Dirty Energy Hunt in Florida through 1Sky

Guest Blog by Debbie Attias

Last weekend, a group of cyclists and local activists got together for a picnic at Biscayne National Park.  This wasn’t just any picnic, though…. From this park, you can see Turkey Point, Florida Power & Light’s nuclear power plant.  Our picnic in sight of this plant was part of a nationwide [...]

The Incompetent Blame Game as the Gulf Bleeds

I have watched this horrific spill unfold with utter disbelief at the lack of preparedness and clear incompetence of the oil companies’ response.
It May Look “Slick”
Remember the American Petroleum Institute’s (API) slick ads that have been running to warm the American public to offshore drilling.
Take a look:

Proposed New Vogtle Reactors Hit Roadblock

Once again, the “Nuclear Relapse” hits home. Do these recent headlines inspire confidence in the nuclear industry’s much-hyped “comeback?”
“Georgia Judge Rules Against 2 Controversial Nuclear Reactors”
“Ruling Questions PSC Certification of New Vogtle Reactors”
“Ruling Questions Vogtle Expansion”
This time the roadblock hit the lead new nuclear reactor proposal in the United States, Southern Company’s two Westinghouse AP1000 [...]

ACEEE says more, More, MORE energy efficiency

“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 [...]

NC Experts Spar Over Future Energy Plans

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 [...]

TV Ads Challenge Investment in New Reactors

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 [...]

Out With The Coal, In With The New

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 [...]

Pay now for what you might get later

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 [...]

TVA making efforts to keep public engaged in planning process

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 [...]

Clean energy competitiveness, by the numbers

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 [...]