california posts, articles, and infographics

If a Butterfly Flaps Its Wings in California, Will the Smart Grid Deploy Faster?

May 21, 2012 by Christine Hertzog
with 279 views

The Butterfly Effect is a part of popular culture. It essentially states that if, when, and where a butterfly flaps its wings activates a chain of reactions that culminate in a big weather event like a hurricane or tornado in some distant part of the world. For the Smart Grid, we don’t know which events will be judged... [read more]

Backfilling Nuclear Shutdowns With Efficiency And Renewables In Japan, Germany And California?

April 30, 2012 by Joseph Romm
with 223 views

Electric utilities and policymakers in Japan and Germany have been scrambling for months to find ways to compensate for nuclear power plants shut down in the aftermath of Fukushima.In both instances, fossil fuels are part of the stopgap solution to offset the declines in nuclear generation in the short term, but longer-term energy... [read more]

Renewable portfolio standards insufficient to meet 2030 GHG emission targets

February 15, 2012 by Jonathan Smith
with 245 views

The least expensive way for the Western US to reduce greenhouse gas emissions enough to help prevent the worst consequences of global warming is to replace coal with renewable and other sources of energy that may include nuclear power, according to a new study by University of California, Berkeley, researchers. [read more]

California’s Green Economy Doubled Performance of Total Economy During Downturn

February 9, 2012 by Joseph Romm
with 313 views

When times get tough, companies often fall back on an old familiar phrase: “we just need to do more with less.” That usually applies to human resources. But it’s equally important with natural resources. As it turns out, “green” companies in California that do more with fewer natural resources fared much better than companies in other sectors during the worst of America’s economic troubles — more than doubling the performance of the broader economy. [read more]

Decarbonizing California requires relying more on electricity, once it's low carbon

February 4, 2012 by Karen Street
with 262 views

A 2006 California law, Assembly Bill 32, obligates the state to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to 1990 levels by 2020 (30% below business as usual), and to 80% below that level by 2050 (90% below business as usual). How is it to done? A team from UC, Berkeley, Lawrence Berkeley National Labs, and elsewhere examines this... [read more]

PACE Solar Financing Shows Signs of Life

January 31, 2012 by Chip Gaul
with 323 views

Communities and homeowners have more reason to be optimistic about solar financing. In the summer of 2010, the Federal Housing Financial Authority (FHFA), which is the regulatory arm of mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, unilaterally wiped out PACE financing programs that were just gaining fruition in communities (... [read more]

Super Hot Salt: The Newest Energy Storage Innovation?

January 31, 2012 by Joseph Romm
with 955 views

Policymakers and energy industry experts often talk about clean energy as though it isn’t reliable. In fact, while an MIT study recently found the existing grid would probably be up to the challenge of absorbing clean energy, intermittency does present a real challenge that renewables must address to get to high levels of... [read more]

Oil Companies Invest in Fossil Fuels Fifty Times More Than In Alternatives

December 14, 2011 by Simon Mui
with 414 views

Trend would be shifted with California’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard NRDC has long supported efforts by companies to invest in cleaner technologies. We have started tracking oil industry investments in renewable fuels such as advanced biofuels, down to the company level. In a new analysis, NRDC compares those investments to traditional... [read more]

Harnessing the Power of the Sun for Oil Production

November 15, 2011 by Des King
with 1,285 views

Coalinga, a small town in California’s Central Valley, is home to the past, present and future of energy. The town was originally called Coaling Station A, and served as a coaling station for the railroads in the late 19th century. The name was later shortened to Coalinga. Coalinga sits on the aptly named Coalinga Oil Field – one of the largest in California. The oil field was discovered in 1887 and is one of the nation’s oldest producing oil fields. And last month, Coalinga gained another distinction – home to the world’s largest solar-to-steam enhanced oil recovery project. [read more]

Gas Taxes v. CAFE Regulations

August 9, 2011 by Michael Giberson
with 396 views

Most of the current 18.4 cents per gallon federal gasoline tax is set to expire at the end of September, and there are some indications that it may become the occasion for the next big political fight in Congress. See Politico and Platts for background. Grover Nordquist, of Americans for Tax Reform, says a vote to keep the current... [read more]

Could California Suffer The EU-ETS Problem?

August 1, 2011 by David Hone
with 377 views

The EU Emissions Trading System is suffering a decline in fortune. The price has been relatively low since the onset of the financial crisis, driven in part by a decline in industrial activity linked to the recession, but also to continuous overlaying of policy by both Member States and the Commission. With California now setting up its own cap-and-trade system could it also go the way of the EU ETS? [read more]

Utility Integrated Solar Power Grew 100% in 2010

June 22, 2011 by Reginald Norris
with 489 views

Solar Electric Power Association (SEPA) has released its latest report which showed that U.S. electric utility providers are including more and more solar power generation in their portfolios and much of this increases is happening outside of California. (Click here for the Executive Summary of the report)The Solar Electric Power... [read more]

EJ Lawsuit Against Implementation of California’s AB 32 Climate Policy Wrongheaded

May 23, 2011 by Robert Stavins
with 255 views

On May 20th, San Francisco Superior Court Judge Ernest Goldsmith ruled that the California Air Resources Board had not adequately explained its choice of a market-based mechanism – a cap-and-trade system — to achieve approximately 20 percent of targeted emissions reductions by 2020 under Assembly Bill 32, the Global Warming... [read more]

The Top 10 Solar States

May 18, 2011 by Reginald Norris
with 999 views

The New York Times recently published its top 10 solar states in the United States for 2010, ranking states based on installed solar power capacity. Most people will not be surprised to see a number of western states on the list but they might be surprised to see so many eastern states making noise on the list as well.To begin,... [read more]

California PUC Proposes Energy Data Privacy Rules

May 10, 2011 by Christine Hertzog
with 515 views

The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) issued a proposed decision regarding the privacy and security of electricity usage data on May 6. This proposal sets the stage for how consumer consumption data is managed by the three investor-owned utilities (IOUs) in California – Pacific Gas and Electric, Southern California... [read more]