HIGGINS MOUNTAIN — The Nova Scotia government’s recently released targets for producing renewable energy are achievable, but incentives might be needed to make them a reality, says the president of Nova Scotia Power. Developers, some of whom are under-capitalized, must make an enormous investment, Ralph Tedesco said Tuesday. "I think it will take a variety of incentives," he said. "Ultimately it becomes a public policy issue."

Future development of Canada‘s wind energy industry could be adversely affected if the federal government doesn‘t proceed with expansion of a production incentive program, the president of the Canadian Wind Energy Association said Wednesday.

Michigan’s 21st Century Energy Plan is to be released by the end of the year, and utilities and environmentalists are weighing in on what the program should contain. State regulators are considering whether a certain percentage of Michigan’s electricity must come from renewable fuel sources such as solar, wind and hydroelectric. Twenty-three states and the District of Columbia have targets, with dates, for renewable energy sources, ranging from 1% to 25% of total power. For example, Illinois recently adopted a voluntary standard of 25% of energy from renewables by 2017. Michigan utilities currently generate less than 8% of their electricity from renewable sources.

WASHINGTON — House Democrats are targeting billions of dollars in oil company tax breaks for quick repeal next year. A broader energy proposal that would boost alternative energy sources and conservation is expected to be put off until later. Hot-button issues such as a tax on the oil industry's windfall profits or sharp increases in automobile fuel economy probably will not gain much ground given the narrow Democratic majorities in the House and Senate. Incoming House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, in an outline of priorities over the first 100 hours of the next Congress in January, promises to begin a move toward greater energy independence "by rolling back the multibillion dollar subsidies for Big Oil."

Rural Columbia River Gorge counties saw plenty of dollar signs when wind farm developers began erecting turbines in their breezy, rural backyards. The investments slapped tens of millions of dollars onto sagging tax rolls and promised to revive budgets for services such as schools, health care and economic development. But the anticipated windfall has suddenly lost some of its heft. A state-level change in the way the projects are valued has worked to pull down assessments, and, in turn, has wiped out hundreds of thousands of property tax dollars that county officials had hoped to pencil into future budgets. “This is very serious for our counties and our taxing districts,” Judge Laura Pryor of Gilliam County wrote in an e-mail newsletter to rural colleagues. “What we have all thought of as an industry of benefit, may not be of much benefit. They don’t provide any jobs and now they may not provide much revenue either!”

When it comes to addressing global warming and climate change, Liberals in Australia react to pressure from mining industry leaders, and Labor reacts to pressure from the various industries' unions. Ross Gittins reports.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The lawmaker set to head the U.S. Senate called on Wednesday for more incentives to expand geothermal power production, and accused the White House of being slow to support renewable energy. Sen. Harry Reid of Nevada, who will be the chamber's majority leader once Democrats take control of Congress in 2007, said U.S. energy companies need more incentives to produce geothermal power, which uses heat pockets beneath the earth's surface to turn water to steam, powering turbines and generating electricity.

But Mr Davis said his party was unconvinced by the merits of the VRET and saw it as nothing more than a vehicle to raise energy costs to consumers and implement new taxes. He said the VRET largely relied on wind energy, which was unreliable and a poor vehicle for achieving the targets.

Irish minister for communications, marine and natural resources Noel Dempsey has set a target to treble the contribution made by renewable energy from 5percent to 15percent of electricity produced by 2010. His announcement came at the launch of a new publication called Renewable Energy Development 2006. The report provides a broad overview of current policies in the field of renewable energy and serves as a concise introduction to the topical issues and challenges in the area.

"There are two kinds of electricity supply. One is a firm supply where if you demand 100 megawatts, you get it at any time. Coal, gas-fired and nuclear plants can deliver that energy," Mr. Livet explains. "Then you have interrupted supply, because if the wind doesn't blow, you don't have any energy. So you need backup." The ideal clean energy mix of wind and water would work best in British Columbia, Manitoba and Quebec, which have developed hydro dam infrastructures and a large storage of water, Mr. Livet says. "It makes quite good sense for those provinces to actually build more wind energy, since if the wind blows, they can save water until it's needed."

Residents fighting a wind farm proposal near Lake George, near Canberra, say the local council has moved ahead with the project, despite strong community objection. They say the development will devalue their land and harm the natural environment. The $220 million project was approved after the New South Wales Government decided to boost its renewable energy targets.

Federal policy is one of the current challenges to the industry, says Hornung. Funds in the federal Wind Power Production Incentive program (WPPI), which has subsidized a portion of the cost of establishing wind farms since 2001, have been frozen since April as the Conservative government hammers out its energy and environmental policies. Developers across the country are committed to start projects after winning competitive power supply contracts based on bids in which the WPPI funds were calculated as part of projected revenues. "The economics of the projects change completely without those funds," says Hornung.

Large utility companies will have to increase their renewable energy sources to 15 percent of their supply by 2020 under an initiative approved by Washington voters. Under Initiative 937, utilities with more than 25,000 customers would have to meet 15 percent of their annual load with resources such as wind power, solar energy or sewage gas by 2020. With about 65 percent of the expected vote counted Thursday, I-937 passed with about 52 percent of the vote, or 697,133 votes. About 48 percent, or 647,572, voted against the measure.

State regulators on Wednesday gave Nevada's investor-owned electric utilities authority to spend $300 million to start developing the $3.7 billion Ely Energy Center and a related transmission line, but split on a proposal to give the utilities investor bonuses for the project if the utilities develop additional renewable energy plants. Nevada Power Co. of Las Vegas will pay 80 percent of the cost of the 1,500-megawatt, coal-fired plant; Sierra Pacific Power Co. of Reno will pay the rest. The Public Utility Commis-sion order specified that the project, which would be the largest power plant in the state, was a "critical facility," meaning the commission could later grant proposed financial incentives.

NSW Premier Morris Iemma wants the state to double its production of renewable energy over the next five years, and today announced mandatory renewable energy targets for the state’s electricity companies. The Premier today revealed plans for a $220 million wind farm as part of his government’s moves to tackle the issue of greenhouse gas emissions. He also repeated his call for the Federal Government to establish a national action plan to address climate change.

“There will be an extreme shift in attitude toward energy policy, especially in the House, during the next session under Democratic leadership,” said Richard Powers, a partner with Washington, D.C., law firm Venable LLP. Powers predicts Democrats will try to repeal some of the tax breaks and benefits big energy and oil companies got from last summer’s Energy Policy Act, while pushing new tax credits and regulations promoting solar, wind, and ethanol.

Nova Scotia’s first wind farm developer is a fan of the Tories’ proposed legislation on wind turbine taxation. “Wind energy has a lot of potential in Nova Scotia,” Charles Demond, president of Pubnico Point Wind Farm Inc., said Monday at Province House. “The bill provides certainty for wind developers and, in our view, a very healthy, . . . very attractive stream of revenue in the municipalities where they are developing . . . wind power.” He said his 30.6-megawatt operation was facing a $450,000 tax bill before this legislation. It had launched an appeal and, if successful, the bill would have been reduced to around $75,000.

Twenty percent of the electricity consumed in New Jersey by 2020 must come from renewable sources, such as wind and sun, up from 1 percent today, according to new regulations adopted unanimously Wednesday by the state’s Board of Public Utilities. “Increased use of renewable resources, specifically solar, will provide greater fuel diversity for New Jersey, while simultaneously reducing price volatility, strengthening the economy, improving public health and reducing greenhouse gases,” said Jeanne M. Fox, utilities board president. New Jersey Public Interest Research Group and the Sierra Club applauded the decision, but the state’s leading business and industry group warned that the rules will end up costing ratepayers more.

Yet, despite the operation of New Jersey’s small wind project since January, there is uncertainty about whether wind farms, particularly gigantic turbines positioned off the region’s coastline, will be embraced here. On Long Island, a 40-turbine project being considered off the South Shore is facing stiff resistance from opponents who argue that the turbines will damage pristine ocean views, fail to deliver cost-effective electricity and create environmental problems. In New Jersey, powerful local politicians have lined up behind wind power, where up to 80 turbines — rising 380 feet or more above the water along the South Jersey coastline — have been proposed to take advantage of the near-constant breezes.

After all the years of lip service about the potential for alternative-energy production in Arizona, especially solar, it's now down to brass tacks. Arizona Corporation Commission members Bill Mundell, Barry Wong, Kris Mayes and Jeff Hatch-Miller voted Tuesday for a measure, and Mike Gleason against, to require that 15 percent of the state's total energy production be from renewable-energy sources by 2025. A significant amount of that 15 percent - about one-third - by 2011 will come from so-called distributed energy, which is electricity produced by residential or non-utility-owned firms. In other words, commissioners opened the door for creative technologies in the fields of solar, wind, biomass and possibly geothermal to show they can produce substantial quantities of energy.