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Energy
A recent analysis by PV Magazine has revealed that the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (which operates most of the state’s electric grid) has had applications for an additional 165 GWac of solar energy to be built in Texas. While Texas has been the epicenter of the fossil fuel industry it also has the potential to move […]
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Coal ash is an incredibly toxic byproduct of coal-derived energy that activists have pushed for years for regulators to address and are now finally having success. Water contamination from coal ash ponds (the pits where the sludge is stored) is widespread and we’re learning more about the extent of the pollution constantly. In fact, a recent analysis by the Environmental Integrity Project revealed that toxic coal ash pollutants are leaking into groundwater surrounding 100 percent of Texas’s power plants for which data are available
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As Greentech Media reported, consultancy McKinsey & Company and global oil major British Petroleum both recently released 2019 outlooks for the global energy sector, and though both forecast that renewables will grow markedly in the coming years, the results present sharply divergent visions of just how much. McKinsey projects that renewables will account for more than 50 […]
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Air travel, according to Green Biz, is a growing source of carbon emissions, accounting for 2% of all global carbon emissions, and it is expected to increase to 70% above its 2005 levels by 2020, despite the fact that airlines have been successfully working to improve fuel efficiency and put more passengers on planes to improve fuel efficiency per passenger. The challenge is that passenger traffic is up so much that efficiency efforts can’t keep pace.
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The Trump Administration’s anti-environment policies are so extreme, they are now even proposing to roll back energy efficiency standards for light bulbs. In 2017, the day before President Trump took office, the Energy Department issued a rule to expand the types of light bulbs required to meet stronger efficiency standards. According to the web site Utilitydive.com, experts at the Appliance Standards Awareness Project calculated that the changes would cause consumers to lose $12 billion a year in electricity savings by 2025.
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Last week, two major trends made news in energy. The Wall Street Journal reported that Google and Amazon are hoping to expand the market for home energy efficiency products like smart energy devices and internet-connected devices like Amazon’s Alexa that are used to manage energy demand by incentivizing consumers to use less electricity during peak hours, and also collect information about individual energy use.
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