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Gas industry’s first stabs at ‘standards’ & ‘practices’: how much do they reduce accident risk?
That’s at least one question on this blogger’s mind. One cannot help but note the absence of “best practices” because, well, they aren’t, at least not yet.Can they be?I, for one, am willing to believe the industry CAN produce bonafide best practices...
Sprint-ing, not walking, the ‘talk’ to achieve sustainability goals
It’s becoming more clear every day that cleaner energy and environmental sustainability depends on private industry.The expiration of many renewable energy incentives, zero prospects for a U.S. carbon tax or a cap and trade program, restraints on...
Commodity risks – how energy suppliers manage them can make a big difference
More than a decade after the Enron debacle, one would think managing an energy company’s risks is a widely-agreed upon practice with similar types of standards. Yet with the ongoing volatility in oil and natural gas prices, accidents and ‘Acts of...
Can Maryland get into wind after setbacks in New Jersey and Delaware?
Offshore wind has two strikes against it in New Jersey and Delaware. Cape Wind off Massachusetts’ Nantucket Sound is fighting to stay alive in extra innings. Now Maryland is trying to get ‘on base’ with a second bid by Governor Martin O’Malley which...
The Green Button is approaching critical mass
NOW, we’re getting somewhere with the Green Button Initiative.Nine investor-owned utilities from across the country have jumped on board enabling an updated total of about 27 million households to access their electricity usage data. This is a huge...
‘Green Button’: How Long Before Adoptions Match the Hype?
The White House wants it. Some California utilities get it. But will more than a few U.S. utilities sign on to help ratepayers better understand how they use electricity with one-click access to their data? One year after the Obama Administration...
The case against a tariff on imported Chinese solar panels
Below The Energy Fix shares the case AGAINST a tariff on solar panels imported from China. The case FOR a tariff was published here February 14. Last October the US subsidiary of German-based SolarWorld, a manufacturer of polysilicon solar cells,...
Renewable energy: advocates need to raise their ‘game’ to match fossil energy interests
With the absence of an energy discussion in this year’s presidential race, one might think the U.S. faces few, if any, substantive energy problems, or opportunities for that matter. Most energy experts agree that is not the case. Yet what...
SolarWorld states its case for tariffs on Chinese solar panel imports
China's Xi Jinping is the assumed next leader of the Chinese Communist Party. Watch for what he says about the raging dispute over China's solar panel prices and the trade war that looms. CREDIT: sify.com The visits this week in Washington, Iowa...
New nuclear era begins after approval of Vogtle plant – but questions remain
How much “new” nuclear and how soon? Those are the front-of-mind questions for nuclear and many cleaner energy advocates with today’s U.S. government approval of the construction and operation of two new nuclear power reactors by Southern Company in...
How overturning conventional energy wisdom could resurrect real progress in climate talks
Ever since the Copenhagen round of global climate talks failed in 2009, there have been no shortage of prescriptions and declarations about what needs to change. The subsequent failures in Cancun in 2010 and Durban last year underscore the need for...
EDF’s Utility Proposal Could Scale Up Distributed Solar, EE
The California Public Utility Commission is accepting comments through January 25 and holding workshops February 8-10 on a proposal by Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) to create the nation’s first statewide on-bill repayment (OBR) program for energy...
