ILSR’s Energy Self-Reliant States: New Report! City Power Play: 8 Practical Local Energy Policies to Boost the Economy

It’s out! Check out our latest report featuring 8 Practical Local Energy Policies to Boost the Economy, with examples illustrating the policies in action and links right to the ordinances that made them work.

Also, I just posted a panel presentation I gave to the Society of Environmental Journalists last Friday, addressing the issue: Who’s Your Energy Daddy (and why the electric sector looks uncomfortably like the Oedipus play).

Sincerely,

John

New Report! City Power Play: 8 Practical Local Energy Policies to Boost the Economy

The economy has stalled and so has the war on climate change. But dozens of cities are creating jobs and cleaner energy using their own power. Learn more: Read the report: View the infographic: coming soon View presentation: coming soon Help support more research like this! Keeping Energy Dollars Local Chattanooga, TN, is adding…

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Essential Elements in the Value of Solar

Comments to the Minnesota Division of Energy Resources
Re: Value of Solar Stakeholder Process

The value of solar component of the state’s new solar energy standard must be considered in the context of the state’s energy goals, expressed in two statutes:

1. The 2007 Next Generation Energy Act’s goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 80% by 2050 and that state should pursue “the development and use of renewable energy resources wherever possible.”

2. The 2013 Energy Omnibus law, which includes “a Minnesota energy future study on how Minnesota can achieve a sustainable energy system that does not rely on the burning of fossil fuels.”

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Utility Shocked to Find It’s Already Dead

There’s an increasingly shrill discussion among utilities (and from their own Edison Electric Institute) about the threat to their business from distributed energy, as their customers shift to getting their own power from local renewable resources. Reports and news stories – e.g. “Adapt or Die” – suggest changes to the business model are imminent as…

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Who’s Your Energy Daddy?For now it remains large, investor-owned utilities, and ostensibly locally-focused rural cooperatives and municipal utilities. But the energy landscape of today gives me uncomfortable reminders of the Athenian tragedy by Sophocles – the Oedipus tale. But the energy landscape of today gives me uncomfortable reminders of the Athenian tragedy by Sophocles – the Oedipus tale. For those who don’t recall their college or high school English class, that’s the tale of the man who grows up to murder his father the king and marry his mother…

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Setting the Value of Solar – Part 1 of Minnesota’s Process

What is solar worth to a utility? It’s an issue of national debate, but one unexpected state – Minnesota – is engaging a formal process for determining the methodology for setting the value of solar. As the first multi-utility process, it’s likely to set a precedent nationwide for what the “value of solar” will mean…

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