biopower, Florida, jobs, renewable energy, RPS
March 16th, 2010 › Clean Energy › Toni Reale › 3 comments ›
March 2nd and 3rd, 2010 marked a significant step forward for North Carolina on dealing with the challenges and opportunities posed by climate change. For the first time in North Carolina’s history both state and federal agencies came together to discuss how to craft and adopt policies that would prepare the state for both immediate and future impacts of global warming.
Read more…
March 15th, 2010 › Clean Energy, Green Economy › Jennifer Rennicks › 4 comments ›
Each year, St. Patrick’s Day brings out the Irish in all of us - that unexplainable urge to wear green, to enjoy soda bread with a Guinness and to listen to fiddle music. These days, Ireland offers an entirely new way to ‘go green’ as the Emerald Isle boldly charges into the 21st century powered, increasingly, by clean, renewable wind energy.
Although stone ruins on green hills typically leap to mind when one thinks about Ireland, a recent visit enabled me to see first-hand how the past is blending with the present to support this tiny nation’s fast-growing wind industry. In less than 20 years, Ireland has built an impressive portfolio of wind-energy projects from a single wind farm at Bellacorrick, County Mayo in 1992 to more than 120 operating wind farms in 23 counties today.
Read more…
Tags: Arklow, Ireland, offshore wind, renewable energy, South Carolina, wind
March 11th, 2010 › Clean Energy › Brandon Blevins › 1 comment ›
Quietly, the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) has been signing contracts with several wind developers that will put the federal utility in a position to significantly grow its wind energy portfolio in 2012, if all goes to plan. 
Over the past 5 months, TVA has announced multiple contracts with Invenergy Wind, CPV Renewable Energy Co., Iberdrola Renewables, and most recently Horizon Wind, adding up to 1,380 MW of contracted wind energy purchases by the end of 2012. These contracts are in direct response to the December 2008 Request for Proposals released by TVA for up to 2,000 MW of renewable energy, a strategy the TVA says is important to reach their goal of producing 50% of their electricity from zero or near-zero carbon emissions by 2020. Read more…
Tags: clean tech, climate change, electric rates, green jobs, renewable energy, Tennessee, TVA, utility regulation, wind, wind energy
March 3rd, 2010 › High Risk Energy, Nuclear › Sara Barczak › no comments ›
Last week, Friends of the Earth launched two television ads challenging $54.5 billion in loan guarantees the Obama Administration proposed to hand out for the construction of the first new nuclear reactors in the U.S. in 30 years. The 30-second television ads, “Family” and “Risk,” will run in both South Carolina and Georgia. In South Carolina, two new nuclear reactors are proposed to be built at the V.C. Summer plant — a site in the running for loan guarantees also being challenged by Friends of the Earth in South Carolina State Supreme Court. The ads will also run in Georgia, where the first of the Obama Administration’s loan guarantees were awarded earlier in the month — $8.3 billion for the two proposed nuclear reactors at Plant Vogtle. Read more…
Tags: climate change, climate policy, Congress, Georgia, global warming, Nuclear, Obama, South Carolina
March 2nd, 2010 › Clean Energy, Climate Action › Jennifer Rennicks › no comments ›
Today kicks off a 72 hour call-in campaign to ensure the United States Senate knows there is support for energy and climate policies that will put us on a path towards energy independence and a clean energy economy.
There is also a real and growing threat that Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) and allies in both the Senate and the House of Representatives may call for votes on their “Dirty Air Act” proposals in an attempt to weaken protections offered by the decades-old, seminal environmental law known as the Clean Air Act.
Consider taking five minutes over the next three days to place a call to your Senator(s) and add your voice to this campaign! You can easily register and then use our national ally 1Sky’s Click-to-Call system during your lunch break.
All of us involved in this campaign recognize that investing in a clean energy future now, we can create millions of jobs, reduce our dependence on foreign oil, and tackle climate change — all at the same time. It’s time to ensure that our elected leaders recognize this, too.
February 26th, 2010 › Clean Energy › Sara Barczak › 2 comments ›
Cooling Tower Collapse at VT Yankee, Courtesy of VYDA.org
The so-called “Nuclear Renaissance” touted by proponents hit a brick wall recently when the Vermont State Senate voted 26-4 to prevent the Vermont Yankee nuclear plant from operating past 2012. This bi-partisan blow occurred just a week after President Obama announced $8.3 billion in controversial nuclear loan guarantees for Southern Company’s proposed two new reactors at Plant Vogtle in Georgia.
Read more…
Tags: Nuclear, Obama
February 26th, 2010 › Copenhagen '09, High Risk Energy, Utilities › Mary Bendeck › 1 comment ›
Last week in Atlanta, the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association (NRECA) held their annual meeting, which brought together leaders from over 900 Electric 
Membership Cooperatives (EMCs) across the country. The annual meeting provides an opportunity for EMC leaders to discuss issues facing their cooperatives and strategies to ensure the long term stability of individual EMCs. In response to this national gathering, an informal analysis of EMC operations was released highlighting the best and worst practices of select cooperatives in the country. One of the very worst in the nation, according to the report, is right here, in Georgia’s backyard - Cobb EMC. Read more…
Tags: Coal, Cobb EMC, corruption, NRECA, transparency
February 26th, 2010 › Clean Energy › Jennifer Rennicks › 1 comment ›
Last week, the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy helped coordinate two Congressional tours at clean energy manufacturing facilities here in the Southeast to visibly demonstrate the link between progressive clean energy policies and the green jobs that can result.
On Tuesday, February 16, U.S. Senator Kay Hagan (NC) joined a SACE-ally, American Wind Energy Association, for a tour of a Shelby, NC-based PPG Industries’ plant. The tour provided the opportunity for the senator to see one step in the wind-energy supply chain: fiberglass sheets production that will eventually become wind-turbine rotor blades. The tour enabled the senator to speak directly with a few of the plant’s 500 employees and the plant manager pointed out that a modest 20% by 2020 Renewable Energy Standard would enable PPG to add about 250 workers with an increased demand for their products. Read more…
