Safety questions post-Fukushima have created a significant amount of uncertainty regarding the future of nuclear power in the US, as other countries such as Germany move to ban nuclear power. Construction costs, liability claims and many other factors that affect the cost of building a nuclear plant remain unclear, yet a number of utilities are [...]
There are two facts that the hawkers of “clean coal” don’t want you know. First, there is no such thing as clean coal. Second, the salesmen of clean coal would not want such a thing if it did exist. Its seems paradoxical but it makes perfect sense. The “clean coal” campaign is simply an effort [...]
This blog was co-authored by Katie Stokes. This is the last of five blogs in a series where the Southern Alliance for Clean Energy has highlighted states throughout our region and their role in the wind industry. Georgia’s wind resource is vast; however, no large-scale wind farms have been built onshore or offshore of the [...]
The Environmental Protection Agency is imbued with significant authority to limit climate pollutants, according to the United States Supreme Court, but it must remain vigilant against political pressure lest we lose our best defense against the growing levels of greenhouse gas emissions. Earlier today the United States Supreme Court reaffirmed its 2007 ruling that the [...]
Coal utilities like American Electric Power (AEP) and Southern Company are making big threats. They threaten to protect our air, our water and our health. They threaten to provide us with a more stable and diverse portfolio of energy generation, and they threaten to make good business decisions by closing down the oldest and least [...]
Southern Company, the dinosaur of the utility world, has now declared new coal plants a dead end due to competitive prices of natural gas. The April 18, 2011 Energy & Coal Price Report reports that Southern Company (parent company of Georgia Power) told the North Carolina Coal Institute spring meeting it has no plans to build any new coal plants. Southern [...]
Two weeks have now passed since the fateful earthquake and tsunami struck Japan. More than 10,000 people have died and another 17,500 are still missing and hundreds of thousands are without shelter and adequate care. Compounding the crisis is the nuclear disaster at the Fukushima Daiichi site, which continues to be plagued by significant setbacks. [...]
“In sum, trying to solve global warming with nuclear power is like trying to solve world hunger with caviar,” –Ellen Vancko, Union of Concerned Scientist’s Nuclear Energy & Climate Change Project Manager Despite over 50 years of government subsidies to support the U.S. nuclear power industry’s development and operations, the industry is still not economically [...]
The long darkness is over! OK, that’s a bit melodramatic but … after many years of very little access to energy efficiency programs, Southeastern households and businesses are finding that their utilities may be offering attractive and comprehensive energy efficiency programs. As recently as 2008, significant energy efficiency programs in the Southeast were limited to [...]
The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) issued a January 6, 2011 release that uses a recent study by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to highlight TVA’s successful reductions of dangerous air pollutants. The fact that TVA has reduced its air pollution is, of course, good news. It means that people and the environment in the Southeast are [...]
