Wind power saved PJM residents $1 billion in two days last year. Frigid Arctic temperatures spread over the 13 Mid Atlantic and Great Lakes states (PJM) on January 6 and 7, 2014. There was not enough conventional energy to meet demand. According to the American Wind Energy Association (AWEA), spot princes would have skyrocketed if had there not been an abundance of wind energy available.
Last summer Pennsylvania’s Department of Environmental Protection revealed that in 245 cases it had “determined that a private water supply was impacted by oil and gas activities.” Not too long after that, a joint study from the British Geological Survey and Durham University reported water contamination associated with 6% of Pennsylvania’s gas wells . There have been at least 122 complaints about water contamination in West Virginia. There is, as yet, no fracking in the neighboring state of Maryland, which also sit on the Marcellus Shale. The citizens of this region raised concerns about the impact development would have on “public health, the environment and quality of life.” Governor Martin O’Malley (D) responded with a interim moratorium. Maryland’s Departments of Environment and Natural Resources have been studying fracking operations in Pennsylvania and West Virginia for over three years. They have just released a report on (p 2 of attached) how fracking “can be accomplished without unacceptable risks of adverse impacts to public health, safety, the environment, and natural resources.” These are the strongest Fracking rules in America.
Continue reading The Strongest Fracking Rules in AmericaOriginally Published in Clean Technica
By Roy L Hales
PV solar has been increasing at a rate of 50% a year for the past decade. This has led many utilities to question the impact that continued expansion will have on their investors and ratepayers. Andrew Satchwell et al studied the effects of PV solar penetration on two hypothetical utilities. In Financial Impacts of Net-Metered PV on Utilities and Ratepayers: A Scoping Study of Two Prototypical U.S. Utilities, they concluded the negative impacts of Net-Metered PV will fall on investors; Ratepayers may only feel modest losses.
Continue reading Negative Impacts of Rooftop solar will Fall on Investors
By Roy L Hales
Boulder Colorado’s election results are being heralded as yet another “solar victory,” in a string that stretches back to the Louisiana and Idaho Public Utilities Commissions decisions earlier this year. The relevant questions on the ballot, however, pertain to Boulder’s attempt to join more than 1,300 American communities that have formed their own utility.
Question 310 would have required voter approval before the city issued bonds to pay for Xcel’s equipment and run its own utility, was defeated by a 2:1 margin (21,100 to 9,543).
