Energy Policy & Regulations

CaliforniaGeo 2-6-17 Yesterday, the Los Angeles Times printed a feature article written by Ivan Penn and Ryan Menezes that called into question the state Public Utility Commission’s continuing approval for electrical power generating stations that push capacity well beyond regulatory requirements.  This excess costs California Consumers billions of dollars.   Why Is This? A clear […]

CaliforniaGeo 11-27-16 Presidential candidate Donald Trump promised to bring back coal extraction and use, and made disparaging remarks about renewable energy.  So much and so often that many green thinking citizens are scared stiff over reversals in climate change policy. “Drill, baby, Drill!” former Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin is reported as seeking the cabinet post […]

Report: Fossil fuel, utility interests spend $3.1M on Ohio elections BRIEF,  From Utility Dive Weekly Newsletter  Nov. 4, 2016 AUTHOR  Robert Walton Dive Brief: •  Fossil fuel interests including utilities spent $3.1 million this year, through October, on issues and candidates leading up to next week’s election, Midwest Energy News reports.  •  Midwest Energy News […]

Sacramento Bee 9-10-16 BY DALE KASLER dkasler@sacbee.com California’s electrical grid is run from Folsom by the Independent System Operator, seen in 2012.  A federal appeals court ruling backed a federal order that penalized five electricity providers for state’s energy crisis in 2000 and 2001. More than 15 years after the last rolling blackout, California officials are […]

Condensed from “City of Santa Monica News” 10-27–16 Santa Monica’s vote for a 2017 Zero Net Energy Ordinance is an update to its Green Building Ordinance, which is California’s first.  It affects single family homes.  There are also non-ZNE requirements that force multi-family and high rise structures to use between 10 and 15 percent less […]

Reliance on oil is costing states billions, group says Sacramento Bee 10-29-16 BY MARK GLOVER mglover@sacbee.com RICHARD VOGEL The Associated Press— Los Angeles is shrouded in early morning coastal fog in August. Southern California had a smoggy summer and hospitals reported an increase of people with breathing problems. An American Lung Association report blamed petroleum […]

A Clean Air Regulatory Advocate For Millions in the S.F. Bay Area  The Mission Statement for BAAQMD reads as follows: The Air District aims to create a healthy breathing environment for every Bay Area resident while protecting and improving public health, air quality, and the global climate. That seems like a straightforward determination to improve […]

  Recently, in a faraway land few think of, a powerful new agreement was forged to fight climate change.         CaliforniaGeo Reflections on an NYT article: Climate deal to curb gases used as refrigerants BY CORAL DAVENPORT The New York Times Reprinted in the Sacramento Bee, 10-16-16 It took a few years […]

The Opinion Pages | OP-ED CONTRIBUTORS The New York Times Why Obama Is Right on Clean Energy By WILLIAM D. RUCKELSHAUS and WILLIAM K. REILLY SEPT. 25, 2016 Graphic Credit:  Harry Campbell Last year, President Obama took aim at the nation’s largest source of carbon dioxide pollution, announcing a plan that would reduce these climate-changing […]

Don’t let ghosts of Enron haunt us again Sacramento Bee 9-25-16 BY BILL JULIAN Special to The Bee     Remember Enron, rolling blackouts and double-digit electricity rate increases? How could we forget so soon. California embarked on a momentous and catastrophic experiment to deregulate its electrical system 20 years ago this month. We are […]