Environmental

High Performance Transmission Conductors Are Improving Grid Efficiency

And why it matters.

Leveraging high performance conductors has become particularly important today. They not only serve to improve efficiency and reliability, they also allow us to increase the capacity of existing transmission lines so we can access cleaner sources of generation.

Byline:

Dave Bryant

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Community Solar: States Are Testing Designs While Driving Forward

Minnesota, Oregon, New York case studies

Minnesota, Oregon and New York are certainly not alone in testing shared solar models. But the developments in each state in spring 2016 should shed light on the ability to deliver on the promise of community solar.

Byline:

Andrew Moratzka and Sara Bergan

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First Look at 2015 CO2 Emission Trends for the U.S.

Part I – Economy-wide Trends

The carbon dioxide emission reductions in the electric power sector have been the largest single factor in reductions in the U.S. since 2005.

Byline:

Daniel Klein

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How the Environmental Movement Changed its Mind on Nuclear Power

The anti-growth, anti-people extremists who started the anti-nuclear movement were wrong.

If nuclear were subsidized at the same levels as solar and wind, or allowed to contribute to state RPS, nuclear would continue to be highly economical.

Byline:

Michael Shellenberger

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Nuclear Debate: Hansen is Wrong about Nuclear Power

Nuclear, a drain on our ability to deal with climate solutions, energy needs.

Dr. James Hansen, the renowned climate change scientist, has said that nuclear power is essential to combat climate change. We disagree. Nuclear energy is a boondoggle.

Byline:

Russell Lowes and Edward Mainland

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Obligations and Opportunities: Wires Cos. Plug In to Clean Power Plan

Vol. 1: “If It’s Stayed, Why Should I Go?”

When the the Clean Power Plan is reviewed on the merits in Fall 2017, Justice Scalia will have been replaced, and the newest justice may hold the key to the fate of the plan.

Byline:

Brendan Collins

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When Water Meets Energy

Each essential. Each dependent on the other.

Water depends on energy and energy depends on water, creating opportunities for synergies and efficiencies.

Byline:

Susan N. Story

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South Dakota: A Unique Fuel Mix

Chris Nelson, vice-chairman, South Dakota Pub. Utils. Comm’n

Seventy-three percent of our generation is carbon-free, yet the EPA’s 111(d) rules require a 48 percent reduction in our CO2 emission rate. That steep reduction will be very difficult to achieve and will be costly for our electric customers. The commission’s chief concern is keeping a lid on consumer prices, especially given the pressure exerted by EPA.

Byline:

2015 Regulators Forum

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Life Without Building Block 4

Energy Efficiency under EPA’s Final Clean Power Plan.

Energy efficiency remains the most cost-effective route to compliance with the Clean Power Plan. In the final Clean Power Plan rule issued August 3, 2015, EPA did not include Energy Efficiency in the calculations used to develop state targets. However, EPA and the White House have made it abundantly clear that energy efficiency remains just as viable a compliance option as before.

Byline:

John Hargrove

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The CO2 Opportunity

Converting emissions from coal-fired plants to gasoline, diesel, or jet fuel.

An economical commercial process is needed to provide an incentive for the utility industries to engender win-win support for governmental regulations on carbon dioxide (CO₂) emissions. The current approach is carbon capture and sequestration. Recently, however, an alternative has emerged: a proprietary process that converts CO₂ into syngas (CO & H₂). Thereafter, the syngas can be converted to fuels such as gasoline, diesel, jet fuel, methanol, and/or ethanol with the use of established mature technologies.

Byline:

Gary C. Young, Ph.D., P.E.

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Environmental