Midwestern Renewable Energy Tour 2010 Stop in Indianapolis July 15th

Posted by Laura Arnold / July 09, 2010 / Posted in Feed-in Tariffs (FiT) / 1 Comments

Please join the BlueGreen Alliance as we host the Heinrich Böll Foundation for a Legislative Briefing as part of their Midwestern Renewable Energy Tour 2010.
There are insightful comparisons to be drawn between the member states of the European Union and the relationship between the United States Federal and State Governments in regards to enacting public policy that spurs economic growth in the clean energy sector. Former Head of the Renewable Energy Division of the German Energy Agency Christine Wörlen will give an overview of her experience supporting Germany’s effort to incorporate large amounts of renewable energy into the existing energy system and highlight key findings in her report 300,000 Clean Energy Jobs: Lessons learned from the German success story of economic transformation.

Key policies to be discussed will be ‘Feed-in-Tariffs’ and Property Accessed Clean Energy (PACE).

In addition to Christine, speakers will include:

Aaron Peterson: juwi Wind USA, a part of the juwi Group based in Worrstadt, Germany.
Laura Arnold: Indiana Distributed Energy Advocates
Bowden Quinn: Hoosier Chapter of the Sierra Club
Jesse Kharbanda: Hoosier Environmental Council

What: BlueGreen Alliance & Heinrich Böll Foundation Renewable Energy Legislative Briefing

When: Thursday, July 15th 9:00am – 11:00am. A light breakfast will be provided. State legislators.

When: Thursday, July 15th 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm. Refreshments will be provided. General public.

Where: Capitol Conference Center, 201 N. Illinois Street, Suite 200, Indianapolis, IN

RSVPs are requested. For more information on attending and call-in availability, please contact Tom Conway, Regional Program Manager for the BlueGreen Alliance at 219-738-9029 or tomc@bluegreenalliance.org.

For more information on our organizations and speakers, please visit our websites: www.bluegreenalliance.org and www.boell.org.

Campaign corner: Dwight Fish wants the state to encourage new energy

Posted by Laura Arnold / July 07, 2010 / Posted in Uncategorized / No Comments

Campaign corner: Dwight Fish wants the state to encourage new energy.

The state needs to encourage northern Indiana companies that sell wind turbines, anaerobic gas-powered electric resources and other energy sources to expand, according to Dwight Fish, Democratic candidate for state representative District 21.

Those energy sources can bring jobs to the area, he said.

Fish recently attended an information-gathering session of the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission recently in South Bend and came to the conclusion that "we need to encourage distributed energy production to reduce our reliance on fossil fuels."

Fish said that current commission rules restrict the ability to feed electricity back to the grid and utilities discourage doing so by tacking on unreasonable fees and capping the amount that can be produced. A more vibrant market in electricity production can result in more economic growth in northern Indiana, he said, because cheaper electricity makes it easier for our native industries to thrive.

Elkhart Truth Staff

GO FISH!

Obama to Host Bipartisan Senate Meeting on Energy; Sen. Lugar Invited

Posted by Laura Arnold / June 28, 2010 / Posted in Federal energy legislation, Uncategorized / No Comments

June 25, 2010, 1:34 p.m.
By Jennifer Bendery
Roll Call Staff

Updated: 4:16 p.m.

President Barack Obama will meet with a bipartisan group of Senators on Tuesday to discuss the path forward for comprehensive energy legislation, the White House announced Friday.

The meeting was originally scheduled for last Wednesday but was postponed. Lawmakers invited to the meeting include Sens. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.), Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), John Kerry (D-Mass.), Dick Lugar (R-Ind.), Joe Lieberman (ID-Conn.), Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Olympia Snowe (R-Maine), Tom Carper (D-Del.) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.).

Obama has been trying to jump-start stalled energy legislation in the wake of the Gulf Coast oil spill, which he has referred to as “a wake-up call” on the need for reform. He has been personally reaching out to a number of GOP Senators, including Scott Brown (Mass.) and George LeMieux (Fla.), to try to build momentum on the issue.

CRS Comparison of Selected Energy and Climate Change Bills

Posted by Laura Arnold / June 27, 2010 / Posted in Federal energy legislation / No Comments

This report was sent to us from Lane Ralph in U.S. Senator Dick Lugar's office.

The Congressional Research Service (CRS) has prepared a memorandum that provides a short summary and comparison of four legislative proposals that may receive attention in the U.S. Senate during the next few months. While all four proposals fall within the broad category of energy and climate change policy, the specifics of the proposals vary significantly, and their approaches vary in many ways. The four proposals analyzed are as follows:

S. 1462, the American Clean Energy Leadership Act (ACELA) of 2009, was introduced by Senator Bingaman and reported by the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources on July 16, 2009 (S.Rept. 111-48). S. 1462 is a broad energy bill aimed at promoting the development of clean energy technologies, increasing energy efficiency, and promoting domestic energy resources.1 Incentives for new technology include a renewable energy standard (RES) for electric utilities. The bill does not directly address greenhouse gas emissions: provisions for a greenhouse gas cap-and-trade system were instead included in S. 1733, the Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act, sponsored by Senators Kerry and Boxer, and reported by the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works on February 2, 2010.

S. 2877, the Carbon Limits and Energy for America’s Renewal (CLEAR) Act, was introduced by Senators Cantwell and Collins on December 11, 2009 and has been referred to the Senate Committee on Finance. S. 2877 would establish a program to control only carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions (covering 80% of U.S. GHG emissions), requiring fossil fuel producers (e.g., coal mines, gas wellheads) and importers to submit “carbon shares” for the CO2 emissions related to the fossil fuels they produce or import. The President would limit (or cap) the quantity of carbon shares available for submission each year, and the Department of Treasury would distribute all of the carbon shares through monthly auctions.

S. 3464, the Practical Energy and Climate Plan Act of 2010, was introduced by Senators Lugar, Graham, and Murkowski on June 9, 2010 and has been referred to the Senate Committee on Finance. S. 3464 is a broad energy bill aimed at promoting thedevelopment of clean energy technologies, increasing energy efficiency, and promoting domestic energy resources. Instead of a renewable energy standard (RES) like that contained in S. 1462, S. 3464 contains a “Diverse Energy Standard” which would permit the use of a broad range of electric generation technologies including renewables, but also including nuclear energy and advanced coal generation with carbon capture and storage. Other provisions include building and vehicle efficiency standards and nuclear energy loan guarantees. The bill does not contain a mandatory scheme to limit greenhouse gas emissions.

A discussion draft of the American Power Act (APA) was released on May 12, 2010 by Senators Kerry and Lieberman. A comprehensive energy and climate change policy proposal, the draft would set GHG reduction goals similar to those in H.R. 2454 (the bill most comparable to the APA draft),3 which passed the House in June 2009. The APA employs a market-based cap-and-trade scheme for electric generators and industry with a separate price mechanism to cover emissions from transportation fuels. The draft proposal would allocate a significant amount of allowance value to energy consumers, low-income households, and the promotion of low-carbon energy technologies. In addition, the draft would provide incentives for the expansion of nuclear power, carbon capture and storage technology, and advanced vehicles.

To read the complete comparison and analysis of these four energy and climate change bills by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) please see the document posted below.

CRS Comparison of Energy & Climate Change Bills June 24[1]

Let’s put our energy into becoming more efficient | IndyStar.com | The Indianapolis Star

Posted by Laura Arnold / June 20, 2010 / Posted in Uncategorized / 1 Comments

Let's put our energy into becoming more efficient | IndyStar.com | The Indianapolis Star.

In a time when money is tight and natural resources are precious, Hoosiers continue to waste significant amounts of both because energy conservation has gained so little traction in Indiana.
Take net metering, the process by which property owners who generate their own electricity through windmills, solar panels or other means receive credits for the excess energy they ship back to utilities. Indiana has one of the weakest net-metering standards in the nation, limiting homes and schools to only 10 kilowatts a month. By comparison, Kentucky has set a limit of 30 kilowatts, Illinois 40 kilowatts and Ohio has no specified limit.

And, unlike in most states, utilities in Indiana can exclude businesses, which potentially could generate considerable amounts of power, from net-metering programs.

Although both the Indiana House and Senate passed bills this year that would have strengthened net-metering requirements, the legislation died in conference committee.

Such setbacks are common in Indiana, which has been slow to embrace everything from energy-efficient buildings to mass transit. Environmental leaders use the word glacial to describe the state's pace on conservation measures.

Yet, given their fiscal, environmental and even security benefits, steps that promote better energy efficiency should bridge most political and philosophical divides.

On the federal level, Indiana Republican Sen. Richard Lugar has made conservation one of the pillars of his newly introduced energy legislation. Although some Democrats and environmental groups have criticized Lugar's overall approach as too weak, they've applauded the energy-efficiency provisions of the bill. As a result, with Congress seemingly deadlocked over a comprehensive energy bill, Lugar's plan has gained traction because he included elements both Democrats and Republicans can support.

That approach -- find common ground and act on it -- makes sense on the state and local levels as well.
In Indianapolis, common ground would mean finally building a functional bus system, expanding trails, adding bike lanes, and building and fixing sidewalks. The assumption that residents are forever wed to their cars has not been tested here because few people have a functional alternative to driving.

On the state level, it would mean giving Central Indiana leaders permission to stage a referendum on creation of a regional transit authority, the first step to establishing rail and bus lines that would connect the suburbs and the urban core.

And it would mean finally approving the net-metering legislation, which died in the Statehouse this year and last year, during the 2011 session.

Debates over how much and what types of coal to burn, where and whether to drill for oil, and how to set limits on greenhouse gases likely will continue unabated, all while vast amounts of energy are wasted unnecessarily.

The pursuit of greater energy efficiency won't end those arguments, but it could move the nation, state and city closer to the goals of a cleaner environment and a healthier population.