Another EnergyWakeup, and it’s good. On her first day on the job as SEIA CEO, I interview Abby Hopper who joins the solar industry after 2 years in the Federal Government. Bryan and I cover a ton of material about the nomination hearings, the Trump Administrations first day in office (a deleted webpage) and what NV Energy is really up to in Nevada. Don’t miss this episode, sponsored by Conductive Capital.
America’s Oil, Gas and Coal First Policy. The Koch brothers have put their official energy policy up on the website, the White House website. Promptly at noon on inauguration day, as is typical, on admins pages come down and the new ones go up. In a drastic comparison, climate change and renewables were deleted and America First Energy Policy is the top issue on the whitehouse.gov site now. It doesn’t mention climate change or renewables but does give a shoutout to clean coal. In case you are wondering who is in charge of energy policy, read this 4th grade level policy document.
DG Costs Nothing! The Berkeley National Lab has come out with an extensive study on the cost or benefit of distributed solar at current and 10% penetration rates. The results are negligible with any costs or benefits being less than a penny per kWh and could go in either direction. However, the amount of solar has a large impact on the future levels of utility investments which in every circumstance are a cost to the consumer. But on the other hand more investments mean higher returns for shareholders. Now do you understand why there is an inherent conflict between shareholders and ratepayers?
Rick Perry’s Heritage. DC’s worst kept secret is that Committee chairs and Agency Secretaries appreciate anything that maintains or increases their budget oversight. Why? Because a higher budget means more lobbying which means more work after public service. Rick Perry was strongly supporting the Offices of Science, National Labs and other work at DOE while the Trump team was releasing the Jim DeMint, Heritage Foundation’s blueprint on how to gut the Federal Budget.
- EnergyWakeup: Interview with SEIA President and what NV Energy is really doing
- Bloomberg: Trump Aides Prepare List of Early Energy Changes, Sources Say
- PV-Magazine: Berkeley Lab finds negligible potential rate impacts from distributed solar
- Greentech Media: Rick Perry Pledges DOE Research Support, Renewables as Trump Plans Drastic Agency Cuts
- Renewable Energy World: Trump Administration Removes References to Climate Change at Whitehouse.Gov
- GreenBiz: California’s grid geeks – The keepers of a clean future
- Yahoo: Trump’s victory creates uncertainty for wind and solar power
- Utility Dive: Missouri electric co-op group pens bill challenging net metering policy
Opinion
Have a great day!
Yann