Pruitt Is Lobbying. Of all of the countries that can benefit from natural gas exports from the United States, Pruitt picked the one place that is the Saudi Arabia of solar and wind. Morocco has insane solar and wind resources as one of the few arabic countries without oil reserves. Natural gas is a bridge to nowhere in Morocco and I doubt any power company would invest a dollar in non-solar or wind generation in that Country.
Puerto Rico Report. Interesting how this came about but a group of power folks wrote a 63 page report to the Governors of Puerto Rico and New York on how to rebuild the grid in Puerto Rico post Irma. I interviewed the Congresswoman of Puerto Rico last week and I’ve tried to do business in Puerto Rico. This report is a little more than dressing on the real issue. Everyone knows how to rebuild and it doesn’t cost 18billion. It requires the PREPA balance sheet to be fixed and the private investment will come. Donating solar to a homeowner with a 500 FICO score doesn’t do anything to help that homeowner. PREPA needs to be a creditworthy counterparts, until then nothing sustainable happens. The PREPA advisory council also seems like no more than bureaucracy.
Get Out Of The Way. Governor LePage is annoying and solar folks have had enough. This case is going to the courts and hopefully will get fixed.
Reclaiming Coal. I’ve been involved in a few solar plants on retired coal plants and have been fascinated with the shift it represents. It’s been a tough market to focus on because the ground is tough to connect to but with floatovoltaics, flooded coal mines could present a great second life.
Attack Is Coming. I had not seen Tom Pyle’s name quoted since his involvement with the EPA transition. He’s been actively trolling folks on Twitter and now an oped on The Hill website. This is in relation to tax reform and I stay on the record stating that solar and wind would gladly compete without tax credits if all other energy credits also disappear – I say this with apologies to my tax equity friends. Have no fear because other segments would never let go of their tax benefits and they don’t want to have this argument and are glad to see solar and wind retain their tax credits.
- Axios: Pruitt in Morocco discussing natural gas
- E&E News: Heavyweights offer sweeping changes to Puerto Rico’s grid
- Utility Dive: Maine net metering battle heads to court
- Quartz: Dead coal mines everywhere are being reincarnated as solar farms
- The Hill: Sorry wind and solar, America’s insatiable energy demands require reliable power sources
- Think Progress: Major financial institutions rebuke Trump agenda, announce big steps away from fossil fuels
- Washington Post: Trump administration withheld funds from an energy program, a federal watchdog rules
- Las Vegas Sun: 2 new solar plants boost Switch operations, state’s clean energy outlook
Opinion
Have a great day!
Yann