USA Today had an article last week with the worst good news for carbon emissions that I’ve read in a while. The good news was that U.S. emissions fell to the lowest rate since the mid-1990s, dropping 200 million tons, or 3.8 percent. The bad news is that world carbon emissions rose by 1.4 percent in… Continue Reading
Elaine Spencer
Hope, Despair and the Challenges Going Forward: The IEA 2012 Report on World Energy Statistics
Posted in Energy Conservation, Natural Resources and EnvironmentElectric Vehicles, Hybrids and Bicycles Need to Pay Their Share
Posted in Clean Energy, Electric Vehicles, Fuel Efficiency, TaxI am a huge fan of plug-in hybrid and electric cars. I bought a plug-in hybrid in early January and have filled its tank twice now. The last time was a couple of weeks ago and since then I’ve driven 250 miles on about three gallons of gasoline. I think everyone should have one; although,… Continue Reading
Why Electric Cars Require Us to Get Electric Rates Right Now
Posted in Clean Energy, Electric Vehicles, Renewable EnergyI got gas a couple of weeks ago. Ok – mostly that wouldn’t be worth reporting. But it was the first time for my new Ford C-Max Energi plug-in hybrid. Kathleen Petrich reported on January 9 that I had bought a new car. I had been nursing my 13-year old VW Beetle, hoping that before… Continue Reading
Seattle Energy Code — Part Two
Posted in Energy Conservation, Green Building, Renewable EnergyPoint/Counterpoint on Requiring Upgrades When Buildings Undergo Major Renovation In an earlier post (Part One) I described the broad outlines of the new City of Seattle Energy Code that is under development. The new Seattle Energy Code seeks to go significantly beyond the newly approved 2012 Washington State Energy Code – which itself is light… Continue Reading
The Seattle 2012 Energy Code – Part 1
Posted in Energy Conservation, Green Building, Renewable EnergyGrinding Out the Ground Game of Energy Efficiency Back in October of 2011 the Seattle City Council passed a resolution “committing” the City to become a zero-net greenhouse gas emitter by 2050. Although individuals, cities, and governments or organizations in general seldom achieve lofty goals without first setting lofty goals, we all know that lofty… Continue Reading
The Blessing and Curse of Low BPA Electric Rates as the Northwest Moves Towards a Clean Energy Future
Posted in Clean Energy, Electric Vehicles, Energy ConservationBPA Administrator Steve Wright was in Seattle in early November as part of a victory lap prior to his announced retirement next February. The victory lap is well deserved. He is the longest-serving administrator of the Bonneville Power Administration, having joined BPA in 1981, coming up the ranks until he was named Acting Administrator in… Continue Reading
A Traveler’s Observations about Energy Consumption in Spain
Posted in Fuel Efficiency, Renewable Energy, TechnologyFor my first blog post of the fall, I’m starting with my favorite back-to-school essay topic from when I was a kid: “what did you do on your summer vacation?” It’s easy. It doesn’t make you really get serious yet. And it lets you think about what you actually might have learned from the time… Continue Reading
What Does Data Show About the Economics of Regional Cap-and-Trade?
Posted in Alternative Fuels, Climate Change, Entrepreneurs, Legislation, Natural Resources and Environment, Renewable Energy, Sustainable BusinessBack before the recession, there was a major push in Washington State to adopt a state carbon cap-and-trade program as part of Washington’s membership in the Western Climate Initiative (WCI). The argument was heated, and like most things these days tended to split on party lines with a gulf between the two. Democrats generally argued… Continue Reading
In Defense(?) of the Initiative
Posted in Legislation, Renewable EnergyA few years ago I adopted a personal policy that I always vote “no” on any initiative. It is satisfying, and it saves me a fair amount of time with the voters pamphlet. I’m part of the demographic that always votes in every election – and thus gets the maximum amount of pre-election mail. (If… Continue Reading
Can a New Political Consensus be Found to Keep a 75-Year Supply of Natural Gas from Dooming Renewable Energy?
Posted in Capital and Funding, Legislation, Natural Resources and Environment, TechnologyIn an April 12, 2012 article in the New York Times, Jad Mouwad wrote about the transformation in United States’ energy fortunes that is fundamentally changing much of what we thought we knew about domestic and international realities. After decades of viewing ourselves as energy depleted, he writes, the United States now finds itself cutting… Continue Reading
How Long Will The Legislature Be Stuck In Neutral On Green Energy?
Posted in Alternative Fuels, Legislation, Renewable EnergyAs I do at the end of every session of the Washington State Legislature, last week I asked our librarian to pull all the natural resource and energy bills passed by the 2012 legislature in its regular session. Long session; short session, the list was as thin and inconsequential as I recall. There was one bill… Continue Reading
Washington’s State Energy Strategy
Posted in Electric Vehicles, Energy Conservation, Fuel Efficiency, Green Building, LegislationPundits, at least pundits of a certain stripe, have long decried the fact that the United States has no energy strategy. Without a strategy, the argument goes, we are left at the whim of forces we cannot control and that will whipsaw the economy and the nation. And so, one has to be a bit… Continue Reading
Washington’s Utilities and Transportation Commission Tackles the Conundrum of Distributed Energy, Part 2
Posted in Entrepreneurs, Legislation, Regulatory, Renewable EnergyAs I tried to describe in Part 1 of this article, Washington has some structural challenges that impair its ability to develop distributed energy as a significant alternative to fossil fuel-powered electrical power generation. The regulatory system that has been built up over the last 100 years has powerful constituencies that it must protect. Those are… Continue Reading
Washington’s Utilities and Transportation Commission Tackles the Conundrum of Distributed Energy, Part 1
Posted in Entrepreneurs, Renewable EnergyIn a two-part post, I’ll look first on what makes encouraging distributed energy such a conundrum, and then at the steps the WUTC is proposing to take. The Early 20th Century Bargain With Investor-Owned Utilities Electrical companies are natural monopolies within their service areas. It would make no sense at all for competing companies to… Continue Reading
Seattle Resolves to Achieve Zero Net Green House Gas Emissions by 2050
Posted in Electric Vehicles, Energy Conservation, Legislation, Renewable EnergyDo you believe in magic? There is a certain sense that is what it takes for the Seattle City Council to do what it did on October 3, 2011, when it passed Resolution 31312, which puts the City on the path towards reducing Seattle’s net green house gas emissions level to zero by 2050. The… Continue Reading
The City of Seattle is a Microcosm of Why You Should and Why You May Not Build a LEED Building
Posted in Energy Conservation, Green Building, LEED, LegislationIn 2000 the City of Seattle became the first city in the country to require that all city buildings over 5,000 square feet achieve LEED silver rating. The City’s goal in doing that was to spur development of LEED buildings by demonstrating their value and increasing the familiarity of the local design professions and contractors… Continue Reading
October 1 Deadline for Seattle Building Owners to Complete Energy Benchmarking Reports
Posted in Energy Conservation, Green Building, LEED, LegislationThe City of Seattle has set a goal of reducing energy use by 20 percent over 2005 levels by 2020. To do that, it has to make major improvements in the half of all energy use which occurs in buildings. The City’s energy code for new buildings is state of the art. But that alone… Continue Reading
Oberlin, Ohio Joins the Ground Game of Carbon Neutrality
Posted in Alternative Fuels, Green Building, Renewable Energy, Sustainable BusinessI was asked last week to refer someone to a consultant who could help them evaluate a business selling carbon credits and renewable energy credits. While I could suggest a consultant to do that, I had to note that selling carbon credits just isn’t the same business as it would have been if the United… Continue Reading
Score One for Producing Electricity from Biomass
Posted in Alternative Fuels, Legislation, Natural Resources and Environment, RegulatoryWe always seem to prefer our energy to come in a form where we can’t really know where it came from. Gasoline comes from a pump at the gas station, doesn’t it? And electricity comes in wires to our house, right? If I can’t see where it comes from beyond that, doesn’t that mean that… Continue Reading
EPA Gives Itself Three More Years To Figure Out A Tailoring Rule For Biomass Energy
Posted in Legislation, Natural Resources and Environment, Regulatory, Renewable EnergyThe Clean Air Act, 42 U.S.C. § 7401 et seq was adopted in the early 1960s to insure that business and industry does not spew pollutants into the air, causing harm to humans, plants and animals. Congress found that “the growth in the amount and complexity of air pollution brought about by urbanization, industrial development,… Continue Reading
One More (Baby?) Step Towards Aviation Fuel From Forest Biomass
Posted in Alternative Fuels, Natural Resources and Environment, Regulatory, Renewable EnergyAir travel is a huge source of greenhouse gas emissions and a major consumer of fossil fuels. As a result Boeing and Airbus, as well as European airlines, have made major investments in developing aviation biofuel. In 2008 Boeing said that aviation biofuel would be a reality by 2011. Well, 2011 is here, but commercial… Continue Reading
Happy 41st Earth Day!
Posted in Climate Change, LegislationI no more wrote that title than I “heard” voices shouting, “What’s happy about it?” “Why would you even be pointing out that it’s Earth Day?” “Isn’t the earth going to the dogs and how can it be happy?” Or something like that. But for me this is a particularly reflective Earth Day. The first… Continue Reading
Hearing on HB 1268 Presents a Microcosm of Why Adopting and Implementing an Energy Policy that Moves Away from the Status Quo Is So Hard
Posted in Alternative Fuels, Legislation, Renewable EnergyThe Washington State Green Energy Leadership Plan Report, released October 21, 2010, identified four areas where it found Washington State might be able to achieve leadership in emerging segments of the future green economy. As we discussed in an earlier post, for two of those areas – combined energy efficiency, green building and smart grid… Continue Reading
Food Fight! Greenhouse Gas Regulation in 2011
Posted in Legislation, Regulatory, Renewable Energy, Sustainable BusinessFor most of the last two years it has been easy to write about climate change legislation. Two years ago, Washington State seemed poised to adopt its own version of a cap-and-trade program as part of the Western Climate Initiative. But that legislation faltered, because it was not well developed and state legislators were bombarded… Continue Reading