utilities
The Most Important Environmental Story Of The Week
Fossil Fuel Interests Corrupt Media
No, it’s not the Biden Administration’s successful push to electrify tens of thousands of USPS vehicles. It’s how Matrix LLC, a consultant in the southeast with significant investments in the energy sector, made massive payments to local media outlets to slant their coverage in favor of dirty power and exorbitant electricity rates. Consider Alabama Power, …
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CONTINUE READINGEmissions by the Big Utilities: Where They Are, What They’re Aiming For
Almost all the top ten utilities are big emitters today but looking to cut back.
There’s a lot of discussion of how the private sector is supporting renewable energy, but it’s almost all about power consumers like Apple and Walmart. But what about the companies who are selling the power? As a first step to getting a better sense of where the utility industry is going, we accumulated some basic …
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CONTINUE READINGGuest Blogger Sharon Jacobs: The Coronavirus and Our Energy System
Uncertainty is the New Normal
The novel coronavirus’s impact on our energy system is (understandably) not top of mind for most people right now. But the pandemic and its economic fallout have important implications for some of the most pressing energy issues today including the green transition, energy justice, and even the fate of bankrupt investor-owned utility PG&E in Northern …
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CONTINUE READINGUnderstanding the Green Energy Transition: A Conversation with David Spence about EnergyTradeoffs.com
UCLA Professor of Law and Legal Planet contributor William Boyd recently interviewed David Spence of the University of Texas School of Law about EnergyTradeoffs.com, a new web site that explores some under-discussed aspects of the green energy transition. BOYD: Tell me about EnergyTradeoffs.com. Why this web site and why now? SPENCE: EnergyTradeoffs.com is aimed at …
CONTINUE READINGTo Be or Not to Be an Energy Utility
Questioning the continued existence of California’s largest energy utility
What can we do to ensure the safety of the massive electric and natural gas delivery systems that we rely on every day? Eight years after the horrific explosion and fire stemming from one of the Pacific Gas and Electric Company’s (PG&E’s) natural gas pipelines in San Bruno, California, the state’s legislators and utility regulators …
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CONTINUE READINGGuest Blogger Ken Alex: Big Data and the Renewable Revolution
Ken Alex is a Senior Advisor to Governor Jerry Brown and the Director of the Governor’s Office of Planning and Research. The views expressed in this blog post are his own. Earlier this year, UCLA’s Center for Sustainable Communities launched an interactive energy map for energy use in most of Los Angeles. It was a …
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CONTINUE READINGCan Obama’s Car Emissions Deal Work for Utilities?
Politico ran a little noticed article last week suggesting that the nation’s utilities are exploring whether they can cut a deal with the Obama Administration to regulate their greenhouse gas emissions. The idea is to model a deal after the plan the car companies entered into with the Obama Administration to extend California’s car …
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CONTINUE READINGQuote of the Day
“We have long suspected that the new administration would stress environmental enforcement activities at a faster clip than the last administration, and I think we’re seeing that,” said Scott Segal, director of the Electric Reliability Coordinating Council, which represents utilities. The quote referred to DOJ’s filing of an enforcement action involving new source standards.
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