“Energy efficiency can create 38,000 new jobs for North Carolinians while saving consumers $3.6 billion in energy bills, and meet one quarter of NC’s energy needs,” according to a new report released today by the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy (ACEEE). More jobs, lower energy bills … and hundreds of million dollars in stronger [...]
John D. Wilson co-wrote this blog.
What’s the future for energy in the Tarheel state? This week, the North Carolina Utilities Commission (NCUC) considered the energy plans of Duke Energy, Progress Energy and Dominion Power. Each year, North Carolina utilities are required to update their 15-year plan. An Integrated Resource Plan (IRP) explains how each utility [...]
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 [...]
Recently in the Southeast we’ve had some exciting announcements about utility plans to begin retiring and repowering some of their oldest and dirtiest coal plants. By our estimate, eleven retirements are in the works representing over 25 million tons of annual carbon dioxide emissions. As the proverbial ‘writing on the wall’ gets clearer that global [...]
Last Wednesday, the St. Petersburg Times recognized the “Powerful Savings” available to Florida by investing in conservation. Yet the chief obstacle to conservation remains Florida’s commitment to overinvest in nuclear power. Even if the utilities had not biased their efficiency analysis with nonsensical limitations, their assumption that unlicensed nuclear reactors would be built on schedule [...]
As you probably know, TVA is currently engaged in a resource planning process that will shape how TVA meets future energy needs in the Tennessee Valley over the next 20 years. While SACE has been unsuccessful in advocating for complete transparency in the planning process, several steps have been adopted to try and include the [...]
If reason drove the national energy and climate debate, we wouldn’t need more studies about costs and jobs. It seems fairly obvious that if you invest in a lower cost energy resource (such as energy efficiency), it will save consumers money. And if that lower cost resource depends primarily on American workers, rather than buying [...]
August 2009 was busy in Tallahassee for Florida utilities.
With lots of attention from the media, early in the month, Gov. Charlie Crist and the Cabinet approved new nuclear reactors for Progress Energy. There are now four such nuclear reactors proposed for the state, and the expansion of Plant Vogtle involves both Gulf Power (via its [...]
Senator Alexander’s recently unveiled “Blueprint for 100 Nuclear Power Plants in 20 years” will neither reduce energy costs nor provide clean energy. The “Blueprint” is part of the GOP’s four-step plan to provide “low-cost clean energy” that completely ignores energy conservation and efficiency. (Even though FERC Chairman Jon Wellinghof recently stated we may not need [...]
August 17, 2009 Quick Update: Marietta Daily Journal runs an Editorial entitled ‘Throw the Rascals Out’ in the Around Town section. Read Now.
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A Police Raid of Executive Homes Yield Charges of Racketeering and Theft by Man Behind the Proposed Plant Washington Coal-fired Power Plant
On April 22nd, the homes of the CEO and 3 board members [...]