“The decadal land-surface average temperature using a 10-year moving average of surface temperatures over land. Anomalies are relative to the Jan 1950 – December 1979 mean. The grey band indicates 95% statistical and spatial uncertainty interval.” A Koch-funded reanalysis of 1.6 billion temperature reports finds that “essentially all of this increase results from the human emission [...]/
Author Archives Laura Arnold
Senate Finance Committee Passes Extension of Wind Energy Tax Credit; WSJ Editorial:Gone With the Wind
Dear IndianaDG Blog Readers:
There is reason to celebrate a small victory for renewable energy today with the Senate Finance Committee's passage of a one year extension of the Production Tax Credit (PTC) for wind that is scheduled to expire at the end of 2012. But let's not count our chickens before they are hatched. This measure must still go to the full Senate. Just so you get a feel for the opposition to this, see the editorial from the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) entitled, "Gone With the Wind". So let's not be too smug about this victory today.
The next task is to figure out if Sen. Dick Lugar and Sen. Dan Coats, our two Republican Senators from Indiana will support the extension of the PTC for wind. Why don't you contact them and ask them to support it? JUST DO IT!
Laura Ann Arnold
August 2, 2012, 3:50 pm
Senate Republicans rebuffed their presumptive presidential nominee as the Senate Finance Committee passed a one-year extension of the tax credit for wind energy, just four days after Mitt Romney’s campaign announced that it wanted the credit to die.
The lawmakers had tried to unite around the position of the Republican presidential hopeful, leaving the wind production credit out of a slate of business tax breaks to be formally drafted on Thursday. But that drive faltered when Senator Charles E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, angrily told colleagues he would join with Democrats to add the extension back, according to Finance Committee aides. Rather than have a public fight, senators quietly inserted the one-year, $3.3 billion tax break before the committee took up the suite of tax breaks and passed them Thursday afternoon.
“It’s not right to single out one energy incentive over others before a broader tax reform debate,” Mr. Grassley said in a statement.
Senator Orrin Hatch of Utah, the ranking Republican on the committee, said presidential politics had nothing to do with the wrangling. Farm state lawmakers such as Mr. Grassley and Senator John R. Thune, Republican of South Dakota, simply were protecting an industry that is burgeoning in their regions.
Asked about Mr. Romney’s decision to jump into the fray, Mr. Hatch shrugged. “The fact is people can take positions on special issues,” he said. “It will irritate some people, and it also lifts some people too.”
Senator Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, another Republican on the Finance Committee, said China had “made quantum leaps, trying to capture the entire industry.” If Congress allowed the credit to end all at once, as Mr. Romney has endorsed, “basically you’d undercut the whole industry.”
Many conservatives disagree and are trying to eliminate all tax subsidies and let competing energy sources sink or swim on their own. But wind energy has become highly political as the election draws near. President Obama has loudly promoted the industry, and giving it federal stimulus money and backing tax credits. Mr. Romney took the opposite side.
And Iowa’s prominence as a swing state has only added to the bluster around wind power.
The tax package passed the committee, 19-5, with the most conservative members voting against it. The measure is likely to be a top priority when the Senate returns in September.
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WSJ Editorial: Gone With the Wind
Romney takes a stand against energy subsidies.
Mitt Romney isn't famous for taking political risks, so it was notable and welcome on Monday when he came out against subsidies for wind power. If that doesn't sound like stop-the-presses news, remember that Republicans aren't really as implacably opposed to energy handouts as both Democrats and Republicans want the public to believe.
So from the top: The wind industry more or less exists at the pleasure of politics, specifically because of a federal subsidy known as the production tax credit that provides developers with a 2.2-cent writeoff for every kilowatt hour of electricity they produce. In effect, the credit means that wind's energy competitors are taxed at a higher rate. This annual $1.6 billion special advantage has hung around for a decade but lapses at the end of the year, and Washington is now debating an extension.
Holding fast on this deadline ought to be an easy call for Republicans, who say they want to make the tax code fairer and get the government out of picking energy winners and losers in particular. But a sizeable cheering section within the GOP wants to maintain the status quo.
Many are from Iowa and the other upper Midwestern states where the wind industry is concentrated, and, well, energy politics is often local. Others are afraid of President Obama's rhetoric. He and other Democrats invoke the wind credit at every opportunity and claim its expiration would prove Republicans are against manufacturing and jobs.
Mr. Romney in the past has said the industry "seems to be operating more on faith than on fact-based economic calculation," but lately he's been reticent on the wind credit. If this was strategic ambiguity, the danger is that it might disillusion voters who send Republicans to Washington on principle, and not to give into the crony capitalist temptation as so many of them ultimately do.
In a statement to the Des Moines Register on Monday, the Romney campaign was definitive: "He will allow the wind credit to expire, end the stimulus boondoggles, and create a level playing field on which all sources of energy can compete on their merits," a spokesman wrote. "Wind energy will thrive wherever it is economically competitive, and wherever private sector competitors with far more experience than the President believe the investment will produce results."
Just so. The wind lobbyists claim that 100,000 jobs and many millions of dollars in turbine orders require the production tax credit to survive, not seeming to understand how sad such dependency and special pleading makes their industry sound. And congratulations to Mr. Romney for bucking his own party's anti-free marketeers when the path of least resistance runs in the other direction. [emphasis added]
Printed in The Wall Street Journal, page 12
A version of this article appeared July 31, 2012, on page A12 in the U.S. edition of The Wall Street Journal, with the headline: Gone With the Wind.
Governor Christie Signs Legislation To Rescue New Jersey Solar, SREC Markets; Where are Indiana political candidates on renewable energy?
Dear IndianaDG Blog Readers:
This article was sent to me by Jeff Peterson with 360 SunSolutions in Ft. Wayne. His comment to me was "Chris Christie gets it!!!!!!". The relevant question now is do the Indiana gubernatorial candidates Mike Pence and John Gregg "get it" when it comes to renewable energy development in our state. Although personally I believe feed-in tariffs (FITs) are a better policy than an RPS and SREC's, let's have this conversation with our candidates for Governor.
Here is one upcoming opportunity:
10th Annual Indiana Conference on Energy Management presented by the Indiana Chamber of Commerce
August 28-29, 2012
The Westin Indianapolis
We are pleased announce the participation of Indiana gubernatorial candidates Congressman Mike Pence and John Gregg, former Indiana Speaker of the House.
Hear the candidates' views on the future of Indiana's energy environment as they bookend this important conference. Pence will address the audience and take questions during the opening general session on August 28, while Gregg will speak at the closing luncheon on August 29.
Governor Christie did not do this alone in New Jersey. He also had the support of state legislators. What about this year's candidates for the Indiana General Assembly do they "get it"? As you encounter these candidates for public office you need to ask them about their views on renewable energy and distributed generation. If you do have an opportunity to talk to candidates, please share these conversations with us.
The Indianapolis Chamber of Commerce affords an opportunity to meet and talk to central Indiana candidates for the Indiana General Assembly as follows:
HobNob
Thursday, September 6, 2012; 5-8 pm
Indiana Historical Society, 450 W. Ohio Street, Indianapolis, IN
Register at www.IndyChamber.com
For more insight into this recent action in New Jersey, please see http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2012/07/24/574531/bucking-the-gop-trend-new-jersey-governor-chris-christie-signs-bill-to-strengthen-the-states-solar-industry/.
Laura Ann Arnold
by Solar Industry (SI) staff on Tuesday 24 July 2012
Original article: http://www.solarindustrymag.com/e107_plugins/content/content.php?content.10799
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has signed into law legislation that many say will revitalize the state's strong but vulnerable solar energy market.
The legislation accelerates the state's renewable portfolio standard (RPS) for solar energy and reduces solar alternative compliance payments (SACPs).
The bill was passed by the New Jersey State Assembly and State Senate in May and June, respectively.
SACPs set a ceiling on the market price of solar renewable energy certificates (SRECs), which suppliers and providers of electricity are required to purchase in an amount that satisfies the annual RPS requirement. The Division of Rate Counsel estimates that the law will save ratepayers approximately $1.076 billion over the next 15 years as compared to the current solar subsidy schedule, according to Christie's office.
Demand for SRECs is set by the RPS. Under the legislation, the 15-year RPS schedule is changed from a fixed megawatt requirement each year to a percentage of overall energy usage in New Jersey, ensuring that the level of solar obligation rises and falls with overall energy demand, which can vary due to economic factors.
Under the new law, utilities will be required to obtain 2.05% of their electricity sales from solar by 2014 - a mandate that will be ramped up on a tiered basis to 4.10% by 2028.
The new legislation gives the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (BPU) the authority to review all proposed grid-supply solar projects, except for a limited amount (80 MW a year) for energy years 2014-2016. It also creates a sub-program to incentivize the development of solar projects on landfills and brownfields, and lowers costs for participating schools and government entities through net-metering aggregation.
When signing the bill, Christie expressed his support for renewable energy development in the state.
"Since my time running for office, I made it clear that my administration would be unrivaled in our aggressive support for the development of renewable sources of energy in New Jersey," Christie said in a statement. "Renewable energy not only helps meet our goals of increasing sustainability and protecting the environment, but can be an engine for economic growth and the creation of good-paying jobs for the people of our state."
"The bill I am signing today furthers these goals and will help us remain a national leader in the solar energy industry as we continue to promote innovative approaches to solar development, like developing landfills and other unusable lands and transforming them into sources of usable clean energy, all while holding down costs for families and businesses," he added.
Industry reaction to the legislation has generally been positive. According to Solar Energy Industries Association President and CEO Rhone Resch, the new law is exactly what was needed to save the New Jersey solar market.
"New Jersey is the second-largest market in the U.S. for solar energy; however, additional market growth was threatened," Resch explained in a statement. "Thanks to the leadership of Gov. Christie and our champions in the state legislature - in particular, Sen. [Bob] Smith, Senate President [Stephen M.] Sweeney, and Assemblyman [Upendra] Chivukula, New Jersey's solar industry will now continue to provide jobs, investment and energy security for years to come."
However, the Mid-Atlantic Solar Energy Industries Association said the legislation doesn't necessarily guarantee that the New Jersey solar market will be saved.
"Although the legislation is expected to avert the current crisis, it left undone an equally important task - preventing a recurrence of the crisis," MSEIA President Dennis Wilson said in a statement. "The sponsors of the legislation and the governor worked long and hard to craft this bill, and we are grateful for their strong commitment to keeping the Jersey solar industry alive. But this legislation only solves half the problem. We still need to solve the other half."
"It is necessary now for the legislature, the administration and the BPU to take up the task of ensuring that the solar market does not return to severe oversupply in the near future," added Lyle Rawlings, MSEIA's vice president for New Jersey. "In order to do this, acceleration of the RPS must be matched by responsible management, and that means controlling the pace of construction of solar power. New Jersey's solar industry must live within a budget."
MSEIA and several partners are currently funding a study to provide solid evidence that the cost of solar power has dropped below the actual value of the power delivered to the grid. In other words, New Jersey ratepayers - even those who do not participate in solar projects directly - save money from every solar kilowatt-hour produced. Under these circumstances, MSEIA believes that the state should double its solar goal to 10 GW of solar generation in 10 years.
New Jersey installed more solar capacity in the first quarter of this year than any other state and led the nation in solar installations on commercial and industrial properties in 2011, according to Christie's office. The state currently has over 800 MW in installed solar energy capacity and another 600 MW of solar in various stages of installation.
More details on the legislation can be found here.
Photo credit: Office of Gov. Chris Christie/Tim Larsen
Report Solar Slandering, Renewablemongering and Clean Energy Kvetching to EnergyFactCheck.org
Dear IndianaDG Blog Readers,
This message comes from our friends at VoteSolar. Have you noticed that there has been an onslaught of negative articles about solar as well as other renewable energy and distributed energy resources. Hopefully, this new project through EnergyFactCheck.org will help. If find any specific articles of this sort relating to Indiana, please let us know.
We need everyone's help to set the record straight.
Laura Ann Arnold
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Friends-
When people ask: What keeps you up at night? I tell them this: there's an unholy amount of money being spent to attack renewables right now--an unprecedented blitz of solar slander, renewablemongering and clean energy kvetching that could set policy efforts back decades.
Consider: of the negative advertising in April of this this election cycle, 81% have targeted renewable energy for attack. And when you factor that this presidential election is shaping up to be the most expensive in history, with experts estimating spending in the range of $6 billion dollars, well, we got trouble.
We can't let them make clean energy a dirty word. In order to combat disinformation, we are working with the American Council on Renewable Energy on a new website, EnergyFactCheck.org -- a non-partisan source of facts, fact-checking, and corrections to the record on all things renewable energy. Check it out:
http://www.energyfactcheck.org/
And consider yourself deputized! If you see an article in your local paper that doesn't get the facts right, send a letter to the editor with a correction. Same for your local TV newscast. As always, we recommend civility in your rebuttal. Catch more flies with honey, etc. Similarly, if you see positive coverage about solar in your community that should be highlighted, ping the folks at info@energyfactcheck.org. Let us know how it all works out.
It may take a village, but it is even better if the village is solar-powered.
Onward.
Adam + Team
The Vote Solar Initiative
300 Brannan Street, Suite 609
San Francisco, CA 94107
www.votesolar.org
http://www.facebook.com/VoteSolar
Take Action! Help Keep the U.S. #1 in the Clean Energy Race
This ACTION ALERT comes from Charles 'Chuck' Deppert, Indiana Representative, The Pew Charitable Trusts. Please note extension of the PTC helps both wind and solar.
Dear Renewable Energy and Distributed Generation Supporters,
Take action today. Help the U.S. continue to lead in the global clean energy race.
In the race to secure private clean energy finance and investment, the United States reclaimed the top spot, after trailing China since 2009, according to new research published by The Pew Charitable Trusts.
However, America will be hard-pressed to sustain last year’s success. In the wake of now-expired advanced energy manufacturing tax credits, Treasury grants, and the Department of Energy’s loan guarantee programs, as well as the upcoming expiration of the production tax credit for wind, America’s clean energy sector faces an uncertain future.
Intermittent policies hurt the ability of the United States to consistently compete and turn clean energy innovation into manufacturing, deployment, and export opportunities. Transparent, lasting, and consistent policies such as the production tax credit remain a critical signal to private investors.
You can help. Urge Congress to extend the production tax credit for clean wind power immediately.
Sincerely,
Phyllis Cuttino Director, Clean Energy Program Pew Environment Group