July 12, 2010

Long before carbon cap-and-trade or renewable energy mandates became part of the utility lexicon, California was out in front developing green energy. California is still way out in front in one important way, but there are plenty of followers, with utilities everywhere building and buying renewable energy assets from coast-to-coast.

With mandates for renewable energy in 29 states (called a renewable portfolio standard, or RPS), California is the leader with a target of 20 percent by the end of this year and 33 percent by 2020. The state is at a pace that's way ahead of everybody else's, but the significance is diminished when so many others are doing the same thing, though at lower levels. There's an expectation in the industry, even today after climate legislation became bogged down in Congress over the past year that some form of carbon regulation is inevitable. And with big-ticket nuclear still a few years away and new coal construction at a virtual standstill, utilities are in the renewables game, whether they like it or not.

July 09, 2010

Tougher air regulations that hover over the utility market place are pitting the fossil fuels against one another. Environmental disasters are furthermore compounding the issue and forcing coal and natural gas to square off.

The battle has begun: The natural gas industry is saying that new exploratory technologies are allowing non-traditional forms to be discovered safely -- at levels that increase the supplies for decades to come. Coal representatives are responding that coal still provides twice the electricity of other fuels and that it will remain comparatively inexpensive -- and become much cleaner.

July 07, 2010

The BP oil spill could give biofuels the bump they need to fuel America's automobiles and hit the road running. Ethanol advocates are saying that they are ready to step up production, although others are cautioning against the move.

Federal policies already favor ethanol production as a way to lessen the dependence on foreign oil and as an innovative to way to clean the air. Critics say that such as strategy is not working, however, pointing out that because most of today's ethanol is made from corn, it is causing food shortages. They are also saying that it is not as clean as it purports to be. Greening the transportation sector, they argue, centers for now on electric cars.

July 05, 2010 

"What I like most about my job is that I cannot exceed the imagination of my colleagues," said Byron Washom, the University of California at San Diego's director of strategic energy initiatives. "I bring in former utility colleagues of mine, and the first thing they say when they visit the [UCSD] campus is time travel."

However, for UCSD insiders like Washom, the innovations his colleagues refer to are not futuristic. They merely form the backbone of a university that predicates progress on the sustainability of its campus.

July 02, 2010

West Virginia has staked a claim as the first state in the nation to have what is being depicted as a legitimate statewide smart grid plan in place and is moving toward implementation.

And while other states may argue West Virginia's status of being first, there's no missing the indications that both Appalachian Power -- a unit of American Electric Power -- and Allegheny Power, the West Virginia electric-delivery arm of Allegheny Energy, are striving for substantial headway in their West Virginia smart grid plans and initiatives.