facts, analysis, exposure of wind energy's real impacts Windaction http://www.windaction.org/articles/c61+52?theme=atom Xarayar 2006-06-12T02:16:27Z .38626 2013-06-13T13:37:27Z 2013-06-13T13:37:27Z

A ruling by a federal court in the Midwest may force California to buy renewable energy from out of state whether it wants to or not, potentially spurring energy development in the desert areas east of the California state line. The decision found that Michigan laws favoring in-state renewable energy generation are unconstitutional.

.38612 2013-06-12T23:52:14Z 2013-06-12T23:52:14Z

A federal appeals court found last week that it's unconstitutional for Michigan to discriminate against out-of-state renewable electricity - a decision being described as giving a major edge to clean power in the legal fight over the future of the U.S. grid.

.38521 2013-05-31T15:48:59Z 2013-05-31T15:48:59Z

Alexander criticized proposals for nationwide renewable portfolio standards and repeated his opposition to continued federal subsidies for wind power, which he said has already received $16 billion in subsidies since 2009. Congress just granted another year of production tax credits for wind energy that is projected to cost the treasury another $12 billion.

.38416 2013-05-21T17:17:47Z 2013-05-21T17:17:47Z

The overall direction of the market, however, has been down. You can get a sense of the amount of money that has been lost by investors from the WilderHill Clean Energy Index, which tracks the performance of publicly traded green energy stocks ranging from solar and wind to rare earth minerals and water companies. The market value of the companies in the index has fallen from a peak level of $231 billion in late December 2007 to about $108 billion today, a decline of 53 percent.

.38146 2013-04-23T13:04:59Z 2013-04-23T13:04:59Z

Sixteen of the 29 states with renewable portfolio standards are considering legislation that would reduce the need for wind and solar power, according to researchers backed by the U.S. Energy Department. North Carolina lawmakers may be among the first to move, followed by Colorado and Connecticut. ...Repealing the state's RPS policy "would help increase disposable income, attract more business investment and make energy more affordable for consumers."

.38132 2013-04-22T15:55:10Z 2013-04-22T15:55:10Z

The conflicts are bound to grow as renewable projects spread, some environmental advocates say. "Certainly, there's going to be a lot more wind farms than there have been historically," ABC spokesman Bob Johns said. "And the problem is that we have seen no reason to believe that areas of conflict are being avoided - in fact, quite the opposite. They're walking right into it, leading with their chin on some of these."

.38060 2013-04-15T14:17:40Z 2013-04-15T14:17:40Z

The modern environmental movement has rolled over to become an outlet for loggers, energy firms and car companies to plug into. It is now primarily a social media platform for consumerism, growth and energy production - an institutionalized philanderer of green illusions. If you need evidence, just go to any climate rally and you'll see a strip mall of stands for green products, green jobs and green energy. These will do nothing to solve the crisis we face, which is not an energy crisis but rather a crisis of consumption.

.37933 2013-04-01T16:35:21Z 2013-04-01T16:35:21Z

.37920 2013-04-01T14:00:46Z 2013-04-01T14:00:46Z

"I will continue my efforts to get rid of the 20-year-old, multi-billion-dollar subsidy for unreliable, expensive wind energy that stands no chance of powering our nation's 21st century economy." ...Perhaps just as important, Alexander said, wind turbines would scar the mountaintops of Tennessee, the only place in the state where they can work.

.37919 2013-03-25T12:41:43Z 2013-03-25T12:41:43Z

FERC claims the PUC violated the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act when it held that Idaho Power was not obligated to buy from a number of wind generators because the utility did not sign the QF contracts prior to December 14, 2010, which was when the QF qualification threshold dropped to 100 kW from 10 MW.

.37833 2013-03-24T21:30:04Z 2013-03-24T21:30:04Z

A rapid expansion of renewable power would be complicated and costly. Using large amounts of renewable energy often requires modifying national power grids, and renewable energy is still generally more expensive than using fossil fuels.

.37875 2013-03-22T20:59:46Z 2013-03-22T20:59:46Z

.37578 2013-03-03T14:08:48Z 2013-03-03T14:08:48Z

Tensions are building between the struggling U.S. offshore wind industry and the federal agency that oversees it. Industry leaders worry that a new federal program designed to spark offshore wind construction could end up killing proposals that have been in the works for years.

.37491 2013-02-23T23:45:44Z 2013-02-23T23:45:44Z

Jackson threw out the bulk of Ralls’s lawsuit against the Obama administration, which focused on whether the president exceeded his power by ordering the company, an affiliate of China’s Sany Group Co., to sell the wind farm assets. “The statute expressly authorizes the president to do what he deems necessary to accomplish or implement the prohibition."

.37465 2013-02-19T16:09:05Z 2013-02-19T16:09:05Z

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) is considering eliminating most public oversight of wind turbine impacts on protected bald and golden eagles by offering developers 30-year permits to kill eagles by accident, as opposed to the current 5-year permits. What's more, they're shaping the implementation of that proposed policy change in a series of private "stakeholders'" meetings to which the public is not invited.

.37431 2013-02-19T13:01:25Z 2013-02-19T13:01:25Z

Renewable Portfolio Standards are coming under attack. The latest locale is Kansas, where the Republican-led legislature says that green energy mandates are distorting markets. ...It's all part of the national discussion over whether requiring utilities to either procure or to produce a percentage of their offerings from sustainable sources is a good thing.

.37313 2013-02-08T17:23:57Z 2013-02-08T17:23:57Z

One big part of the problem, experts and officials say, is Europe's cap-and-trade system, which aims to reduce European Union-wide industrial greenhouse gas emissions by 20 percent by 2020. The system is the centerpiece of Europe's green policies. But the program, which charges industries for permits to emit greenhouse gases, no longer serves as a major disincentive to pollute.

.37227 2013-01-31T14:16:49Z 2013-01-31T14:16:49Z

The American Wind Energy Association and the Solar Energy Industries Association joined the industry-backed coalition for a year because they wanted a "seat at the table" ...But the groups decided to drop out after ALEC adopted the "Electricity Freedom Act" model bill in October, which would end requirements that utilities generate a set amount of electricity from renewable sources.

.37126 2013-01-22T23:08:02Z 2013-01-22T23:08:02Z

Fresh off their successful push to extend a key tax break in the PTC, wind industry lobbyists are beginning to prepare for the tax reform fight. But the push for some longer-term certainty will proceed without at least one key ally in Congress. Rep. Dave Reichert (R-Wash.) says the one-year extension and expansion of the PTC that were included in this month's "fiscal cliff" legislation should be sufficient for the industry.

.37079 2013-01-19T04:23:57Z 2013-01-19T04:23:57Z

Following a three-year environmental analysis, the Obama administration Friday designated 192,100 acres of public land in Arizona as potentially suitable for utility-scale solar and wind energy development.