Jennifer Rennicks contributed to this post. Dear Coastal Citizens: If you love the place we call home, please read on. I sympathize with those who feel that sea level rise sounds like “doomsday scenario” scare tactics or with the thought that a rising sea enveloping our beloved communities sounds like futuristic science fiction. I must [...]
Earlier this month I had the opportunity to attend the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Leadership Summit, hosted by Monroe County—the county of the Florida Keys. The highlight of the event was the unveiling of the Southeast Florida Regional Climate Change Compact’s Climate Action Plan, which is the written formal response of Broward, Palm Beach, Miami-Dade, [...]
This opinion piece was authored by Lee County Commissioner Ray Judah. Lee County is located in Southwest Florida. There’s been a lot of talk coming out of Tallahassee recently about fewer government regulations and more market-driven solutions. A similar sentiment was echoed at the recent Florida Energy Summit, sponsored by Agriculture Commissioner Adam Putnam, where [...]
This blog was written by SACE intern Jeannie McKinney and Natalie Mims. Finding best practices in utility-led energy efficiency programs usually means looking beyond our region. Sadly, most of the leading programs are developed and demonstrated by peer utilities in other regions of the U.S. It has been particularly distressing to see that the great [...]
Just a brief update for those who are interested in why Florida is moving so slowly on energy efficiency. As recently noted by the American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy, “regulators in Florida … took actions to render their energy savings target ineffective.” Similarly in response, the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy is protesting [...]
For over a decade, states have been coasting along with policies that affect the market for key energy resources: small renewable energy generators and companies that practice cogeneration (also known as energy recycling, or combined heat and power). As advocates for consumer-friendly energy efficiency, we’ve learned that these same policies affect energy efficiency, particularly what [...]
The American Council for an Energy Efficient Economy (ACEEE ) released their 5th annual state scorecard on energy efficiency yesterday and the results, not surprisingly, support that the efficiency sector continues to grow and create jobs. The report found that the nationwide budget for electricity efficiency programs increased $1.1 billion from 2009 to 2010, and [...]
This blog was written by SACE intern Jeannie McKinney and Natalie Mims. According to their second quarter report for 2011,*Georgia Power Company (GPC) has only accomplished 9 percent of their annual energy savings goal for the current year. In an effort to help their state “out of the bottom of national and regional comparisons on [...]
–SACE’s High Risk Energy Choices Organizer, Mandy Hancock, contributed to this blog post. Last month, SACE again participated in the nuclear cost recovery hearings for Progress Energy Florida (PEF) and Florida Power & Light (FPL) at the Florida Public Service Commission (PSC) in Tallahassee. This is the third consecutive year that these Florida utilities have [...]
North Carolina is increasing energy efficiency, cutting waste I’m a native Floridian and as long as I can remember, there’s always been a special relationship between Florida and North Carolina, especially in the heat of summer when some Floridians retreat to the mountains for milder temperatures. Both states nicely combine the gracious hospitality of Southern [...]
