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Posts Tagged ‘Energy’

Rolling Blackouts – NEVER AGAIN! – well at least not for another 21 years

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , , on April 12, 2011 | 1 Comment »

An unusual weather event and rolling blackouts – what lessons were learned?  Apparently none. A report from the Public Utility Commission of Texas is clear in its analysis of what went wrong and what needed to be done to prevent another such event: The winter freeze greatly strained the ability of the Texas electric utilities [...]

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Your Grocery Bill and the Amazon Rainforest: What’s the Big Deal?

Posted in Climate Change, Global Warming, tagged , , , , , on April 11, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

Could your trip down to the neighborhood meat market, or your favorite burger joint be contributing to the demise of the Amazon rainforest?  Cattle ranching in Brazil is the leading cause of deforestation in the Amazon. This is old news though.  Cattle ranching has been the leading cause of deforestation in the Amazon rainforest since [...]

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Bill of the Day – SB 15 – was good, now not so much

Posted in Air Quality, Coal, Energy, tagged , , , on April 7, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

Today, the Senate Natural Resources Committee passed out a state energy policy bill that no longer calls for the closure of the state’s worst air polluting power plants According to committee chair Troy Fraser (R-Horseshoe Bay), Senate Bill 15 would create a 12-member Texas Energy Policy Council to advise legislators on “strategic, market-based” energy and [...]

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Wind and solar may be competitive with coal without aid in a decade, Chu says

Posted in Global Warming, Renewables, tagged , , , , on March 26, 2011 | 1 Comment »

According to Bloomberg, U.S. Energy Secretary Steven Chu is calling for a national energy policy that will promote the use of clean-energy technologies.  This would include U.S. investment in advanced battery technologies, biofuels and efficient high-voltage transmission systems.  Secretary Chu went on to say they are expecting wind and solar power may be able to [...]

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FERC to use Texas outage inquiry to evaluate national energy issues

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , , , , , , on March 13, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) wants to know the reasons for the Texas power generation outages and for the interruptions in natural gas delivery to New Mexico. As Texas officials began looking into the causes of the Texas electricity blackouts, New Mexico was holding its own hearings.  The ripple effect felt by down pipeline [...]

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PUC Sunset bill give the agency more oversight of ERCOT

Posted in Energy, Sunset, Texas Legislature, tagged , , , , , on March 12, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

The Public Utility Commission (PUC) sunset bill (H.B. 2134) would give the PUC the authority to approve or change the annual budget of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT),  stipulates that no member of the PUC could work for ERCOT for at least two years after he or she had stepped down, and fines would quadruple [...]

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Want solar but live under HOA rules that won’t allow it?

Posted in Renewables, tagged , , , , , on March 10, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

The House Business and Industry Committee will meet next Monday and one of the bills that they will be taking testimony on is HB 450 filed by Representative Eddie Lucio, III (D-San Benito) that addresses the regulation of solar energy devices by a property owners’ association.  If you are a homeowner who wants solar but your HOA [...]

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Got Solar?

Posted in Energy, Renewables, solar, tagged , , , on March 7, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

For many who want to add more rooftop and other on-site solar generating devices on homes and even commercial properties, there have been concerns about the prospect of being regulated as utilities.  This concern has been seen as an overly burdensome barrier to the industry, however Senator John Carona (R-Dallas) filed legislation that would make clear that [...]

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A Brave New World according to new WWF report

Posted in Renewables, tagged , , on March 6, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

According to a new report from the World Wildlife Federation (WWF), a fully sustainable and renewable global energy system is possible by 2050.  The Energy Report, researched for the WWF by Ecofys, a leading energy consulting firm in the Netherlands,  shows that humanity could meet 95 percent of energy needs with renewables utilising today’s technologies, and that in four [...]

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Department of Energy launches initiative to bring down solar energy costs

Posted in Renewables, solar, tagged , , , on March 5, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

The US Department of Energy (DOE) announced $27 million in projects to advance solar development and manufacturing through its SunShot Initiative whose goal is to achieve cost competitive solar energy by 2020. The hope is that the SunShot initiative can reduce the total costs of photovoltaic solar energy systems by about 75 percent so that they are [...]

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Energy self sufficiency vs. HOA control

Posted in Efficiency, Energy, Renewables, solar, tagged , , on March 4, 2011 | 1 Comment »

Several bills filed this session, which included some heard at Wednesday’s hearing of the Senate Intergovernmental Relations Committee would preclude homeowners’ associations from restricting installation of solar energy devices.  These are: Sen. Royce West (D-Dallas) – SB 238 Sen. Jeff Wentworth (R-San Antonio) – SB 302 Sen. Mike Jackson (R-La Porte) – SB 447 (identical [...]

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CPS Energy: Leading San Antonio into the New Energy Economy

Posted in Global Warming, tagged , , , on February 23, 2011 | 3 Comments »

Solar Austin is hosting a special event featuring the CEO of San Antonio’s municipal utility, Doyle Beneby of CPS. Mr. Beneby will discuss CPS Energy’s plan to pursue affordable renewable energy. This special event will take place at Malverde (400 W. 2nd, next to City Hall) with a Reception starting at 4pm and talk from 5 to [...]

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NRG could pull out permanently from STP expansion by the end of the 2011 3rd quarter.

Posted in Energy, Nuclear, tagged , , , , , , on February 22, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

NRG Energy, Inc. posted their 2010 Full-Year and Fourth Quarter results today.  It appears that if no loan guarantees are forthcoming and the company fails to secure sufficient Power Purchase Agreements (PPA) for the STP expansion project by the third quarter of this year, NRG could make a final decision to pull the project. For [...]

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PEC names new CEO

Posted in Co-op Reform, tagged , , , on February 22, 2011 | 1 Comment »

The Pedernales Electric Cooperative (PEC) has named R.B Sloan as its new CEO. Sloan begins March 6, leaving his current job as director of utilities in Danville, VA.  He also ran the city-owned electric company for Vero Beach, Fla. PEC, the nation’s oldest and largest co-op has been plagued by scandal and management upheaval over [...]

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Which power plants caused the rolling blackouts?

Posted in Energy, tagged , , , , , on February 16, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

ERCOT just released an updated list of all of the power plants that were not operating Feb 2, contributing to the power shortages that caused the rolling blackouts.  That document is here, but we present the data below for your convenience. Notice a trend? Natural gas and Lignite coal were the main power sources that [...]

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