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How State Power Regulators Are Making Utilities Account for the Costs of Climate Change

How State Power Regulators Are Making Utilities Account for the Costs of Climate Change

New Mexico Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham

The electricity powering your computer or smartphone that makes it possible for you to read this article could come from one of several sources. It’s probably generated by burning natural gas or coal or from operating a nuclear reactor, unless it’s derived from hydropower or wind or solar energy. Who gets to choose?

In many states, it’s up to the utilities, the companies that bill you for electricity. Costs often weigh heavily in their decisions. But deciding which costs to consider is a very subjective process.

If your utility accounts for the toll taken by climate change, like Xcel Energy in Colorado does, your state electricity regulator probably makes the company do that. This approach is one behind-the-scenes way that a growing number of states are addressing global warming.

As scholars who study the intersection between policies that deal with climate change and energy, we have studied the rules that govern electric utilities across the nation. Our new report sheds light on where state regulators have the ability to make rules that mandate action on climate change.

States, Electricity and Climate Change

Every additional ton of the greenhouse gas emissions from burning fossil fuels to generate electricity contributes to climate change. This carbon pollution has many negative consequences, both to the physical world and also to global social and economic systems.

But utilities don’t always tally the costs of these consequences. Because dealing with climate change is astronomically expensive, we believe that this should change.

Utilities still largely rely on coal, natural gas and nuclear energy to keep the lights on. These companies rely on older technologies in part because those facilities are already built and, to a degree, because of how much it costs to start up and shut down power plants. What’s more, fossil fuels have generally been cheaper than other energy sources until somewhat recently.

 …click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Courtesy of Utility “Smart” Meters and Grid: 48% of Power and Utility CEOs Think Cybersecurity Attacks Are Inevitable. More Tax Dollars Wasted to Try to Fix.

Courtesy of Utility “Smart” Meters and Grid: 48% of Power and Utility CEOs Think Cybersecurity Attacks Are Inevitable. More Tax Dollars Wasted to Try to Fix.

From their mouths to your ears, a recent article from Utility Dive confirms what opponents have been saying ALL ALONG – the implementation of the “Smart Grid” along with the installation of millions of utility “Smart” Meters and related infrastructure have created a recipe for cybersecurity disaster.  Not only that – more tax dollars are being wasted to try to fix what many experts have always considered to be unfixable in re cybersecurity risk and “Smart” utility technology:

From the article:

The broader KPMG report focuses on CEOs across a number of industries, and finds it isn’t just power and utilities executives who worry about the balance between technological innovation and susceptibility to cyberattacks. The top concern for CEOs in general are economic nationalism, followed by cybersecurity, “disruptive technology risk” and climate change risk.

For utility executives, cybersecurity continues to be a top concern as grid modernization potentially opens up the power sector to more vulnerabilities.

“In theory, a grid with more distributed resources can increase the potential attack surface for adversaries because the capacity of distributed generation, including renewables, has grown exponentially over the last decade,” Bill Lawrence, director of the North American Electric Reliability Corporation’s Electricity Information Sharing and Analysis Center, told Utility Dive in May.

Connecticut officials in September found there had been millions of attempts to hack utilities in the state over the past year, though all intrusions were successfully prevented. In October, seven Russian military officials were indicted for hacking-related charges, including allegedly trying to steal login credentials from Westinghouse Electric employees involved with advanced nuclear reactor development.

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

55 Ways To Save Money on Your Utility and Water Bills

55 Ways To Save Money on Your Utility and Water Bills

The single biggest expense most households have are their utility and water bills. Sometimes those two bills combined are more expensive than the mortgage. Sometimes those two bills are the same as the mortgage and monthly groceries. In other words, they are just expensive.

In the twenty plus years of paying for a utility bill and growing up in a house that was very conscious of its water and electrical use, I have learned some tips and tricks to drive down the costs of those bills. Some of these tips will not cost you a thing and will provide immediate results. Some results will not be immediately seen. For some of these tips, you will need to pay to save. You will need to purchase items will that will pay for themselves in the future.

I realize some towns/cities/companies have minimum usages for utilities and water. If you are above the minimum usages, you want to get down to those if you can. You can also call and try to negotiate the minimum usage amount, but most places do not allow that.

55 Ways To Save Money on Your Utility and Water Bills

1. Shut off the lights. Most houses are lit up like they are a light show. If you are not in the room, shut off the lights. Use lamps, oil lamps, or candles instead of overhead lights to save money. During the day, use natural lighting.

2. Unplug the small appliance especially the ones with lights or a display. They draw power even though they are not in use.

3. Hang your laundry instead of using the clothes dryer. You can hang inside or outside depending on your weather. Hanging inside during the winter also provides some needed humidity too if you live where it is cold.
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Texas Town First Of Many To Switch To 100% Renewable Power

Texas Town First Of Many To Switch To 100% Renewable Power

On March 18 the city of Georgetown, Texas announced that it would soon be generating 100 percent of its electricity from renewable sources.

Georgetown agreed to purchase the power from a 150-megawatt solar farm that is to be constructed by SunEdison and online in 2016. Coupled with a 2014 agreement to buy wind power, Georgetown will be able to generate all of its electricity needs without any help from coal, oil, natural gas, or nuclear power.

Texas, the largest oil producer in the United States, is not normally known for its green tendencies. But Georgetown will be the first of many cities in Texas and around the country that will increasingly turn to renewables for electricity. And that has less to do with environmentalism than it does with dollars and cents. Solar has seen its panel prices fall by more than 63 percent since 2010, with wind posting similar cost declines. As a result renewables are the fastest growing form of electricity.

Related: The $6.8 Billion Great Wall Of Japan: Fukushima Cleanup Takes On Epic Proportion

That is upending monopolies held by utilities, which are fighting back against insurgent solar and wind. Utilities are trying to block new entrants into the market, which has earned the solar and wind industry some new and unlikely allies. In North Carolina, for example, a Republican state representative issponsoring legislation that will open up the market for third party ownership and financing of solar, something that is currently illegal. Dubbed the “Energy Freedom Act,” the legislation could provide a dramatic boost to renewable energy in a state that has in the past banned state agencies from preparing for the threats of climate change.

 

…click on the above link to read the rest of the article…

Electric Power Rights of Way: A New Frontier for Conservation by Richard Conniff: Yale Environment 360

Electric Power Rights of Way: A New Frontier for Conservation by Richard Conniff: Yale Environment 360.

Often mowed and doused with herbicides, power transmission lines have long been a bane for environmentalists. But that’s changing, as some utilities are starting to manage these areas as potentially valuable corridors for threatened wildlife.

by richard conniff

Nobody loves electrical power transmission lines. They typically bulldoze across the countryside like a clearcut, 150 feet wide and scores or hundreds

integrated vegetation management in right-of-way

ROW Stewardship Council
Studies show that some power line corridors provide habitat for now-scarce birds.

of miles long, in a straight line that defies everything we know about nature. They’re commonly criticized for fragmenting forests and other natural habitats and for causing collisions and electrocutions for some birds. Power lines also have raised the specter, in the minds of anxious neighbors, of illnesses induced by electromagnetic fields.

So it’s a little startling to hear wildlife biologists proposing that properly managed transmission lines, and even natural gas and oil pipeline rights-of-way, could be the last best hope for many birds, pollinators, and other species that are otherwise dramatically declining. 

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Olduvai IV: Courage
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Olduvai II: Exodus
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