State roundup: N.C., Ohio, Colo., Fla. all deep in contentious legislative action
- Details
-
06 May 2013
By Kennedy Maize
May 6, 2013 – Renewable energy standards continue to be under attack in North Carolina. Ohio is pondering changes to its renewable and energy efficiency policies. Colorado is increasing its measure of renewable power in a contentious measure the state’s rural electric cooperatives are fighting. Florida’s House has passed a nuclear financing reform bill after the Senate acted earlier. There’s plenty of action in the states these days.
To sell green, don’t sell green
- Details
-
06 May 2013
To sell technologies that are friendly to the environment – shhh! – don’t mention the environment! That’s the takeaway from a recent study led by Dena Gromet of the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton School and published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Political polarization has become so strong in the US, the study says, that pitching green attributes turns off political conservatives, particularly when the stress is on reduction of greenhouse gases. According to the PNAS abstract, “In a real-choice context, more conservative individuals were less likely to purchase a more expensive energy-efficient light bulb when it was labeled with an environmental message than when it was unlabeled.”
Here’s the scoop on selling green.
UK market maven resigns at critical time; market reform issues persist
- Details
-
06 May 2013
The UK’s top civil servant working on electricity market reform (EMR) has resigned at a critical moment, the Guardian reports. Jonathan Brearley, director of energy strategy and futures at the UK Department of energy and Climate Change, departs as Parliament is considering an energy bill that would include the EMR. A spokesman for the energy agency said Brearley will stay through July to help with policy work on the EMR. The newspaper said, “The EMR has already been at the centre of rows over whether its provisions to bring forward a lower-carbon Britain will succeed or are too complex and whether it will cost too much.”
Read about Britain’s continuing stalemate over energy policy.
Indy gasification running on empty
- Details
-
06 May 2013
The Indiana Gasification project – long a favorite of former Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels – is running out of gas. The key to the project was to use carbon dioxide captured during gasification of local coal to fill a pipeline running to the Gulf Coast to use in enhanced oil recovery. The gas would be sold into the existing natural gas market. But new Republican Gov. Mike Pence isn’t enamored of the $2.8 billion project, and the economics of coal, natural gas, and CO2 have changed since the project first began to generate interest in 2009. A spokesman for the project told ClimateWire that new state legislation passed last week would add two years to the commencement of the project and make financing “impossible.”
Here’s another costly coal-conversion plan facing market realities.
Norway needs trash; US has it
- Details
-
06 May 2013
Norway’s capital is too clean and recycles too much. Oslo, the New York Times reports, faces a fuel shortage and the fuel is garbage. Is this a business opportunity for the US, which may be the Saudi Arabia of garbage? Oslo heats half the city and most of its schools by burning trash, as well as generating a lot of electricity, a common technology in Northern Europe. “I’d like to take some from the United States,” said Pal Mikkelsen, in his office at a huge plant on the edge of town that turns garbage into heat and electricity. “Sea transport is cheap.” We can envision a thriving market in trash barge credits.
See the story here.
