SACE Communications Coordinator, Jeannie McKinney, contributed to this blogpost. Yesterday, the U.S. Senate came up short (yet again) in an effort to end billions of dollars in tax subsidies to oil companies. Despite President Obama’s plea that Senators consider the financial impact that $4 billion in subsidized tax breaks are having on our economy, the motion [...]
So what are our elected officials planning on doing during the District Work Period starting on April 12th? Well, if a document from the House of Representatives Majority Whip’s office (Rep. Kevin McCarthy, R-CA) is any indicator, then we’ll be hearing a lot about energy.
The evidence is in, and it clearly shows that USDA’s Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) is a program with proven benefits to the rural economy, the environment, and our national security. Lawmakers should strengthen it, not cut it.
After much delay, today the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) released the first-ever national standards to limit greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from coal plants. The proposal aims to restrict the amount of GHG emissions allowed from new coal plants to 1,000 pounds of carbon dioxide (CO2) per megawatt hour (MWh) of electricity produced. As a reference point, [...]
As gasoline prices continue to rise across the country, people are wagging fingers and looking for relief at the pump. Adding insult to injury, analysts are now saying gasoline could hit $5 or $6 per gallon in the near future. The only real solution is to cut back on oil consumption.
On Tuesday (March 20, 2012), the Georgia Public Service Commission (PSC) issued a decision approving Georgia Power Company’s request to retire two uneconomic coal units, Harllee Branch Units 1 and 2. We commend both the PSC and Georgia Power on this small but important step. However, we cannot ignore the fact that additional coal retirements [...]
SACE’s High Risk Energy Choices program director, Sara Barczak, co-authored this blog. After the Japanese government prematurely declared the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear reactors stable at the end of 2011, much of the media retreated from covering the still volatile situation. But given the commemoration of the one year anniversary of this nuclear accident, the international media [...]
They say that bad things come in threes. Recently we’ve seen three very bad ideas to attack and undermine the Clean Air Act on three of the worst categories of air pollution coming from coal-fired power plants and other fossil fuel industries. First the pollutants: (1) mercury pollution; (2) the traditional criteria pollutants sulfur dioxide [...]
Today, I toured the Piedmont Green Power project, along with other members of the Pine 2 Energy Coalition, that is currently under construction in Barnesville, Georgia, about an hour SW of Atlanta. The 54 MW biopower facility is being developed by Rollcast Energy, a company of Atlantic Power Corporation. As you turn onto the newly constructed [...]
A few years ago, just in time for St. Patrick’s Day, I blogged about a little known ‘cub’ of the oft-described ‘Celtic Tiger:’ the fast-growing Irish wind energy industry. As the calendar once again approaches March 17th, and everyone in the U.S. prepares to celebrate all things Irish tomorrow, I felt it was high time [...]
