March 3rd, 2010
The legislative session in Springfield is in full gear and the Illinois Chamber is supporting two energy related legislative proposals under the Energy to Jobs Initiative. They are an attempt to increase investment opportunities in the state by modernizing regulations at the IEPA and ICC. These changes to not alter environmental protections, but they do offer an opportunity for a more efficient permit review process so when companies are determining wherer to move or where to grow, they’ll know the permitting process in Illinois have improved.
Here are backgrounders on the legislation.
Read the rest of this entry »
Tags: Energy to Jobs Initiative, Illinois energy
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March 1st, 2010
ComEd is doing a solar power pilot project later this year to see if home-based solar can become “mini-utilities.” Here’s a Chicago Sun Times article with more details.
This is another example of companies and organizations taking another hard look at solar power. It’s still expensive when compared to other sources of electricity but the technology is getting better and better (and cheaper and cheaper) and most experts will tell you that energy prices will continue to rise. So it’s wise to test out the systems now. It’s possible that we’ll reach a tipping point where the price of home solar will be low enough to generate a return for the homeowner within a reasonable amount of time. If and when that happens, ComEd will be better prepared for it because of pilot projects like this.
And for those of you who think we don’t have enough sun in Illinois — Germany and Japan are leaders in generating power from solar energy and they don’t have as much sun as we do here in the Land of Lincoln.
Tags: Chicago Sun-Times, Illinios Energy, solar energy
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February 22nd, 2010
For ZZ Top, every girl was crazy ’bout a smart dressed man. For the energy industry, they WANT everyone to be crazy ’bout smart meters — but it isn’t that easy.
This Wall Street Journal article (link should work through March 1) gives a solid overview of the trials and tribulations of engaging customers when they get smart meters. It’s one thing to have a smart meter, it’s another to get customers to use them in a way that saves them money and doesn’t freak them out.
Though the technology is ready and smart meters are beginning to appear in a neighborhood near you, the biggest challenge is to educate people on the value of using electricity during certain times of the day — a new concept for sure. This could be a long process but one certainly worth taking!
Tags: Illinios Energy, smart grid, smart meters, Wall Street Journal
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February 19th, 2010
The use of the legal system by NIMBYs (Not In My BackYard) to delay and/or stop energy projects is one of the major obstacles to solving our energy issues going forward. Environmental groups continually challenge nuclear and cleaner coal projects, for example.
But alternative energy projects are also victims of NIMBYism. This Rockford Register Star article reveals a wind turbine project near Rockford that has taken years to build because a someone who lives in Arizona but owns land near the proposed wind farm doesn’t want it in her area.
Again, we’ll need all kinds of energy (and efficiencies) to meet our future energy needs. But energy doesn’t come out of thin air so we’re going to have to continue building energy infrastructure…if the NIMBYs let us.
Tags: Illinois energy, Rockford Register Star, wind energy
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February 11th, 2010
All signs point to continued growth in U.S. wind power. Here are the latest stats showing that almost 10,000 MW of wind projects started in 2009.
Tags: Illinois energy, wind power
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February 11th, 2010
Please forgive me. Today I’m going to talk about climate change and wish for something I know will never happen.
I wish that people on both sides of the climate debate would stop using weather events as proof of their climate argument. The Washington Post covered this issue in today’s edition. The snow storms this past week in Washington, DC have no bearing on wheather climate change is real or not. Period. It’s weather. Weather happens. I lived in DC in the late ’80s and survived a few whopper storms like the ones today. So what. Jim Tankersley penned this great article in the Chicago Tribune that also brings light to this subject.
The pro-climate change folks are a bit more restrained in this regard but even some on that side of the argument point to Hurricane Katrina like it’s the poster child for the bigger storms that come with climate change.
Listen, I like irony and sarcasm more than anyone. It’s ironic that some climate change meetings this week had to be done via conference call because of the record snowstorms. Here’s the Daily Show’s take on overreaction to weather vs. climate. It’s very funny.
But anti-climate change advocates don’t sound like they’re kidding when they say point to cold weather and say “this proves the climate -change people are wrong!”
This is a big issue. An important issue. How we tackle climate change (or not) affects how everyone gets and pays for their energy. So when our leaders deliberately misrepresent weather events as climate trends in this way, it shows how shallow they really are.
Tags: carbon cap and trade, Chicago Tribune, climate changes, Illinois energy, Jim Tankersley, The Daily Show, Washington Post
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February 9th, 2010
Caterpillar joined the ranks of big companies in the FutureGen Alliance. Its announcement yesterday, on the heels of Exelon’s announcement last week, gives huge momentum for the project in Mattoon.
Sometimes there are coincidences in life, but this looks like a coordinated approach by Senator Durbin to showcase support and momentum for a project. Don’t be surprised if another company or two joins the alliance before a larger announcement in the coming weeks about a timetable for the advent of the project.
It’s past time we find out if this technology can work! Le’ts do it!
Tags: clean coal, FutureGen, Illinois energy, Mattoon, Senator Durbin
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February 8th, 2010
The Los Angeles Times printed this article about growing, local bi-partisan support for off-shore oil development off the Virginia coast.
As time moves on, there is no doubt that we have to find other ways to fuel the vast majority of our transportation needs than simply relying on gasoline refined from crude oil. However, there is also no doubt that for the foreseeable future we’ll need crude oil to move and to keep our economy moving.
So I’m always confused when Americans rally against oil development on the East and West coasts of our country. After all, we’ve been getting oil and gas from the Gulf Coast for decades. It seems to me like a double standard. Is the environment more valuable on our east and west costs than our Gulf Coast? Has the Gulf Coast even been harmed by our activities there?
We don’t know how much oil and gas there is off of our coasts, but we have a chance to develop it, get some jobs from it and the states can get the economic benefit instead of countries like Nigeria, Venezuela, Iran, etc.
Canada is our number one source of crude oil and that’s growing. With some off-shore development and hybrid and electric car development, we could reach Obama’s campaign goal of weaning ourselves off of Middle Eastern oil within a decade (OK, it might take a little longer, but it’s still a good goal!). Let’s be clear, even if we pulled off that feat oil prices would still rise because of increasing global demand and the Middle Eastern countries would still sell their oil to other countries like India and China.
But it would be nice not to have that direct link between our transportation economy and oil from the Middle East. I think that’s worth exploring the coasts for, don’t you? Virginians seem to be thinking so…
Tags: crude oil, Illinois energy, Los Angeles Times, off-shore oil development
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February 3rd, 2010
There are a ton of possibilities when it comes to smart meters — but most only occur when consumers look at energy consumption differently. Here is a blog entry from smart meters.com talking about this very subject.
In a nutshell, the report showcases what’s happened with customer response to smart meters in limited pilot projects…and it’s not all good.
But let’s take a step back for a moment and reign in some expectations. Because in a world where instant gratification takes too long, it’s going to be very easy for everyone to jump the gun on the value (or lack thereof) of smart meters. The reality? It’s going to take time for people who have NEVER thought of electricity as something that can be monitored in real-time (or manipulated for real savings) to get the hang of having the “power” to control their own energy costs.
Consumers are used to it when it comes to gasoline — to save money they drive less, find good bargains, buy fuel efficient cars, etc. But changing the way people use electricity is going to take time . So let’s not over-react to any initial results that may be less than stellar. Let’s learn from consumers and get them to a place where it becomes second nature to think twice about how and when they use the power in their house.
The good news is we’re getting more and more adept and accepting change in our daily lives. Getting people to recycle took decades. It only took a few years to get people used to buying music on-line. So let’s work to make this easy for the consumer, but let’s not expect every consumer in every market to take full advantage of smart meter technology right away.
It’s just not realistic and will only harm the efforts everyone is making to secure the investment in smart meter technology across the country.
Tags: ComEd, Illinois energy, smart grid, smart meters
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February 2nd, 2010
As people start parsing Obama’s budget, they are finding some surprises — such as the Administration’s request for $36 billion in loans for nuclear power plant development. The Washington Post blurb includes information from experts that, if approved, this funding could allow six new plants to get started.
As people may know, it’s been about 30 years since a nuclear plant was built in the United States. It’s going to be a component of our energy portfolio and we should be supporting its continued development.
I know we have to solve the problem of long-term storage of nuclear waste but adding six plants or 15 plants isn’t going to make that problem any harder. It’s not the amount of waste that’s the problem, it’s how best to store it and transport it to the site.
Let’s hope Congress doesn’t kill this part of the budget.
Tags: Illinois energy, nuclear energy, President Obama
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