When President Obama unveils his climate policy proposal in the coming days, he should focus on the one key element of successful climate and energy policy. It’s not about utilities or incentives or numbers, it’s about ownership. Climate-protecting energy policy succeeds when communities can keep their energy dollars local by directly owning and profiting from investments … Read More
The coming of solar grid parity offers an opportunity for millions of Americans to go solar affordably. But it also means a potential transformation, a democratization of an electricity system long dominated by centrally-controlled utilities and centralized ownership and production of electricity. When solar can undercut grid electricity prices, it may also undercut this 20th century … Read More
Over the weekend the campaign for a municipal utility option in Minneapolis, MN, got another boost: the endorsement of the city Democratic-Farmer-Labor Party. The campaign’s goal is to increase clean, affordable, reliable, and local energy deployment in the city through meaningful negotiations with the utilities over their expiring franchise contracts in 2014, or by exercising the … Read More
When I wrote two weeks ago that Master Limited Partnerships are a Lousy Policy for Solar, Wind, and Taxpayers, I was aware that it wasn’t a widely held view. The piece has done more than provide another viewpoint on the complicated corporate structure, it has ignited a significant debate across the renewable energy community about the … Read More
GreentechMedia, June 13, 2013 Aside from the NSA surveillance program and vacations, it’s nearly impossible to find something both parties in Congress can agree on. But we may just have another such policy: master limited partnerships, or MLPs. MLPs help energy project developers and investors avoid getting hit with double taxes. They are publicly traded entities … Read More
The municipal utility serving Denton, Texas, has already achieved 40% renewable energy. Their general manager presented to the Boulder, Colo., city council in 2013 as inspiration for their pursuit of a city-owned utility.… Read More
Midwest Energy News, June 10, 2013 Utility customers who own solar panels are doing society a favor, helping to cut carbon emissions and ease transmission line congestion, among other benefits. Or, they’re power-grid freeloaders, lowering their own electric bills but sticking everyone else with a bigger share of costs for infrastructure they still depend on after … Read More
“A lot of the utilities don’t totally understand this new paradigm that’s coming.” David Blittersdorf of AllEarth Solar has been working to advance renewable energy in Vermont for years, and was instrumental in getting the state’s standard offer program (a feed-in tariff) passed in 2009. He’s adamant that the state should accelerate its standard offer in … Read More
Midwest Energy News, June 6, 2013 As the population grows, the economy improves and the climate warms in its service territory, Xcel Energy projects rising demand for electricity on hot summer days before the end of the decade. On April 15, the Minnesota utility proposed meeting that new peak demand by building three 215-megawatt natural gas … Read More
