An oil spill but no energy bill: where do we go from here?

To many people, it seemed inevitable that 2010 would be The Year we passed The Climate & Energy Bill to overhaul the way we make and consume energy in this country.  The stage was set in 2008 when Democrats gained control of both the Congress and the White House and pledged to reduce carbon pollution.  [...]

TVA Announces Old Coal Retirements

Last Friday the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) announced a new vision for its energy portfolio at their August Board meeting. (We will be blogging on this in more detail soon.)
TVA CEO Tom Kilgore expressed the hope that TVA will become “one of the nation’s leading providers of low-cost and cleaner energy by 2020″. One of [...]

Too little, too late? Congress may fail to move from oil spill to a robust energy bill

After decades of scientific data gathering, years of growing public and business support and more than three months of an unmitigated environmental catastrophe, it is reasonable to expect that citizens and leaders would all support a paradigm shift in U.S. energy policy.
In fact, even before BP’s Gulf oil disaster began, President Obama and Congress promised [...]

The Gulf Oil Disaster, Vulnerable Communities and Energy Policy

This post was co-authored by Seandra Rawls and Marcus Strong, Clean Energy Policy intern for the summer of 2010.
The sinking of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil rig and the uncontrollable oil leak that resulted is already being called the nation’s worst environmental disaster. For a region already battling poverty and still recovering  from Hurricane Katrina, [...]

NC Calls It A Wrap On Climate Commission

After five long years of presentations, deliberation, and multiple extensions, the North Carolina Legislative Commission on Global Climate Change (otherwise known as the NC LCGCC or “Climate Commission”) finally closed its doors on Thursday, May 6, 2010 in Raleigh with majority approval of a 189-page final report.  SACE’s Executive Director, Stephen Smith, was appointed [...]

Interesting Post on the TN Floods

I was talking to friends and family in Nashville after this weekend’s devastating floods, that smashed rainfall records. I found the following blog post an interesting overview of the dynamics at work as we destabilize the climate. The mainstream media does not connect the dots so we will.

Lawmakers must create renewable-energy jobs

Opinion Editorial by Stephen Smith
Originally published March 19, 2009 in the Orlando Sentinel
Aaron Deslatte’s column, “Legislature 2010: Can Lawmakers Create Jobs?” on OrlandoSentinel.com recently, provided a good overview of the efforts that the state Legislature is considering to lower Florida’s high unemployment rate.
In Deslatte’s column, House Speaker Larry Cretul says, “We’ve all heard ‘government doesn’t [...]

Tracking the Biodiesel Industry

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 [...]

TVA wind purchases open the door to new opportunities

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 [...]

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 [...]