http://www.windaction.org/ facts, analysis, exposure of wind energy's real impacts en-us Windaction hourly 1 http://backend.userland.com/rss http://www.windaction.org/articles/23902 Sun, 01 Nov 2009 13:21:52 GMT To municipal wind power advocates, net metering is the Holy Grail. ...Net metering provisions virtually double what municipalities are currently paid for the power they generate through renewable energy. It also allowed the towns to get credits at the wholesale rate for their power ...But some Cape municipal and county officials are worried that wind turbines that are still in the planning stages will not get the benefits of net metering because of a cap the state Legislature imposed on the total amount of power that could be generated under the program. http://www.windaction.org/articles/23902 http://www.windaction.org/articles/23708 Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:06:41 GMT Nova Scotians may face higher electricity costs in the short term as the province moves toward cleaner and renewable energy, says the man in charge of overseeing Nova Scotia's renewable energy strategy. Dalhousie University's David Wheeler said Monday it is inevitable Nova Scotia Power customers will face a jump in prices ..."If we end up with a global carbon energy tax, then producing energy from coal is going to be very expensive for Nova Scotia consumers," Mr. Wheeler told reporters. http://www.windaction.org/articles/23708 http://www.windaction.org/articles/23109 Tue, 15 Sep 2009 04:12:17 GMT California's push to supersize its renewable energy standards could drive electricity rates higher for Northwest consumers, strain the west's transmission and hydroelectric systems, and create a host of thorny policy issues. The California Assembly passed a pair of bills Friday to create the nation's most aggressive renewable energy mandate. It would require utilities to meet one third of their customers' needs with green energy such as wind, solar and geothermal by 2020. http://www.windaction.org/articles/23109 http://www.windaction.org/articles/23056 Wed, 09 Sep 2009 00:41:23 GMT This may be a better time than ever for renewable energy. The climate for passing laws that would create subsidies for it are promising: last year, the Production Tax Credit for wind power was extended, along with a hefty longterm-Investment tax credit for solar power. ...But Bruno Mejean isn't feeling the winds of change just yet. The managing director and deputy general manager of Nord/LB, New York, a German financial institution, ...anticipates obstacles for the wind-energy sector in particular, and the biggest drag on developing renewable-energy projects, he says, is the prospect of a longterm low price for natural gas. http://www.windaction.org/articles/23056 http://www.windaction.org/articles/22732 Mon, 17 Aug 2009 21:53:05 GMT Transmitting electricity over hundreds of miles to market constrains wind energy development, speakers told 600 participants at a conference at the University of Wyoming last week. So do local, state and federal regulation; and taxation issues, they said. But Laura Ladd, energy economics advisor to Gov. Dave Freudenthal, noted a major omission to that list. "Nowhere in here did we hear of economics as a constraint," Ladd said. http://www.windaction.org/articles/22732 http://www.windaction.org/articles/22121 Wed, 15 Jul 2009 12:45:55 GMT On Wednesday Mr Miliband acknowledged that low-carbon energy would be more expensive for consumers, but pointed out that high-carbon fuels like coal and gas could also be expected to get more expensive because of increased demand from China and India. "We are going to minimise the costs as much as possible, but it is true there is not a low-cost energy future out there. http://www.windaction.org/articles/22121 http://www.windaction.org/articles/22078 Sun, 12 Jul 2009 23:02:45 GMT Sharon Reid and her husband, Dewitt, a retired Marine major, pay $170 in a typical month ---- and some months more than $230 ---- to cool and light their 2,000-square-foot, tri-level home in Vista. Without making any changes in lifestyle, their electricity bill is likely to increase by $45 a month on average as California overhauls its power grid and tries to shift the source of one-third of its electricity from fossil fuels to green sources by 2020. http://www.windaction.org/articles/22078 http://www.windaction.org/articles/22074 Sun, 12 Jul 2009 22:20:12 GMT As Congress prepares to tackle global warming, Americans are nervously fingering their pocketbooks. Projected cost increases associated with a proposed cap-and-trade program have ranged from $175 a household in 2020, calculated by the Congressional Budget Office, to an annual average of $2,979 in Heritage Foundation estimates. http://www.windaction.org/articles/22074 http://www.windaction.org/articles/21971 Wed, 08 Jul 2009 17:39:18 GMT With credit costlier and harder to come by, and oil and natural gas prices down sharply over the past year, the nation's nascent wind industry may begin to focus on smaller projects that are closer to major population centers rather than massive developments like 81-year-old Pickens envisioned, industry officials said. "You've got an industry that is kind of hanging on by its fingernails," said Denise Bode, chief executive of the American Wind Energy Association. http://www.windaction.org/articles/21971 http://www.windaction.org/articles/21913 Sat, 04 Jul 2009 20:19:36 GMT Burbank Water and Power officials are urging the City Council to oppose legislation that would force them to produce a third of their energy from renewable sources by 2020, arguing the requirements would drive up utility rates and strain existing electric transmission assets that the state is in short supply of. http://www.windaction.org/articles/21913 http://www.windaction.org/articles/21726 Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:04:28 GMT Building transmission lines would cost as much as $4 billion a year, and managing its variability would add further to its price, the Pew Center said in a report today. Prices would still be competitive with other energy sources if the U.S. approves legislation to limit greenhouse gases, the group said. http://www.windaction.org/articles/21726 http://www.windaction.org/articles/21550 Sat, 13 Jun 2009 14:29:50 GMT California's push for renewable power could prove costly to consumers. Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's plan to get one-third of the state's electricity from renewable sources by 2020 could cost $115 billion in new infrastructure, according to a report released Friday by the California Public Utilities Commission. Last year, a similar report from the commission estimated the cost at $60 billion. http://www.windaction.org/articles/21550 http://www.windaction.org/articles/21442 Tue, 02 Jun 2009 18:27:25 GMT Billions of dollars in upgrades to Alberta's power transmission network will hit consumers in the pocketbook. The province's electrical operator says the average consumer will see power bills go up by $8 a month to pay for the first phase of projects, which have an estimated price tag of $8.1 billion. http://www.windaction.org/articles/21442 http://www.windaction.org/articles/21432 Tue, 02 Jun 2009 11:40:11 GMT Nobuo Tanaka, executive director of the International Energy Agency, says it is "inevitable" that the manufacturing of renewable energy components - mainly solar modules and wind turbines - will move to China and, to a lesser extent, India. "The PV cells made there are not of as high a quality yet [as those made in Europe] but they will get there." This view is echoed by George Frampton, former chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality and a member of the Obama campaign's transition team. He says: "There is a very strong momentum. And it's not just because of the cost, it's also that I'm not that optimistic that this market is going to boom in the US." http://www.windaction.org/articles/21432 http://www.windaction.org/articles/20895 Thu, 23 Apr 2009 14:18:41 GMT Meanwhile, lawmakers are trying to pass House Bill 1273 and the bill says that money given by wind energy farms to wealthy districts need to be part of "Robin Hood." "Robin Hood" will then distribute the money through out other districts. Now some school districts in the Big Country can be heavily affected if House Bill 1273 passes. http://www.windaction.org/articles/20895 http://www.windaction.org/articles/20842 Tue, 21 Apr 2009 14:46:53 GMT [Dalton Utilities president and CEO Don Cope] said he had listened last week to a presentation by the Edison Electric Institute, an organization that all of the large, shareholder-owned utilities belong to, on the possibility of legislation capping carbon emissions produced by fossil fuels such as coal and oil. "Their estimate is that it will cost the average household in the United States between $3,000 and $6,000 per year," he said. http://www.windaction.org/articles/20842 http://www.windaction.org/articles/20703 Sun, 12 Apr 2009 02:28:31 GMT The amount invested in British renewable energy schemes, including wind, solar and wave power, fell from £377 million during the first three months of last year to £79 million during the same period this year, according to figures from New Energy Finance, a research group that monitors industry trends. The figures have raised fresh questions over the Government's ability to fulfil its pledge to slash Britain's carbon emissions and produce more than one third of the country's electricity from green energy by 2020. http://www.windaction.org/articles/20703 http://www.windaction.org/articles/20665 Wed, 08 Apr 2009 14:30:26 GMT Energie Baden-Wuerttemberg AG, Germany's third-biggest utility, says financial investors in the country's wind parks will follow a move by Babcock & Brown Ltd. and begin selling assets this year. "Investors are coming together to force sales," Dirk Guesewell, managing director at the utility's renewable energy unit, said in an interview in Frankfurt yesterday. "The small guys are saying ‘just get out'." http://www.windaction.org/articles/20665 http://www.windaction.org/articles/20540 Sat, 28 Mar 2009 17:47:22 GMT Windmills and solar panel arrays have become symbols of America's growing interest in alternative energy. Yet as Congress begins debating new rules to restrict carbon dioxide emissions and promote electricity produced from renewable sources, an underlying question is how much more Americans will be willing to pay to harness the wind and the sun. http://www.windaction.org/articles/20540 http://www.windaction.org/articles/20253 Mon, 02 Mar 2009 14:03:45 GMT http://www.windaction.org/articles/20253