ACORE News

RE Type: Wind Energy

The Department of Energy recently offered a $117 million conditional loan guarantee to ACORE member First Wind to finance the construction and start-up of a thirty megawatt wind energy project in Kahuku, Hawaii. The proposed Kahuku Wind project, located on the island of Oahu, involves installing a dozen 2.5 megawatt wind turbine generators and an innovative battery energy storage system for electric load stability.

March 10, 2010 -- A group of mostly Republican governors has urged federal lawmakers to stop the Obama administration from regulating greenhouse gases under existing law.  In a letter to Congressional leaders, the twenty governors stated that the EPA is "is not equipped to consider the very real potential for economic harm when regulating emissions.”  << Full Story >>

In a letter to Treasury Secretary Geithner, dated March 5, ACORE respectfully objected to Senator Schumers’ proposal, but fully endorsed the underlying intent of the Senator’s proposal.

Read the Letter

March 9, 2010 -- Energy Secretary Steven Chu recently told participants at a major energy industry gathering that they need to accept a limit on carbon pollution and start finding ways to meet it. "Let's get moving now," Chu told a conference sponsored by IHS Cambridge Energy Research Associates. "That will get the innovation machine moving. Time is running out, and the train is leaving the station." << Full Story >>

British Airways, in partnership with the Solena Group, is to establish Europe’s first sustainable jet-fuel plant and plan to use the low-carbon fuel to power part of its fleet from 2014.

March 9, 2010 -- The fate of comprehensive energy and climate legislation rests in the hands of about 30 senators. The list includes coal and Rust Belt Democrats, Westerners and moderate Republicans. They bring several high-profile issues to the forefront that, if satisfied, offers several potential paths to the bill's lead authors looking for the magic 60 votes. << Full Story >>

March 8, 2010 -- The Obama administration has no plans to set up a “cap-and-trade” program for greenhouse gases under existing law if Congress doesn’t pass legislation doing so, the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has said. << Full Story >>

March 8, 2010 -- The three senators writing compromise climate legislation are lobbying business groups in hopes of winning their support for the effort. One obstacle: the absence of an actual bill. Senators Kerry, Graham and Lieberman have worked for weeks to break the impasse and craft a measure to reduce heat-trapping gases that could win centrist support. << Full Story >>

Renewable energy issues took center stage in 2009 as the House of Representatives passed a cap and trade bill and American delegates prepared to go to Copenhagen for the COP-15 Conference.  However, as news about health care and the failed climate summit dominated the headlines during the final weeks of 2009, renewable energy issues seemed destined to be pushed to the back burner in 2010.  However, clean energy leaders could not allow that to happen and believed it was time to bring green issues back to the national forefront.  Out of this desire to keep pushing the United States towards a cleaner and more prosperous future, Clean Energy Week was born.

March 4, 2010 -- The Energy Department official overseeing DOE stimulus spending said today that suspending renewable energy grants as urged by Senate Democrats would hurt domestic job creation. "Halting the program at this point would not be helpful for jobs," Matt Rogers, senior adviser to Energy Secretary Steven Chu, told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. << Full Story >>

March 4, 2010 -- A group of Democratic senators has called for the government to halt a federal stimulus program aimed at building wind farms and other clean-energy projects, arguing that too much of the money spent so far has gone to create jobs overseas. << Full Story >>

March 3, 2010 -- Key senators are weighing a request from Big Oil to levy a carbon fee on the industry rather than wrap it into a sweeping cap-and-trade system that covers most of the U.S. economy.  If accepted, the approach could rearrange the politics of the Senate climate debate and potentially open up votes that may not be there otherwise.  << Full Story >>

March 3, 2010 -- U.S. regulation of greenhouse-gas emissions won’t target stationary sources emitting 50,000 to 75,000 tons a year until at least 2013, according to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson.  The initial phase of greenhouse-gas rules, starting in 2011, would focus on large polluters emitting more than 75,000 tons of carbon a year.  << Full Story >>

NEW DELHI, March 1 (UPI) -- The Indian government proposed a coal tax Friday aimed at creating a fund for promoting clean energy.