Voters have a voice in the state’s energy future when they cast their ballots in the Nov. 7 general election. Initiative 937 would require the state’s 17 largest utilities to invest in all cost-effective energy-conservation projects at their disposal and obtain 15 percent of their electricity from new renewable energy resources, including wind and solar, by 2020. Supporters insist the goals can be achieved without taking a big bite out of ratepayer pocketbooks, while building on a regional legacy of clean hydropower and energy independence. “We have a choice of charting a path toward a cleaner energy future,” said initiative backer K.C. Golden, a former state energy policy director and policy director for Climate Solutions. Critics fear passage would drive up energy customers’ costs from $185 million to $370 million a year and create an artificial economy around new energy resources.

PACIFIC Hydro may scrap hundreds of millions of dollars of wind power projects in Victoria because of the State Opposition's pledge to abandon plans for a new renewable energy scheme. Garry Weaven, executive chairman of Industry Funds Services, owner of PacHydro, said the company's Portland development faced shelving, and the Opposition's policy made contracts for wind farms impossible to find. "Portland is under very serious consideration now," Mr Weaven said. "Until that announcement by (Opposition Leader) Ted Baillieu the answer was yes (it would be built)." Mr Baillieu announced last month that he would scrap the Government's new Victorian Renewable Energy Target scheme if he won the election.

MUNCIE -- The ethanol industry in East Central Indiana is on the verge of a rapid expansion. Could that be followed by a wind energy boom? Yes, according to the Indiana Coalition for Renewable Energy and Economic Development (INCREED), which is trying to build support for state legislation to jump-start the wind-power industry in Indiana. "One of the things we want to dispel is that we don't have any wind capacity in Indiana," said Grant Smith, executive director of Citizens Action Coalition of Indiana, during a trip to Muncie last week.

SPANISH FORK — An embattled wind farm development set to begin construction next year in Spanish Fork may serve as a microcosm for the future of wind energy in Utah and across the nation. The farm, a project of Utah-based Wasatch Wind, will be the state's first commercial wind farm. It already has been delayed after citizens in Spanish Fork requested that it be moved farther from homes, to a site at the mouth of Spanish Fork Canyon. Finding investors was difficult, and the looming expiration date on a state tax credit, on which the project depends, promises an arduous battle still ahead as supporters work to get the credit restored. Like the wind power industry as a whole, the Wasatch Wind project has weathered the early storm and is poised to move forward but remains shrouded in lingering questions

China's National Development & Reform Commission (NDRC) announced on June 30 a plan to raise consumer electricity rates by 2.5 cents per kilowatt hour (KWH). A tiny fraction of the additional charge, 0.1 cent per KWH, will be used to develop renewable energy (RE), a senior NDRC official told Xinhua a few weeks later. This was unprecedented, the official said. The money would be used to cover the portion of RE development costs that are higher than the average for conventional energies. The practice complies with the principle enshrined in the Renewable Energy Law (REL) that the extra costs of renewable energies should be shared by all end users of electricity across the country.

Houston-based Reliant has sparked a debate over subsidies that has the EPA, citizens and consumer advocates concerned

On the back of a recent expansion of wind power in the Irish Republic, the government has announced an increased renewables target of 15% of total generated output by 2010. The increase is supported by the recently-announced renewable energy feed-in tariff (REFIT) program, but this method of financial support raises more questions than answers over the economics of Irish green power.

Bingaman said he had supported tax credits aimed at developing wind power plants. With those credits ending in 2007, he said companies developing those operations were getting wary about starting new projects. The senator said he would propose extending those credits.

Pressure is building for Oregon to require electric utilities to use substantially more renewable energy, such as wind and solar, to power homes and businesses. But a debate looms over whether such a mandate is needed -- or whether it might drive up monthly utility bills.

Whenever energy prices rise, the government promises to subsidize oil alternatives," said Jerry Taylor, an energy expert with the Cato Institute, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank that opposes government intervention in economies. "It's flushing money down the toilet."

OLYMPIA, Wash. (AP) -- Voters will get to choose whether to require state utility companies to increase renewable energy sources to 15 percent of their supply by 2020.

State-owned hydro and wind-power generator Meridian Energy is backing a Green Party bill designed to plug a gap in greenhouse gas controls caused by the scrapping of the carbon tax. In contrast, energy companies Contact, Vector and Origin and the exploration industry are opposing the bill which would return to regional councils powers Parliament removed in 2004 to take climate change into account when granting air discharge consents.

The final sticking point came over Grassley's insistence that the pension bill contain a package of tax cut extensions such as the research-and-development tax credit, a credit for hiring workers off welfare, and a credit to promote wind energy. Frist and House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Bill Thomas (R-California) wanted to use those tax credits to entice Senate Democrats to vote for their permanent estate tax cut. Grassley tried to force a showdown Thursday night, calling a public meeting of negotiators and daring House Republicans to vote to strip out the tax measures. Instead, House Republicans boycotted the meeting. Then GOP leaders effectively shut down negotiations and took the pension bill to the House floor without the tax measures, infuriating Grassley.

The federal Minister for the Environment says Australia's mandatory renewable energy targets will ensure wind farms are built, despite his decision to veto some developments to protect the orange-bellied parrot.

MADRID: Even as Britain, following a detailed review, mulls the need for increased nuclear capacity, Spain has the bit between its teeth as it champions renewable energy.

Energy Minister Theo Theophanous refused to release the research on which the Government based its claim that power bills would rise by no more than $10 a year, claiming it was "market sensitive", even though the Government has repeatedly referred to the amount in public.

PROPOSED wind farms at Naroghid, Woolsthorpe and Ballangeich have been saved from potential mothballing due to a new State Government scheme to subsidise renewable energy projects in Victoria.

MAJOR power users in Victoria have questioned government claims that a new renewable energy target will add little to their electricity bills.

As outlined in its newly-published energy review, the UK government has announced that its policy instrument of choice to encourage new nuclear build is a strong carbon market in Europe. If the European market is unable to deliver this, then additional UK incentives will be introduced to prop up the value of emission credits.

SALEM, Ore. (AP) — Utility executives say it could be costly and unnecessary to meet Gov. Ted Kulongoski's call for them to get 25 percent of their electricity from wind, solar and geothermal sources.