Category

Climate

Climate, Energy, International, Podcast

Columbia Energy Exchange: Said Mouline

October 10, 2016

Officials from around the world will soon gather in Morocco, a country that is increasingly investing in renewable energy technologies, to discuss implementation of the newly ratified climate agreement reached in Paris last December. On this episode of the Columbia Energy Exchange host Bill Loveless talks with Said Mouline, director general of Morocco’s national agency for the development of renewable energy and energy efficiency, and a member of Morocco’s steering committee. They discussed: What to expect at COP22 in Marrakech and to what extent renewable energy can help address the goals of the Paris agreement; Morocco’s development of the world’s largest concentrated solar plant, the Noor complex; How Morocco might serve as a model for other nations, especially within Africa, to integrate renewables into their energy mix; The role of public-private partnerships in meeting Morocco’s renewable energy goals and the challenges posed by this model. (Listen here)

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by Bill Loveless
Article, Climate, Consumer, Corporations, Economy / Finance, Energy, Government and Politics, Regulations

Time for a carbon tax? A former Bush official says yes

October 9, 2016

Putting a price on carbon emissions remains a divisive topic in the USA, even as polls indicate considerable public support for actions to address climate change. Voters in Washington state may show the way  Nov. 8 when they decide on a referendum that would assess a carbon tax on coal, oil and natural gas, a move aimed at lowering emissions that contribute to climate change without digging deeply into people’s wallets. (Read more)

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by Bill Loveless
Article, Climate, Consumer, Economy / Finance, Government and Politics, Policy, Utilities and Providers

More are willing to pay to fight climate change, survey says

September 18, 2016

How much would you pay on your electric bill to combat climate change? Is $10 or $20 a month reasonable? $50 too much? Or, maybe you’re unwilling to shell out anything at all. A new survey offers some insight regarding the extent to which Americans consider climate change a legitimate threat and how much they’re willing to pay for government policies that would respond to the phenomena. (Read more)

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by Bill Loveless
Article, Climate, Corporations

Shell CEO: Red lights on path to greener energy

September 7, 2016

It’s no surprise that major oil companies are viewed as contrarians when it comes to climate change, even though all of them acknowledge the phenomenon and agree on the need for a response to one extent or another. After all, keeping temperatures from rising to catastrophic levels will require the world to wean itself off fossil fuels and turn to cleaner forms of energy, hardly an appealing proposition to the financial wellbeing of oil producers. But now the leader of one of the world’s biggest oil companies is telling his peers to accept the role unapologetically. (Read more.)

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by Bill Loveless
Climate, Energy, Technology

Offshore wind farm a green-energy milestone

August 20, 2016

The first offshore wind energy farm in the USA is up and nearly ready to go, marking a new chapter in the nation’s changing electricity grid. Thursday, workers finished installing the last of five turbines off Rhode Island’s coast, a little more than a year after the Providence-based developer Deepwater Wind first put steel in the water. (Read more.)

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by Bill Loveless
Article, Climate, Energy

Nuclear power gets a boost in New York

August 2, 2016

The struggling U.S. nuclear industry enjoyed a boost this week as New York regulators agreed to a clean energy standard that puts reactors on the same footing as solar, wind and other forms of renewable energy. But only time will tell if it marks the start of a trend. The decision by the New York Public Service Commission will require the state to meet half of its electricity needs with “renewable sources” by 2030, including three nuclear power plants at risk of shutting down, as part of a strategy to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by that year. (Read More)

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by Bill Loveless
Article, Climate, Consumer, Energy, People, Weather

Heat is on, but the power grid is holding

July 26, 2016

The retirement of coal and nuclear power plants in the U.S. over the last few years has raised concerns that the electric power industry might fail to deliver when demand for power heightens — such as during a blistering heat wave. But for the most part, that’s not the case this week as a so-called “heat dome” leaves the eastern and central parts of the U.S. sweltering with temperatures of 95 degrees or more and feeling as though it’s much hotter. (Read more)

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by Bill Loveless
Article, Climate, Economy / Finance, Energy, Technology

Turbine industry aims to keep tailwind blowing

July 6, 2016

The U.S. wind energy industry is the fastest-growing new source of electricity in the country. But it’s not resting on its laurels, especially in an election year. Hence the launch of American Wind Action, a group that will promote the benefits of wind energy to the public as voters consider whom to elect for the White House, Congress, state legislatures and other offices where public policy is made. (Read more)

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by Bill Loveless
Article, Climate, Energy, Government and Politics, Technology, Utilities and Providers

Solar plane partner sees energy reforms in U.S.

June 26, 2016

As he follows the Solar Impulse 2 on its historic flight around the world, the CEO of one of the project’s partners, Ulrich Spiesshofer, draws similarities between the challenges facing the aircraft and those confronting companies navigating changes in energy consumption, like his. “We need to make sure that we demonstrate to the world with projects like this that we continue to stretch the limits,” Spiesshofer, the chief executive of ABB, a multinational maker of electricity grids and robots, said during a visit to Washington the other day. “This project is absolutely stretching the limits.” (Read more)

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by Bill Loveless
Climate, Government and Politics, International, Podcast

Columbia Energy Exchange: David Sandalow

June 20, 2016

Seven years ago, David Sandalow pitched an idea that’s turned into one of the biggest international gatherings on clean energy. While an assistant secretary at the U.S. Department of Energy, Sandalow proposed to then-Energy Secretary Steven Chu an annual meeting of energy ministers from around the world to help accelerate the transition to clean energy technologies. The first Clean Energy Ministerial was held in Washington, D.C. in the summer of 2010. Recently, the seventh Clean Energy Ministerial took place in San Francisco.  Delegates from 23 governments and the European Union participated.  Sandalow, the Inaugural Fellow at the Center on Global Energy Policy, was in San Francisco and, not long after returning, joined Bill Loveless on the Columbia Energy Exchange podcast (Listen here).

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by Bill Loveless