After construction of two additional reactor units at the V.C. Summer Nuclear Station ended in 2017 with billions of dollars of debt, 5,000 people out of work and no new reactors, lawmakers jumped to investigate what had happened. Now, fewer than three years later, South Carolina is being seen by some as a model for how bipartisan clean energy legislation can be accomplished in a conservative state.
Last month, I proudly joined Conservatives for Clean Energy as their new Florida Director. Our group was founded in North Carolina in 2014 to educate the public and decision-makers on the economic benefits of clean energy and advocate for continued investments across the Southeast.
Electric automaker Tesla settled a lawsuit with the state that will allow sales and service in Michigan.
Applauding the move is the Michigan Conservative Energy Forum. Kevin Essebaggers talks with MICEF Executive Director Ed Rivet about the Tesla development, and what it’s like being a conservative group lobbying for renewable energy solutions.
In early February, the Senate Business and Finance Committee convened to discuss interim charges on energy tasked by Lt. Governor Dan Patrick.
Texas is an energy-only market — wherein energy producers are paid only after they provide power.
Many have probably now seen the picture, shared widely on social media, of wind turbine blades being buried in a landfill in Wyoming. The picture highlights a legitimate challenge to wind energy, especially as costs continue to fall and deployment of wind increases across the country. Importantly those challenges, one of them highlighted here, are not a reason to walk away from the table.
Many Republicans in Western states believe in conservation, in part, because they are hunters and anglers, said Greg Brophy, Colorado director for The Western Way, a right-leaning conservation group. His assertion is backed up by the recent poll, which found 69% of voters across all eight states identify as conservationists.
Expanded renewable energy law, long-term utility planning or targets set by the governor are all on the table.
Michigan’s renewable energy standard has helped spur utility investments in clean energy over the past decade, but that may end after next year when the state targets level off at 15% renewable generation.
In our highly charged political environment, the question of whether to incorporate more renewable energy resources as part of our overall energy infrastructure is—as with most issues—often viewed in the prism of being either “left” or “right.” Unfortunately, this simplistic view distorts an increasingly important issue, and one that has much deeper significance than whether, from a political perspective, conservatives or liberals perceive renewable energy positively or negatively. In fact, transitioning to a more robust renewable energy portfolio has important implications for air quality, water supply, economic development, and national security.
Monday is a pivotal day for legislation that could extend the life of coal-powered electricity in Indiana, a measure supporters say would briefly pause a transition to cleaner energy sources but that critics argue is bad for the environment and energy markets.
After much legal wrangling, 2020 kicked off with news that Duke Energy finally had agreed to excavate all of its coal ash basins, including at Mayo and Roxboro Power Stations, and move the material to lined landfills.