Cobb EMC in Georgia Tops List of Bad Coop Practices

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.  [...]

Obama Pushes for Risky Energy Options for What in Return?

On February 1, 2010 President Obama had his first exclusive interview with the YouTube community after his State of the Union Address. Over 11,000 questions were submitted and only 0.2% were selected. A video question from the Southern Energy Network was chosen that challenged President Obama’s controversial pledge to provide tens of billions of dollars [...]

EPA Rules Mean Big Challenges Ahead for Dirty Coal

In recent months, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has taken great strides to improve air quality and protect the environment by proposing stricter standards for ozone and sulfur dioxide, and begin regulation of coal ash waste and greenhouse gases.  If these standards and regulations are implemented, they could inhibit the development of new coal-fired power [...]

Industry groups pushing hard to influence EPA decision on coal ash

Industry lobbyists are working hard to influence the EPA’s decision on whether to classify coal ash as a hazardous substance.  According to a recent reports by the Wall Street Journal and New York Times, White House officials have held nearly twenty meetings with industry groups since last October to discuss the possible implications of classifying [...]

Dismantling the Clean Air Act?

Update on January 20, 200: Washington Post editorial on Murkowski’s intentions with EPA and the Clean Air Act.
If you are too young to remember polluted waterways that caught on fire or cities as ‘dark as night by 11am‘ due to poor air quality, then you came of age as our water and air were protected [...]

A year since the Kingston disaster and still no coal ash regulations

How long will it take before the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) lives up to its responsibility to protect human health and the environment?  With respect to coal combustion waste, apparently a little longer.  The EPA’s December 17th announcement that it will delay a proposal for regulating coal combustion waste (CCW) is another disappointing turn in [...]

Georgia Coops Get It Wrong Again

Another New Coal Plant Proposed in South Georgia by Power4Georgians
Power4Georgians is at it again.  Just recently, citizens in Ben Hill County started hearing rumors that Power4Georgians, a consortium made up of Snapping Shoals EMC, Central GA EMC, Washington County EMC, Upson EMC, and Cobb EMC is looking to develop another 850 MW coal-fired power plant [...]

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 [...]

Copenhagen Close-up: Denmark’s Thrifty Use of Bioenergy

Both open-burning and rotting are worst-case scenarios for the climate.

Copenhagen Close-up: The Danes Show the Path Away from Dirty Coal

This post was co-authored by Ulla Reeves.

Today as I flew into Copenhagen, I was struck by two very different views of energy production, the large wind turbines off the Danish coast and dotting their farmlands juxtapositioned with the many large smoke stacks surrounding the city.  This contrast shows a country in transition, because in Denmark, [...]