Topics: Renewable Energy

Complaints about the supposedly high costs of renewable energy by political pundits and candidates around the state are vastly misleading and need correction. In an Oct. 11 Missoulian story, Public Service Commission candidate Bill Gallagher is quoted as saying that renewable energy in Montana has raised electricity rates “without generating any real benefits.” Meanwhile, PSC candidate Travis Kavulla claims that renewable energy requirements for our utilities are “going to add costs to the consumer without adding any real value for them.” Let’s set the record straight…

Read the full Op-Ed online at The Missoulian.

The Interior Department approved the first solar projects on public land Tuesday, a move aimed at shifting the type of energy development on federal property in the years to come.

The two ventures greenlighted in the California desert — the Imperial Valley and Chevron Lucerne Valley solar projects — could provide energy for hundreds of thousands of homes, though neither would start generating electricity for more than a year, at the earliest…

A new report shows that the US energy economy has shifted away from coal over the last year at a pace faster than the declining economy would predict.

The public can now view a new online display of wind and other data the Bonneville Power Administration uses to monitor weather conditions that drive the growing amount of wind energy generated in the Northwest.

Several companies have been working with the Energy Trust of Oregon and the city of Portland to solarize the city. The project goes from neighborhood to neighborhood, with hundreds of customers signing for installation of photovoltaic cells. So Portland is experiencing a huge penetration of solar power at very reasonable costs thanks to economies of scale…

Washington State Rep. John McCoy (D-Tulalip) has been honored by the NW Energy Coalition Friday for his successful efforts to maintain the integrity of the state’s voter-approved Clean Energy Initiative, I-937, particularly during the 2009 state legislative session. Coalition policy director Nancy Hirsh (left side of photo) and former Coalition policy associate and lobbyist Carrie Dolwick (right) presented the award to Rep. McCoy during a brief ceremony in the Coalition’s Seattle office June 18.

The 2010 Washington state legislative session has finally ended. While results for environmental issues were mixed overall, defenders of the 2006 Clean Energy Initiative 937 were pleased that no changes were made to the law…

The Idaho PUC has opened public comment periods on a number of proposed rate changes by Idaho Power and a proposed plan to manage the “green tags” it can obtain from renewable energy projects from which it buys power…

The 2010 legislative session has ended and although the legislature delivered mixed results for the environment overall, supporters of Clean Energy Initiative 937 were pleased that no changes were made to the law. Because of your help, we were able to protect the integrity and strength of Initiative 937 again this year…

The 2010 legislative session has finally come to a close and it’s time to take inventory on how clean and affordable energy policies fared in Olympia. Read on to see where we stand…