Welcome to the second Friday of this week. See you next week in San Francisco, you can find me near the Quick Mount lounge or hit reply to this to say hello. Have a great weekend!
Scott Pruitt Becomes A Lobbyist. In between looking for chicken startups and buying used mattresses with his interns credit cards, Scott Pruitt did a really bad job protecting the environment. I said it in the past but his irrational behaviour put his regulatory policies on the front page of the news constantly. Can you name Obama’s EPA administrators? George W. Bush’s? Now we move to Scott Pruitt’s replacement, Andrew Wheeler, who knows the EPA well. He started his career there and learned how to apply the right pressure when he became a coal lobbyist. I expect Wheeler to be more manicured as administrator but just as bad at protecting the environment. Stay tuned because with FERC Commissioner Powelson resigning, a coal bailout could be coming soon.
Everyone Still Loves Solar. Another poll that takes solar to both sides of the aisle. In this case, a poll asked supporters of the NRA and Greenpeace how they feel about solar and businesses that use more solar energy. 75% of the respondents said that businesses that go solar should be rewarded.
That’s A Big Solar Rooftop. I’m not big on project announcements but a 40MW project that is built for self-consumption seems like a big deal. There’s a GM plant in Spain that has something around 13MW but this is more than three times that. Will be interesting to see if other large manufacturers will be doing the same since everyone wants them to according to the above poll.
Correcting Yesterday’s Note. Yesterday I made note that DeLeon wasn’t moving forward to the general election in November since he lost to Feinstein in the primary. While he was beaten in the primary by 1.5million votes, California has a top two process that results in DeLeon making it to the general in November. Apologies on the error.
- Axios: How things will (and won’t) change at EPA with Scott Pruitt gone
- SolarWakeup: BREAKING – Scott Pruitt Out At EPA – Former Coal Lobbyist To Step In For Now
- SolarWakeup: NRA And Greenpeace Reach Historic Agreement – Solar Rocks
- PV-Tech: Food conglomerate contracts Gunkul for Thailand’s ‘largest’ rooftop solar project
- Greentech Media: Swiss Re Stops Insuring Businesses With High Exposure to Thermal Coal
- EDF: How the conversation changed at this year’s World Gas Conference
- GreenBiz: Just what the doctor ordered – Kaiser powers forward with renewable microgrids
- Utility Dive: Taming the duck – Arizona Public Service seeks 106 MW storage for solar plants
Opinion
Have a great day!
Yann