Climate In Presidential Politics. In prior presidential campaigns climate change was an after thought and many debates skipped over the topic altogether. With half a dozen announced candidates, I can’t think of a single speech that doesn’t touch on climate change within the first few minutes of the announcement. That includes Trump, who comes at it often from the other side of the argument, many times conflating weather with climate. There is more reporting on the fact that republicans are excited about the green new deal for the fact that it may be used against democrats in campaigns.
Listening To David Crane. At the most recent Powerhouse event, Emily Kirsch interviewed David Crane about his career. For those catching up, Crane took an economic and moral stand when he was at the top. Rarely do you see corporate courage because it tends to end poorly for the executive or at least feels extremely lonely. In Crane’s case, his vision did not align with shareholders short term vision for higher stock prices because running a public company includes daily performance reviews with every single shareholder holding a different goal. I personally enjoyed the comment about CEO’s being lonely, I find that part of the job is often to guide in the right direction (quickly) while also providing a safety net in colleagues decision making. On the other hand, the CEO rarely has a place to go to for his or her decisions.
Performance Based Utilities. Keep a close eye on the proceedings in Hawaii about performance based regulations for the utility. This is a topic that is being circulated not only in Hawaii but across the mainland as well. The idea is proposed to enable distributed generation and demand response technologies to have a valuable benefit to the utility. If utilities are the toll collector on the highway, advocates would like the utility to benefit most when renewables, DERs and EVs have equal or prioritized access to the fast lanes. Let EV charging companies interconnect within days or weeks, not months or years. Let DERs compete every minute of every day for revenue.
- Axios: The climate lines worth noting from Amy Klobuchar’s 2020 launch
- Greentech Media: Watt It Takes – How David Crane Jolted the Power Sector
- Utility Dive: Hawaii PUC staff proposes performance-based regulation framework
- Solar Industry: Solar, Wind Industries Support Illinois’ ‘Path To 100’ Proposal
- PV-Tech: Solar shines brightest for renewables-keen investors
- Solar Builder: Solar Power Northeast takeaways – Solar’s Catch-22 options for navigating politicians, utilities and the public
- WBUR: Teenage Team Of Girl Engineers Designs Solar-Powered Tent To Tackle Homelessness
Opinion
Have a great day!
Yann