(Photo by Don and Suzan Weller, via Flickr Creative Commons.) As the sun sets over Waterford, CT, an expert proposes a price floor in wholesale electricity markets.
As New England states progress towards decarbonization goals, the electricity spot market will see offers from solar and wind generators that incur no marginal cost. That can harm reliability and put some operators hastily out of business. To retain existing resources and the stability they bring, we need to set...
(Photo by Hugh Kenny, Piedmont Environmental Council.) A solar array in Virginia stands for the kinds of investment that could crowd in with a properly targeted federal carbon price.
Climate scientists in the latest
Report warned that without immediate large-scale reductions in greenhouse gas emissions, climate change will cause devastating economic and human losses. Policymakers must come together to implement a comprehensive climate change strategy in the United States.
We wrote last year about Beam, the startup with plans to run electric-vehicle charging stations on on-site solar and pay for itself with advertising. Amid a call for a national mandate that would electrify half of the United States' cars, Beam kept reporting orders from cities and ran a test EV aircraft flight. This July 17 TV dispatch offers some details.
Putting at least some grantmaking where its goals seem to lie, the Biden Administration has committed $19 million to universities for research into methods for extracting rare-earth minerals in places with a history of coal mining. Does this slide the puck toward a diverse economy in these communities?
"In Washington and many other states, we are using innovation and cooperation to grow jobs and protect the planet. As Washington’s governor, I know firsthand the obstacles states face when they respond to increasingly devastating floods, wildfires, and earthquakes, and other catastrophes made worse by a changing climate."
In 2015 Hawaii became the first U.S. state to mandate a total transition to renewable energy. With exceptionally high energy prices and an ingrained environmental ethos, Hawaii has positioned itself as a pioneer in the quest to move toward a future free of fossil fuels.
The utility has chosen to disregard the goals of the state of Rhode Island and only procure electricity from one of the projects that completed a recent solicitation.
Research on California's Low Carbon Fuel Standard program suggests the LCFS program design of capacity-based credits has the potential to increase EV deployment, but that some unanswered questions need to be addressed before the point-of-sale rebate program can do the same.
Student-managed funds, including at universities in Connecticut and Rhode Island, are starting to invest more aggressively in renewable energy companies to hedge their portfolios and to gain from market returns.
