I’ve written a bit about the Clean Power Plan – the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed plan to reduce carbon emissions from utility plants by 30 percent by 2030. The plan has caused hope and consternation and both environmental groups and the utility industry is weighing in. The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) has cited a new disinformation campaign has …
Sierra Club Launches Wind Energy Jobs Ad Campaign
With uncertainty around the major federal wind incentive, the Sierra Club has launched a national ad campaign urging Congress to reauthorize the critical incentive for domestic wind energy investments. The campaign focuses on Members of Congress with wind manufacturing jobs in their districts and states that are at risk of the Wind Production Tax Credit is not renewed. The first …
CSP: ELEMENTS Awarded to Southern Research Institute
Southern Research Institute has signed a jointly funded cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) as part of the DOE’s new Concentrating Solar Power: Efficiently Leveraging Equilibrium Mechanisms for Engineering New Thermochemical Storage (CSP: ELEMENTS) funding program. The program is part of the SunShot Initiative. CSP: ELEMENTS supports the development of high-temperature thermochemical energy storage (TCES) systems that …
ECOZ & CDP to Accelerate Renewable Energy
ECOHZ and CDP have signed a partnership to create an open source standard for ECOHZ’s GO² product, allowing other providers around the world to offer this new solution and participate in advancing renewable power generation. The product allows enterprises to track their renewable power consumption as well as develop new renewable generation. ECOHZ says with this system, companies will be …
Saudi Oil Money Backing Ethanol Smear Campaign
Americans United for Change and VoteVets.org held a press call today to reveal IRS documents showing that Saudi Oil money is helping to finance the multi-million dollar anti-renewable fuel smear campaign ads that the American Petroleum Institute (API) is waging against ethanol and the Renewable Fuel Standard. Also today, the API held a press call to once again call for …
Iowa Gov. Branstad Expands “Fueling Our Future”
Iowa Governor Terry Branstad’s “Fueling Our Future” program has recognized two retailers for their innovative plans to increase accessibility to higher ethanol and biodiesel blends. Farmers Cooperative based in Mount Ayr, Iowa and Oak Street station based in Inwood, Iowa both received $125,000 to offset the cost of adding renewable fuel infrastructure for biodiesel and ethanol. In addition, he has …
Stop Protecting Big Oil’s Bottom Line
A new TV advertising campaign is being launched in Washington, D.C. this Sunday by Americans United for Change calling for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to stop supporting Big Oil’s bottom line. The EPA is currently reviewing comments of their 2014 proposed rule for the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS). The goal of the TV ad is to underscore the consequences …
Iowa RFA’s Shaw Has Ag Support for Congress
Iowa Renewable Fuels Association Executive Director Monte Shaw is one of several Republican candidates vying to replace the retiring Tom Latham as Iowa’s representative in the Third Congressional District, but he may have more grassroots agricultural support than most of them. Shaw has just announced the formation of his Iowa Agriculture Team, which includes key ag leaders from across the …
Google Hopes for Good Results from Wind Project
Search engine giant Google is hoping the expansion of a California wind energy operation by one of its companies will give good results. This story from KCBS in San Francisco says Google-owned Makani Power is expanding its presence at, or maybe more accurately, ABOVE the formal naval base in Alameda. When Google bought Makani Power in 2013, the seven year-old …
Arming for a Fact-Based Fight Over Ethanol
It’s not always fact-based arguments proponents of ethanol are up against when battling Big Oil. But that’s why it’s all more important to make sure you have good facts on your side in the fight. Farmers who attended the recent Commodity Classic in San Antonio were able to sit in on a session titled, “Biofuels and the Renewable Fuels Standard, …