www.windaction.org

Public power agency's big hurdle: Facing Sonoma County's cities starting Tuesday
May 7, 2013

Many city representatives say that they are unlikely to give any go-ahead that would effectively enroll customers, who would have the option to opt out, without seeing final rates and having a clearer idea of where the program will get its electricity and how green it will be. ...Benefits, including local energy projects that could create jobs, are "intriguing," Kyes said. "But there really isn't any information yet that shows that's more than talk."

California utilities' renewable energy spending up
March 15, 2013 by David R. Baker in San Francisco Chronicle

The utilities have warned that the push to buy renewable power will raise customers' bills. PG&E, for example, estimates that renewable contracts will add about 1 to 2 percent to bills each year through 2020. ...Long-term power purchase contracts with wind farms, solar plants and other renewable energy facilities averaged 9.9 cents per kilowatt hour.

Also filed under [ Impact on Economy]

California girds for electricity woes
February 27, 2013 by Rebecca Smith in Wall Street Journal

California is weighing how to avoid a looming electricity crisis that could be brought on by its growing reliance on wind and solar power. ...the surplus generating capacity doesn't guarantee steady power flow. Even though California has a lot of plants, it doesn't have the right mix: Many of the solar and wind sources added in recent years have actually made the system more fragile, because they provide power intermittently.

Also filed under [ Transmission]

Imperial County betting its future on renewable energy
February 27, 2013 by Shan Li in Los Angeles Times

Economists are more skeptical about the long-term benefit to the county. They point out that solar and wind farms bring in an initial boom of constriction jobs, but require very few workers once they're up and running. The five projects being built in Imperial County will generate 1,946 temporary construction jobs but only 71.5 permanent ..."Once you build them you don't need many folks to maintain them."

Also filed under [ Impact on Economy]

Rise in renewable energy will require more use of fossil fuels
December 10, 2012 by Ralph Vartabedian in Los Angeles Times

The power they produce can suddenly disappear when a cloud bank moves across the Mojave Desert or wind stops blowing through the Tehachapi Mountains. In just half an hour, a thousand megawatts of electricity can disappear and threaten stability of the grid. To avoid that calamity, fossil fuel plants have to be ready to generate electricity in mere seconds.

First cap-and-trade auction a bust for California budget
November 22, 2012 by Kevin Yamamura in Sacramento Bee

A low price for credits and minimal demand for future offsets suggest California will see a mere fraction of the $1 billion that Gov. Jerry Brown and lawmakers estimated the state would receive this fiscal year. If demand remains similar in two forthcoming auctions, the state would generate only about $140 million.

Aerial photos of giant Google-funded solar farm caught in green energy debate
November 14, 2012 by Jakob Schiller in Wired Magazine

Barbara Boyle, a senior representative at the Sierra Club's regional field office in Sacramento, says Ivanpah could have been located at any number of other locations where it would have had less impact on the environment and the tortoises that live there. Boyle says there are multiple areas in Southern California, including old dried-up agricultural lands and mining areas, that would have been more suitable.

Also filed under [ USA]

Calif. renewable energy goals come at a price
November 24, 2011 by David R. Baker in San Francisco Chronicle

California's increasing use of renewable power will come at a price, pushing up electricity bills across the state. And while it's impossible to tell how big the cost to consumers will be, some experts fear the total cost of renewable energy in California will be in the billions of dollars.

Also filed under [ Impact on Economy]

Power lines opponents claim success at swaying official opinion
November 2, 2011 in Champion Newspapers

Rep. Gary Miller issued a statement through his campaign committee, blaming short-sighted Democratic lawmakers in Sacramento who in 2002, with Gov. Gray Davis at the helm, mandated power companies in California to generate a greater percentage of "so-called" green energy.

Also filed under [ Transmission]

Fraud probe causes pain for small wind sites
September 4, 2011 by Anne Gonzales in The Sacramento Bee

The commission alleges DyoCore's claims for the energy-generation capacity of its turbine are 7.5 times greater than theoretically possible. Many of the sites where installations were made were in low wind areas that would not have supported power production.

Energy in America: Dead birds unintended consequence of wind power development
August 16, 2011 by William La Jeunesse in Fox News

Wind power is the fastest growing component in the state's green energy portfolio, but wildlife advocates say the marriage has an unintended consequence: dead birds, including protected species of eagles, hawks and owls. "The cumulative impacts are huge," said Shawn Smallwood, one of the few recognized experts studying the impact of wind farms on migratory birds.

Also filed under [ Impact on Wildlife| USA]

Calif. Governor vows to 'crush' foes of renewable energy
July 25, 2011 by Debra Kahn in New York Times

Brown's goal, being fleshed out this week at an invitation-only conference at the University of California, Los Angeles, is to build 12,000 megawatts of distributed renewable energy, building on and extending former Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's target of 5,000 MW by 2020.

Utilities' renewable energy pacts expensive
February 19, 2011 by David R. Baker in San Francisco Chronicle

Since the law was passed, 59 percent of the contracts the utilities have signed with renewable power developers have been more expensive than the levelized price of electricity from a new natural gas plant. The levelized price takes into account the costs of building, operating and fueling the plant. ..."The thrust of the message is, we need some kind of cost containment," said Yuliya Shmidt, a regulatory analyst with the commission's Division of Ratepayer Advocates.

Alternative energy still facing headwinds
February 17, 2011 by Peter Slevin and Steven Mufson in Washington Post

The three-year fight over the Sunrise Powerlink, which is designed to carry solar, wind and geothermal energy, typifies the serious challenges facing President Obama and many of the nation's governors as they tout the power of renewable energy to put people to work and rescue the planet from the effects of climate change.

Also filed under [ Transmission| USA]

Calif. cap-trade plan dealt blow by S.F. judge
February 3, 2011 by Wyatt Buchanan in San Francisco Chronicle

Superior Court Judge Ernest Goldsmith ruled that the air board approved the larger plan to implement AB32 prior to completing the required environmental review, and that the board failed to adequately consider alternatives to cap and trade. The Air Resources Board "seeks to create a fait accompli by premature establishment of a cap-and-trade program before alternative (sic) can be exposed to public comment and properly evaluated by the ARB itself."

Calif. rule may stunt Oregon clean energy market
January 20, 2011 by Lee van der Voo in Sustainable Business Oregon

"All this makes this whole situation so gray. And if you're a business trying to decide whether you should invest half a billion dollars in a wind farm in Oregon or Washington, or Montana for that matter, your financial folks are going to be pretty scared," said John Audley, deputy director of the Renewable Northwest Project.

Also filed under [ USA| Oregon]

Analyzing the 'California effect' on the Northwest's wind power boom
December 18, 2010 by Dan Tilkin in KATU News

"California is a very big variable," said Elliot Mainzer, who is Bonneville Power Administration's guru on how to balance future energy and environmental needs here in the Northwest. When asked if he thought California was carrying its weight as far as managing those type of issues, he said "I would like to see California pay a little bit more attention to our issues, quite frankly."

Also filed under [ Impact on People| Oregon]

Analysis: Voters deliver mixed message on renewable energy
November 3, 2010 by Sarah McBride in Reuters

Big Republican wins in the House of Representatives make it unlikely that a bill to curb emissions from fossil fuels or establish renewable-energy goals will make it through Congress. But in California, clean-energy policies apparently struck a chord with voters, who handed the governorship to Democrat Jerry Brown, a strong proponent of cutting emissions and boosting alternative-energy industries.

Also filed under [ USA]

Calif. push for renewables could blow across West
September 26, 2010 by Matthew Brown in Associated Press

The new California regulation requires that a third of the state's power supply, or an estimated 15,000 to 25,000 megawatts, must come from a renewable source, said Stanley Young, a spokesman for the air board. ..."What that will do is finance wind farms in Montana, whether those electrons make it to California or someplace else," said Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer.

Also filed under [ USA]

Federal Ruling Casts Doubt On Vermont Renewable Energy Program
August 5, 2010 by John Dillon in Vermont Public Radio

A federal ruling has cast doubt on a Vermont program designed to promote renewable energy. The ruling says utilities should not pay more than market rates for electricity from the clean-energy projects. The state agency that represents consumers wants to know how the decision affects projects in Vermont, so it's asked the state attorney general's office for legal advice.

Also filed under [ USA| Vermont]

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