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On November 5th, we submitted to the Environmental Protection Agency AEE’s comments on theClean Power Plan. As we testified in the Agency’s hearing in July, AEE supports the Clean Power Plan, because we see it as a vital step toward modernizing the U.S. electric power system for greater efficiency, reliability, and economic opportunity. Compliance with the Clean Power Plan may

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Important! Please keep this discussion focussed by following the guidelines at the bottom of this article. In particular, all comments comparing energy options like nuclear and renewables are off-topic. What is meant by “internalized costs”? Internalized costs are the costs which can be accurately accounted for in our current systems. In energy production, these costs typically consist of capital costs,

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The U.S. and other countries have pledged initial resources to help the Green Climate Fund (GCF) spur emissions reductions in developing countries and assist the most vulnerable in adapting to the impacts of climate change. The U.S. pledge of $3 billion is a serious commitment to helping achieve a strong climate agreement next year. The U.S. joins other countries that

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I have seen a number of blog posts, panel discussions and news articles that extol the idea of energy leapfrogging. A recent Business Week column on India described, “leapfrogging the nation’s ailing power-distribution infrastructure with solar-powered local networks — the same way mobile-phones have enabled people in poor, remote places to bypass landlines.” The dramatic increase in cell phone coverage

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This is the 50th anniversary of New York’s Verrazano-Narrows Bridge, the span that connects Staten Island with Brooklyn. As a child growing up in Brooklyn I remember watching its towers rise as if by magic. I always connected it with the 1964 World’s Fair which took place the same year the bridge opened, thinking they were both signs of the

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As we wind down the year 2014, there have been a few moments – some forward thinking and others outright overdue – in the world of energy that we can look back on and be thankful. Overall, countries around the world took a good step forward in the direction of a cleaner planet, more conscious leaders and further engaged people.

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Controversy is brewing as utilities consider “repowering” old coal-fired power plants across the US with natural gas. Several environmental groups initiated lawsuits to stop these plants from converting from coal to gas. Environmentalists want to shut the plants and replace the power they generate with renewables. Utilities argue this is not always possible, particularly in the short term. This is

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Hard on the heels of last week’s historic US-China Joint Announcement on Climate Change, in which China pledged for the first time to cap its CO2 emission by 2030, China’s State Council has just announced a new energy strategy action plan that includes, also for the first time, a cap on national coal consumption by 2020.  This is another major

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The Texas grid has (mostly) kept the lights on despite having minimal reserve margins for years. But if ERCOT, which operates the state’s grid, implements the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s proposed Clean Power Plan to cut carbon dioxide emissions, it will reduce grid reliability in the state even further, according to a new analysis from the council. “The timing and

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National Energy Systems are Wasteful: About 80% of the fossil energy taken out of the ground never reaches the end user. Then the user feeds the energy into devices with efficiencies as little as 5%, such as incandescent light bulbs. Such wasteful, national energy systems developed over the decades, because the fossil energy was, and still is, low-cost. Even district

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