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The Expanding Role of State Renewable Energy Policy

A growing portion of U.S. states’ electricity is being provided by renewable energy, according to a report released yesterday by the Pew Center on Global Climate Change. States are using increasingly aggressive and ambitious Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) in order to spur economic development and create a reliable and diversified supply of electricity, as well as to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and conventional pollutants. As of mid 2006, 22 states and the District of Columbia have implemented an RPS; well over half of the American public now lives in a state in which an RPS is in operation. The Pew Center report, Race to the Top: The Expanding Role of U.S. State Renewable Portfolio Standards, authored by Barry Rabe of the University of Michigan, builds on earlier Pew Center analyses of the state role in climate policy development. The proliferation of RPSs at the state level provides real-world models of whether a federal RPS may be a feasible option to increase the nation’s use of renewable energy sources as part of a larger energy and climate change policy. “If we are to successfully address climate change, we must increase our use of renewable energy. States are leading on renewables, as […]

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Texas Coalition Formed to Increase Energy Efficiency Funding

A coalition of electricity consumers aiming to reduce electricity consumption and costs through expanded electric utility efficiency programs Efficiency Texas has been formed. The Coalition was recently granted intervener status by the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) for its CenterPoint Energy Houston Electric, LLC ratemaking case (Docket No. 32093) and is participating in settlement discussions among the CenterPoint interveners starting today. Efficiency Texas, whose members include commercial building owners, retailers, churches, environmental organizations, citizen groups and individual businesses, was organized earlier this year by Austin-based Good Company Associates. The Coalition represents over 40,000 retail stores, more than four million individuals and over 661 million square feet of building and office space. Mark R. Stover, who recently joined Good Company Associates after spending eleven years in Washington, DC as a government and public affairs specialist, will direct the Coalition. “Energy efficiency programs are a popular, cost-effective and pragmatic way to curb escalating energy demand and to help offset the need for expensive new power plants. With rising electricity prices due to increasing fuel costs, growing concerns about air pollution, a stressed electric power grid and shrinking reserve margins, energy efficiency has never been more important,” said Robert J. King, president […]

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BP to Invest $500M in Biofuels Research Center

By Jad Mouawad, June 14, 2006 In one of the largest research grants by an oil company, BP is planning to spend $500 million over the next 10 years to finance major work on biofuels to find “longer-term commercial alternatives to oil and gas.” The energy giant is in talks with several universities in the United States or Britain as possible sites for the research center but says it has not yet picked a partner. BP aims to begin research at the center, called the BP Energy Biosciences Institute, by the end of 2007. The program is expected to be formally announced in London today by Lord Browne, the company’s chief executive, a spokeswoman, Sarah Howell, said. It will finance “radical research aimed at probing the emerging secrets of bioscience and applying them to the production of new and cleaner energy, principally fuels for road transport,” the company said. The project is another step in BP’s shift to diversify its energy supplies and provide alternatives to fossil fuels for transportation, the largest consumer of crude oil. BP was the first oil company to recognize the impact of carbon emissions on global warming, in 1997, and has since increased its commitment […]

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