Insights from our Editorial Team
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Mar 04, 2013 |
The Boulder City Council just recently met and had concluded that full-scale municipalization is doable -- a move that the city’s voters approved in November 2011. But at the same time, those opposed to such a takeover of Xcel Energy have persuaded the proponents to at least engage the investor-owned utility to see if the voters' aspirations could be achieved without incurring the risks.
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Feb 28, 2013 |
Deployment of smart meters have now become commonplace in many parts of the United States. Approximately 33 percent of all U.S. households now have a smart meter installed. California and Texas have led these efforts with many other states expected to follow suit.
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Obama administration releases grid roadmapFeb 27, 2013 |
President Obama’s State of the Union spoke of accessing this nation’s energy wealth while also discussing the value of a “smart grid” whereby the efficient flow of electricity would allow for more alternative fuel sources and avoid detrimental blackouts. The twin causes are significant, he had noted, mainly because the earth is warming and leading to more hurricanes, floods and droughts.
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Feb 26, 2013 |
The European Union’s (EU) ambitious plan to rollout smart meters to 80 percent of its 500 million population by 2020 is not going well as hoped.
Europe has enjoyed notable success with smart meters. In 2006, Italy became the first country in Europe to complete a national smart meter program after utility Enel conducted a five-year, €2 billion ($2.6 billion) scheme—mainly to reduce non-technical losses—for its 30 million customers. -
Feb 25, 2013 |
Shale gas is getting a lot of ink. So does liquefied natural gas, or LNG. But a third member of the unconventional natural gas family is coal bed methane, which has not gotten as much attention. Its promise, though, could be as great as that of its cousins, although it too faces stiff environmental opposition.
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Feb 24, 2013 |
The president's re-election now appears to have provided some needed clarity to questions about the direction national energy policy might take. Both the president and his opponent asserted that the 2012 election presented Americans with the clearest possible choice between two different philosophies of government, and the Democrats emerged the winners. But the election results also raised caution flags.
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Feb 21, 2013 |
There is a very large gap between North America and the Caribbean with regard to kilowatt-hour per capita consumption. This metric is frequently used by international organizations to evaluate levels of development of nation states.
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Feb 20, 2013 |
Electric cars are a wise investment not just for the American economy but also for the global environment, the White House says, adding that the nation spends trillions on the importation of oil. It acknowledges that the market for those vehicles is slow to develop, noting that there is a lack of infrastructure and that the cars are too expensive relative to the easy-to-fuel gasoline-powered cars.
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Minnesota may be a national modelFeb 19, 2013 |
The Obama administration’s efforts to reduce mercury pollution from coal plants has become one of its most contentious undertakings. But Minnesota’s regulatory officials are saying that they may have found the key -- one that has built consensus and that could become a national model.
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Kansas is now resistantFeb 18, 2013 |
Renewable Portfolio Standards are coming under attack. The latest locale is Kansas, where the Republican-led legislature says that green energy mandates are distorting markets. Policymakers are also threatening repeal, noting that the environmental community is blocking an advanced coal project there.
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