August 26th, 2010 () Clean Energy, Energy Efficiency, Green Economy › Sam Gomberg › No Comments
The State of Tennessee announced two separate energy efficiency programs this week: one to assist residents in the purchase of energy efficient heating and cooling equipment, and the other to provide low interest financing to Tennessee businesses for energy efficiency and renewable energy retrofits.
On Monday, the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development (ECD) announced [...]
August 24th, 2010 () Clean Energy › Dr. Stephen A. Smith › No Comments
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 [...]
August 12th, 2010 () Clean Energy › Dr. Stephen A. Smith › 2 Comments
Comments from Dr. Stephen A. Smith, Executive Director, Southern Alliance for Clean Energy, August 12, 2010 at EETN’s Ribbon Cutting for Tennessee’s largest solar site.
First let me thank Robbie and Harvey and their team at EETN for seeing this project through and allowing myself and my SACE team to be a part of it. It [...]
August 11th, 2010 () Clean Energy › Sam Gomberg › 2 Comments
Nearly a year after President Obama nominated four people to fill vacant seats on TVA’s Board of Directors, and 6 months after the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works unanimously approved the nominations, it seems backdoor politics and partisan bickering are keeping the Board nominees from final confirmation by the Senate.
We see no reason [...]
August 4th, 2010 () Coal, High Risk Energy › Josh Galperin, Esq. › 3 Comments
The 4th Circuit Court of Appeals, based in Virginia, struck a very serious blow to Southeast air quality last week when it overturned an interstate nuisance ruling in the case of Tennessee Valley Authority vs. North Carolina. The appeals court ruled that the state of North Carolina could not claim a public nuisance against a [...]
June 7th, 2010 () Clean Energy, Coal, High Risk Energy › Sam Gomberg › 2 Comments
In a preliminary announcement on May 4, EPA proposed two distinctly different options for regulating the toxic mess left behind from burning coal at fossil plants. . . Given all the evidence about the dangers of coal ash, its a simple choice between Subtitle C’s toxic waste regulations and Subtitle D’s household garbage guidelines.
March 11th, 2010 () Clean Energy › Brandon Blevins › No Comments
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 [...]
December 22nd, 2009 () Coal, High Risk Energy › Sam Gomberg › 4 Comments
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 [...]
December 21st, 2009 () Coal, High Risk Energy, Nuclear, SACE Reports › Ulla-Britt Reeves › 3 Comments
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 [...]
December 17th, 2009 () Climate Action, Copenhagen '09 › Dr. Stephen A. Smith › 2 Comments
It was with great disappointment that I watched the congresswoman’s republican response to the President’s weekly radio address last Saturday. She is now in Copenhagen as part of the U.S. Congressional Delegation. Her grandstanding appears to be more aimed at her growing Sara Palin wannabe ambition and appealing to the hard right teabag wing of the [...]