COMMENTARY
Analyzing Issues 2B and 2C –
Which Way will Boulder Vote?
Untold gallons of ink-both physical and digital-have been spilled in recent months about Boulder’s Nov 1 vote to authorize municipalization of Xcel Energy’s electric system within the city. Contributing expert John Egan weighs in on the measures, providing supporters with a host of reasons to be optomistic — OR NOT.
24Oct2011 | admin | 1 comment | Continued
Fact Check: Fred Udo’s Bogus Numbers on Wind and Emissions Savings
There’s a large, well-established body of empirical evidence showing that as states like Colorado and Texas have added wind energy to their grids, their carbon dioxide emissions decreased by even more than had been expected.
10Sep2011 | admin | 3 comments | Continued
Ownership (and Money) a Cure for NIMBY
NIMBY has been misunderstood by the clean energy community. It is not a knee jerk, it’s a market failure. When citizens see a new wind or solar energy project, it shouldn’t be from the sidelines. They should see it from the front seat …
12May2011 | admin | 0 comments | Continued
AT ISSUE: Reality Check for Colorado’s
Solar Industry
Lowering the level of incentives must happen over time and starting now sends an important signal to the marketplace. Those solar installation companies that have a solid business plan and financial backing will flourish. Those who do not may be forced to reinvent their business model.
17Mar2011 | admin | 1 comment | Continued
China Illegally Plunders US Solar Industry
with Impunity
Even more alarming is that its share of the US market has grown nearly sixfold in the last two years. To accomplish this feat China is convincing U.S. solar panel producers to outsource manufacturing operations overseas by bribing them with government-subsidized loans that clearly violate international trade law.
18Jan2011 | admin | 0 comments | Continued
Nuclear Could Be a Baseload Answer Says Expert
“We can bring nuclear energy back. We need it. It’s the only base load replacement we have for fossil fuel.” The keynote speaker for the 2011 EnergyBiz Leadership Forum in Washington DC next month also says the nation’s innovation edge will keep us ahead of China.
14Jan2011 | admin | 0 comments | Continued
Regional Perspective —
A Tale of Two Coal-Fired Plants
The close links between mining and energy production are hardly limited to Illinois. Big coal has a big interest in seeing a new Sunflower plant built in Kansas. Colorado’s Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association has promised to purchase electricity from Kansas and numbers Sunflower among its members.
14Jul2010 | admin | 0 comments | Continued
GREEN JOBS? Maybe, But Not the Way You Think
The endless green jobs debate largely misses the essential point. The REAL driver for a new, green economy is the fact that the very largest global corporations have recognized the massive competitive advantage they can secure using sustainability thinking as a central driver of their C-strategy.
1Jun2010 | admin | 3 comments | Continued
Commentary: Colorado’s Big Carbon Spill
In recent weeks, Xcel has begun full operation of the new 750 MW coal plant in Pueblo. While Pueblo bears all of the pollution from the coal plant, essentially all of the electricity will be used in places like Denver and Boulder; Pueblo, already the home of two other Xcel coal plants, gets almost none of the electricity.
27May2010 | admin | 2 comments | Continued
Will Natural Gas Save Us?
Is natural gas America’s savior or a transitional fuel source that will tide us over until we become a cleantech nation awash in viable wind, solar and biofuel solutions? Michael J. Newport, CEO of Mainland Resources, asks the question and provides his answer.
12May2010 | admin | 0 comments | Continued
Commentary: State Energy Program Based
on Flawed Subsidies
The goals are laudable enough, but this program is a hugely flawed subsidy program that distorts the true cost of energy in the marketplace. NEED smacks of technocratic elitism, giving bureaucrats the task of picking winners and losers through centralized economic planning
30Apr2010 | admin | 1 comment | Continued
How to Profit from Colorado’s New Renewable Energy Law
I’ve probably been to Colorado about a dozen times in my life. It’s a beautiful state with a rich history, breathtaking natural beauty, and some of the most amazing national parks in the country. And despite the altitude adjustments that occasionally put the kibosh on my morning run, I understand why so many people live there.
11Apr2010 | admin | 0 comments | Continued
Viewpoint: The Billion Dollar Block of Concrete
The insider joke is that utilities always want to build the next “billion dollar block of concrete” — not for the power, but because it can be added to their “rate base” and thus earn these returns. Why is their return on capital far higher than you or I can make on a secure investment?
13Mar2010 | admin | 0 comments | Continued-
People Power for DG
It will take a lot of “People Power” to overcome the stranglehold on renewable energy progress in Colorado and much of the U.S., argues Ceal Smith of the San Luis Valley Renewables Community Alliance. She offers three actions you can take now to support point of use “rooftop” distributed generation.
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