In vetoing the higher renewable standard, Sandoval said “Although the promise of AB206 is commendable, its adoption is premature in the face of evolving energy policy in Nevada." He cited concerns including potential impacts to ratepayers and other changes in Nevada energy laws, such as the Energy Choice Initiative.

Energy Policy Nevada

The purchase approval by the council does not guarantee the wind power to Columbia because the Missouri Public Service Commission has not yet approved construction of the main means of transporting the energy, the Grain Belt Express Clean Line. Columbia Water and Light Assistant Director Ryan Williams said the agreement doesn't hinge on the delivery of the power.

General Nevada

According to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) Las Vegas Field Office, the agency is now in the process of closing the application for the project, 18 months after a federal judge voided the federal approvals for the project because of the likely harm to desert tortoises and golden eagles.

Impact on Wildlife Impact on Birds Nevada

“The routes unnecessarily destroy wilderness-quality lands in Northwest Colorado and eastern Nevada, as well as greater sage grouse habitat. Readily available alternative routes could have minimized or eliminated these impacts by following highways and designated utility corridors.”

Transmission Colorado Nevada Wyoming

A federal appeals court has dismissed a Virginia energy company's request to overturn a federal judge's ruling last year that threw out the Obama administration's approval of what was projected to be Nevada's largest wind power project.

Legal USA Nevada

According to a new study by Dr. Timothy J Considine for the Nevada Policy Research Institute, these “renewable portfolio standards” are having a serious impact on Nevada’s ability to rebuild and expand our economy. Because of the Silver State’s aggressive schedule for increasing the use of renewables, energy prices are expected to climb by nearly 15 percent in 2016.

Energy Policy Nevada

Nevada’s current renewable portfolio standard requires the state to get 25 percent of its energy from renewable sources by 2025. However, due to a glut of credits that top Nevada utility NV Energy has accumulated to meet the target, the law is no longer resulting in the construction of more renewable energy projects, according to analysis by the environmental group Western Resource Advocates.

Energy Policy Nevada

The latest problem? A fire at one of the plant’s three towers on Thursday, which left metal pipes scorched and melted.  ...“Ivanpah has been such a mess,” says Adam Schultz, program manager at the UC Davis Energy Institute and former analyst for the CPUC. 

Safety Structural Failure Nevada

Misaligned mirrors instead focused sunbeams on a different level of Unit 3, causing electrical cables to catch fire, San Bernardino County, California fire Capt. Mike McClintock said. David Knox, spokesman for plant operator NRG Energy, said it was too early to comment on the cause, which was under investigation.

Safety Structural Failure Nevada

Utility regulators argued the new rates, implemented over the next 12 years, were necessary to accurately account for the cost of serving solar customers. They also said that their decision adhered to legislation that gave the commission authority to set new rates.

Legal USA Nevada

A federal District Court judge ruled against the development of an 87-turbine, 200-megawatt wind farm in tiny Searchlight, Nev., and the company behind the project joined with the U.S. Interior Department to file an appeal. The case, which now sits before the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, could stretch out for at least another year.

Impact on Landscape Impact on People USA Nevada

A test of a solar power tower project in Nevada resulted in injuries to over one hundred birds, the federal government is reporting, though the project's owners say they've fixed the problem.

Impact on Birds Nevada

State regulators dealt another blow to the solar industry today after they unanimously approved a ruling that would not allow about 17,000 Nevadans with rooftop solar, some of whom had adopted the technology as early as 1997, to be shielded from a recent commission decision to increase bills

Taxes & Subsidies Energy Policy Nevada

Solar energy is no longer in its infancy, but the industry is refusing to grow up. See the tantrum the government-funded industry is throwing at Nevada’s rollback of its net-metering subsidy.

Energy Policy Nevada

"The Searchlight Wind project area is next to a national recreation area and has the highest concentrations of desert tortoises and golden eagle nests in Nevada," said Dave Becker, a Portland, Ore.-based lawyer representing the two groups and three residents challenging the project. "It's a stupid place for a wind project." But more than that, Becker said, the order exposes what he calls BLM's rush, at least in the first few years of the Obama administration, to approve commercial-scale renewables projects on federal lands.

Legal Nevada

Judge Du found that environmental analyses prepared by the BLM and USFWS inadequately evaluated the dangers that the industrial-scale wind project would pose to desert wildlife. She cited data missing from the agency surveys, inadequate assessment of potential threats to golden eagles, desert tortoises, and bats, and the need for additional explanation of the agencies’ conclusions.

Legal USA Nevada

The U.S. District Court in Nevada has ordered that the federal Record of Decision, Final Environmental Impact Statement, and Biological Opinion issued on APEX Energy's Searchlight Wind project be vacated. A brief background is provided below. The vacate order can be accessed by clicking the links on this page.   

Legal Nevada

The utility says the credit — which amounts to around 6 cents per kilowatt-hour — is an unfair burden on nonsolar customers. The utility currently caps participation in the program to 3 percent of its peak generating demand, which is 7,500 megawatts (a Super Walmart consumes around three-quarters of a megawatt per year). The utility says ratepayers will pay $8 million for every percentage point the cap increases.

Energy Policy Nevada

Legislatively mandated renewable portfolio rules are already costing ratepayers millions of dollars and thousands of jobs, according to a previous Beacon Hill study that NPRI commissioned and released. All these losses come because the State of Nevada has told its energy utility that it may no longer use energy sources that have served consumers for decades and must instead replace them with more socially acceptable technologies.

Energy Policy Nevada

On February 3, 2015, Judge Du had ordered BLM to prepare a supplemental Environmental Impact Statement on eagles due to inadequate surveys. In 2011, surveys funded by BLM found twenty-eight golden eagle nests within 10 miles of the project site, many more than the three nests the developer reported in its flawed avian surveys.

Impact on Wildlife Impact on Birds Legal Nevada